Ongoing: X, Bunnelby Only

Available Games: Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, Yellow, Crystal, PMD Time (Feel free to make requests, though; I have a bunch with preexisting saves and my siblings may be willing to lend ones I don’t have.) Please do not request anything that requires cheating or Poké Bank to obtain! I only own a cartridge and 2DS to do these on. If you’re able to trade a breeder, though, I’ll be willing to try. I do single-Pokémon runs, shiny-only runs, and theme teams (for Naruto, for example); really, just ask!

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Sorry about the hiatus! I got busy very, very suddenly. I’m currently shiny hunting for a Cyndaquil to solo Crystal with!

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Okay, I did not intend for the radio silence. I tried taping the Diantha fight, but not only did Tumblr refuse to upload it over roughly a six-day period, the video deleted itself, so now I don’t have any record of it except for this photo:

She was...not a challenge, especially coming right after Wikstrom. I oneshotted all of her Pokémon with Return or Earthquake, though I had a crit on the Tyrantrum- not sure if I needed that or not, because I beat her first try.

It’s a bit of an underwhelming end, but I guess I won? ...Okay.

Still deciding on that next project! Thank you for following my first attempt at liveblogging a challenge- it was a whole lot of fun, and I think I’ve learned a lot. This is actually the first time I’ve reached level 100 before the main plot ended, and I have a whole new appreciation for Bunnelby.

If you want to try it for yourself, though, I’d recommend Huge Power. Cheek Pouch did absolutely nothing for me, due to the fact that most berries require you to actually take a hit first and Gwyneth was not equipped to do so once Cheek Pouch’s recovery would have been actually useful. Even if I had been able to use it I doubt anything I could easily get in the game would be as good as the Silk Scarf/Ground Plate/etc. See you next run (whenever that may be ready)!

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I start with Water because I foresee the least difficulties there. His Barbaracle does nearly take me out, but Amie keeps Gwyneth alive and then critting past the Intimidate drop, so I get through first try.

His speech about Pokémon not being weak, just Trainers, is kind of...wasted on me, though.

Then Drasna starts off horribly with me forgetting to heal Gwyneth, who’s at 1 HP, fighting someone who has a Pokémon with Rough Skin.

Whoops.

After that, though, the next try goes amazingly. Amie means Altaria’s attack misses, which means I can tank the Noivern’s Dragon Pulse and win.

Then I again forget to heal against Malva. I lose. Undeniably my fault, but...oof.

Second try I get lucky with Amie healing the Flame Body burn, and then Surf one-shots the Torkoal (which means I probably could have gotten this first try. Dangit) and Chandelure goes down in one Earthquake, meaning Malva is the first Elite Four member to fail to damage me altogether and I definitely could have gotten this in one try goddamnit.

Of course now we’ve got the biggest challenge yet, potentially:

Klefki is a non-issue, but Aegislash is a whole nother story. Sacred Sword can of course OHKO me, so I’m depending on either an Amie save or it to stay Shield Forme three turns.

On try three I heal Earthquake’s PP, because it gets low in that fight, and teach Gwyneth Bulk Up. With one attack boost Gwyneth can come painfully close to taking Aegislash out with one Earthquake. But not quite.

So I get one off with the Klefki, whose Flash Cannon does a bit less than half my health, and then a second once Aegislash comes out. That’s enough to OHKO Aegislash....but not Probolass, who has Sturdy.

Then it wastes its opportunity on Power Gem, which halves my health again. I take it out after Wikstrom uses all his Full Restores on it, and then am just slightly tanked by his Scizor which takes me out with X-Scissor.

Anyway, run five Aegislash actually swaps strategies and uses Sacred Sword immediately. Gwyneth hangs on with Amie, but I get promptly taken out by Probopass as soon as it comes out.

Try six Sacred Sword is Amie dodged, but because Klefki used two attacking moves earlier Probopass still takes me out. It is at this point that I realize I’m not holding the Earth plate for max Earthquake damage, and immediately rectify that. I’m hoping that with the 20% damage difference I’ll be able to use Bulk Up only twice and still defeat the Scizor in one hit.

However, even though I go back to the original strategy, Aegislash doesn’t, and uses Sacred Sword first. Gwyneth hangs on with one HP, and then does the same against Probopass. And then against Scizor’s priority Bullet Punch.

And thus Wikstrom goes down!

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In other news, Calem has absorbed completely the wrong message from the whole Team Flare debacle and now thinks that we and Lysandre were both wrong and that we should have been able to meet halfway. Okay, Calem. Good luck with that.

At least he’s finally picked up more Pokémon. They all to down in one Return as always, but it’s the thought that counts. He hands me some worthless Max Revives and then leaves.

Gwyneth is now finally permanently trapped in her current form! Thank goodness, because b-mashing gets old fast.

When I reach the end of Victory Road I halt progress to collect every TM I can get that Gwyneth can use, and then all relevant Plates. But eventually I can stall simply no longer.

It’s time.

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Starting off with the first quasireal fight we run into, uh....it goes very well. Gyarados Intimidate is going to be a big issue later, but this time I crit Return on it, Amie fixes the Pyroar burn I get, and then maybe-necessarily-maybe-not I crit the Murkrow too.

Well, Gwyneth did all those things.

So at level 73 we storm the Flare base. We exit at 77 somewhat traumatized but there is World Saving(tm) to do, and take a quick photo at the ultimate weapon before going to storm Flare base #2. Phil’s a good sport. I tip him 500.

Seriously, though, what was Lysandre even thinking. Allowing in exclusively rich people into a club where you absolutely have to be a terrible person to think anything they do is even remotely in the realm of acceptable? Look at the scientists and Xerxes. He’s making the world a considerably worse place, and killing creatures even he considers innocents (Pokémon) in the crossfire. I don’t believe Lysandre has thought critically about this for a moment. What a dumbass.

That said (and God why does he have Pokémon fighting for him) he is a fairly difficult opponent. Gyarados’s Aqua Tail takes me immediately down to red and because of Intimidate I can’t oneshot the rest of his Pokémon, though Gwyneth comes close. I only get through on the first try due to two miraculous 1-HP Amie saves in a row.

“A tomorrow that is worse than today.” I hate you more than I have ever hated a Pokémon villain. This is the Pokémon universe. If you took out the worldending threats this would literally be the ideal place to live and even so said worldending threats get destroyed by 10-year-olds. If I were actually the playing character Gwyneth and I would slaughter you where you stand and as it stands I hope the X canon theory is true and that you get stuck beneath rubble, immortal, for conceivably forever.

Okay then, Calem. Explain his thought processes to me.

I’m getting Infinity War flashbacks.

Also, the game really was like “friends should stick together!” and then had Calem turn right around and say “wait here while we go ahead :)” like....Wow. I don’t play Pokémon for the story, and I am genuinely having fun, but. Uh. Really?

Anyway, I catch Xerneas without difficulty and, (somewhat humiliatingly) lose to Lysandre’s Gyarados. As anticipated, of course, and even technically necessary to get a Full Bunnelby Only run, but I’m still pissed.

So I fly to Anistar City. I get the EXP O-Power, and then I fly to Coumarine and pick up the Lucky Egg. If I’m going to obliterate Lysandre off the face of this sorry Earth I’m going all out. I start at 80.

I end at 90. I oneshot everything but the Mega Gyarados, which hangs around for two hits. Lysandre goes crazy, or something, and with that everyone just kind of leaves? A bit anticlimactic, in the end.

The three-in-a-row rival battle isn’t really an issue. I lose once due to a Bounce miss, but that’s all. I end up level 96 challenging Wulfric.

And, infurtiatingly, he ends up a challenge. I can oneshot his Abomasnow and Cryogonal without issue, and then Avalugg comes out. With Surf it would require three hits to take it out. Its Avalanche destroys Gwyneth in one, even with the minimal amount of damage taken up to that point.

I’m not quite sure what to do at this point, because I really don’t want to have to redo that horrible puzzle and levels are negligible at this point. So I decide to teach Gwyneth Power-Up Punch, temporarily replacing Return, and give her the Black Belt. This will still require either a crit or a missed Avalanche, and Avalanche missing depends entirely on Amie.

It happens on try two, though, thankfully! And now it’s time for Victory Road.

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Valerie time! While she’s probably my favorite gym leader, this fight is still fairly easy. I do come close to losing between Cute Charm and Charm on her Sylveon, but I still take it down.

As Gwyneth is level 66 I immediately head to the Poké Ball Factory. Heroically, Calem busies himself with a random Grunt while I go around actually helping with the situation. The least they could have done is give him an admin of some kind, you’d think, but apparently not even Game Freak believes in Calem that much.

Heck, his levels are lower than those of the two Scientists we double battle later- 37 to 41, or so. That said Gwyneth obliterates the Manectric and nearly gets the Liepard with Earthquake, so it’s still an easy fight, and with that we leave Laverre.

Frost Cavern poses an interesting problem: you have to fight one of two people, both Fighting-type trainers. One has Scrafty and Throh and the other has Sawk and Mienshao. Sawk has Sturdy and Throh has enough Defense to take one Bounce- I end up beating the girl with Sawk through Bounce paralysis luck.

A rather distressing theme is emerging. Literally anything with Sturdy has one fair chance to damage me, and Gwyneth is very much not defensive and depends almost entirely on moving first and taking things out asap. At least one member of the Elite Four has a Pokémon with Sturdy, and even if he didn’t most of those Pokémon ought to be able to take one hit without super-effective damage. I foresee a lot of grinding.

We’re 35% of the way to 100, though!

I forget to save before the Calem battle but it doesn’t matter because I sweep his team, no matter what he says about “a little bit to catch up to you.” Now onto the real challenge: Olympia.

...or so you’d think. I actually lost to the first trainer, with an Exeggutor, once. Then I learned that Return did more damage than Bounce, and began spamming. Everything went down in one hit.

Including her. I would have gotten through damageless if her Meowstic hadn’t known Fake Out, and I consider that cheating. She says something about creating my own path, as if I haven’t already done that by defying all common sense. I wish she’d had more Pokémon, honestly- three seems a bit low for a seventh gym leader, especially given how dang intimidating her gym and apparent abilities are.

When I exit it seems Calem has finally realized my strategy (throwing poor Gwyneth at anything that beats her repeatedly) and adopted it. Unfortunately Lysandre interrupts this with an unncessarily “”polite”” Holo Caster announcement about how he’s bringing about the apocalypse.

What a dick.

Thankfully the two Team Flare Grunts by the gym don’t own Holo Casters or have any self-awareness whatsoever, and so I get an opportunity to introduce my second shiny Scatterbug failure to you:

This is Kyle!

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Starting off with a Calem fight this time!

It went exactly as you’d expect. I oneshotted all of his Pokémon with Return. This episode will probably not end at the gym, because there’s barely a gap between Korrina and Ramos, especially because I’m now very overlevelled even with a sole Bunnelby. I’m not even disadvantaged against Grass-types as a whole as I am with Fighting and Rock.

I’m right, and while Gogoat hangs on long enough on basically no HP to have two Hyper Potions used on it, the gym is a breeze. Gwyneth can learn Grass Knot, but I don’t think I’ll be taking advantage of that.

As it turns out Bounce does not work like Fly in the field. Was the idea it did made up in my little-kid brain because they worked the same in battle or did it actually work that way in earlier gens? I can’t find mention of it on serebii or Bulbapedia :|

The Team Flare Grunt I have now beaten without incident three times is perhaps the funniest person in the game. If they’d used a generic grunt I’d have assumed they hated Team Flare and wanted it to be destroyed or someone within to be humiliated, etc.

Gwyneth is currently level 58 and oneshotting everything with Return. Not sure if that’s because of the Silk Scarf or not.

In other news, the turning-head-to-look-at-you-but-not-challenging you is fine on normal trainers but hilarious on Team Flare members, who are apparently supposed to be kicking you out asap.

The desert itself is considerably less annoying than I remember, and so I head to Prism Tower. I hate the “puzzle”- I like to fight all the Trainers I can and I always feel stupid intentionally getting questions wrong so I end up giving up halfway through. Especially in this iteration because of the weirdly public version of it- Let’s Go’s Blaine, I think, was the same way. I do manage it this time, though!

The main difficulty in Clemont’s gym ends up coming from me getting paralyzed every time it’s possible to get paralyzed. I end up taking a bad hit (26 HP left) from his Magneton’s Thunderbolt under Electric Terrain, but that’s the only hit I do take. Unfortunately, Gwyneth can’t learn Thunderbolt.

And of course, Professor Sycamore is as impressively aware as always. Why have you not gotten worried about how he seems to believe killing everyone is a bad way to get to a good solution???

I’ve seen 10 Pokémon in the Mountain Dex, by the way, and apparently I’ve seen more than Calem and Trevor. Is he just programmed to always lose...? And I oneshot all of Calem’s three Pokémon again, which is almost insulting.

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So we start off realizing that we’re about to face a Big Obstacle and her name is Korrina. We fight her three times, though only two count in the context of this run- the fight with two Lucario, and the gym battle. The Lucario fight is first.

The first try I lose to a Power-Up Punch crit. The second try Metal Sound misses twice and then Gwyneth somehow outspeeds to use Dig without taking a hit from either Lucario. I think we must have speed tied, which is worrying but better than the alternative, and if that’s true that means I got incredibly lucky to have them go first every Dig turn.

Despite the buildup and the fact that by all rights I should not be give a Mega Ring, Calem is a pushover I actually forgot about when I had to rewrite this part.

Then I head to the gym and lose miserably against every Fighting type that gets a move in- well, that’s been happening since Reflection Cave, but this gym specifically requires you to fight everyone- even with Bounce and at level 38. So I start grinding. I max out Attack and Speed IVs, Amie, and grind to level 53.

By now a Bounce can OHKO every Fighting-type in the gym, but its PP of 5 is still an issue. I’ll probably trade a PP Max over from my Y save later, if necessary, but for now it just means I have to run off to heal every other trainer.

About 15% of the way to level 100! (I weep.)

Several huge mistakes on the parts of the Guru, Korrina, and Lucario later (I really wish they hadn’t chosen a Pokémon that evolves by friendship for this), I pass over the Lapras in favor of teaching my one-foot-tall rabbit how to carry me over water. I love Pokémon.

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Rules post!

*Any specifications given by a requester must be followed unless doing so is unreasonable.

*Items are allowed in-battle, but only against normal trainers and wild Pokémon. If they are absolutely necessary to win a battle, even at level 100 with perfect RNG, then I have to make a note of this.

*Amie and Super Training are fine.

*Excessive level grinding is fine.

*I am allowed to skip random trainers at my discretion.

*In one-Pokémon runs every HM user, if necessary, will be left fainted in the party.

These rules may later be added to, as necessary! Rule one takes priority over the rest, but ultimately these challenges are supposed to be fun and if I need to change them or bend them I will.

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Sycamore poses only a small challenge by virtue of leading with a Bulbasaur that knows Growl and Leech Seed, and managed to get both off in the first run, killing Gwyneth before I managed to beat the Squirtle. Thankfully, Squirtle knows Tail Whip rather than Growl, and on a third run I got lucky with Bulbasaur using Vine Whip so I could take it out with Take Down without too much lost.

I picked a Charmander and named her Narnia. Unfortunately, her next destination is the box, no matter how “fantastic” Professor Sycamore thought me using a second Pokémon might be.

(Attack stat is at 21, by the way.)

Calem rather unsubtly leads me to Plot and Lysandre rather unsubtly announces he’s evil. I was really hoping to get to fight Calem, but unfortunately he says something along the lines of “competing” and then doesn’t actually give me the option to fight him. Shame.

Despite the poor RNG I get, Tierno’s fight is unremarkable. Gwyneth does hit level 19, though, so we’re getting really close to Diggersby and Double Kick (though I’m only taking advantage of one of those.) Gwyneth comes close to being knocked out against a trainer’s Kadabra but pulls through confusion with 5 HP and a likely-necessary Quick Attack critical hit.

Gwyneth tries to evolve and learns Double Kick. I replace Double Slap with it. It is very nice against the many normal-types on this route, and about now it hits me that I’m going to have a lot of issues movewise later on.

Next step is Parfum Palace. I spend all of my 15k on a haircut and then potions. I’m adorable.

(The guard just lets me in free, hilariously enough.)

The actual visit is nothing noteworthy and fortunately neither is the Snorlax fight. I had to grind awhile to be able to beat a trainer with a Pancham and then it took several tries to beat the Team Flare double battle. I won that one mostly due to luck and had to replace Take Down with Return.

Of course that means the next challenge is the gym! Only one trainer gives me any problems, and that’s because his Dwebble takes three moves to KO and is followed by a Relicanth capable of four-shotting me, even at level 31. I ended up cheating a bit and using one super potion just so I’d have the experience points.

Grant is easy up till the point his Tyrunt gets a Rock Tomb critical hit and Mud Shot misses just after, letting it knock me out easily. On the next run Double Kick does slightly less damage than last time and doesn’t two-shot, thereby letting Amaura knock me out with Rock Tomb.

Next try, however, Double Kick crits Amaura and leaves me with no damage taken. Unfortunately, Mud Shot doesn’t 2HKO Tyrunt, so Gwyneth is knocked out yet again. The wise thing to do would probably be go back and grind levels, but I have never known sense in any form (see: this blog), so instead I throw Gwyneth at Grant’s Pokémon repeatedly.

On try ten, Gwyneth unparalyzes herself with Amie the turn Thunder Wave is used, and then Mud Shot hits twice.

I think this calls for a break! < 3

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This post will be a bit short because this is the 4th time I’ve had to retype it after losing all of my progress. Tumblr really does not like me today.

Starting in an older X file for reasons that will soon be apparent. (Don’t worry, absolutely nothing has been accomplished that Gwyneth could not have done on her own. We’re still in the first forest with Shauna.)

This is why.

If achievable I will always try to do these challenges with a shiny, so I won’t be able to freak myself out in regards to nature. Gwyneth is Gentle (-Def +Sp Def) and the first of two failures to get a shiny Scatterbug, hence the other four team members.

In any case, the forest itself and all the way up to Viola are no problem, and Viola isn’t, either. I lose the first run at level 14 despite getting very lucky, but win when I try again at 16.