Current Events > I haven't played gen 6 Pkmn in a while, so I'm doing a solo run with Fletchling

(+) Yeah! (+)

Calwings posted...

Trevor was nice enough to heal my Fletchling before he battled me, but then his Aerodactyl wiped the floor with her since it resisted all of her moves, outsped her, confused her with Supersonic, and got a lucky Ancient Power omni-boost too.

OOF.

Calwings posted...

But now I have another problem ahead of me the last gym is an Ice-type gym, another gym that Fletchling is weak to!

I'm so dumb, this whole time I thought Fletchling was Fire Flying

ApherosyLove posted...

I'm so dumb, this whole time I thought Fletchling was Fire Flying

Nope, it's Normal/Flying until it evolves to Fletchinder. Which is honestly better for this playthrough, since it means STAB Return (while the best Fire move Fletchling gets is Flame Charge) and not being double weak to Rock.

I went through Winding Woods to the Pokemon Village to find Wulfric, the Snowbelle gym leader. It was a pretty short and easy trip, and Wulfric is back at his gym, so I tried taking on the gym... I couldn't even get past the first trainer. The first trainer leads with Sneasel and also has a super bulky Cloyster. Fletchling needs multiple Swords Dance boosts to be able to take down the Cloyster, but she can't even set up those Swords Dances because the Sneasel uses Snatch and steals the Swords Dance boosts from her. Taking down the Sneasel without boosting and then trying to set up the Swords Dances against Cloyster probably won't work either because Icicle Crash has a good chance to 2-shot Fletchling even through the Eviolite boost.

I kept trying about a dozen more times, either boosting on Sneasel and praying it didn't use Snatch or boosting on Cloyster and praying it would miss with Icicle Crash, but the RNG never went my way. Time to think of a new strategy.

Is there a bright powder in the game?

LeCh0nk posted...

Is there a bright powder in the game?

You can only get it post-game. Plus, I think evasion strategies are cheap and I don't like using them even in difficult solo runs like this.

I believe in you TC. You'll think of something

I found a way to get past the trainers in Wulfrics gym. Instead of healing Fletchling with items when shes low on health, I flew back to route 8 and got the TM to teach her Roost. That way, on the turns she uses Roost to heal, the Ice-type moves being used on her do neutral damage instead of super-effective damage. Against the Sneasel/Cloyster trainer, I set up 3 Swords Dance boosts against Cloyster, healed with Roost in between so Icicle Crash wouldnt KO, then took it out. I did pretty much the same with all of the other trainers in the gym, healing with Roost after setting up Swords Dance and then sweeping.

Wulfric himself, however, is a different story. I cant set up any Swords Dances at all against Abomasnow because if I use Swords Dance on the first turn, Fletchling only barely survives Ice Beam and then gets KOd by a priority Ice Shard without being able to attack. I also cant reliably set up any Swords Dances against Cryogonal either because it usually uses Confuse Ray on the first turn, and if Fletchling hits herself in confusion once or I waste a turn using a Persim Berry to heal it, then Fletchling is done for. I could hope that it uses something else or that Fletchling attacks through confusion multiple times, but thats relying on too much RNG luck.

Then of course, theres Avalugg. Similar to the Cloyster, its massively bulky and will take multiple Swords Dances to take down. It also knows Curse to boost its attack, making Avalanche hit like a truck, and its defense, making it even harder to take down. So Im back in the awkward position where its nearly impossible to set up Swords Dance against Abomasnow or Cryogonal, but it seems like I need those Swords Dance boosts to have any hope of taking down Avalugg.

Looks like it's back to the drawing board for a new strategy.

I didnt think I would have to resort to using such a toxic strategy, but I realized that it was time to be toxic and use Toxic. I flew back to route 14 and got the TM for the move, I mentioned that I got the TM for Roost last time, and I already had the TM for Protect from much earlier in the game. The best way to beat this Avalugg is to make it suffer.

Abomasnow (due to being part Grass-type) and Cryogonal (due to its defense being shit) were thankfully both 1-shotted by an unboosted Fly, so Fletchling could make it to Avalugg only having taken minor chip damage from the hail. Once Avalugg came out, I used Toxic on it right away, then alternated between Protect and Roost to stall it out. It took a while because Wulfric had two Hyper Potions to heal Avaluggs health (thankfully nothing to heal the poison) but eventually the Avalugg went down and I finally got the eighth and final gym badge!

I put Fletchlings moveset back to what it was before (thank goodness for infinite use TMs) and next up is Victory Road. I'm in the home stretch now.

Look deep enough into the Toxic and the Toxic will look deep into you

You thought your glacier turtle was safe from my tiny bird?

You fool. You rube. You gormless idiot.

My tiny bird poisoned your turtle thirty-five minutes ago.

Victory Road was the most annoying part of the game so far, and thats saying something considering all of the bullshit Ive been through in this run. This post is going to be long because theres a lot of bullshit to get through, but I'll put a TL;DR version at the bottom for people who don't want to read it all.

The first mandatory trainer had a Carbink, which forced me to fly back to the move reminder to teach Fletchling Steel Wing. Then the very next trainer after that had a Weavile which needed Flame Charge, so I had to reset my game and re-teach Flame Charge before that battle. Then after that I got KOd by the next trainers Machamp because I forgot to heal, Fly didnt OHKO it, and it knew Stone Edge. A little later on, I ran into a trainer with a Magcargo who resisted all of Fletchlings moves. I thought about going back to the move reminder to get Natural Gift or using the Toxic strategy again, but I decided to see if I could just power past it with 3 Swords Dances and Return. It didnt know any decent Rock moves, so I pulled it off. Its a good thing I did too, because that trainers second Pokemon was Scizor, who I probably needed Flame Charge for since Im not sure a neutral Fly would have done the trick.

After that, I ran into a really annoying trainer who had a Trevenant and a Gigalith, who once again necessitated leaving the cave to go to the move reminder and get Steel Wing again, and even with Steel Wing this battle was a giant pain in the ass. Between the Trevenant using Will-O-Wisp and Curse if I tried to set up Swords Dance on it, Gigalith having Protect and Sturdy, and Gigalith being able to nearly 1-shot with Stone Edge (it would 1-shot if it got a crit or with any prior Curse/Burn damage) this battle took over a dozen tries for Fletchling finally get past. When Fletchling finally did win, it did so with only 2 HP remaining, the same 2 HP it gained from leveling up in the middle of that battle after defeating Trevenant.

Then right after that annoying battle, the next unavoidable trainer has a Glaceon that can cleanly 1-shot Fletchling with Blizzard even through the Eviolite boost. I hate relying on the RNG, but the only way I was winning this battle without a ton of grinding was to keep resetting for the 30% chance for Blizzard to miss or for it to use a different move. It took 6 tries, but I finally got the Blizzard miss and won. Then right after that annoying battle, the next unavoidable trainer had a Skarmory and an Alakazam, requiring me to switch from Steel Wing to Flame Charge again so Fletchling could KO Skarmory and then outspeed Alakazam without getting KOd by it.

At this point, I was expecting the game to mess with me and throw out one more trainer with a Rock-type who would require me to go back and get Steel Wing again, but thankfully, that was the last trainer in the cave. So I finally exited Victory Road and made it to the Pokemon League. While it's on my mind: Fuck gen 6 for putting the Steel Wing TM in the postgame. All of this running to and from the move reminder is annoying.

I didnt mention it earlier, but there was one more factor that made this whole ordeal even more annoying... I need Surf and Strength to get through Victory Road, but theres a pair of trainers right in front of the entrance to the cave who are looking for a double battle. So every time I left the cave to heal or to go to the move reminder, I had to get my HM mule Froakie KOd by a wild Pokemon in the nearby grass before entering the cave to avoid being forced to send it out in a double battle, which just added to the time and frustration.

Sorry for the really long post. Im at the Pokemon League now, and all I have left to beat is the Elite Four and the Champion. Im going to take a long look at their team lineups and try to put together a strategy. Fletchling is level 78 right now, and Ive also picked up 3 Rare Candies on my journey that I could also use if I feel like the extra 3 levels might make a difference. Wish me luck! Fletchling and I are going to need a lot of it.

TL;DR version: Victory Road was a fucking bitch, now I'm at the Elite Four. Also, fuck gen 6 for putting the Steel Wing TM in the postgame.

Best of luck!

After looking into the Elite Four teams and picking out the major threats, it seems that Ive run into another annoying problem. Im definitely going to need Steel Wing to deal with the Champions Tyrantrum and Aurorus, but I cant leave the Elite Four challenge in the middle to go to the move reminder, so I have to keep Steel Wing in Fletchlings moveset the entire time. I also need Fly to deal with Malvas Chandelure and cant delete it since I cant go to the move deleter in the middle of the challenge, and I also dont think Im winning any of these battles without Swords Dance boosting, so thats 3 of Fletchling's 4 moveslots basically locked in.

For Malvas Fire-types and Drasnas Dragon-types, I think I can win with just Swords Dance, Return, and (for Malvas Chandelure) Fly. For Siebolds Water-types, Return should take out most of them, but his Barbaracle is a major threat because it resists Return and takes neutral damage from Steel Wing, which makes Return still the strongest option despite being not very effective. Then for Wikstroms Steel-types, I would swap Return for Flame Charge since a super effective Flame Charge does more than a resisted Return, but Steel Wing will be better against his Probopass since both Steel Wing and Flame Charge are neutral against it but Steel Wing is stronger. Then finally comes Diantha the Champion. I mentioned needing Steel Wing for her Tyrantrum and Aurorus, Ill use Fly on her Gourgeist, and Return should hopefully take care of her other three Pokemon.

In the gen 6 games, you can face the Elite Four in any order you want, so I think the best idea would be to face the difficult ones last to get a couple more level-ups worth of stats. I'll think about the order I want to go in, and Ill probably start on the Elite Four attempts tomorrow.

I didnt make an actual real attempt to beat the Elite Four today, I ended up just doing some testing on all of the members to see how each individual battle would go and where I need to adjust things. At her current level of 78, Ive found that Fletchling can beat both Malva and Drasna most of the time if I play things right, with only a badly-timed critical hit (most likely from Malvas Torkoal using Stone Edge which has a high critical hit rate) having the potential to take her down. After beating both of those, she levels up to 79, and from there, I think using my Rare Candies to raise her to 82 before Wikstrom and Siebold is the best course of action. Wikstroms Probopass and Siebolds Barbaracle are the biggest obstacles that Fletchling has to face, and beating them will take a lot of strategy and/or luck on top of those extra 3 levels.

The main problem is that Fletchling cant 1-shot either of those two Pokemon even with maxed out Attack from 3 Swords Dance boosts. For Probopass, I did find a way to get Fletchling there with full health (after some experimentation) so she could survive a Power Gem from it and then 2-shot it. If I set up 2 Swords Dance boosts and then hit Wikstroms Klefki with Steel Wing, that puts Klefki on really low health. Wikstrom heals, I do it again, he heals again (which would be his last Full Restore) while I heal Fletchling at the same time, and then I take out Klefki with Flame Charge. Then from there, Fletchling can 2-shot Probopass with Steel Wing while surviving a Power Gem and take down his other Pokemon with Flame Charge. Unfortunately, I couldnt figure out a similar strategy that works on Siebolds Clawitzer to make it to Barbaracle at full health, so Barbaracle's Stone Edge is an instant defeat unless the 20% chance for it to miss happens. Unless I want to resort to X-items or more leveling up, I think the only way I can win that battle is by resetting until I get that Stone Edge miss.

So thats my plan for the Elite Four, I guess. Beat Malva and Drasna, Rare Candy up to 82, save, beat Wikstrom with the strategy I mentioned, save again, and then keep resetting for a Stone Edge miss so I can beat Siebold. But after that... what about the Champion? I have no idea how that battle will go, and I cant test anything for it since I need to beat the entire Elite Four before I can fight Diantha at all. Oh well, YOLO.

I began my real attempt at beating the whole Elite Four earlier today, and both Malva and Drasna went down without a hitch as I expected. Drasnas Altaria was a little annoying because it kept putting Fletchling to sleep with Sing and raising its own defense with Cotton Guard. Not difficult, just annoying. Unfortunately, my strategy with Wikstroms Klefki wasnt as reliable as I hoped. Klefki has a chance to use Torment, which makes it so that Fletchling cant use the same move in consecutive turns. After 2 Swords Dances, Steel Wing and then Flame Charge (since I cant use Steel Wing again due to Torment) comes barely short of the KO on Probopass. Eventually, after a couple of attempts, I got a battle where Klefki just attacked and didnt use Torment, so my strategy worked and I was able to take down Probopass. Wikstroms other 2 Pokemon went down to Flame Charge easily, so thats 3 down and 1 to go.

As for Siebold holy shit, I hate this battle. Setting up 3 Swords Dance boosts against his Clawitzer is a massive pain in the ass. Its Water Pulse does just enough damage that it might sometimes be a 2-hit KO, so if it gets a high damage roll, I have to play it safe and heal. Then on top of that, Water Pulse has a 20% chance to confuse Fletchling (but it feels like its happened way more often than 20%) so every time that happens I have to use a Full Restore to heal Fletchlings health and the confusion. Every attempt at this battle has taken over 5 minutes just to set up the Swords Dances and take down Clawitzer, and then theyve all been immediately ended by Barbaracle hitting with Stone Edge.

After nearly an hour of frustration, I shut my game off and decided to take a break. Ill try again either later tonight or tomorrow.

The tiny bird is the natural predator of the artillery battery.

You got this.

If you lose and keep the L, you can reenter at a higher level and that might make him easier w/ the ranges.

I went back to the Siebold battle, and after a couple more failed attempts, I finally got the Stone Edge miss I needed and defeated Barbaracle. Then I nearly had a heart attack when his Starmie outsped Fletchling and used Psychic when she was only at about half health, but Fletchling survived the hit and 1-shotted Starmie to finish the battle and defeat the last of the Elite Four.

After that, all that was left was the Champion, Diantha. I only set up 1 Swords Dance boost on her lead Hawlucha because it outsped Fletchling and I know that it had Swords Dance too, so I couldnt let it boost and then attack. Steel Wing served its purpose and 1-shotted Tyrantrum and Aurorus, then Return managed to 1-shot Goodra. It was a critical hit on Goodra, so I dont know if it would have 1-shotted without the crit or not. Once Gourgeist came out, I set up the remaining Swords Dance boosts and healed Fletchling to full health before 1-shotting it with Fly. Finally, Diantha sent out her ace Gardevoir. Even after its mega evolution, it couldnt withstand Fletchlings Return, and it fell in a single blow. I had done it. No we had done it. Fletchling and I conquered the Pokemon League and became Champions!

https://i.imgur.com/tiTp38r.png
https://i.imgur.com/EXTwekg.png

After another cutscene, the game threw me into one last battle against AZ, the old tall dude from the Team Flare story. Im pretty sure it doesnt matter if I win or lose, but I beat him anyways. After watching AZ reunite with his Eternal Floette, the last cutscene before the credits fittingly ended with a Fletchling flying across the sky. Theres always a Fletchling in that cutscene, but for this playthrough, that was my Fletchling right there.

So thats the run. Based on the amount of difficult/annoying parts and just how difficult it got sometimes, Im inclined to call this the most difficult solo run that Ive ever completed in a Pokemon game. My previous Kricketune solo in Shining Pearl needed X-items to get past the Elite Four and Champion while Fletchling never needed to resort to that, but I would still say that Fletchling had more difficulty throughout the game as a whole. Plus, Fletchling still had that much trouble despite finishing the game 15 levels above the Champion's ace Pokemon, while both Kricketune and Surskit were only 6 levels above the Champion's ace in their respective games.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading about the run. Im most likely taking a break from Pokemon games until Scarlet/Violet come out, but after I complete my first normal playthrough of that new game, Ill probably do a solo run after that. When I do, Ill make another playthrough topic like this one.

https://youtu.be/yJ_lNwY6_8I

Fletching is best bird.

Funnily enough, it's one of the only ways to beat a boss fight in a fan game, Yvetal spamming Decimation until it runs out of PP.

Wooooo, well done!

Congratulations, TC!