So what now?

Let's flash back to the original purpose of the project - to give me experience with using every single type so I could write a single-type challenge FAQ. As it turns out, I'm going to have some spare time next week, so in between clearing out a backlog of games that's built up in the 133 days of this project and travelling, I'm going to actually get that thing written.

That's the easy part. Now, I'm definitely going to take a few weeks off from actually playing through X repeatedly, because at this point I basically have the game memorized. There's something still single-type related for me to work on though - the oft-discussed "Bugs Only" run in the Singles Battle Maison. Galvantula, Heracross and Crustle await as I aim for a Goldbergian run with a bunch of high stat bug Pokemon - just have one round of ST and some light grinding to do and we'll be ready to start that.

But as for challenge-running Pokemon - the main reason I keep doing it is to give me something to keep me sane at work. And that's still going to continue in a few weeks. Quite frankly, I've enjoyed having the pressure of channeling my inner Pete Davison and having something to blog daily (or close to it).

Some of the challenges that have been proposed to me, or I've thought of doing:
- An "all-star" run comprising my favorite Pokemon from the mono-type challenge. The hard part in doing this is that I set the restrictions on myself of no duplicated types (which sucks, because I *really* want to use Gardevoir and Azumarill together again... sounds like that'd be fun for my Aqua Sapphire game, actually), one Pokemon per generation (god, gen 2 sucks in this regard) and only one ingame Mega (which I'm pretty sure is Aerodactyl).

- A Nuzlocke run (never done this before)

- A Eevee-run (as proposed by Zach Miller over at Nintendo World Report) - the question then becomes how long do I put up with Umbreon's inability to attack before I panic and send a spare Eevee to Y for immediate Leafeonage

- A happy-evolvers only run (proposed by my Nintendo Free Radio cohost Stephen Shook) which will get hilariously broken really quickly (XY Pokemon available: Lucario, Azumarill, Crobat, Snorlax, technically Raichu)

- A Bidoof-only run (proposed by my brother) which will happen shortly after a Gold/Silver version that doesn't suck

So yeah,, I've got some options. Of course, this becomes moot in late November/early December anyway because then Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire hit, and there's no way in hell they're adding enough Pokemon to the base game to make a repeat of the type-only runs feasible. Right?

Just For Fun: The Ringer List

Even with the wide variety of Pokemon available ingame in XY, sometimes there's something I would recommend for single-type runs that would really help but can't use because of the "pre-E4 only" rule I've laid out.

So what would be the ringers if I could use them? Some of these are speculation, but the whole list is theorymon so why not? Also, I'm trying to avoid legendaries, legendary trios or starters if at all possible.

Normal: Girafarig
Combines the wide movepools of Normal and Psychic to allow for a Fighting switchin that doesn't promptly get Rock Slid to death.

Fire: Camerupt
Yeah, it's probably cheating to include Torchic since he was available with a Mega Stone at one time. If we can't do him, I'd like Camerupt for Rock nulling and STAB Earth Power.

Water: Jellicent
Also handy for Ghost, but Jellicent's big deal in Water is the whole "unique type combo" thing.

Electric: Galvantula
91% accurate STAB Thunder and another Electric who can deal with Ground/Rocks? Yeah, that'd be nice.

Grass: Whimsicott
The W4 to Poison sucks, but it's got an interesting movepool (Grass/Fairy is unique STAB, learns Hurricane for some reason...)

Ice: Froslass
OH DEAR GOD GIVE THIS TO ME PLEASE. Preferably on or around Route 8. (Fighting immunity solves a lot of Ice's problems... except for Steel.)

Fighting: Tyrogue
Because Tyrogue means Hitmons, and Hitmons mean Hitmonchan's sexy Iron Fisted elemental punches. For an ingame run, they're amazing.

Poison: Weezing
I know, it's a single-typer, but Levitate is another option for nulling Ground in that run and he can run as a pretty potent checker to Poison's problem types with Flamethrower and Dark Pulse.

Ground: Excadrill
Also known as "I do Steelix's job way better than Steelix", and in a game where Steel STAB actually means something.

Flying: Braviary
Preferably in hordes so I can get Defiant, since I had way too much fun using that in White 2's ingame.

Psychic: Claydol
Extra immunity with Levitate, although he doesn't help the Psychic type's physical/special divide.

Bug: Volcarona
30% Fly learnng, 70% STAB Fire moves for the E4. (Did you know: Volcarona's ENTIRE LEARNSET gets doubled up if you go to the Returner)

Rock: Omastar
Mainly because it's a Rock type who can Surf and actually do it well.

Ghost: Spiritomb
Way, way, WAY better Sableye.

Dragon: None!
Every non-legendary Dragon family is in the Kalos Dex already.

Dark: Shiftry
It was either him or Mandibuzz, which I could bring as an equivalent to Braviary... but let's not. This game needs more Swagger anyways.

Steel: Bronzong
Not a legend, not a psuedo-legend, but good enough to do the job.

Fairy: Togekiss
Because christ, that type needs a Flyer bad and Togekiss is even more awesome with that added Fairy type.

Going Forward, Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Follow The Type Chart

So now with the Dark run being complete, we are 1/3 of the way through this little experiment. I've filled Box, abused stat drugs and done so much Super Training I may be ready for a Kid Icarus Uprising tournament. So let's review, shall we?

Although it didn't end up being the plan, I basically have alternated between the nine "physical" types from up until the big gen 4 split and the nine special types, going Ghost -> Fairy -> Poison -> Ice -> Steel -> Dark. I kind of like the idea of going backwards through the type chart in this fashion, so here's the order for the rest of the runs:

1) Rock
2) Dragon
3) Bug
4) Psychic
5) Flying
6) Grass
7) Ground
8) Electric
9) Fighting
10) Water
11) Normal
12) Fire

This works out well as I've already done a Fire run on X before, but I had a REAL unfair advantage on that one. (Thanks, Torchic.)

Potential trouble spots:
Dragon - Most of this run is composed of slow-group Pokemon who are going to *love* the Exp Share. Also, two issues outlined below.
Ground - More of an annoyance than everything, as this run basically starts Route 1 with Bunnelby. Yes, Bunnelby. And he's the only thing I can use until Ambrette, unless I for some reason raise Nincada until L20.
Electric - The significant shrinkage of movepools for Electrics and the fact that Pikachu is prominently involved.
Grass - Oh hi, everything super effects me.

Also, there's the question about the rules for Megas on this run. There's two Pokemon for who this applies: Charizard and Ampharos. In Charizard's case, can I bring it with me and force Mega in every fight once it's a Charizard? And in the Flying run, if I bring Charizard, is that Mega Stone out of play? (There's probably a simple solution to the latter, involving using Talonflame, but still.) Ampahros will probably play the role of main Mega in the Dragon run.

As well, since this is getting turned into an FAQ at some point, I will say this now: The Dragon run WILL have Dragalgae by way of breeding and Bank. As part of the document, my plan is to recommend a version to do the run on. For instance, Ice and Dragon would be easier in Y because of the presence of Cloyster and Draglage, whereas Fighting and Bug are a lot easier in X because Heracross and to a lesser extent Sawk are around.

But there will be time to explain my choices for the Dragon run when we get there. For now, it's time for rock and/or roll.

Metasnarkery

No progress to report, but I'm probably running with Lilly/Trina/Celeste and the new 3 (Pawniard, Klefki, and Magnezone). The key thing is I actually bothered to go back and tag this junk so you can easily see what a particular run looked like, as well as me being able to easily access this information once the project ends.

Also, I have to credit xkcd for the "announcement" tag. And Douglas Hofstadter.

Mission Rules

My name is Donald, and I have been playing Pokemon in various forms ever since its 1998 release. Recently I've taken to having new playthroughs of games with mono-type teams - teams devoted to the use of a single Pokemon.

In Black, it was Fire. Black 2 was Bug, and Pokemon X was Fire again. There's a commonality here - those types had event Pokemon come out at the time I played the runs (Victini, Genesect and Mega-Blaziken) that made the game way easier than it would be normally.

Now that Pokemon Bank is out, I have undertaken what is probably a long-term challenge. I'm going to beat Pokemon X eighteen times - on 18 files - with 18 types, and maybe submit my findings to GameFAQs at the end.

There are rules in play:

ONLY KALOS DEX POKEMON
Just because I have Pokemon Bank doesn't mean I'm going to abuse it in that fashion.  The whole purpose of this is to work with what the game gives me. This also means no Wonder Trades. Trade evos, however, are fair game.

THE RUN STARTS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Once I find a Pokemon of the type and start using it, only Pokemon of that type can gain experience in battle. The only exception I'll allow is if I have an HM mule in my party and I happen to have the Exp Share turned on.

 ONLY ONE HM MULE AT A TIME
If I can't work an HM into my team naturally, I can only carry one Pokemon at a shot. This will mainly apply to the Water HMs and Cut only. In other words, I'm gonna see a LOT of Panpour/Simipour.

I CAN CATCH OTHER THINGS, JUST CAN'T USE THEM
I'm still somewhat obsessive about catching everything, so I'll keep doing it. I just have to throw them into the PC. Most of my experience will be from trainers, but since you now get experience from a catch...

That's it.

The run starts soon with the first type - Ghost.

If I've forgotten anything, let me know.