Current Events > I'm doing another Pokemon challenge run: Ultra Moon with only unevolved Pokemon

(+) Yeah! (+)

I haven't done a Pokemon challenge run in a while (not since my Porygon solo through Red version back in late 2022) and I haven't played through a gen 7 game in even longer than that, but I was getting the itch to do both. So here I go, starting another challenge run. I'm going to beat Pokemon Ultra Moon, which includes one of the most difficult boss battles in the entire franchise in Ultra Necrozma, using only unevolved Pokemon. To further clarify, that means I'll only be using base form Pokemon that are capable of evolving, so evolved Pokemon and single-stage Pokemon that don't evolve at all are not allowed. I also won't be using any items in battle aside from Pokeballs to catch my team members. Held items on my Pokemon (including Z crystals to use Z moves) are fair game though.

I started the game with Popplio, then I caught a Magnemite and a Zorua near the Trainer's School on Route 1. So far I've only done the early-game tutorial stuff and taken care of things in Hau'oli City, which was a battle against a Team Skull grunt and a battle against Ilima and his annoying Smeargle. I'll head up Route 2 towards Verdant Cavern and Ilima's island trial in my next play session.

I don't know if this will be as interesting as some of my past solo runs, but hopefully it's at least somewhat fun and challenging.

Tag

When I played UM I cheesed Ultra Necrozma. Not sure if that's something you'd be okay with doing

teep_ posted...

When I played UM I cheesed Ultra Necrozma. Not sure if that's something you'd be okay with doing

I'll talk about how I'm going to deal with Ultra Necrozma when I get closer to that battle... although someone might be able to guess my plan well before then.

I caught a Cutiefly on Route 2 and a Gastly in the nearby Hau'oli Cemetary to add to my team, then I trained on all of the trainers in the area before reaching the Pokemon Center in front of Verdant Cave. Before I went into the cave for the island trial, I decided to check the nearby berry tree because "why not, maybe I'll get lucky" and sure enough, I got lucky... a Crabrawler showed up from the berry pile! I wasn't planning on using Crabrawler in this run because of the randomness involved in finding one, but since the game gave me one right away, I caught it and added it to my team.

After that, Crabrawler basically solo'd the entire Verdant Cave trial by itself. I picked up the TM for Brick Break inside the cave (why is such an amazing move given to you so early in this game?), taught it to Crabrawler, and it obliterated all of the Alolan Rattata and the Totem Alolan Raticate in the cave. The only thing it couldn't take on was a Drowzee used by the Team Skull grunt who showed up in the middle of the trial, but Cutiefly took care of that with Struggle Bug. So now the first island trial is done, and it's off to route 3 next.

My current team:
Lv16 Popplio
Lv16 Zorua
Lv15 Magnemite
Lv14 Cutiefly
Lv15 Gastly
Lv13 Crabrawler

Tag! I love your walkthrough topics.

I've been thinking of replaying Ultra Sun lately, as it's been over a year since I last played a Pokemon game.

If you catch a Rockruff, name her Taka.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

Tag! I love your walkthrough topics.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

SomeLikeItHoth posted...

If you catch a Rockruff, name her Taka.

I don't nickname my Pokemon unless I'm doing a Nuzlocke.

Across last night and today, I went though route 3, rescued Nebby at the Melememe Meadow, got back to Iki Town, and defeated the first Island Kahuna of the game, Hala. Cutiefly made short work of his first two Fighting-types, but after baiting out his one-use Z-move with Gastly, I decided to finish the battle with a Crabrawler vs. Crabrawler honor battle, which my Crabrawler obviously won. Nothing too challenging yet, but eventually I'll be facing more evolved Pokemon with my unevolved team, so the difficulty will go up later on.

My current team:
Lv20 Popplio*
Lv19 Zorua
Lv18 Magnemite
Lv18 Cutiefly
Lv19 Gastly
Lv17 Crabrawler

Also, I should make note of this now: from gen 6 onward, there's a new gameplay mechanic where a Pokemon will gain 20% more experience points if it's capable of evolving at a certain level but has gone beyond that evolution level without evolving. My Popplio started getting the boosted experience at level 17 (the level where it normally evolves to Brionne), and all of the Pokemon in my current party except Crabrawler (since it evolves by level up at a certain location and not at a certain level) will eventually get the same boosted experience later on. Once my Pokemon are at that level, I'll mark them with an asterisk in my team list.

I'm now on the second island, and now that I'm here, I made a team change. On route 4, I caught a Mudbray, who has an usually high base stat total for an unevolved Pokemon (385 compared to most of the other Pokemon I've used so far being in the 300-340 range) and was definitely a Pokemon that I wanted on my team for this run. I thought for a while about which Pokemon to replace, and in the end, I decided to bench Zorua for Mudbray.

I went through route 4, the Paniola Ranch area, and route 5, and I saved right in front of Lana's island trial in Brooklet Hill. On the way, I got a free egg from the daycare, which hatched into an Eevee. If that Eevee had Adaptability as its ability, I might have considered using it, but it had Run Away, so into the box it goes.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv23 Popplio*
Lv22 Magnemite
Lv22 Cutiefly
Lv23 Gastly
Lv21 Crabrawler
Lv21 Mudbray

I'm still thinking about other team options, but knowing that I would need to train those new team members more to have them catch up to the rest of the team level-wise, I'm hesitant to make any more changes to the team later on. so what's listed above might be my final team going forward. We'll have to wait and see.

Are you going to do Rainbow Rocket or end when you become champion?

Calwings posted...

I'll talk about how I'm going to deal with Ultra Necrozma when I get closer to that battle... although someone might be able to guess my plan well before then.

Flail? Poisoning? You certainly won't be brute forcing anything. I am more immediately concerned about Lana's and Mallow's trials, so this will be interesting for sure.

There's always FEAR... ;p

zinformant posted...

Flail? Poisoning? You certainly won't be brute forcing anything. I am more immediately concerned about Lana's and Mallow's trials, so this will be interesting for sure.

Ultra Necrozma is stupid against Zorua/Zoroark's Illusion and will only spam its Psychic attack against it, then you can just whittle it down with Toxic and some attacks. Never used that strategy myself, but that's one way to do it.

Letsago posted...

Are you going to do Rainbow Rocket or end when you become champion?

I'll stop when I become the Champion, like I always do with these challenge playthroughs.

GeminiDeus posted...

Ultra Necrozma is stupid against Zorua/Zoroark's Illusion and will only spam its Psychic attack against it, then you can just whittle it down with Toxic and some attacks. Never used that strategy myself, but that's one way to do it.

Ding ding ding, you got it. That was my plan. When I'm about to face Ultra Necrozma, I'll bring Zorua back out from the PC, teach it Toxic via TM, and use it (along with the AI's stupidity when it comes to dealing with Illusion) to take down the big bad. But that's a long way off.

Just got done with Lana's island trial, and it was easier than I expected. I found the TM for Charge Beam inside Brooklet Hill and taught it to Magnemite, gave Magnemite the Quick Claw, and then it managed to solo the Totem Araquanid all on its own. First turn I got a Quick Claw activation and paralyzed Araquanid with Thunder Wave, then second turn I set up Light Screen to lessen the damage from incoming rain-boosted Water attacks. After that, it only took one Charge Beam on the helper Dewpider and two more on the Araquanid to take it down. Of course, the good luck of Araquanid being paralyzed and unable to move for three of those turns certainly helped a lot.

Next up is Kiawe's island trial, which will probably be a lot tougher.

I made my way through routes 6-7 and Wela Volcano Park, and I'm saved right in front of Kiawe's island trial. Two things to note along the way:

1) I thought about other options for a Water-type like Goldeen, Staryu, Clamperl, and Finneon, but I decided to stick with Popplio. I'm still thinking about whether to replace Crabrawler with another Fighting-type like Stufful or Pancham, but aside from that, the rest of my team is basically set in stone at this point.

2) I had trouble with a random trainer's Kadabra who knocked out 3 of my Pokemon on the way to Kiawe's trial. I don't have any priority moves on my team, so fast attackers like Kadabra might be a big issue later, especially when they're evolved and I'm still using my unevolved Pokemon due to my challenge run.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv26 Popplio*
Lv25 Magnemite
Lv25 Cutiefly*
Lv25 Gastly*
Lv24 Crabrawler
Lv24 Mudbray

Welp... just like Lana's trial, Kiawe's was easier than I thought it would be. The Totem Alolan Marowak used Detect on turn 1 so nothing happened, then it SOS-called a Salazzle. My Mudbray tanked a hit from Alolan Marowak's Flame Wheel (no burn, plus the Salazzle only used Torment and didn't attack) and then KO'd the Salazzle with Bulldoze while also damaging the Alolan Marowak. After that, Mudbray tanked a second Flame Wheel and KO'd Alolan Marowak with High Horsepower. Mudbray's bulk combined with its Stamina ability are going to be very useful going forward.

Next up is route 8, the Lush Jungle, and Mallow's island trial.

I didn't get the chance to play the past couple of days, but I played a little last night and a lot today. I went through route 8 (I totally forgot Colress from B2/W2 randomly shows up in this game too but yeah this is when he shows up) to get to the Lush Jungle and Mallow's island trial, and for the first time in this playthrough, I had some serious trouble with a battle. Totem Lurantis actually beat my ass a couple of times.

On the first attempt, I led with Cutiefly thinking that super effective Bug damage would be enough, but thanks to the SOS-called Comfey using Sunny Day, Lurantis was outhealing my damage with Synthesis while Comfey boosted its defense and chipped away at Cutiefly. Once Cutiefly went down, Lurantis swept the rest of my team. On the second attempt, I tried leading with Magnemite to paralyze Lurantis, but it took Magnemite to 1 HP with Low Sweep and Magnemite missed with Thunder Wave's now nerfed 90% accuracy, so I reset right away. On the third attempt, I decided to lead with Gastly and immediately used Curse on Lurantis. This time, the Lurantis SOS-called Kecleon first instead of Comfey. I had Gastly use Hypnosis on Kecleon to prevent it from setting up Sunny Day, then Lurantis KO'd Gastly. I sent out Cutiefly, and without the Sun up and with Curse damage adding up, this time Lurantis couldn't out-heal Cutiefly's Bug Buzz damage. Cutiefly KO'd Lurantis while Kecleon stayed asleep, then I brought in Crabrawler to KO Kecleon and finish the battle without the Comfey ever being called in.

After this, I made my way through Diglett's Tunnel and Route 9 to Konikoni City, and now I'm currently saved right in front of the grand trial battle against Olivia and her Rock-types. Her Lycanroc and its high stats scare me, but I think I have a good enough team to take it down.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv30 Popplio*
Lv30 Magnemite*
Lv30 Cutiefly*
Lv30 Gastly*
Lv29 Crabrawler
Lv29 Mudbray

Calwings posted...

On the third attempt, I decided to lead with Gastly and immediately used Curse on Lurantis. This time, the Lurantis SOS-called Kecleon first instead of Comfey. I had Gastly use Hypnosis on Kecleon to prevent it from setting up Sunny Day, then Lurantis KO'd Gastly. I sent out Cutiefly, and without the Sun up and with Curse damage adding up, this time Lurantis couldn't out-heal Cutiefly's Bug Buzz damage. Cutiefly KO'd Lurantis while Kecleon stayed asleep, then I brought in Crabrawler to KO Kecleon and finish the battle without the Comfey ever being called in.

That is lowkey an epic way for it to have gone down. Have a Cutiefly.
https://www.pokebeach.com/news/2024/01/78-Cutiefly.jpg

zinformant posted...

That is lowkey an epic way for it to have gone down.

Yep, Curse from a Ghost-type is high risk but pretty useful. It might be necessary to deal with some more dangerous threats later on in the game.

zinformant posted...

Have a Cutiefly.

Thank you. Cutiefly and its evolution Ribombee are some underappreciated Pokemon.

Olivia turned out to be easy. Crabrawler swept her with two Power-Up punches on Anorith and a +2 Brick Break on both Lileep and Lycanroc. Crabrawler was low enough on HP from Anorith that Lycanroc could have probably KO'd if it had used its Z-move (even if it would be not very effective) but it went for Bite instead for some reason. Oh well, a win's a win. After that, I took care of some story stuff at the Aether Paradise (including taking down an Ultra Beast and meeting a 40-year-old MILF) and now I'm officially on the third island to continue my adventure.

Also, something I forgot to mention before: At the beginning of the game, I did hack in a bunch of Everstones to put on my Pokemon so that I wouldn't constantly be asked to evolve them upon every level-up. They'll be holding these for most of the game, but for important battles (like island/grand trials) I might give them other held items. This is the only modification I've made in this save file, everything else is completely normal.

I know you'll be bringing back Zorua for Ultra Necrozma, but is your team from post #17 going to be your final team? Or do you have any planned replacements?

GeminiDeus posted...

I know you'll be bringing back Zorua for Ultra Necrozma, but is your team from post #17 going to be your final team? Or do you have any planned replacements?

The only other changes I've considered are replacing Crabrawler with Pancham and possibly adding Poipole much later on. I have plenty of time to think about Poipole (it won't come until after I beat Ultra Necrozma) but Pancham is coming up on the very next route, so I need to decide between the two Fighting-types soon. I'll think about it tonight before I play tomorrow, but if anyone else has any input on the Crabrawler vs. Pancham decision, feel free to chime in.

I know this post has nothing to do with the topic at hand but after seeing your rules I wonder what's the best Pokemon under your rules. I wanna say Scyther but maybe there's better ones out there

inTaCtfuL posted...

I know this post has nothing to do with the topic at hand but after seeing your rules I wonder what's the best Pokemon under your rules. I wanna say Scyther but maybe there's better ones out there

It would most likely be a Pokemon that was originally created as a standalone Pokemon (with a base stat total befitting one) but then got an evolution in a future generation without also getting a baby form that would technically make itself count as an evolved Pokemon. Scyther, Misdreavus, Gligar, and Sneasel are the standouts that immediately come to mind. Scyther has the best base stat total, but the others have better typings, wider movepools, and other unique options to make up for the 70 or so stat points that Scyther has on them, so it's hard to say which is the best.

That being said, I purposely avoided using such Pokemon in this playthrough because I really wanted to challenge myself. I only wanted to use Pokemon that were truly unevolved Pokemon and were originally designed as such from the very beginning. I ran into a wild Murkrow early on and could have used it because it evolves into Honchkrow, but I chose not to.

EDIT: A late honorable mention to Type:Null, who would undoubtedly be the best unevolved Pokemon for a playthrough like this... if there was any Pokemon game where it could be obtained before the postgame, which there currently is not.

Welp, I just got a hard reality check in the form of Hau's Alolan Raichu. There's a rival battle in Malie City, and his Alolan Raichu absolutely decimated my team the first time I battled him. When I finally took it down, all I had left was my Cutiefly on low health, but he still had a Tauros in the back which finished me off. This rival battle doesn't actually require you to win, and the story progresses even if you lose, but I still decided to try to get a win.

I figured with better play and better luck, I could beat him. For that to happen, I needed to get enough good luck (AKA not getting flinched with Bite) to KO his lead Torracat with only Popplio, meaning Mudbray would be at full health for Alolan Raichu. After that, Cutiefly easily KO's his Leafeon and Noibat before he sends out the Alolan Raichu. Then, I would send out Magnemite against Alolan Raichu, set up Light Screen, and chip away with Flash Cannon until Alolan Raichu KO's it. Finally, Mudbray would survive a Psychic and KO Alolan Raichu with High Horsepower. On my fourth attempt at the battle, I finally got the luck needed to reach Alolan Raichu with Mudbray at full health, got the whole setup done... and then Mudbray missed with High Horsepower. Thankfully, it actually took so little damage from Psychic due to Light Screen that it could survive a second one and have another chance to hit with High Horsepower... and then Alolan Raichu got a critical hit with its next Psychic and knocked out Mudbray.

After that awful luck, I was pissed off and probably should have just given up and moved on, but I tried a couple more times. On attempt #7, I eventually got the luck and setup I needed to make it back to Alolan Raichu, and this time I played it safe and had Mudbray use the weaker but 100% accurate Bulldoze instead of the stronger but 95% accurate High Horsepower, and thank god it still got the KO. After that, Mudbray stayed in and took down Hau's Tauros with 3 Low Sweeps thanks to Stamina defense boosts letting it tank Tauros's attacks, and I finally won this annoying rival battle.

But this was a real wake-up call about the challenges of facing fully evolved Pokemon with a team of unevolved Pokemon. I was planning on doing more today than just this battle, but it was annoying enough that I don't feel like playing anymore. Next up is route 10, Mt. Hokulani, and Sophocles's island trial.

Sounds like a really tough time with Hau. What kind of a level difference did you have? Do you think using Reflect and/or Light Screen would help?

GeminiDeus posted...

Sounds like a really tough time with Hau. What kind of a level difference did you have?

My team was all at level 31 or 32 at the point Alolan Raichu came out (some of them were at 30 coming into the battle and leveled up to 31 during it) and his Alolan Raichu was level 29. So I was actually slightly overleveled and still had that tough of a time with it. I might need to do more training on random trainers and wild Pokemon, but I don't want to grind too much.

GeminiDeus posted...

Do you think using Reflect and/or Light Screen would help?

I don't have Reflect, so I'll have to look up where you get the TM for it. I did use Light Screen, but in hindsight, it wasn't actually necessary because Mudbray would have survived a non-crit Psychic from full health even without it. I do think these two moves will be useful in some future battles though.

I did decide to stick with Crabrawler for my Fighting-type instead of swapping to Pancham, so my current team is most likely my final team unless I decide to add Poipole later on. I figured that Crabrawler's higher speed and access to Power-Up Punch would be more useful. If Pancham were actually Fighting/Dark type and didn't only get the secondary Dark type upon evolution, then I probably would have made the switch, but oh well. As for the playthrough...

First, I flew back to Heahea City to buy the TMs for Reflect and Light Screen and taught them both to Cutiefly. Magnemite can learn them too, but Cutiefly is faster. Then I did some training by defeating every trainer on Route 10 and the Malie Cape before taking the bus to Mt. Hokulani to take on Sophocles's island trial. Mudbray's bulk and the Totem Togedemaru being 4x weak to Ground moves let it bring the Totem Pokemon down to pretty low health, but Iron Head flinches got the better of Mudbray in the end. Over half my team was fainted when I finally managed to actually finish off the annoying hedgehog and eventually the SOS-called Skarmory alongside it, but I did win the battle on my first try.

After that, I went back to Malie Garden for my first battle with Guzma. Again, I won on my first try, but again, the battle ended with over half of my team fainted. The fact that it took 5 of my Pokemon to defeat his 2 is a bit concerning. Finally, I made my way across routes 11-13, making sure to defeat every single trainer along the way. It's clear that I'll need levels to make up for the stat difference between my unevolved Pokemon and the evolved Pokemon that I'll be facing in the late game. I don't want to go too far out of my way to overgrind if I don't have to, but at the very least, I'll probably face every trainer I see on the main path for the rest of the playthrough. Up next is routes 14-15 and Acerola's island trial.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv38 Popplio*
Lv37 Magnemite*
Lv37 Cutiefly*
Lv38 Gastly*
Lv37 Crabrawler
Lv38 Mudbray*

Didn't get to play the past couple of days, but I played some today. I had multiple battles where random NPC trainers (like a trainer on route 14 with a Whiscash and a Honchkrow and one on route 15 with an Alolan Marowak) are wiping half of my team and forcing me to go back to heal. Things are getting rough. Anyways, I managed to make it through routes 14-15 to Acerola's trial and the battle against Totem Mimikyu. My gameplan against this thing was to lower Mimikyu's speed and break its disguise with my other Pokemon so my Gastly could then come in and finish it off with a super-effective, Choice Specs boosted (yes some guy gave me a Choice Specs earlier in the game), STAB Shadow Ball.

For the first attempt, I led with Magnemite, hoping to have it survive a hit and paralyze Mimikyu with Thunder Wave. Sadly, Mimikyu was holding a Lum Berry to heal a status and then Magnemite got KO'd before it could get a second Thunder Wave off. So I reset and readjusted my strategy for the second attempt. This time, I decided to have Mudbray and Popplio try to lower Mimikyu's speed stat (with Bulldoze and Icy Wind respectively) instead of doing it with paralysis. By the time Mudbray and Popplio both went down, their attacks had gotten Mimikyu to -4 speed and also KO'd the SOS-called Banette, so then I sent out Gastly to clean things up and it had enough power to get the job done. Also, I feel stupid typing this now, but I was so focused on the Ghost typing (because this was the Ghost trial) that it totally slipped my mind until after the battle was over that Mimikyu is also part Fairy, meaning Magnemite's Flash Cannon would have also been super-effective against it.

Oh well, whatever. Another Totem Pokemon down, another trial complete!

I made some progress today, but didn't do any major story battles. First, I looked up where the Eviolite was and flew back to get it, which will be very useful in the future. Then I fought my way through routes 16-17 and the Ula'ula Meadow to reach Po Town, AKA Team Skull's home base. Next up is fighting through more Team Skull grunts and then another battle with Guzma, followed by battles against Gladion and then the next Island Kahuna.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv43 Popplio*
Lv43 Magnemite*
Lv42 Cutiefly*
Lv43 Gastly*
Lv42 Crabrawler
Lv43 Mudbray*

Like I mentioned last time, I had a gauntlet of major battles to fight through in this play session. The Team Skull grunts didnt give me any trouble, so first up is Guzma. I had Cutiefly lead off, set up Reflect, and do some chip damage to his lead Golisopod with Bug Buzz before it went down. After that, I sent out Magnemite, holding the Eviolite for more bulk, and KOd Golisopod with a critical hit super-effective Discharge. I dont know if the crit mattered or not, but we take those. He sent out Pinsir next, I switched to Crabrawler. I haven't used any Z-moves in this playthrough, so I decided to teach Crabrawler Rock Slide, gave it the Rockium Z, and had it use the Z-move Continental Crush on Pinsir aaaaaaand it only did half. Well, that was disappointing. Crabrawler was able to survive a second hit (thanks to Cutieflys Reflect) and land a second Rock Slide, taking Pinsir down to low health before being KOd. I sent out Gastly to clean up the Pinsir that was left on very low health, then switched back to Magnemite to take down his Masquerain and get the victory. I was a lot more prepared for this fight than the first time around.

After that, I flew back to the Aether Paradise to continue the story and fight the next major battle of this gauntlet, Gladion. I led with Magnemite to zap his Golbat out of the air with two Discharges, then switched to Crabrawler, who was holding the Eviolite for this battle. It took out Gladions Zoroark with 2 uses of Power-Up Punch, then a +2 Brick Break OHKO'd his Type:Null to give me an easy win with no Pokemon fainted. After this was the grand trial battle against Nanu, and Im not going to give the full breakdown of the Nanu battle because it fucking sucked. I won on the first try, but I played extremely poorly and ended the battle with 4 of my Pokemon fainted. If I had made better decisions (move choices, switch timings, keeping the Eviolite on Crabrawler instead of trying to get cute and giving it to Cutiefly) then I could have won this battle much easier with far fewer Pokemon fainted, but oh well, a win is a win.

Next up is more story bullshit at the Aether Paradise.

Ive made my way through most of the Aether Paradise story section. The mooks and Faba were fairly easy, but then I got to the part where Team Skull shows up, and it took me a couple of attempts and some experimentation to beat Guzma this time. I led with Magnemite against his Golisopod and attacked with Discharge, which did enough damage to trigger Golisopods Emergency Exit ability and force out Pinsir. I switched to Mudbray (holding the Eviolite for this battle) and Mudbray was able to tank enough hits to eventually KO Pinsir with Rock Tomb. Then he sent out Vikavolt, I switched to Gastly, and I just had Gastly use Destiny Bond to cheese Vikavolt. Finally, I switched back to Magnemite, who KOd Masquerain and then finished off the weakened Golisopod to get me the win.

After another quick and easy battle against the weird Ultra Recon Squad people, Im currently saved in front of the next major battle against Lusamine, who I am terrified of. She has a team of five fully evolved Pokemon at level 47 (so they're only slightly lower leveled than my team of unevolved Pokemon) including some very bulky ones in Clefable, Milotic, and Bewear.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv49 Popplio*
Lv50 Magnemite*
Lv49 Cutiefly*
Lv48 Gastly*
Lv48 Crabrawler
Lv51 Mudbray*

On a random side note, completely unrelated to the playthrough: I totally forgot how much the story of the gen 7 Pokemon games reminds me of Kill La Kill. Both stories involve a psychotic, beauty-obsessed mother trying to harness aliens to gain power, while her two children (one of whom is a total edgelord) rebel against her and try to stop her plot in their own ways.

My battle against Lusamine can be quickly summed up with one image:

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/219/590/4f9.jpg

So yeah, after looking through my team's options and the movesets of Lusamine's Pokemon, I realized that Cutiefly could set up with Quiver Dance (an insane move the boosts SpAtk, SpDef, and Speed all in one go) on her Clefable that only knows special attacks and Charm, all while healing itself with Roost. Then, once it gets set up to +6, it could start attacking with its STAB Bug Buzz and Dazzling Gleam. Thanks to extra bulk from the Eviolite, Cutiefly was able to execute the plan perfectly and sweep Lusamine's entire team without any of my other Pokemon needing to do anything. I can't believe this actually worked so well.

After that battle and all of the story stuff after it, I finally reached the Seafolk Village on Poni Island, the fourth and final island of the Alola region. This playthrough has been a lot of fun, but I'm heading into the home stretch now.

I went through a few routes on Poni Island, fought a bunch of trainers, and then did some story stuff at the Ruins of Hope. Nothing really interesting.

My current team: (asterisk = getting boosted experience for being past its evolution level)
Lv51 Popplio*
Lv52 Magnemite*
Lv52 Cutiefly*
Lv51 Gastly*
Lv51 Crabrawler
Lv53 Mudbray*

Since there wasn't much to talk about in this update, I'll take this time to talk about the possible last team member that I mentioned earlier. I would like to use Poipole on my team, but it comes at level 40 and has a slow growth rate, so it would take a lot of training for it to catch up with the rest of my team. So I'm going to pass on Poipole, and my current team is indeed my final team for the playthrough.

I did more story stuff on Exeggutor Island, then fought my way through a lot of trainers in Vast Poni Canyon to reach the site of the next island trial against Totem Kommo-o. Since it's a Dragon/Fighting type, I figured a double-super-effective, Choice-Specs-boosted, STAB Dazzling Gleam from Cutiefly would do a ton to it, but I also knew that I would probably need to lower Kommo-o's speed with other Pokemon before I send in Cutiefly to finish it off. I also taught Dazzling Gleam to Gastly via TM just in case something unforeseen happen to Cutiefly.

As it turns out, the SOS-call Pokemon turned out to be a bigger issue in this battle than the Totem Pokemon itself. In my first attempt, I led with Magnemite to survive a hit with Sturdy and successfully paralyze Kommo-o with Thunder Wave, then Kommo-o SOS-called a Noivern who KO'd Magnemite immediately. I sent out Mudbray (with the Eviolite for more bulk) to KO Noivern with Rock Tomb and then lower Kommo-o's speed with Bulldoze. After a few turns, Kommo-o made a second SOS call for a Scizor... who knows Bullet Punch. My plan of Cutiefly outspeeding and KO'ing Kommo-o was now out the window, because Scizor immediately one-shotted Cutiefly with a priority Bullet Punch. Time to reset.

In my second attempt, instead of going directly to Mudbray after Magmenite, I sent in Popplio first to hit both Kommo-o and Noivern with an Icy Wind. Then, I had Mudbray focus only on lowering Kommo-o's speed with Bulldoze while leaving Noivern alive. When Mudbray went down, then I sent out Cutiefly, hoping to KO both dragons with a single Dazzling Gleam and end the battle without seeing Scizor. It outsped the -1 speed Noivern and hit both of them hard, but Kommo-o had a Roseli Berry to weaken the Fairy-type damage just enough to survive and SOS-call Scizor! After Scizor KO'd Cutiefly again, I was tempted to reset again, but I didn't. I sent out Gastly, praying that Scizor wouldn't use Bullet Punch. Thankfully it didn't, so Gastly used Dazzling Gleam to KO Kommo-o before going down to Scizor's Pursuit. All I had left was Crabrawler, but it managed to beat the remaining Scizor 1-on-1 to get me the win!

It only took me two attempts, but this battle was still a roller coaster of emotions. Next up is more story stuff, including the battles against Necrozma.

I feel like most folks are overpowered come that Totem battle, but you really dived into the mechanics of it necessarily. Great fights. Bullet Punch Scizor is serious Diamond and Pearl era vibes.

zinformant posted...

I feel like most folks are overpowered come that Totem battle, but you really dived into the mechanics of it necessarily. Great fights. Bullet Punch Scizor is serious Diamond and Pearl era vibes.

Thank you. My Pokemon are several levels above the Totem Pokemon, so a normal team would be quite overpowered at this point. But the fact that I'm using unevolved Pokemon with lower base stats takes away the advantage that the higher levels give me, so I have to resort to more complicated strategies to win.

Also, I've decided that I'm going to try and beat Ultra Necrozma with my current team first before I resort to the Zorua Illusion strategy that I mentioned earlier to cheese it. Magnemite resists all of Ultra Necrozma's attacks, but its signature Photon Geyser attack ignores abilities like Sturdy. If Magnemite can't survive a resisted Photon Geyser with the Eviolite equipped, then nothing on my team can and I'll go get Zorua. But if it can survive a hit and get off a move, then I might be able to win and that would feel way more satisfying.