Fire run complete!

The team going in:

Prometheus - Flamethrower, Psychic, Grass Knot, Shadow Ball (196 SA/Speed)
Phoenix - Fire Blast, Fly, Thief, Steel Wing (160 Atk, 156 Speed, 172 Speed)
Aslan - Flamethrower, Hyper Voice, Dark Pulse, Hidden Power [Ice] (186 SA, 182 Speed)
Salamando - Flare Blitz, Dragon Claw, Brick Break, Shadow Claw (183 Atk, 185 Speed before Mega - 248 after)
Baskerville - Flamethrower, Dark Pulse, Sludge Bomb, Thunder Fang (207 SA, 186 Speed)
Apollyon - Fire Blast, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Energy Ball (269 SA, 133 Speed)

Wikstrom
Two in a row with Steel to open.

Baskerville v Klefki
Spikes get dropped, then Flamethrower OHKOs.

Salamando v Probopass
Salamando goes Mega and hits with Shadow Claw for 30%, then takes a Power Gem (90/188) and finishes with Brick Break.

Apollyon v Aegislash
King's Shield misses a Fire Blast, but the second one hits true and OHKOs through the Shield form.

Aslan v Scizor
Take a wild guess. (Flamethrower)

Malva
I'll take the resistance here.

Salamando v Pyroar
Mega Brick Break OHKOs.

Apollyon v Torkoal
I have nothing to SE straight Fire, so Shadow Ball does 90%... and a critical Stone Edge leaves Apollyon on 14 HP out of 160. Full Restore 1 is countered with a critical Psychic, which leads to a double Shadow Ball finish.

Baskerville v Chandelure
Dark Pulse OHKOs.

Baskerville v Talonflame
Thunder Fang only does 30%, and Brave Bird drops Baskerville to 40/178 (but runs him below 50% on recoil). Dark Pulse finishes.

Drasna
One obvious winner, but we took a chance here so let's see if it pays off.

Salamando v Dragalgae
Mega Dragon Claw OHKOs, with a probably-gratuitous critical.

Aslan v Altaria
Hidden Power does 90%... plan failed. Altaria Cotton Guards, then eats a Hyper Voice on the Full Restore for 40% and Hidden Power finishes.

Salamando v Druddigon
What does it take to OHKO Druddigon? A 248 attack, 90 pwr STAB SE move.

Aslan v Pyroar
Another 90% Hidden Power as Aslan's faster, the Super Fang does half, then Hyper Voice->Hidden Power wraps.

Siebold
I've been avoiding using Apollyon for now specifically for this.

Apollyon v Clawitzer
269 SA Energy Ball = OHKO? YES!

Prometheus v Gyarados
A critical Grass Knot does 60% as Gyarados Dragon Dances, and Prometheus is still faster so a 2nd Knot finishes! Holy cow!

Prometheus v Barbaracle
Grass Knot OHKOs! We're rolling!

Baskerville v Starmie
Dark Pulse OHKOs! Water cleared with no HP lost!

Diantha
One last shot for glory...

Prometheus v Hawlucha
Psychic OHKOs.

Salamando v Tyrantrum
On Route 21, I OHKOed the Tyrantrum with Dragon Claw. We do it again when it counts.

Salamando v Goodra
Apparently not getting the memo, Goodra is Claw'd out as well. Salamando dings 65.

Phoenix v Aurorus
Steel Wing does 90%, and Aurorus squeezes in a Reflect. On Full Restore 1, Fire Blast does 30%, and Steel Wing does 60%... and PHOENIX SURVIVES THUNDER (29/185). Full Restore 2 meets a critical + Def+ Steel Wing for a OHKO anyway.

Baskerville v Gourgeist
Flamethrower OHKOs. Reflect is gone. Here. We. Go.

Salamando v MegaGardevoir
One last Mega showdown... and Shadow Claw connects for the win!

Pictured: I actually managed to pull off color co-ordination for once.

So with that, the time of the fall is  28:34, and with that, I can safely declare the end...

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Fire Day 5: The Oncoming Train At The End Of The Tunnel

So where were we?

Oh, right. Lysandre. Fight 2 went as I anticipated - two Hidden Power Electrics from Salamando beat Gyarados, the third one was a little trickier as it required a Grass Knot from Prometheus and a Will-o-Wisp from Apollyon to run out the Gyarados. Phoenix took great pressure in making Mienshao miss with Fly as well.

Oh, and due to various factors I missed the Flamethrower TM again. So that meant I had to buy Fire Blast in Anistar for Phoenix and Apollyon, and the latter has had issues with it missing. Route 18 and Terminus Cave were dealt with by burning all the Fighters... and that worked well until the Guts guys (Conkledurr, Hariyama) showed up.

Route 19 needed an Aerodactyl counter - the Sky Trainer on the route and one of the Scoobies (Trevor) both pack them, and he's a prime threat to the team. Turns out, a Mega Dragon Claw with a Tough Claws boost solves a lot of problems, and not just Aerodactyl.

There wasn't much happening on Route 20, and Snowbelle Gym had another bout of miss-itis from Apollyon, but other than that it was a dead cinch. The gym leader was a three stroke fight - Flamethrower, Flamethrower, Flare Blitz. The only damage was on recoil. We picked up all the TMs, as I'm thinking I should swap around for Salamando's 3rd and 4th slots, but Psychic, Dark Pulse and Brick Break were pressed into immediate service.


The main issue with Victory Road was running out of PP, as I couldn't really use the healing lady before the Rival to restore PP as I usually do. We had to actually use an Ether *gasp* at one point, but we got through and we're now at the Pokemon League.

And that... is next.

Fire Day 4: Never Darken My Doorstep Again

Current location: Geosenge Town, so much so that I started this post while the AZ flashback cutscene was playing.

Current team, L50 with one exception:
Prometheus: Flamethrower, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Grass Knot *L51*
Phoenix: Hidden Power (Fire), Fly, Thief, Quick Attack
Aslan: Flamethrower, Hyper Voice, Snarl, Hidden Power (Ice)
Salamando: Flare Blitz, Dragon Claw, Shadow Claw, Hidden Power (Electric)
Baskerville: Flamethrower, Snarl, Rock Smash, Thunder Fang
Apollyon the Chandelure (Quiet, Flame Body, SA/Speed): Flame Burst, Hex, Inferno, Will-O-Wisp

We picked back up with a quick whip around the map to finish the outfit, bar the last piece which awaited in Laverre City. Rival fight 3 was quite simple as I threw out Salamando, turned the water weak into a resistance, and plowed it to death with Wing Attack.

The Laverre Gym was quite simple even without Poison Jab - except for Azumarill, obviously. The Valerie fight was obvious Mawile OHKO from Sniper, who proceeded to run Valerie out of Hyper Potions on Mr Mime before Baskerville got a clutch Smog poison on Sylveon and Sniper swapped in to finish with Fire Fang.

The Poke Ball Factory was no great shakes, then it was candle-hunting time. A good Litwick was found on the sixth shot, and thanks to having to get its evo item Super Training took about ten minutes between vitamins and six Double Bags. We used Route 15 to level it up and once it became Chandelure... it had 140+ SA. At L41. I originally wanted to name it Apollo, but I modified it slightly to the bringer of doom once I saw that SA.

The collective team picked up some experience on Routes 16 and the rest of the hotel, then we trucked off to Frost Cavern. The fighting gauntlet almost ran us out of Revives, but Apollyon came through with clutch WoW burns and a Hex shot to wrap that up.

Anistar had a couple of interesting developments - aside from Baskerville basically Snarling the entire gym to death, we picked up Hidden Power... which hit three times. Since I didn't get Anistar until after the Flamethrower availability ended, I'm using HP Fire as Phoenix's primary STAB, Aslan picked up HP Ice so I won't have to use Solarbeam and have something to potentially deal with Drasna, and I'm going to try Salamando as the anti-Gyarados device for the 2nd Lysandre fight coming up. The first one though, ended on Chandelure WoWing it, Hexing it, and having Aqua Tail miss TWICE, so I beat a Gyarados with a Chandelure. Giggity.

As for the rest of Lysandre's lab, it was basically "Get Ember off Baskerville STAT", and that happened just as the last scientist was going to throw out Weavile. Perfect timing. Xerosic went down to a Psyshock, a Flamethrower from Baskerville and a Mega Dragon Claw.

Tomorrow: Shooting for the endgame.

Fire Day 3: Grant Me The Power To Bring The World (Mega) Evolution

(You have *no* idea how long I've wanted to use that title.)

Current location: Lumiose City after being Clemont.

Current team, at L37:
Prometheus (now a Delphox) - Mystical Fire, Psyshock, Grass Knot, Fire Spin
Phoenix (Talonflame) - Flame Charge, Fly, Thief, Quick Attack
Aslan (Pyroar) - Fire Fang, Headbutt, Thief, Dig
Salamando (Charizard, @ Charizardite X) - Fire Fang, Rock Tomb, Wing Attack, Shadow Claw
Baskerville - Ember, Bite, Smog, Rock Smash
Sniper - Fire Fang, Dig, Bite, Strength

The day began with a round of nicknaming, Chateau clearing, TM acquisition (Aerial Ace, Rock Tomb, the usual) and rolling through Route 10. We started swapping around here to try and get the experience distributed as much as possible to get the evolutions (which all hit at the 35-36 area) faster.

Geosenge saw the team wipe out Lucario - Aslan actually got the first KO in when Lucario 1 used Metal Sound, but couldn't handle the Power Up Punch of #2. Thankfully, Salamando picked up the pieces. Nothing to report in Reflection Cave, but Shalour was pretty wild - the Rival went down to two Sniper Dig shots (Frogadier) and type matching (the others), we got the badge, and for the first time in the project I lost the Mega Lucario duel to a stray crit. 1/18 is roughly 6.25%, right?

Not much happened on Route 12 and in Azure Bay, except needing about five tries to get through the Sky Battles (4 resets on the Charge Beam/T-Wave Sigilyph, 1 on the Fletchinder/Pelipper combo thanks to not Water Pulsing). Courmarine Gym was a 3-shot, though Gogoat needed help from a Fire Fang burn.

TRTSNBM was its usual annoying self, as the male character's short hair makes it harder to see if it's worth trying the ramp to Charge Beam (disappointingly, nobody learns it). Then the evolutions started - Phoenix, then Aslan, with Prometheus and Salamando joining the party before the Power Plant ended.

Finally, there was Lumiose Gym - the trainers were slightly annoying (LANTURN), but Clemont himself was simple. A Rock Tomb, a Shadow Claw/Fire Fang rush and a Dig later, we had Thunderbolt (which again, nobody learns. Mrgrgr).

Tomorrow: Let's shoot for clearing Frost Cavern. Sadly, nobody on the team can Poison Jab, so we'll have to find a way around that. Also, the end of Super Training... for now.

Fire Day 2: Dear Eevee Family - Most is Forgiven

Current location: Cyllage City after beating Grant

Current team, all L26:
Prometheus - Ember, Psybeam, Scratch, Fire Spin
Phoenix - Ember, Peck, Thief, Quick Attack
Aslan - Fire Fang, Headbutt, Thief, Bulldoze
Salamando - Ember, Dragon Rage, Rock Smash, Shadow Claw
Baskerville the Houndoom (Rash, Early Bird, SA+Speed) - Ember, Bite, Smog, Odor Sleuth
Sniper the Flareon (Jolly, Atk+Speed) - Fire Fang, Rock Smash, Bite, Strength

Let's pick up with the back half of Route 6, which was roundly routed with all of the Bug trainers rolling around. We stopped in on Route 7 to pick up some experience and cash at the Chateau, and blitzed Route 8 (including the first Phoenix Sky Battle win). The first event of note came with the finding of a Fire Stone on Route 9, saving me a few rounds of Super Training.

After wiping out Team Flare, it was time to dodge trainers on Route 8 so we could get a filler member and a Water-killer. Eevee was easy to find, and immediately evolved - then I managed to get a quality Houndour out of a Horde battle, of all things. I would've preferred an Attack booster for Thunder Fang's sake, but I can deal.

After the final round of double Super Training (so glad the last time I do this, it'll be with the help of Calcium and Carbos) and some well timed TMage, we cleared out the trainers on Route 8 despite Baskerville's annoying habit of dying to a Tackle. When we returned to Cyllage, the party was L21 or L22 going into a type disadvantage situation. This wouldn't work, so a round of light grinding went down to get the team to L25.

As we entered, it was down to Salamando's Dragon Rage which thankfully 2HKO'd the Relicanth the first trainer throws at you, Sniper (borrowed from Sudowoodo in Twitch Plays Heart Gold because he's a Rock wrecker) Biting the celestial Rocks into next week, and a Normal/Fire going 1-on-1 with Rhyhorn and winning after two Bulldozes. Grant turned out to be easy, as Sniper one-shot Amaura with Rock Smash and then got Tyrunt in two hits after tanking a Rock Tomb. #likeaboss

Today: Since there's no distracting ST to worry about, we'll be aiming for Courmarine City as an outside shot, and at least getting past the Shalour gym.

Fire Day 1: One Final Super Training Marathon

Current location: Route 6, just finished the west end of the tall grass and about to raid the east side.

Current team, all at L17:
Prometheus the Braixen (Bold) - Ember, Flame Charge, Scratch, Howl
Phoenix the Fletchinder (Mild) - Peck, Ember, Thief, Quick Attack
Aslan the Litleo (Naughty) - Ember, Headbutt, Thief, Noble Roar
Salamando the Charmeleon (Lonely) - Ember, Dragon Rage, Scratch, Smokescreen

It took about eight tries to get a Fennekin I could live with, and then we found a Fletchling that was suitable on about the third catch. This set up two rounds of Super Training after we caught a Weedle to serve as the training unlocker - SA and Speed for Prometheus (or as he was known until Camphier, "Pronetheus") and both Attack stats for the future Phoenix.

Luckily, it takes about 45 minutes for me to fully ST something, so I'm confident in my Kid Icarus and Codename STEAM abilities.

Moving into the forest, picked up Pansear and promptly ignored it, snagged the run's Official HM Mule (tm) in Panpour, and a gratuitous rat. We ran through Santalune City, picked up Aslan on Route 22, and after Super Training (SA/Speed) doubled back to level him up on the Route 3 trainers, Turns out, he was with the other two by the time we entered the gym. The key to the gym was avoiding Water Sport, which happened with two Phoenix Pecks and a Quick Attack, making Aslan's Ember a kill move against Vivillon.

After picking off a few trainers on Route 4, it was Salamando time. And it took about twelve sequences of beat Sycamore, grab the Pokemon, nickname it, and curse Sycamore's inability to shut up before I got a decent (Attack+ - the ST was Atk/Speed) nature. People started evolving on Route 5 - or at least, Prometheus did - Salamando went up on Route 6 after the Parfum Palace events, and Phoenix went up when it dinged L17 on the Furfrou fight. Double Dragon Rage for the win there.

Tomorrow: Goal is to reach Grant. Not sure if I'm going to Super Train the Eevee, but I probably will.

Type Preview: Fire

The final run returns full circle, as the first time I played X (on October 12/13) I did this run. Now with seventeen types down, we return to where it all began. Can I beat the game one more time, this time without the aid of a Mega Blaziken?

Time to kill this run with Fire.

Type Effectiveness:
Attacking: SE's Grass, Ice, Bug and Steel. Half to itself, Water, Rock and Dragon. No immunities.
Defending: SE'd by Water, Ground and Rock. Half from itself, Grass, Ice, Bug, Steel and Fairy. No immunities.

Dual types: Normal, Electric*, Flying, Psychic, Rock, Ghost, Dragon* and Dark ingame. Postgame adds Ground, Bug, and Steel.

Probable Final Team:
Fennekin/Braxien/Delphox: The original starter, the one who provides a gratutious Shadow Ball, and in all honesty one of the main weapons against Water. Moveset; Flamethrower, Psychic, Shadow Ball, Grass Knot

Fletchling/Fletchinder/Talonflame: The pure-Flying power for the run, Flame Body solves a lot of physical defensive issues for the team in general. Also the Flyer. Moveset: Fly, Flamethrower, Steel Wing, Thief

Litleo/Pyroar: Returning champion from the Normal run, provides quick Normal power and if it can survive a turn, pain to Water-types. Moveset: Flamethrower, Hyper Voice, Dark Pulse, Solarbeam

Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard: The sole Mega for the team, and much like Ampharos in previous runs he has to tank a lot of things and hit real hard. Shouldn't be too bad. Moveset: Flare Blitz, Dragon Claw, Shadow Claw, Earthquake

Houndour/Houndoom: Dark's actually the most common type on this run in terms of move types, but Houndoom gives STAB for it and has the only Electric move for Gyarados (eep). Moveset: Flamethrower, Dark Pulse, Thunder Fang, Sludge Bomb

Chandelure: The closer, returning from the very first run of the tour. And this time, I'll be STing to make sure it won't be leaving anything alive. Moveset: Flamethrower, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Energy Ball

Other team members: I might carry Flareon for a bit, since it'll have a full moveset by Shalour) and for early game HM muling. That's about it.

Why not use...?
Simisage: Monkeys not named Infernape suck. kthnx

Magcargo: Hasn't learned Power Gem in the last eight weeks.

Torkoal: Route 18 Pokemon who's main gimmick is being immune to stat drops and having Shell Smash. I'd trade the former for Sturdy if I could.

Heatmor: Main purpose in life is to get beaten by Durant. Very similar to Lebron James in that respect.

Major Battle Expectations:
Viola: Hmm, I'm packing Fire types. How do you THINK this will go?
Grant: The physical Fires get to Rock Smash everything in sight. Failing that, Dragon Rage 2HKOs everything.
Korrina: Talomflame and Psybeam from Braxien roll here.
Ramos: lol
Clemont: No Fighting type for Heliolisk? No problem, Charizard should resist everything by this point.
Valerie: Dazzling Gleam is resisted all 'round, so it comes down to "Did anyone still have Poison Jab"?
Olympia: Chandelure likes this.
Wulfric: The entire team LOVES this.

Rival: Houndoom and the Grass moves will carry things, but the first two fights will be tricky to say the least.
Team Flare: We resist Houndoom, but those bloody Gyarados will present a problem.
Elite 4: Siebold's last, obviously.
Champion: One last Mega v Mega fight, will they know to Moonblast Charizard?

Trainer:
I need a Fire master... so why not, let's go with Wheeler (yes, the Captain Planet guy) with a nickname of Prodigy (as in "Firestarter"). The Pokemon will be references to Fire users.