Ice Run complete!

And what a finish.

If there's one thing the run crystallized in my mind (lolol) it's that all of my assumptions about the Ice type were pretty much borne out - in this case, that if they don't get hit they can bring down everything in sight.

Let's take a look, shall we? And I'll keep track of one-turn wins here.

Drasna
Oh come on, like I was going anywhere else to start.

Monokuma v Dragalgae
Icicle Crash OHKO. (1)

Asahina v Noivern
Ice Beam OHKO. (2)

Hakagure v Altaria
Ice Punch OHKO. (3)

Byakuya v Druddigon
Ice Beam OHKO. (4)

Siebold
Best of a bad lot for the type, in theory.

Kyoko v Clawitzer
Thunderbolt crits, OHKO. (5)

Hakagure v Barbaracle
Wood Hammer OHKO. (6)

Asahina v Starmie
She opens with Shadow Ball which takes about 3/4 off, Surf's retaliation brings Asahina to 99/174. On the Full Restore, I Draining Kiss 30% off and Shadow Ball finishes.

Byakuya v Gyarados
Thunderbolt OHKO. (7)

Wikstrom
I never actually ended with Malva before, so I figured let's try it... only I forgot to heal beforehand.

Chihiro v Klefki
Because of Prankster, Klefki gets Spikes off before falling to Earthquake. (8)

Asahina v Aegislash
Shadow Ball does 35% and drops Shield Form's SpDef, but Iron Head KOs coming back.

Chihiro v Aegislash
Earthquake finishes the sword off, who would've probably gone for Iron Head again if it wasn't suffering from a severe case of KTFO.

Kyoko v Scizor
Surf does 60%, and a combo of Spikes and Iron Head has Kyoko at 137/260. Second Surf does Scizor in.

Hakagure v Probopass
Brick Break triggered Sturdy, and... remember when I forgot to heal? And how Haka's last move was Wood Hammer? Yeah, Flash Cannon knocked it down to 9 HP. The Snow Warning-induced Hail finishes. (9)

Malva
Of course, we have to finish with Fire.

Chihiro v Pyroar
Earthquake goes first, and it's a OHKO. (10)

Byakuya v Talonflame
Talonflame goes first and Flare Blitzes, which criticals Byakuya to 80/245. Ancient Power does the rest. (11)

Kyoko v Torkoal
Hint: It involved Surf. (12)

Asahina v Chandelure
The opening Shadow Ball... lands critical and OHKOs. (13)

Diantha
There's no way I can keep running this train on the CHAMPION, can I?

Asahina v Hawlucha
Ice Beam OHKOs. (14)

Chihiro v Tyrantrum
Earthquake does about 90%, and Tyrantrum counters with Head Smash which criticals... but Chihiro survives with 42 HP and Tyrantrum goes down to the recoil. (15)

Monokuma v Goodra
Icicle Crash OHKOs. (16)

Hakagure v Aurorus
Hail kicks in, and then a Mega Brick Break does what it usually does. (17)

Monokuma v Gourgeist
Icicle Crash OHKOs again. Five in a row in one turn! (18)

Monokuma v MegaGardevoir
I freaked out a bit when it traced Snow Cloak... forgetting that going Mega switches it to Pixilate anyway. Moonblast takes the Bear of Despair to 71/200... but Shadow Claw does 95%, enough that the hail damage makes Makoto the champ! (19)

Pictured: I got the hoodie, but you can't see the idiot hair.

That's 19 out of 22 Pokemon gone in one turn, the fastest run yet. I don't know HOW I'm going to beat that.

Ice Day 7: Attracting Pokemon in Great Numbers

Current location: Saved RIGHT OUTSIDE the Elite 4 door. Here's the final team, all L64:

Byakuya - Ice Beam, Ancient Power, Thunderbolt, Dark Pulse
Kyoko - Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Psychic
Chihiro - Earthquake, Ice Fang, Rock Slide, Strength
Monokuma - Icicle Crash, Shadow Claw, Aqua Jet, Superpower
Asahina - Ice Beam, Psychic, Draining Kiss, Shadow Ball
Hakagure - Ice Punch, Wood Hammer, Rock Slide, Brick Break

Really, this comes down to two things: Snowbelle Gym and Victory Road. The gym was actually very simple: Hakagure went Mega to take out his counterpart and Cryogonal with Brick Break - no-selling Confuse Ray in the process. Swapped in Byakuya for Avalugg and Ancient Power dropped it in one. Too easy.

The TM hunt was a disappointment when I discovered than aside from the obvious, there weren't any major surprised going into Victory Road. Still looking for a 4th move on Chihiro for instance... having to keep Strength on it is a bit of a disappointment.

Victory Road had one last round of Fighting misery, but I had a little surprise of my own - Psychic. I'm only missing Fire (obviously), Poison, Flying, Bug and Dragon going into the E4 which is way better than I thought I'd do with this. And when Brains and Brawn showed up, Chihiro dropped the Medicham with Earthquake and finished off the Gallade with Ice Fang while I swapped Hakagure in.

At the end, I found another way to speed up the end-game grind pre-E4: Honey. I did have to save after each one and reset in the event of a Geodude horde. 5 Floatzel with the Lucky Egg is worth 5k exp, which took Chihiro from 62 to 64 in five rounds. The rest fell into place.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have an E4 to take out...

Ice Day 6: The Miracle of Festivus

So I did manage to make Snowbelle. And the entire team is in the 55-56 range. We now have:

Byakuya - Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Ancient Power, Nature Power
Kyoko - Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Waterfall (not ideal, but I have to)
Chihiro - Earthquake, Ice Fang, Rock Tomb, Strength
Monokuma - Icicle Crash, Shadow Claw, Aqua Jet, Rock Smash
Asahina - Frost Breath, Draining Kiss, Grass Knot, Shadow Ball
Hakagure - Ice Punch, Wood Hammer, Rock Tomb, Brick Break

The Chateau didn't do much (except for the financial situation) so I went into Anistar at L42. The rival got me to 43, and the gym finished the job... though it would be a long time before Byakuya saw action again. Olympia had the usual trouble with Sigilyph, but Hakagure stalled out the Reflect so Slowking and Meowstic were easy marks for Wood Hammer.

After beating Team Flare and cursing the existence of the Fighting type again (and I'll get to do it AGAIN in the next run, more on that later), I did the 18 complex and went through Terminus Cave... only to find an entire floor of Black Belts and Battle Girls. Urgh, hate it when that happens. It was worth it though, given that I finally got a fourth move with PP and power on Asahina, and Brick Break which will get some more love shortly. Also, because of that cave, my money somehow got back over 400k again.

I finished with Route 19 and the dreaded Friend Gauntlet, which was AKA "an excuse to let Hakagure go Mega while something else leads with the Amulet Coin". Lo and behold it worked well, he went 4-2 after Chihiro wiped out the leads - though I did have a scare when in Chihiro v Talonflame, Rock Tomb missed 2 in a row (odds against that: 400-1). Pulled into Snowbelle, saved and mentally preparing for the endgame this weekend.

Also, I've pretty much determined that we'll be keeping the theme of cold going here after Ice is done with a little... cold Steel.

Ice Day 5: You Have Selected "Power Grind"

Current location: Refreshing the Battle Chateau so I can build up some of dat money money, yeah yeah. Current team has L46 for Byakuya (who picked up Frost Breath over Aurora Beam) and Kyoko, L45 for Chihiro (now a Mamoswine, Rock Tomb in play), Monokuma and Asahina (who alsoh has Frost Breath). The 6th member is Hakagure the Abomasnow, L41 and actually not holding Abomasite yet (see: money money) with Ice Punch, Ice Shard, Wood Hammer and Rock Tomb.

Running 15/16/Frost Cavern to catch the new 3 up wasn't too bad, though I did have to use a few Ethers as I was running out of PP for key moves such as Dig. Chihiro got way stronger there especially by evolving and taking a few levels in badass.

The fun part (air quotes) was Frost Cavern, discovering that Honey does work in caves, and getting nearly wiped by a Brains and Brawn->Black Belt->Battle Girl triple shot. As I said on Twitter during the course of the day... GameFreak, for the love of Goddish make Snorunt available prior to Friend Safari (preferably as close to Route 8 as possible with an accessible Dawn Stone) so I can use Froslass in future runs and not have to worry about this.

After Frost Cavern was cleaned out and Frost Breath obtained - amazingly, I don't think I've actually used it yet - it was down to Route 17 for Snover harvesting. And after a few soft resets I finally came down with a good (enough) Snover - Naughty, mind, but still usable. Went broke again doping it up on cat drugs, and had to use a few Rare Candies/go through another round of ST, but it's now ready to rock and I'm punting the Battle Chateau in the vain hope that it can get at least to 44 before Olympia. I just made Earl, so we'll see how that goes.

Tomorrow is all about getting through gym 7 and Team Flare, if I somehow manage to get to say, Snowbelle I'll call it a massive win. Or it will have been absolutely dead at work.

Ice Day 4: Dodging Bullets

"I'm just going to have to extinguish that glimmer of hope of yours."
- Team Flare Admin, Poke Ball Factory, who clearly has no idea who she's dealing with

Current status: Saved in Laverre City, and I got my Ice types. All Super Trained and ready to go. They are:

Chihiro the Piloswine - Naive, Snow Cloak, L39, soon to be Mamoswine. Ice Fang, Dig, Ancient Power (goes to Rock Tomb post-evo), Strength.
Monokuma the Beartic - Adamant, Snow Cloak,L40, Icicle Crash, Rock Smash, Shadow Claw, Aqua Jet
Asahina the Jynx - Timid, Oblivious, L40, Powder Snow (>_<), Grass Knot, Draining Kiss, Mean Look
Kyoko is L44, Byakuya is L45, no moveset changes to report.

So I managed to get to Snow Cavern from Laverre without tripping a single trainer fight on  Route 15. Well, the second time. The first time, I hit two trainers and decided to soft-reset... only to discover that I forgot to save after doing the Poke Ball Factory. mrgrgr

Anyway, did that again, blasted through, and managed to get a perfect Beartic AFTER I had a usable-but-probably-problematic Piloswine. Oh well, saved out and got a good draw on the Jynx, so here we are. Let me just say for the record that the fact I still have to use Powder Snow until I get back to Frost Cavern for the rest is *really* irritating, but Jynx doesn't learn any natural special Ice moves until Blizzard. Yeesh.

The other two look pretty good from here, Shadow Claw might actually be my best bet for dealing with Gardevoir at the end. Will probably keep that 'round.

Now I have two problems: 1) I have like, $20k left after splurging on vitamins (and I had to take Asahina up the old-fashioned way for Speed, the horror), 2) I didn't actually make any real progress. Need to beat Route 15, 16, Lost Hotel, and Frost Cavern around tomorrow with a longshot goal of hopefully picking up Ice Member #6, Abomasnow.

Ice Day 3: Unlimited Freezer Power

Current location: Saved in Laverre City and about to raid the Poke Ball factory. I elected to go SA/Speed on Kyoko and it's L43, while Byakuya is L44. Current movesets: Surf/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Body Slam for Kyoko, Nature Power/Thunderbolt/Ancient Power/Aurora Beam for Byakuy.

When your second Pokemon comes in at L30, grinding is no issue at all. Especially with Surf wiping out even the hardest of Water types. By the time I cleared out Route 12 and Azure Bay, Kyoko was L34 and finally packing Ice Beam. The Grass gym was a predictable, Ice Beams for all finish, although Ramos's Gogoat did survive one and hit Grass Knot before a Body Slam/Ice Beam finish.

Route 13 - still annoying. Since I don't have the Soothe Bell, I had about a 70% "can't escape because of Arena Trap" rate until I moved Fletchinder into slot 1 until I got to the Grunt in front of the Power Plant. Kyoko actually caught up in the Power Plant to the point where I had the two of them at L40 going into Lumiose.

And the sheer power of the team let it wipe out the Electric gym pretty much in one go. Magneton wasn't even an issue - because of the training, I was able to catch it on the switch-in from Emolga's Volt Switch with Surf and KO it on the 2nd hit. Even Heliolisk's Grass Knot, which would normally be a devastating move (120 power, SE against both) was doing less than half damage to Kyoko while it wiped out Heliolisk with Ice Beam (immune to Surf because of Dry Skin).

The rival->Route 14 complex was easy, but I ran into a bit of trouble with the encounter rate - I can't afford Repels right now because I have to buy over a half million worth of stat drugs for the three members of the team that come in at Frost Cavern or risk losing my mind. Ergo, no Repels. The swamp is very time-consuming to go through when you're avoiding Stunfisk genocide.

Then came the Fairy gym - Surf OHKOed Mawile when I faced Valerie, couldn't beat Mr Mime in one but I was able to stall out the Hyper Potions and a Light Screen so that Sylveon got 3HKOed with Surf for the 6th badge. Sadly, nobody can learn Dazzling Gleam (you'd think Byakuya could just because, you know, its SPECIES NAME involves dazzling lights...)

Tomorrow: Beat the Poke Ball factory, grind the Battle Chateau for some more of dem dolla dolla billz y'all, and hopefully avoid every trainer possible on Route 15 and outside Frost Cavern so I can load up on new Ice types and actually have a challenge. Allegedly.

Ice Day 2: Luck of the Shamrock Shake

Current location: Saved in Camphier so I can check on my Berries and just used the Name Rater... I have three badges, just got Kyoko the female Lapras at L30 (currently on Water Pulse, Body Slam, Rain Dance, Perish Song) and Byakuya the Amaura... is LEVEL 38. Holy grinder indeed. The moveset is Nature Power, Bulldoze, Aurora Beam and Ancient Power.

So I ended up using a stray Zangoose I caught out of a horde fight for Strength, and had it serve as the meat shield. Turns out I only needed the shield for one fight... random fact: Nature Power in Grant's gym? Power Gem. Read: 70 power special Rock STAB. Surprisingly effective. Aside from that bloody Relicanth, but an AI glitch had it Yawn instead of ending the fight with Rock Tomb. Even Grant was a two-shot, as NP->Power Gem one-shot the Amaura, and Aurora Beam finished off Tyrunt in one.

I ground up a bit on Route 10 in anticipation of the dreaded Double Lucario fight of doom, and when I got to Geosenge Byakura was L29. I battled Korrina the first time... and it was a 2HKO. Whoops. I reset here, but was in loss position a couple more times before I finally figured out the strategy... and even then, I needed some luck. With the meat shield ready, here's how it went:

- I used two Rare Candies I had to put Byakura at L31
- I equipped the Rocky Helmet
- The first Lucario used Metal Sound, I used Bulldoze. I'm now outrunning it.
- Second Bulldoze, Metal Sound again.
- Third Bulldoze finishes, 2nd Lucario enters.
- This Lucario elects to Power-Up Punch and loses health due to Rocky Helmet, then gets Bulldozed to about half and a speed drop.
- One last Bulldoze puts Lucario into critical, and the 2nd PUP faints because of the Rocky Helmet.

Route 11 and the Reflection Cave present another problem for the runs: Black Belts. Bonus points if they show up in a Brains and Brawn. And I couldn't bring down the Machokes fast enough, so much so that I had to resort to using Fletchinder to induce suicide burns and let Byakura clean up. It apparently worked, though - because at the end of Reflection Cave Byakura was L35.

I beat the Rival handily (though Frogadier took three Ancient Powers) to go to L36, and only had to use Fletchinder one last time for the Burn trick before I fought Korrina. I walked into the Korrina fight at L37, a few hundred EXP away from L38. Here's how it went:

- Mienfoo went down to one NP->Tri Attack (remember, STAB due to Refrigerate) and Byakura levels
- Hawlucha comes out, is still faster, and Flying Press... IS SURVIVED WITH 34 HP. I honestly thought that was the finish, but I forgot that Flying Press multiplies Fighting (4x) by Flying (1/2) so it was only SE instead of hyper-effective. Oh, Tri Attack finishes.
- Machoke comes out. Tri Attack... puts him critical, Power-Up Punch finishes.
- Fletchinder comes in, I Revive on the Hyper Potion, and Peck does light damage before Rock Tomb finishes
- Back to Byakura, and Tri Attack ends the fight.

And after the MegaEvo tutorial, we have me soft-resetting for a quality Lapras - only to find that the only things changing are the HP (by 1 point, mind) and gender. It was always Docile, Water Absorb, and the stats were identical otherwise. Good to know if you're ever going to try this insanity yourself.

Now, to decide how I'm going to train Kyoko - both Attacks and screw Speed? Max Speed and split Attacks?, get to Aurorus... and then grind Kyoko to the point of equality.

Ice Day 1: George R R Martin Lawsuit Edition

Started the Ice run while the preview was publishing, and we currently have Byakuya the Amaura (though I probably should call it something else...) at L24, with Nature Power/Aurora Beam/Rock Smash/Bulldoze, a Modest nature and with Special Attack and Speed trained as high as the IVs will allow.

I did pick Fennekin as the starter and got a Bold Female off the hop (eh, acceptable) and decided the first thing I saw would be its partner until I got the fossil. Turned out to be a Jolly Fletchling, so I rolled through the first half of the game with just those two. At the very least, it makes me more confident that I'll be able to pull off Fire without gift Pokemon assistance for once.

And as a special bonus, somewhere around Lumiose I got... the Pokerus. *kaching* Unfortunately, it doesn't work the same way with Super Training. It's supposed to give more Double Up bags, but the total I got was within normal parameters. Further study is required. (And thanks to Squirtle, it will happen.)

It only took about eight resets to get the Modest Amaura, and he did OK on the beach route leveling up - though it helped that there, Nature Power became Earth Power which helped him mow down Tentacool. Also, I completely missed that it can learn Bulldoze, so I'll have something better than Rock Smash for the double Lucario fight.

Now, I have one question - since I catch every Pokemon I see that can qualify, I happened to catch a Quiet (+SA -Speed) Eevee on Route 10 while getting some last minute grinding in. It was suggested in a comment - I know, I'm shocked too - that I carry Eevee to have a spare until at least Lapras shows up... but Eevee has the slight issue of having Amaura's Defense without the HP or moves to back it up, and it'd be cruel to basically use Eevee as a meat shield. I'm trying to avoid using Bank for anything bigger than one move, but I may not have a choice.

Should I throw Eevee into Bank, grab it with my other game and make it a Glaceon? If so, should I give it a usable moveset at the same time? Or should I say forget the whole thing since I'm trying to turn this into an FAQ and can't assume everyone is as insane as I am?

Type Preview: Ice

In this run, there was only one type that I anticipated would be a problem. Almost all of its Pokemon are late, the first one you get is weak to everything, and there's an entire gym it has to solo under the most difficult of circumstances.

As well, the type was nearly made redundant by Fairy, and continues to have the resistances of a wet noodle.

As winter draws to a close, I send it off by packing Ice.

Type effectiveness:
Attacking: Beats Grass, Ground, Flying, Dragon. Resisted by itself and Water.
Defending: Super effected by Fire, Fighting, Rock, and Steel. Only resists itself.

Dual types:
Rock, Water, Ground, Psychic, Grass, Dark, Flying and Electric (theoretically, getting it would be nigh-impossible) in the main game. Ghost and Dragon are locked out until postgame.

Probable final team:
Amaura/Aurorus: The run instigator has a huge problem - it has to basically run solo for three routes and two gyms, that are both super effective against it (Fighting is 4x) and an event fight against something with 2 Lucario with its best move against Lucario being ROCK SMASH. This is, to put it mildly, a problem.

Lapras: At least I don't have to worry about who the Surfer will be. Might have to run hyper-defensive for the sake of tanking stuff it's weak to.

Beartic: As far as pure-Ice types go, this is one of them. Has enough of a movepool on its physical side that I can justify carrying it and works thematically if nothing else (see Trainer).

Jynx: Something to check the multitudes of Fighting types, get this team banned in several countries, and generally drive me nuts with its cry. It's too bad they didn't tie its destiny to that of Electabuzz and Magmar with an evo...

Piloswine/Mamoswine: Carries Strength, useful for beating down Fire types with STAB Earthquakes and is generally quite awesome.

Snover/Abomasnow: Has just enough movepool that I can take either physical or special attacks and make it work. If it's physical, it's probably going to run Wood Hammer as a Gardevoir check. Also, ingame Mega evo.

Why not use...?
Shellder/Cloyster: Not available in X. For ingame purposes, might serve a different niche than Lapras but would just be dead weight most of the game.

Frost Rotom: Can't guarantee that I'll get to Lost Hotel on Tuesday to grab it.

Glaceon: 404: Moves not found. Also, not accessible until Frost Cavern so what's the point?

Avalugg: On the physical end, it's great - but it's mortally slow and dies in two anything on the Special end.

Cryogonal: 1% appearance rate + not enough moves available on the Special end = no dice.

Vanilluxe: See Cryogonal and sub out "appearance rate" for "experience curve".

Weavile: Doesn't learn an actual Ice move, evo item is postgame.
Delibird: Is, and continues to be, Delibird.

Major battle expectations:
Viola: n/a
Grant: Rock Smash and pray, if I can get Amaura in one hit Tyrunt is probably OHKOed by Tri Attack or Aurora Beam.
Korrina:  Uh, pick a god and pray? Even if I outrun and manage to beat Mienfoo and Machoke, there's no bloody way I'm beating Hawlucha without a hellacious grind.
Ramos: Going to beat him by sheer force of level, since I'll still only have two Pokemon here and both take double damage from Grass.
Clemont: How do I get past the Magneton with Steel moves (4x) for Aurorus and Thunderbolt for Lapras?
Valerie: Special Defense is high here. Too high, in fact. Another troubling fight.
---Note: I have TWO POKEMON UNTIL HERE---
Olympia: I can overpower most things here, or at the very least set up a mirror match with Jynx.
Wulfric: *irony intensifies* Uh, Beartic does quite well here and I'll have Lapras for Avalugg.

Rival: Pretty sure I have to take Fennekin out of play, which means Froakie. Thankfully, Freeze-Dry exists by the time it's a threat, and Lapras has Thunderbolt for him.
Team Flare: Main problem will be Houndoom and Manectric, the rest get overpowered.
Elite 4: First time I've had to save Malva for last, that's for sure.
Champion: No real weaknesses, but not really in a position to overpower her either. Hawlucha may be the biggest threat here.

Trainer:
For this run I'm going to need hope, optimism, and super high-school level luck. So say hello to Makoto. As well, this lets me set up the team with the rest of his classmates... and of course, the bear will be named Monokuma.