Ghost Run Complete!

So after that little bit of lamentation, I received a nice little hint from a friend of mine on how to deal with the grinding situation: KO Simipour, turn on Exp Share.

And it worked perfectly, as I got through Victory Road and had everyone up to level 63 by the end of Victory Road. Thanks to suicidal Graveler and plenty of Gurdurr, I was able to plow Sableye up to 61, and three Rare Candies got him to the rest of the group.

As a reminder, this was the team - no moves were changed:
Aegislash - Iron Head, Shadow Sneak, Sacred Sword, Aerial Ace
Golurk - Earthquake, Shadow Punch, Strength, Fly
Sableye - Shadow Claw, Knock Off, Brick Break, Zen Headbutt
Gengar @Gengarite - Sludge Bomb, Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam
Trevenant - Shadow Force, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Horn Leech
Chandelure - Flamethrower, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Energy Ball
All L64 to open

And since I'm generous, here's the PBP for the five matches. Note that I had the Exp Share on the whole time.

Drasna: I open on Dragon and send Golurk out against Dragalgae, who promptly falls to Earthquake. I take the opportunity to go Mega w/Gengar and he takes 3/4 off the Altaria who randomly Cotton Guards. Since it's not in Full Restore range, a second Dazzling Gleam brings it down. Noivern goes down to Dazzling Gleam, and so does Druddigon. Easy peasy.

Siebold: This time Trevenant leads off against Clawitzer, who manages to run our leafy friend down to 10HP by surviving Horn Leech at about 10% and firing back with Mega Launcher-powered Dark Pulse (ow). This puts Clawitzer in a Full Restore loop that puts Trevenant back at 167 HP before I say "screw it" and Phantom Force it to death. Gyarados is met by a one-shot from Mega Gengar's Thunderbolt. I go back to Trevenant for Starmie, who gets a Psychic to put Trevenant at 81HP... but Phantom Force is a OHKO. Barbaracle comes in, gets a 4x-effective Horn Leech between the eyes, and gets beaten like a sack of razzleberries (tm and (c) UltraMantis Black). Golurk, Trevenant and Gengar all leveled at the end.

Malva: Taking a chance, I put Sableye out against Pyroar figuring Brick Break has to do something... but Pyroar opens with Noble Roar, so I'm down 33% on attack and hoping for a crit since Brick Break does only 30%. There's no critical coming, and two Pyroar Flamethrowers have Sableye down in single-digit HP so I switch in Golurk on a Full Restore round. Pyroar Noble Roars it... and the countering Earthquake crits. Whoops. A Chandelure mirror match ensues, but ends quickly at the hands of my Chandelure's Shadow Ball. I let Chandy keep going against Torkoal, and it does 70% with a Shadow Ball, loses about 70 HP to Stone Edge, and finishes with a second Shadow Ball. I bring in Gengar to deal with Talonflame, who manages to squeeze off a Flare Blitz for half of Gengar's 150HP before getting dropped by Thunderbolt. Aegislash (who hasn't been in yet), Sableye and Chandelure all level up here.

Wikstrom: Golurk opens against Klefki. Klefki's Flash Cannon took about 40 HP off (out of nearly 180) and Earthquake finishes. Scizor's next, and the inevitable bug roasting occurs. Aegislash makes its debut against Probopass, and Sacred Sword causes Probopass's Sturdy to fire, then it does roughly 60% back (to Blade Forme) with Earth Power. Two more Sacred Swords run out the Full Restores, and Shadow Sneak finishes. This leaves Chandelure against Aegislash, and Chandelure is able to put Aegislash in the red before surviving Blade Forme's Shadow Claw with NINE HP!!! Second Flamethrower finishes. Golurk goes to L66.

Diantha: I lead Chandelure against Hawlucha, who uses Poison Jab for 18 damage... and poisons Chandelure. Psychic is a OHKO, though. Next is Tyrantrum, and unlike Route 21's, Mega Gengar is able to also OHKO this version with Dazzling Gleam. Trevenant levels here.

I go to Sableye against Gourgeist, who is faster than Sableye and able to force a miss with Phantom Force. On turn 2, Sableye goes to 74/167, but Shadow Claw hits for about 70%. I Hyper Potion Sableye on the first Phantom Force turn, he hangs onto a few more HP (82/167) and Shadow Claw finishes. Although I could have gone to Aegislash here, I leave Sableye in for Brick Break against Aurorus... who survives with 5% and finishes Sableye off with Blizzard. On the inevitable Full Restore turn I Max Revive Sableye, and this time Iron Head hits true for a OHKO. Both Sableye and Aeigslash level.

It's now MegaGengar v Goodra, and Goodra's Dragon Pulse becomes a 3HKO while nothing Gengar can do is any better because of Goodra's high SpeDef. Gengar shrugs off multiple Dragon Pulses and runs Diantha out of Full Restores before Dazzling Gleam finishes.

Finally, Aegislash comes for the coup de grace against Gardev... sorry, MEGAGardevoir, and Shadow Ball takes off 80HP... but Iron Head OHKOs, new champ.

Hoorah.

I'm going to retire the team, do one post as part of the Smogon Ingame Tier List project... and then I'll go to the next type, which will be Fairy. Now taking suggestions.

Taking Victory's Road

Current Location: Chilling in Snowbelle City (no pun intended), team is at level 54/55.

Aegislash - Iron Head, Shadow Sneak, Sacred Sword, Aerial Ace
Golurk - Shadow Punch, Earthquake, Fly, Strength
Sableye - Shadow Claw, Knock Off, Brick Break, Zen Headbutt
Gengar - Sludge Bomb, Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam
Trevenant - Phantom Force, Horn Leech, Earthquake, Rock Slide
Chandelure - Flamethrower, Shadow Ball, Psychic, Energy Ball

I tried to even soft-reset for Xerneas to get a non-crappy one, ended up settling something middle-of-the-road. Ah well, that's what the Fairy run is for.

The Snowbelle gym is quite easy, though I have to admit a new hatred for Cryogonal. Apparently it's just defensive enough to be able to survive one physical hit - it tanked AEGISLASH, for chrissake - and start shooting Confuse Rays that have a 95% crotch shot rate. Avalugg had a sad end at Chandelure's hand, though.

Now I've come to a decision. I need to bring a bunch of field moves to Victory Road, including Surf and Waterfall. I could try and dodge the trainers until I have everything and then double back to pick up Sableye - who let's face it, is the weak link on the team right now - and share the experience with the Exp Share against the high leveled trainers, because I need to be in the low-to-mid 60s to beat the E4 with this group. Or I could just bring in Simipour, not use the Exp Share because he can't get experience, and basically spend three hours grinding up Sableye at the end.

Which way do I go?

Week 1 Complete: Badges, Shenanigans and Captures

Blogging the run every day lasted a whole four days. That's a new record for me, but Bravely Default arriving and a Nintendo Direct kind of threw a wrench into things.

Current Location: In sleep mode, having just gotten badge 7 and just about to walk into Lysandre Labs. Everyone is L45, and the team is as follows:

Aegislash - Iron Head, Shadow Sneak, Sacred Sword, Aerial Ace
- More on how I got this early below, but Heart Scales are a godsend. Doesn't have Doublade's defenses but can usually one-hit kill anyway and does a good job tanking the first hit if necessary.

Golurk - Shadow Punch, Magnitude, Fly, Strength
- Official Unofficial HM Mule, because let's face it, flying mecha rock. Magnitude is annoying in the 35% of the time it can't outdamage Bulldoze, and getting to Golurk is really annoying. But since it's evolved, it's gotten enough Atk to one-shot everything.

Sableye - Shadow Claw, Knock Off, Poison Jab, Zen Headbutt
- Provides a good backup to Golurk for Fighting types, but is the weak link on the team right now. His Attack is kind of sad and he doesn't get very powerful moves... but as the Dark-nuller, he's gotta stay.

Newbies
Gengar @ Gengarite - Lax (+Def -SpDef) - Shadow Ball, Venoshock, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam
- I wasn't waiting until Frost Cave, but maybe I should have considering it took about an hour to find one, let alone one w/out a crap nature. Biggest contribution is learnng Dazzling Gleam (I'm actually shocked Chandelure can't) and of course, the Mega. In its first test, it outran the rival's Absol and one-shot it.

Trevenant - Naive - Phantom Force, Wood Leech, Dig, X-Scissor
- Between Gengar and Trevenant, I considered using an upcoming quarterly bonus to pick up a 2DS in service of the run. That's frightening. Phantom Force just came in and on first use, took out Olympia's Meowstic, so mission accomplished.

Chandelure - Timid (+Speed -Atk) - Flame Burst, Hex, Will-o-Wisp, Memento
- If I ever use Memento, it's going to be a botch that would make Maffew blush. Another one where I'm glad I got the Dusk Stones early, because WoW + Hex = base 130 Ghost damage.

Gyms 5 and  6 were incredibly rough - it took about 10 soft resets before I figured out how to get rid of Clemont's Emolga. (Start with Drifblim, switch to Golett to null Volt Switch, Rock Tomb until dead). Magnezone hits like a truck and Heliolisk was about 4-5 levels higher so it was one-shotting Golett with Grass Knot. Valerie wasn't as bad, Haunter's Venoshock won a damage race with a SYLVEON, of all things.

I decided I would get the Dusk Stones out of Super Training - thanks to Pokemon Bank, I was able to haul in a ringer and blast through the Secret Super Training in about a half hour. The frustrating part was putting up personal bests in the Aegislash match - I got to a 2:23.6 at one point - and getting Soda Pop. But I'm not using Lampent if I can avoid it, and being able to put Sacred Sword on at ten levels early was a huge move to get away from Rock Smash.

Day 4: As The Balloon Flies

Current progress: Saved on Route 13, trying to restrain myself from going to town on everything in that route because Repels don't work and hating Eastern wind. Oh yeah, I got the fourth badge too.

The team is at L34 now... Honedge hasn't changed, Shedinja has X-Scissor (thank you Azure Bay), Golett's packing Low Sweep until it evolves, Sableye picked up Poison Jab as Valerie insurance, and Drifblim... can finally Fly.

The freedom to be able to go anywhere, pick up any stray item I want and so on is a tad overwhelming, actually. For future runs, I'm probably going to have to play this under true rules where the only thing I *catch* is Pokemon of that type, because I'm pretty sure the game clock shouldn't be 20+ hours heading into the 5th badge. Unless I do a lot of grinding.

Had another run-in with the rival's Absol, and the entire team still gets 2-hit killed except for Drifblim, but the fact that Doublade has massive Defense is going to switch things up after I get past Clemont and onto 14. Speaking of Gym Leaders... Ramos's Jumpluff is a royal pain in the tush largely because its somewhat pathetic Atk is boosted (probably Adamant) and Acrobatics from anything is gonna hurt like a mother.

Thankfully, dude's using Weepinbell and Gogoat can't do a bloody thing to Drifblim. I suspect if these games were moddable the way the DS games were, he'd be packing at least a Victreebel. And maybe an illegal Ferrothorn.

Goals for tomorrow are simple - beat the Electric gym, get Thunderbolt for like, half the team and get a good quality Haunter/Gengar while still squeezing in some Bravely Default and going to a Streetpass meet. Should be interesting, if nothing else.

Day 3: Gilbert Smythe-BiteMe

Current Location: Shalour City, team is L31 except for the new guy:

Shedinja - Shadow Claw, Dig, Thief, Leech Life
Honedge - Return, Aerial Ace, Rock Smash, Shadow Sneak
Drifblim - Hex, Gust, Thief, Focus Energy
Golett - Magnitude, Strength, Rock Tomb, Shadow Punch

The newcomer courtesy of a LONG time in Reflection Cave:

Sableye - Hasty (+Speed, -Def) - Keen Eye
- Knock Off
- Shadow Claw
- Poison Jab
- Aerial Ace

It turns out that Sableye provides a very important function - taking more than two hits from the rival's Absol. Maybe I shouldn't be using -Def personalities, because I had to soft-reset that fight to get past the stupid thing.

This is quickly becoming a theme of the run, actually - the "Oh crap" moments when you realize that oh yeah, something in this fight has Bite and a huge attack rating. I can't throw Honedge out either to null the hit, because Steel doesn't resist Dark (or Ghost, thank god) anymore. Shedinja's used to going down quickly, but Honedge had his first death of the run against the rival.

As expected though, sticking him with Fennekin worked quite well. It went down to a single Golett Magnitude.

The actual Shalour Gym has exactly two Pokemon that could potentially hit a team member. They both got two-shot by Drifblim. lol indeed.

And the best part about this part of the game has to be finding out that the Lucario fight with Korrina doesn't actually give experience to the one she gives you, meaning I'm not violating the rules of the run by its existence. The question comes when I do the Fighting and Steel runs - should I take the one she gives me or stick with the one I'll inevitably be raising?

Day 2: The Long and Winding Road

Current location: Saved in the Cyllage Pokemon Center just after beating Grant. The party is all level 27, and the current team is as follows:

Honedge (Shadow Sneak, Rock Smash, Aerial Ace, Return)
Shedinja (Shadow Claw, Return, Thief, Leech Life)

Drifloon - Brave (+Atk, -Speed) - Aftermath
- Hex
- Gust
- Thief
- Focus Energy

Surprisingly versatile (SA is just slightly above Atk and the nature will help), and the fact that his Ghost STAB just doubled in PP is a godsend. Levelled up quickly on Route 8 since I got a lot of the Zangoose/Seviper hordes, so that's 800exp a fight right there. It's about to evolve, so I can't wait to see what happens with his HP count.

 Golett - Lonely (+Atk, -Def) - Iron Fist
- Shadow Punch
- Magnitude
- Rock Tomb
- Strength

It took a while to get Golett up to speed, as Bulldoze's Speed-lowering effect isn't that noticeable when he keels over and dies in two hits from anything. The Defense penalty doesn't help. But once it clawed its way to Magnitude, suddenly he started doing some more damage. Is largely going to serve as an HM mule, but it's going to keep Shadow Punch for the duration.

To say I was flat bloody broke when I picked the game up this morning would be quite an understatement - so much so that I ducked into the Battle Chateau. It turned out to be an extremely profitable venture and also helped with getting Golett leveled as I'm now a Countess and have unlocked some high experience Pokemon (Skarmory? Seriously?) that have put my cash reserves at about 150k. At two badges.

The Route 8 complex is one of the most irritating parts of the game because you're not yet financially independent enough to afford Repels, and you have some pretty heavy Hordes to deal with - notably that Zangoose/Seviper one if you're going to catch everything on the route. Glittering Cave is a bit annoying for the same thing, but there's a healer outside so you can eventually get everything in there.

Cyllage and Route 10 isn't much to write home about, but the gym... I thought Grant would be quite easy, but I either underestimated their stats or over-estimated what I'd be going into that fight with. It took a couple of attempts to get past Amaura, and then Strong Jaw Tyrunt with a super-effective Bite had quite a long lunch with the rest of my team. I ended up using a Honedge/Shedinja combo to get past Amaura and Golett was able to survive one Bite and hit with Magnitude 9 (!!!) to set up Drifloon for a win.

The next Gym is Fighting, so long as I can beat down all Machokes with prejudice I should be able to get past that tomorrow (work permitting). I'll have Sableye to play with as well, so we'll be pretty close to a full squad.

Caitlin Craziness: Day 1

Current status: In Camphrier Town about to head back to Route 7 after restocking ball supply. Of note: I forgot that Froslass is Friend Safari only, so it's out for this run - probably to be replaced by Sableye sticking around. It may not have "no weak" as the kids say, but one weak is fine too. Also, Gengar *will* have a Poison move when I get it, since I picked up the Venoshock TM.already.

In the portion before I got the Ghosts, I started Chespin (so the rival would have the part-Psychic Delphox), and I was worried about how it would fare in the Bug gym. Turns out Rollout at L8 solves a lot of problems, a lesson I look forward to abusing once the Fairy run starts. Also, of *course* this would be the run where I find a Light Ball on a Pikachu in Santalune Forest. I am not looking forward to grinding out a good natured Light Ball rat (functionally equivalent to a ultra-Mega Stone) eventually.

Current party:
Honedge - Adamant (+Atk -SAtk), L21
- Shadow Sneak
- Return
- Fury Cutter
- Pursuit

Hasn't fainted once. Levels quite quickly, largely due to being able to shrug off anything on the physical end between his typing and pretty good Defense stat. Probably going to run it through some Super Training so I can hope for a Reset Bag, then grind out the Dusk Stones so I can get Aegislash ASAP. Only had to reload the save three times for this nature, too.

Shedinja - Naive (+Speed, -SpDef), L21
- Return
- Thief
- Leech Life
- Scratch

My friend/fellow Streetpass Halifax social media guru suggested I use this for filler, and so far it looks to be the first up against the wall when the party fills. Raising it is a pain because it's in the weird experience group where it levels slower than anything at lower levels, and Nincada's attack rating can generously be described as "shite". Thank heavens for Audinos on Route 6... until it evolves, and you realize just how much gets through Wonder Guard. Aside from Snorlax's Lick, it has fainted to a one-shot kill on a Carvanha (Rough Skin), and to the typeless Struggle from Smeargle. Twice. When you're getting killed by any sort of attack from an unboosted Smeargle, you need to re-evaluate things.

Plans for tomorrow: At least get to Cyllage City, add Drifloon and Golett. My Bulldoze TM is ready.

Type Preview: Ghost

The Ghost type went from three Pokemon in Gen I to quite a few dual types that make it quite potent in a run such as this. XY has given them a few new tricks - immunity to trap moves, and an auto-Smoke Ball element that makes their Speed issues less of a concern.

That's good, because calling most Ghosts that aren't Gengar "slow as balls" would be an insult to balls.

Type Effectiveness
Attacking: Super-effective on Ghost and Psychic, Dark resists, Normal no-sells.
Defending: Double damage from Dark and Ghost, half damage from Bug and Poison, immune to Normal and Fighting. Foresight/moves of that type can remove the immunities.

Dual types
Steel, Bug, Flying, Ground, Poison, Grass, Electric, Dark, and Ice are accessible. Water is locked out by Pokemon Bank, as is Dragon.

Probable Final Team
Honedge/Doublade/Aegislash: The first or second Ghost I'll find comes in on Route 6 and immediately goes to town with a massive attack stat, helped by good type coverage. Only problem will be finding a Dusk Stone - I'll be doing a lot of Super Training in this run, so that will help.

Golett/Golurk: The Iron Giant provides powerful Ground moves and the ability to Fly. Is this awesome (Y/N)?

Haunter/Gengar: Well, it's the only Mega Evolution I'll have to work with - and the stone's accessible in game. Awwww yeah. Wide variety of types to work with, but will I have Sludge Bomb when I need it?

Phantump/Trevenant: A lot of the good Ghosts come late, and I wanted to use this in my infamous 3 team Y run but couldn't find a slot  for it. Helps with a Water resist.

Litwick/Lampent/Chandelure: Why do I torture myself with Litwick and Lampent, especially when the Dusk Stone comes so late unless I abuse the Super Training? Because Chandelure often goes on runs where it doesn't faint for several hours with that insane SA and good-enough Speed.

Froslass: I've never used this Pokemon, but its stats look great in theory. And I need something for the Dragon E4.

Major Battle Expectations
Viola: Not applicable.
Grant: Honedge might be Doublade by now, and it and Golett both resist Rock.
Korrina: lol
Ramos: I should have Drifblim, and he'll have Fly at worst.
Clemont: Hi Golett/Golurk, have fun.
Valerie: Sylveon could cause problems if I can't get a Poison move on Gengar or a Steel move on Doublade.
Olympia: Lunch time!
Wulfric: Well equipped to handle the gym with the dual types.
Elite 4 and Champion: No real trouble spots except for maybe the Aegislash mirror match and the champ's Gardevoir.
Team Flare: Houndoom will cause some problems, and Gengar's going to have to outrun MegaGyarados before it can start Crunching the team to death.

Trainer
On each run, I'll have an appropriately named player character and will try to theme the clothing appropriately. For the Ghost run, my character will be named Caitlin, after the character you play as in 2013 indie PC ghost game Gone Home. She returns home from overseas... will this run be what she did while away?