Which pokemon can beat Platinum's bosses by themselves?

[There Is No Arceus]

After FRLG, HGSS and Emerald, it's now time to take this challenge to the Sinnoh region. Sinnoh is home to some of the toughest bosses in the series and also Byron, so this is sure to be difficult. Participating pokemon are all the pokemon in the Sinnoh dex, all gen 4 pokemon not in said dex, and all pokemon that managed to beat this challenge in Emerald. I'm also adding Regirock, Regice and Registeel since it feels weird to have Regigigas but not them, and Smeargle, Ditto and Wobbuffet, because these pokemon have interesting gimmicks that are fun to play around with. Wormadam's forms count as separate pokemon, which brings our grand total of contestants up to 236.

Rules are 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 Roark but was useless after.
9. The moves Double Team, Minimize and Acupressure 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. Only pokemon with the ability Pickup may use items that are gained through that ability.

I'm skipping both rival fights before the first gym, so the boss order is Roark - Valley Windworks Mars - Gardenia - Eterna Jupiter - Fantina - Route 209 Rival - Maylene - Pastoria Rival - Crasher Wake - Celestic Cyrus - Canalave Rival - Byron - Lake Valor Saturn - Lake Verity Mars - Candice - Veilstone Cyrus - Veilstone Saturn - Spear Pillar Admins - Distortion World Cyrus - Volkner - Pokemon League Rival - Aaron - Bertha - Flint - Lucian - Cynthia - Fight Area Flint & Volkner - Stark Mountain Admins - Survival Area Rival.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Our first fight is of course against Roark. For this fight, i will have access to all items obtainable before fighting Roark. We start a new file and pick a random name; apparently Plato is a girls name now. We pick our starter, fight our rival, and head to Sandgem to thank the professor for giving us a pokemon; he gives us TM27 Return while we're there. We visit our mom back home, then we head back to Sandgem, buy some pokeballs and catch a Kricketot and a Starly, to take their Metronome and Yache Berry, respectively. I then head on to Jubilife, where a girl in the Jubilife Condominiums gives me a Quick Claw. I head north, catch a Budew and take its Poison Barb, then i head to the trainers school to give my rival his town map. While i'm in Jubilife, i also partake in the lottery enough times to get all the PP Ups i could ever need. I find some clowns and get a poketch, then i head east, beat up my rival again and catch an Abra for its Twistedspoon. In the Oreburgh Gate, a guy gives me HM06 Rock Smash, then once i'm in Oreburgh, i head northeast to catch a Machop so i can trade him for an Abra holding an Oran Berry. I next head into the mines; Arceus specifically can pick up a Flame Plate here. Pokemon with the ability Pickup can also pick up a King's Rock in this section.

After we meet Roark in the mines, he heads back to the gym and we can challenge him there. So let's have a look at his team.

Level	12	12	14
Ability	Rock Head	Rock Head	Mold Breaker
Gender	♂	♂	♂
Move 1	Rock Throw	Rock Throw	Headbutt
Move 2	Stealth Rock	Screech	Pursuit
Move 3		Stealth Rock	Leer
Move 4

Movesets are very limited this early on, so i expect many pokemon to be unable to hit rocks for meaningful damage. Rock Throw will deal massive damage to my weaker bugs and fliers, and o course Cranidos hits ridiculously hard for this point in the game. I do have Rock Smash, but i doubt even that will make this fight easy.

The Turtwig family all used their grass moves to wipe the floor with Roark, but for Chimchar things were less easy. Apparently the AI never goes for Stealth Rock if you field only one mon; i was bombarded with supereffective rock moves. Rock Smash didn't do nearly enough to even get me to Cranidos, nor did Ember. Chimchar is out. Monferno and Infernape however are fighting types, and were thus more than capable of destroying Roark. The Piplup family came next and spammed Bubble.

Starly however had trouble though. Return did next to nothing to Geodude, who in turn would two-shot me, or three-shot if i used Growl. Never even got past the first pokemon; Starly is out. Staravia has Intimidate and better stats so it could consistently kill Geodude, but Onix would always end me before i came anywhere close to Cranidos. Staravia is out. With Staraptor, it started to look like he also couldn't do it, but then in attempt 4 Roark randomly decided to switch Onix in early, landing me a free Return. That same attempt, he opted to have his Cranidos spam Pursuit rather than the stronger Headbutt, allowing me to Return him down after a Growl. Roark threw this match, but a win's a win.

Bidoof, being the HM slave he is, had Rock Smash, but that alone proved insufficient. These enemies all have really high Defense, so i found myself doing very little before getting Defense drops. The enemies would always wear me down before i wore them down, despite Simple Defense Curls and my Oran Berry. I also tried with a Metronome, but that also didn't work. Bidoof is out. Its evolution Bibarel was one level shy of learning Water Gun, but Metronome plus Rock Smash proved enough. As for the early game bug, i'm convinced Kricketot could have done it of not for some phenomenally bad luck. You see, Kricketot is unlucky enough to be a Kricketot. If he was a Kyogre or a Mewtwo or something, he might have won, but no. He's a Kricketot. Kricketot is out. Kricketune however gets actual stats and moves, so with the help of the Metronome, he could avenge his child and smash Roark's rocks to bits. Did take some luck with Rock Throw misses and a range on Cranidos, but it happened in attempt 8.

We finish today with the family that everyone and their sister uses on their Sinnoh teams: the Shinx clan. Unfrtunately, Shinx could not do it. Even after Intimidate and Leer, Geodude's Rock Throws outdamaged my Returns, and it was only thanks to my Oran Berry that i ever made it to Onix. Shinx is out. Luxray could consistently make it to Onix, and even regularly get him to red health, but in the end he too had no means of really hurting rocks enough. Luxio is out. Luxray however was easily able to Return his way to Cranidos and Spark him down, avenging his fallen brothers.

 

[Greninjaman]

In before we have a repeat of Emerald where a good chunk of Pokemon fell at the first Gym.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

I don't expect Luxray to make it far because holy hell, Luxray is MID in terms of movepool.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

For the first time in these challenges, Abra had more than just Teleport; he also had Return. Course, when you have a base Attack of 20 and you're fighting a Geodude, Teleport and Return do roughly the same amount of damage. Abra is out. Its older brothers Kadabra and Alakazam also had Confusion, which they used to destroy Roark. Next up was Magikarp. Magikarp is out; next up is Gyarados. In Emerald, he lost vs Roxanne because he only had Thrash, but this time he also has Return and, more importantly, Rock Smash. I gave him a Metronome, and all it took was a crit on Cranidos to win first try. Budew and its evolutions of course wiped the floor with this gym, but things were less easy for Zubat. He only has physical moves and is weak to Rock, so the only possible road to victory i saw was to use Confuse Ray and Bite flinches to try and get my foes to not do anything. I only made it to Onix twice, and i never saw Cranidos. Zubat is out. Golbat however has much better stats; it still took some cooperation from my enemies, but eventually in attempt 6, i made it past. If Golbat can do it, obviously so can Crobat.

Now it's time for our first mirror match. My Geodude gets more moves than just Rock Throw though; while he's one level shy of learning Magnitude, he can learn Rock Smash with which to smash his counterpart and the rest of Roark's team to bits. Next up was the second mirror match, though it wasn't much more exciting than the first. My Onix just equipped a Metronome and started Rock-Smashing away. Jasmine's boy Steelix used Ice Fang instead, because he gets that move for some reason. That means it's now time for the fossils, starting with the third mirror match. Once again though things just devolved into Rock Smash spam, and the same goes for Rampardos, Shieldon and Bastiodon.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

The Machop family destroyed Roark with Guts Karate Chop, and Psyduck and Golduck drowned them with Water Gun. The next family had it less easy though. You see, next up was Burmy. Burmy is a Bug type whose only moves at this point are Tackle and Protect. Burmy is out. Its evolutions do have actual movesets, but unfortunately they learn their real moves at higher levels than this; for now they all have Tackle, Protect and Return. Wormadam Plant Cloak never even got past Geodude with this moveset; Wormadam-Plant is out. Wormadam-Sandy isn't weak to Rock, so there was a chance this would happen if i got an obscene amount of crits and Rock Throw misses. I did not get an obscene amount of crits and Rock Throw misses. Wormadam-Sandy is out. Trash cloak resists all of Cranidos's moves, but that doesn't matter when you never get the crits and misses needed to even get to Cranidos. Wormadam-trash is out. Having multiple forms is nice and all, but you should try and make sure they're not all garbage. That leaves Mothim as the sole defender of the Burmy clan. He may have a 4x weakness and no movepool, but the Burmy clan is counting on him. Can he beat the odds and bring glory to the Burmy name? Course not; Mothim is out.

Up next was the Wurmple clan. Now, Wurmple may not have won against Brock or Roxanne, but you only truly lose when you give up. So, armed with his best Tackles and Poison Stings, he marched into Roark's gym full of confidence, looking to prove his worth once and for all. Yeah, he's out. Silcoon's Struggles did more damage to himself than to Geodude, so he's also out. For Beautifly however, things surprisingly turned out to not be hopeless. Absorb one-shot Geodude, and Onix has all the offense of a room temperature stick of butter so he couldn't kill me either. Roark opted to heal his Onix, which only meant more Absorb recovery. Cranidos doesn't actually have any Rock moves, so a few more Metronome-boosted Absorbs and victory was mine. As for the other branch of the Wurmple family, Cascoon is out, and Dustox needed some pretty insane luck. I was stuck spamming Metronome-Confusion, and i needed crits or for my foes to get confused. In attempt 7 though, Onix got confused and hit himself just enough times, and i survived Cranidos's Headbutt on 1 HP in order to get the two-shot. The Wurmple clan lives on.

However, gen 4 apparently didn't have enough useless bugs that don't learn any TMs, for next is Combee. Armed with Sweet Scent, Gust and Bug Bite, Combee is out. Surprisingly though, Vespiquen could do it. By holding a Metronome, she could hit a Confuse Ray on Geodude and then spam Fury Cutter. This did require pretty much constant self-hits, so in attempt 8 when Geodude hit a Rock Throw on the turn before he died, i thought for sure Onix would outspeed and kill me. However, Onix decided this was the time to miss a Rock Throw, allowing me to one-shot both him and Cranidos with Fury Cutter. Now though, we've arrived at the world champion. Pachirisu's strat was to use Bide to take out Geodude, then Charm Onix until he did 1 damage per hit. I then spammed Metronome-powered Returns at Onix until he was dead. However, i would then need a crit on Cranidos in order to take him out. I never got that crit. I tried with an Oran Berry instead of a Metronome, but while that gave me more HP, the reduction in damage meant that Onix would run out of PP for Rock Throw and get in a few Screeches before Cranidos came in. So he still one-shot me. Pachirisu is out. Worlds 2014 was a piece of cake, but Roark was just too tough.

We finish the day with a pair of winners; Buizel and Floatzel spammed Water Gun and won.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

I don't expect Luxray to make it far because holy hell, Luxray is MID in terms of movepool.

we'll see. He has decent offenses and Thunderbolt, and i don't think we're facing another Ground type until the rival gets his Torterra.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Cherubi went in with a moveset of just Leech Seed, Return, Growth and Helping Hand. Leech Seed is good for survivability, but even with Leech Seed recovery, i could not outdamage Geodude's Rock Throws. The few times i did make it to Onix due to Rock Throw misses, i found that even with his piss-poor attack, he could outdamage my healing and kill me. Cherubi is out. Cherrim gets these same moves but much better stats, so while the leech seed didn't heal back everything, it did heal back enough that with a few Rock Throw misses, i could beat Geodude with ease. However, i found that if you arrive at Onix with too much health, he will go for Screech rather than spamming Rock Throw. In attempt 3 though, Geodude had previously crit me and i was thus not at good health. This turned out to be a good thing, as it meant no Screeches, and Screech meant Cranidos killed me. I did end up needing a crit on Cranidos despite my held Metronome, but i got that crit. I have a lot less to say on Shellos and Gastrodon; they used Water Pulse.

On to some more honey tree mons. Heracross just spammed Rock Smash, as did its colleagues Aipom and Ambipom. Next up though was Drifloon. Minimize is banned, so i went in with a moveset of Return, Astonish, Gust and Focus Energy. The only option i saw with these moves was to spam Astonish hoping for enough flinches. Obviously never happened; Drifloon is out. Drifblim has these exact same moves, but Focus Energy allowed Astonish to crit pretty much constantly in my third attempt, and i also got the flinches i needed. We're now onto Buneary, who after one Defense Curl could spam Metronome-boosted Rock Smashes for the win; Lopunny did the same without the Defense Curl. Our next pokemon had problems though. Gastly may have very good Special Attack, but his only offensive moves are Return and Lick, both of which use his garbage Attack. I did have Hypnosis to put my foes to sleep, but they'd still attack me on the wakeup turn, which proved too much for me to handle. Gastly is out. Haunter had these exact same issues too; Haunter is out. Gengar however gets Rock Smash, because apparently ghosts can smash rocks even though they phase through solid objects. With a Metronome in hand, and a lucky crit on Cranidos, Gengar could beat them all down. After putting Geodude to sleep of course.

Next was Midreavus, and i once again had the displeasure of having to use Psywave. I hate this move. It's so terrible. Fortunately, Misdreavus also had Confuse Ray, so she could confuse her foes to keep them distracted while i prayed to the RNG gods to end my suffering and let Psywave get the ranges it needed. They took pity on me in attempt 4, and i got the win. Fortunately, Fantina's girl Mismagius has Magical Leaf, so she didn't have to use Psywave. Next up though was Murkrow, armed with Peck, Astonish, Pursuit and Return. He actually has a pretty decent Attack stat, but not enough to outdamage the Rock moves hitting his terrible Defense. Super Luck came in handy but never got me the edge i needed; Murkrow is out. Honchkrow however did have the Attack to outdamage the Rock moves hitting its atrocious Defense, and getting a few Pursuit crits didn't hurt either on his way to victory.

Glameow's strat was to put her foes to sleep, Growl their Attack into oblivion and then spam Return. However, this required really good luck with both Hypnosis hitting and the enemies staying asleep. I never got that luck; Glameow is out. Mars's girl Purugly gets the same moveset, but better stats meant i needed less Growls to lower their offense and less Returns to take them out, so Purugly managed to get a win here.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Goldeen gets no water moves yet, but surprisingly she was able to win first try. The strat was to hit Confuse Ray and then a Tail Whip, and then spam Metronome-boosted Returns. I thought i was gonna lose when Onix brought me down to 8 HP, but then Cranidos opted to hit himself twice in a row, allowing me to kill with Return. Seaking had the same moves plus Poison Jab, and thus had to use the same strat, but the RNG gods never smiled on him. Seaking is out. Barboach and Whiscash had it a lot easier: click Water Gun and win. Chingling came thereafter, and this was only possible because Roark thew the match. Everything outsped me, and if they all attacked me i would die. In attempt 3 however, Cranidos used a Leer rather than attacking me. My Confusion then confused him and caused him to hit himself, letting me reach Onix with good HP. Two confusions then took him out as he Screeched at me and did over half with Rock Throw. This was 100% a fluke, but i'll take it. Its evolution Chimecho actually outsped things and could grab an easy win by spamming Confusion.

Stunky was next, and he'd hit a Smokescreen after which he spammed Rock Smash. I could only Smokescreen the Geodude, as using Smokescreen thereafter would weaken my Metronome-boosted Rock Smashes. It took until attempt 6 before Geodude missed enough, but eventually i reached Cranidos with enough HP to tank a Headbutt, and i 2-shot him for the win. Jupiter's boy Skuntank didn't bother with the smokescreen and just spammed Rock Smash right away. Meditite and Emerald champ Medicham could throw STAB Huge Power Rock Smashes at their foes, so obviously they won, and Bronzor and Bronzong shrugged off everything Roark could do while bombarding him with Confusions. Things weren't quite so hopeful for Ponyta though. He gets Tackle, Growl, Tail Whip, Ember and Return at this point. Best i could do was spam Ember hoping for burns and a great many Rock Throw misses. Those misses never happened; Ponyta is out. Rapidash however gets Megahorn, a 120 base power move that's neutral against rock. With this tool, he absolutely destroyed Roark.

Bonsly would spam Low Kick until the enemies were dead; Geodude apparently weighs a lot less than i thought. Our favourite fake tree however gets wood hammer and rock head, so he smashed everything with that. Mime Jr was up next, setting up Barrier to tank their hits and then spamming Confusion until all the enemies were dead. Mime Senior did not copy that strat, instead spamming Magical Leaf. Next though was a pokemon that obviously never stood any kind of chance. with base 5 in both Attack and Defense, Happiny wasn't dealing any damage nor tanking any. I tried confusing Geodude with Sweet Kiss, but he'd have to hit himself to death for me to win, since my Returns weren't doing anything. Happiny is out. Its older sister Chansey has the same Attack and Defense but much better HP, so she could play the stall game with Growl and Softboiled. However, one Screech from Onix meant Cranidos could outspeed and OHKO me from full health. There was but one attempt in which this did not happen, and then Cranidos decided to Leer my defense down before i could kill him. Chansey is out. However, things weren't so hopeless for the family matriarch, Blissey. She has double the Attack and Defense her pre-evos have, which admittedly still isn't a lot. It was enough however to spam Growl against Geodude until he was out of Rock Throw PP, heal up, and then spam Rock Smash to power up my Metronome. It took until attempt 10 before Onix decided not to Screech, but in that attempt, my Rock Smashes took out my foes, granting me the win with just 6 of my 98 HP remaining.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

We start today with Cleffa. Things didn't go well for Cleffa. With Sing, Sweet Kiss and Charm, she tried to get her foes to do nothing, or deal very little damage if they did do something. However, with only Return for offense, she couldn't really do anything back. She'd usually get Geodude down, but i only killed Onix once, and then Cranidos just outsped and killed me. Cleffa is out. Clefairy however has Defense Curl and Rock Smash, so she put Geodude to sleep, got a bunch of Defense Curls in, put him back to sleep and then spammed Rock Smash until they were all down. Clefable didn't get Defense Curl, but it proved unnecessary; Sing and Rock Smash were enough. Now it's time for the Guildmaster's assistant. Unfortunately though, this is not a good matchup for Chatot. His only hope was to Sing his enemies to sleep and then spam Return, hoping to kill them before they woke up. This got me to Cranidos only once, but then Sing decided to miss twice and Cranidos finished me. Chatot is out.

On to another hopeless case: Pichu. Pichu deployed basically the same trat as Cleffa except without sleep. Surprise surprise, it worked even worse for him. Even after 3 Charms, Geodude's Rock Throws still did more damage than my Returns. Pichu is out. Pikachu gets Rock Smash but no Sweet Kiss, and his piss-poor defenses meant he wasn't tanking any hits. I tried Rock Smash spam with the help of a metronome, but this didn't work. I also tried weakening enemy offense with Growl before Rock-Smashing, but this didn't work either. Pikachu doesn't really have other options; Pikachu is out. Raichu however could spam Rock Smash through the first two foes, and then a crit Thunderbolt felled Cranidos. On to the next pokemon where one look at his moveset told me it was hopeless: Hoothoot. He basically has the same kit as Chatot but with much worse stats. Hoothoot is out. Noctowl also had Sky Attack, which is strictly worse than Return. I could not make things work; Noctowl is out.

Up next is number 108, Spiritomb. Confuse Ray meant the enemies would hit themselves, and metronome-boosted Faint Attack killed them. He's not the only one of Cythia's boys to have it easy though; the Gible family all used Dragon Rage to delete their foes. We're now on to the only baby pokemon with actual stats: Munchlax. I'd get a few Defense Curls in, then i'd start spamming Rock Smash until all the enemies were dead. Course, if Munchlax can do it, so can our three-time champion, Snorlax. Unown did as Unown does, after which both Riolu and Lucario killed their foes with Force Palm. Lastly for today, both Wooper and Quagsire used Water Gun.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

We start today with Cleffa. Things didn't go well for Cleffa. With Sing, Sweet Kiss and Charm, she tried to get her foes to do nothing, or deal very little damage if they did do something. However, with only Return for offense, she couldn't really do anything back. She'd usually get Geodude down, but i only killed Onix once, and then Cranidos just outsped and killed me. Cleffa is out. Clefairy however has Defense Curl and Rock Smash, so she put Geodude to sleep, got a bunch of Defense Curls in, put him back to sleep and then spammed Rock Smash until they were all down. Clefable didn't get Defense Curl, but it proved unnecessary; Sing and Rock Smash were enough. Now it's time for the Guildmaster's assistant. Unfortunately though, this is not a good matchup for Chatot. His only hope was to Sing his enemies to sleep and then spam Return, hoping to kill them before they woke up. This got me to Cranidos only once, but then Sing decided to miss twice and Cranidos finished me. Chatot is out.

On to another hopeless case: Pichu. Pichu deployed basically the same trat as Cleffa except without sleep. Surprise surprise, it worked even worse for him. Even after 3 Charms, Geodude's Rock Throws still did more damage than my Returns. Pichu is out. Pikachu gets Rock Smash but no Sweet Kiss, and his piss-poor defenses meant he wasn't tanking any hits. I tried Rock Smash spam with the help of a metronome, but this didn't work. I also tried weakening enemy offense with Growl before Rock-Smashing, but this didn't work either. Pikachu doesn't really have other options; Pikachu is out. Raichu however could spam Rock Smash through the first two foes, and then a crit Thunderbolt felled Cranidos. On to the next pokemon where one look at his moveset told me it was hopeless: Hoothoot. He basically has the same kit as Chatot but with much worse stats. Hoothoot is out. Noctowl also had Sky Attack, which is strictly worse than Return. I could not make things work; Noctowl is out.

Up next is number 108, Spiritomb. Confuse Ray meant the enemies would hit themselves, and metronome-boosted Faint Attack killed them. He's not the only one of Cythia's boys to have it easy though; the Gible family all used Dragon Rage to delete their foes. We're now on to the only baby pokemon with actual stats: Munchlax. I'd get a few Defense Curls in, then i'd start spamming Rock Smash until all the enemies were dead. Course, if Munchlax can do it, so can our three-time champion, Snorlax. Unown did as Unown does, after which both Riolu and Lucario killed their foes with Force Palm. Lastly for today, both Wooper and Quagsire used Water Gun.

I'm a little concerned for Munchlax and Snorlax this time around. The Fighting expert of Sinnoh, Maylene, actually has some strong fighting types that don't seem to be exploitable like Chuck or Brawly.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

I'm a little concerned for Munchlax and Snorlax this time around. The Fighting expert of Sinnoh, Maylene, actually has some strong fighting types that don't seem to be exploitable like Chuck or Brawly.

yeah, it looks like she'll be rough. I get a lot of new tools at that point though, so i might find a way to get past her with Snorlax. Munchlax will probably fall there though.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Wingull and Pelipper used Water Gun to win this fight, and Girafarig spammed Confusion. Hippopotas would then spam Rock Smash, and its evolution followed suit. Next though was a problem child, who proved that having a Water move isn't an insta win: Azurill couldn't do it. Her Bubbles did about half to Geodude and couldn't even two-shot Onix. She was also slower than everyone but Geodude, so they all got a bunch of hits in. I tried using Charm, but it didn't work out. Azurill is out. Both of her evolutions had Water Gun though, which they used to win. Time for the next problem child: Skorupi. He took massive damage from Rock Throw, and his own Rock Smashes could not compete. Didn't really have any tools to tank the hits either, i just had to hope for misses that never came. Skorupi is out. Drapion is not weak to Rock, so he used Ice Fang to crush his foes. Their Great Marsh colleagues Croagunk and Toxicroak spammed Rock Smash for the win, and Carnivine used Vine Whip.

Now it's time for Sinnoh's naval brigade. Remoraid, Octillery, Finneon and Lumineon used Water Gun to win, but Tentacool doesn't get any Water moves at this level. He only gets Poison Sting, Supersonic, Constrict and Acid, plus of course Return. I tried confusing and poisoning my enemies for damage since Return off base 40 Attack wasn't cutting it, but this didn't end up working; Tentacool is out. Its evolution Tentacruel may have considerably better stats, but stats don't matter much when you have absolutely no moves. Tentacruel is out.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

On the surface, Feebas may seem identical to Magikarp, but there is one big difference: Feebas can learn TMs. No Rock Smash though, so i was stuck using Return off base 15 Atack. Feebas is out. Wallace's boy Milotic of course had zero issues, considering it learns Water Pulse. Mantyke and Mantine also had an easy time, drowning their foes with Bubblebeam. Snover and Obamasnow used Razor Leaf spam, though Snover did need the hail chip to one-round Cranidos. Sneasel had it a lot harder due to his weakness to Rock; Rock Smash spam or Faint Attack spam wouldn't cut it. I needed to hit Geodude with a Rock Smash, and if that lowered his defense, a Faint Attack would then kill. I'd then Screech Onix and kill him with two Faint Attacks. However, even if i had an Oran Berry equipped, i needed at least one Rock Throw to miss, otherwise Cranidos would kill me. It took all the way until attempt 8, but eventually Onix missed and i was able to Screech at Cranidos, followed by a one-shot. Weavile also had Revenge for offense, which is far stronger than my other moves if i get hit, but also gets rid of my speed advantage. I tried it out anyway, and it got me the win with 1 HP remaining.

That means we've arrived at the first batch of legendaries. The lake trio all used Twistedspoon-boosted Confusions to destroy their foes, Dialga used Metal Claw, Palkia used Water Pulse and Manaphy set up a Tail Glow so he could kill them with Bubble.

On to the Platinum additions. Rotom's stuck in his normal form until we reach the Galactic Eterna Building, so things weren't easy for him. I initially tried a strat where i would get my foes to do nothing through Confuse Ray and Astonish flinches, but this never worked out. Eventually though i figured that not very effective Uproars would probably do more than any of my physical moves, so after confusing Geodude, i'd then Uproar him down. Cranidos was the real problem thanks to Pursuit, but in attempt 10 my Uproar ran out after hitting Cranidos once, so i could two-shot him with Thunderbolt as my Oran Berry kept me safe. Onix would then get confused, and through the help of a crit Uproar and some more Uproars, i was able to claim victory. Gligar and Gliscor then got some Hardens in and spammed Rock Smash, meaning it's time for a showdown between Rock gym leaders' aces. Nosepass didn't have much issue though; he just copied Gligar's strat and won. Probopass could have deployed this strat too, but instead i opted to spam Magnet Bomb.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

We start today off with the Ralts clan, though things didn't go too well for the man himself. One Rock Throw hit from Geodude would mean Cranidos could outspeed and OHKO. Even when Rock Throw missed, i could not do nearly enough damage to Cranidos to have any chance at survival. Ralts is out. Kirlia however had a chance to OHKO Geodude if she was holding a Twistedspoon, and while Cranidos would just two-shot her, her Confusion has a chance to confuse. This transpired in attempt 8, and he hit himself so that i could kill him. Onix wasn't a problem. Course, things were a lot easier for our Hoenn champ, Gardevoir; she spammed Confusion for a first-try victory. Her brother Gallade had it even easier, as he learns Leaf Blade. Lickitung and Lickilicky both won first try too, getting a few Defense Curls in and then spamming Rock Smash.

On to the Eeveelutions. Eevee himself went in with Sand-Attack, Tail Whip and Return (and Helping Hand i guess). The idea was to get one Sand-Attack and one Tail Whip in per foe, and then to start spamming Adaptability-Return. I got close a few times, but Cranidos never decided to miss when that would be opportune for me. Eevee is out. Its evolutions all learn a move of their type at level 15, but unfortunately the level cap here is 14. Thus they all have to win with the same moves as Eevee, plus Rock Smash for most of them. Vaporeon had no problem with this; her bulk meant she could just spam Rock Smash and win. Jolteon has less bulk and needed to get a Sand-Attack off on Geodude, but once my foe missed enough, Rock Smash did the trick. Flareon however is weak to Rock and has bad Defense, so he'd need Geodude to miss twice in a row after i hit a Sand-Attack, or else i needed a crit on Cranidos. Neither of these things ever happened, Flareon is out. Espeon however had it even rougher. She does not get Rock Smash and her special stats are irrelevant in this fight, so she is basically Eevee without STAB and with a Dark weakness. I tried the same strat as with Eevee, but it had even less success this time. I only beat Cranidos once, and Onix just finished me. Espeon is out. Umbreon has the same moves as Espeon, but much better defenses meant it actually could play the stall game and chip its foes down. It would get in some Sand Attacks and some Tail Whips, then it'd Return away. Still took until attempt 9 before i actually won though. As for the gen 4 Eeveelutions, Leafeon gets Rock Smash and an actual Attack stat, but Glaceon doesn't get good Attack and is weak to Rock. However, she does get good Defense, so with the help of some Sand Attack-induced misses, i could generally get some good damage in with Rock Smash. In attempt 5, Geodude didn't attack me at all, which made it safe to not even try to Sand-attack the others and just power through with Metronome-boosted Rock Smashes.

Swablu was next; his strat was to sing his enemies to sleep and then Growl their attack into oblivion. However, my enemies didn't need Growl for my offense to be garbage; i only had Return and Astonish. Couple this with Sing's accuracy and early wakeups, and Swablu could not do it. Swablu is out. Altaria however had Rock Smash to spam, so she avenged her child by winning in one try. After this came Misty's baby, Togepi. It went in with Sweet Kiss, Charm, Rock Smash and Metronome, but it quickly became clear that Rock Smashes off base 20 Attack weren't gonna cut it, even if my foes lost turns to confusion and attack to Charm. Thus, my strat was to confuse them and then spam Metronome hoping for something good. I almost won in attempt 5, when Metronome pulled Aqua Ring and i could play the stall game with Charm, but Cranidos still outdamaged me even after my Charms. Didn't come close on any other attempt; Togepi is out. Togetic however gets Magical Leaf and Togekiss gets Aura Sphere, so they both won. Last for today is the Houndour family, but Houndour is weak to Rock and has no stats. Rock Smash couldn't even three-shot Geodude while he easily two-shot me. Houndour is out. Houndoom however won first try by spamming Rock Smash, though the 3 consecutive Rock Throw misses from Onix may have helped a bit.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

The magnemite family resist everything the enemies could do and have Sonicboom, so they won. Tangela and Tangrowth won with Absorb, but their Great Marsh colleague Yanma didn't have it so easy. Geodude's Rock Throw was a range to OHKO, and while i was faster, my only offense of note was Sonicboom which is a 2HKO. It's also a 2HKO on Onix, and it needs 3 hits to kill Cranidos, so even if Geodude didn't kill me there was no way i could win. I had to hope for Rock Throw misses, but those never came. Yanma is out. Its evolution Yanmega however has better stats and Tinted Lens, making Return viable. If i held an Oran Berry, i was able to Sonicboom down Geodude and Onix while tanking their Rock Throws, then i survived Cranidos's attack on 1 HP while two-shotting with Return. Tropius spammed Razor Leaf to win, and the Rhyhorn clan spammed Rock Smash.

Next up was Duskull, a pokemon with good defensive stats but a HP stat that's only marginally better than Shedinja's. Not really any Attack either, so my best offense was Night Shade, which couldn't two-shot anyone. Add to that that Cranidos outspeeds me and has Pursuit, and even if i disabled that, he'd spam Leer so that Onix could kill me. Duskull is out. Dusclops's stats are also really weirdly allocated, but at least they're a lot better than Duskull's stats, and Dusclops also has Rock Smash and Ice Punch to kill these foes. Course, if Dusclops can do it, Primal Dialga's agent Dusknoir has absolutely no trouble. The Porygon clan all have Download-boosted, Twistedspoon-boosted Psybeam so they all won, but next was Scyther. You'd think things were pretty dire considering his 4x Rock weakness, but he also has Technician Rock Smash off base 110 Attack, and enough speed to outspeed them all. Geodude and Onix were not one-shots, but while Geodude did massive damage to me, Onix doesn't have an attack stat and thus could not finish me. Cranidos was a one-shot. Last for today, it's time for the return of Scizor; his Bullet Punches made short work of Roark.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

It's Elekid time. Elekid had Rock Smash and Low Kick to hit them with, depending on their weight. However, Geodude and Onix would always brig me into Cranidos's kill range, so i needed a crit to win. Or so i thought. In attempt 4, Cranidos decided to go for Pursuit rather than Headbutt, leaving me with 1 HP and allowing me to finish him. Its evolutions deployed the same strat, except without the need for luck. However, their counterpart family had it less easy. Magby was two-shot by Geodude, and all he could do in return was Smokescreen and hope for misses. Even if my foes missed enough for Rock Smash to kill Geo, Onix took way more hits and would just hit through smokescreen and kill me. I found no way to win this; Magby is out. Magmar gets the same moves, but he probably would have been able to do it if not for bad luck. Smokescreen almost never got Geodude to miss, and i needed those misses to survive. Maybe if lady luck had taken pity on him, Magmar could have won, but as it stands, Magmar is out. Magmortar however didn't need Smokescreen and killed them all with Ember and Rock Smash.

Next was Swinub, a pokemon with supereffective moves but no stats. The idea was to hit each foe with a Mud-Slap to lower accuracy, and then to kill Geodude and Onix with Powder Snow and Cranidos with Rock Smash. However, they all hit me a bit too often for this to work out. I could never get the lucky break i needed, Swinub is out. Pryce's boy Piloswine however does have real stats, so he didn't even need Mud-Slap; the enemies died to Powder Snow and Rock Smash. Obviously that means Mamoswine could do it too. As for their fellow Ice type, things were surprisingly not hopeless for Snorunt. His Icy Wind one-shot Geodude, and while he could not OHKO Onix and was subjected to Leer, Cranidos could still not one-shot me, and a crit combined with the speed drop from Icy Wind allowed me to 2HKO for a first-try victory. Its evolutions get stronger Icy Winds, so they could one-shot all but Cranidos and two-shot Cranidos. Absol spammed rock smash for the win, and last for the Sinnoh dex is Satan himself. Course, Rock Smash spam was enough to ensure Giratina's victory.

Now we're on to the legendaries left out of the dex. Heatran spammed Rock Smash, after which come the regis, whom i did not have to disqualify this time. After all, you don't have to win any battles before you get Return. Regirock used Rock Smash to win, Regice used Icy Wind and Registeel gets Metal Claw. Their daddy Regigigas killed the ground types with Ice Punch, then against Cranidos Slow Start wore off and i could two-shot with Return. Last for today is Cresselia, who spammed Confusion and won.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Time for the mythicals. Phione spammed Bubble and won, Darkrai spammed Rock Smash and Shaymin spammed Magical Leaf. And that's it for the gen 4 mythicals. There definitely isn't another one. Just Manaphy, Phione, Darkrai and Shaymin. Can't think of any others that won by spamming Rock Smash. Nope, not one. (see my username)

We've thus arrived at our champions from Hoenn. However, unlike in Emerald, Zangoose doesn't get something as broken as Swords Dance as early as level 10. He gets it at level 9. I only needed one; Rock Smash did the rest. This was followed by Pinsir who despite his type disadvantage could just spam Metronome-boosted Rock Smashes to win. However, Ash's girlfriend had it a bit harder. Latias had to rely on good Psywave luck to do damage, as Return didn't do enough to Cranidos and his Pursuits outdamaged my Wish healing. It took all the way until attempt 8 before that move decided to cooperate, but eventually we won, and i won't have to use Psywave anymore for the rest of this challenge. Kyogre meanwhile had it so difficult that he almost didn't one-shot all of them, and Groudon actually took one hit due to a Mud Shot miss. Rayquaza spammed Rock Smash like so many pokemon before him, and Jirachi spammed Confusion. Deoxys is stuck in his Speed form since that's the form that beat Emerald, but all forms can learn Rock Smash so it didn't matter much; the enemies all died. Suicune then won using Bubblebeam, Mewtwo won by being Mewtwo and Mew spammed Rock Smash.

Only the gimmick mons are left. Smeargle as usual stole his moves from his opponents; he got Absorb from the Budew north of Jubilife, Low Kick from the Makuhita north of Oreburgh, Harden from Roark's gym trainers and Stealth Rock from Roark himself. Course, i only needed one of those moves; my Absorbs may not have been strong enough to even OHKO Geodude, but thanks to the healing i stayed alive long enough to kill all of Roark's mons with the move. As for Ditto, its gimmick may be interesting, but interesting does not mean good. If i transformed, i'd run out of Rock Throw PP before the enemy Geodude was even down to half health. If i did not transform, Struggle did more to me than to my foes. Ditto is out. Last was Wobbuffet, and while it took a few tries due to my foe critting at the wrong moment or spamming Leer a ton of times, eventually they all attacked and i could Counter them down.

And that's everyone. Of the 236 pokemon that started this challenge, 183 have managed to beat Roark, while 53 failed to beat the first boss. Up next, the surviving 183 will head to the Valley Windworks to face Mars.

Here's a nice table showing how many pokemon beat each boss. It will be filled in as we go.

Start	After Roark	After Valley Windworks Mars	After Gardenia	After Eterna Jupiter	After Fantina	After Route 209 Rival	After Maylene	After Pastoria Rival	After Crasher Wake
236	183
After Celestic Cyrus	After Canalave Rival	After Byron	After Lake Valor Saturn	After Lake Verity Mars	After Candice	After Veilstone Cyrus	After Veilstone Saturn	After Spear Pillar Admins	After Distortion World Cyrus
After Volkner	After Pokemon League Rival	After Aaron	After Bertha	After Flint	After Lucian	Champions	After Fight Area Flint & Volkner	After Stark Mountain Admins	After Survival Area Rival

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Now it's time for some stats, to see which categories of pokemon have done well so far and which have underperformed. I will be looking at introductory generation and type, as well as some miscellaneous groups. In total, 78% of all pokemon made it here, so any category that scores above that is doing well, while any category below that number is performing poorly.

Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 3	Gen 4
35/49, 71%	29/40, 73%	30/38, 79%	91/110, 83%

Looks like gen 4 is overperforming quite a bit. Can't say i expected it to be this far above the average. I guess it's from all those strong cross-gen evolutions and the tons of legendaries this generation brought.

Normal	Fighting	Flying	Fire	Dragon	Water	Ice	Grass	Bug	Electric
34/39, 87%	12/12, 100%	23/34, 68%	6/12, 50%	9/9, 100%	33/38, 87%	11/12, 92%	15/17, 88%	8/20, 40%	10/15, 67%
Poison	Ground	Rock	Steel	Dark	Ghost	Psychic
13/18, 72%	25/27, 93%	16/16, 100%	15/16, 94%	11/13, 85%	10/14, 71%	25/28, 89%

For the purposes of these stats, i decided to count Shaymin as a pure Grass type rather than Grass/Flying, since that's his default form. Anyway, most of this is expected, with types like Bug and Fire performing poorly while Fighting and Rock to well. What does surprise me though is how well my Ice types have managed to conduct themselves, despite their type weakness. Bug is the first type to fall beneath the 50% mark, while Dragon, Rock and Fighting have yet to lose anybody.

Babies	Cross-gen Evolutions	Starters	Honey Tree Pokemon	Legendaries
8/14, 57%	28/29, 97%	14/20, 70%	9/19, 47%	26/26, 100%

Babies somehow outperforming the Fire and Bug types, as well as the honey tree mons. Honestly, didn't expect over half our babies to beat Roark. Honey tree mons doing bad was expected, considering most of them are bugs. I expected the starters to do a bit better here, but the results of the cross-gen evos and legendaries were 100% expected.

 

[Nicolas721]

There is no Arceus indeed lol
Hopefully Smeargle makes it better this time, I wonder what you can come up with.
Deoxys being locked in Speed form will be interesting since it's pretty much a glass canon.