u/ResponsibleExit2790

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

IN A NUTSHELL: A Flame Orb, Quick Feet, Facade, and an Eviolite make Ursaring well-rounded and dominant. Ursaring's offence, with its excellent base Attack and STAB Facade, is OK right out of the box, so I preferred to use its Ability to improve its slow Speed. My moveset was Facade, Precipice Blades, Play Rough, and Swords Dance. It's better to have Thick Fat than not, I guess, but for Ursaring, it isn't as important as it is for Ursaluna. Quick Feet makes the fierce bear's Speed medium and not high, so in my opinion, a Speed-enhancing Nature is still necessary. This run was beaten on my first try.

FULL POST:

Guts or Quick Feet, that is the question: whether 'tis nobler for the bear to suffer the slings and arrows of its outrageous Speed (to gain superior offensive power), or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them (through superior Speed). But for me, there's no dilemma and no dramatic scene with a skull in one hand: Quick Feet all the way! Ursaring already has a bonkers base Attack of 130, and Facade has a power of 140 + STAB when the fierce bear is affected by a status condition, so Guts (which increases the Attack by 50% during a status condition) is a little overkill for my taste! And it also leaves Ursaring with its low base Speed of 55, and thus vulnerable to lots and lots of 'slings and arrows' from faster opponents.

But don't get me wrong, overkill is GREAT, especially when one plays with a full team—so in the vast majority of cases—because you can keep Ursaring or Ursaluna focused on doing a stupid amount of damage, and use the support of its teammates to improve its Speed through Baton Pass, Tailwind, Trick Room... But during this challenge, I only play with one Pokémon on my team, so it's in my interest to make it as balanced as possible, so that it can cope with a wide variety of situations.

Since I think that Ursaring's offence, with its excellent base Attack and STAB Facade activated by a status condition, is OK right out of the box, I preferred to use its Ability to take care of its slow Speed. Quick Feet raises the Speed of a Pokémon with a status condition by 50% and cancels out the penalty in Speed caused by paralysis. But keep three things in mind if you follow in my footsteps. First, the fierce bear is slow, and a +50% makes its Speed average, not high—so don't expect miracles from Quick Feet. That's the reason why I gave Teddiursa a Speed-favorable Nature. Second, Guts removes the pesky debuff to physical moves caused by burns, but with Quick Feet, you are stuck with it—except when using Facade, because it ignores it anyway. In PokéRogue, the most reliable way to inflict a status condition is through a Flame Orb or a Toxic Orb. During my solo runs, I avoid Toxic Orbs like the plague because they badly poison the holder, and the exponential passive damage makes it statistically unlikely that a solo Pokémon can survive against a full team or a long gauntlet of wild Pokémon. This means that with a Quick Feet Pokémon, I get stuck with the Flame Orb, which can be a problem when Facade is ineffective or not very effective. Luckily, Ursaring has access to Swords Dance, which can counter that debuff.

The last, but not least, important thing to notice when giving Quick Feet to Teddiursa and Ursaring is that you have to forget about time traveling and getting yourself an Ursaluna! Unlike Guts, Quick Feet is lost during the evolution of the fierce bear, which gains Bulletproof in its place. And not evolving Ursaring is a problem, right? ... Right? (cue the Anakin and Padmé meme). Not at all! In my opinion, failing to evolve improves the fierce bear rather than harming it, provided that it holds an Eviolite. If we compare the base stats of Ursaluna and Eviolite Ursaring, we see that they're quite even: Ursaluna only has much better HP (130 vs. 90) and slightly better Attack (140 vs. 130), while Eviolite Ursaring has slightly better Defense (112.5 vs. 105) and Speed (55 vs 50), but also much better Special Defense (112.5 vs. 80). What sets Eviolite Ursaring apart is the fact that it only has a single weakness (Fighting), while Ursaluna has 4 of them (Fighting, Grass, Ice, and Water). And yes, its new Ground type also gives it a new set of powerful STAB moves, but they are better enjoyed by Guts Ursaring/Ursaluna. During my run, I could have tried to take advantage of a very late Peat Block to murder Eternatus with Precipice Blades powered up by STAB, but I thought that it would be confusing for you to see Ursaluna in the Hall of Fame and read a post that is all about Ursaring. So I preferred to end this the way in which I spent most of my run: using Facade boosted by Ursaring's burn.

As for my moveset, it consisted of Facade, Precipice Blades, Play Rough, and Swords Dance. I already wrote about Facade, which Ursaring can learn as an Egg Move or through a TM. After I acquired the Flame Orb, I tried to spam it as much as humanly possible, and it was simply devastating. The Precipice Blades Egg Move was kept despite not being a STAB move because of its stupid power (120), its capability of striking all opponents in a double battle, and because it provided coverage against two types that resist Facade: Rock and Steel. Its low precision of 85% can be easily fixed with a couple of Wide Lenses. Play Rough—learned by leveling up the fierce bear or through a TM—was meant as coverage against Fairy-types, but one could replace it with Crunch's TM, if they prefer to better deal with Ghost-types instead. I highly recommend Swords Dance for a Quick Feet Ursaring with a Flame Orb like mine. It's a great counter to the debuff to physical moves caused by burns, and it allows the fierce bear to one-shot even the toughest opponents. It can only be learned by Teddiursa and Ursaring through a TM, and it took me quite a while to find it, but in the meantime, Bulk Up—another TM move—was a nice replacement.

Teddiursa starts with Run Away as its Passive Ability, but for Ursaring and Ursaluna, it becomes Thick Fat. It has the effect of basically halving the damage that a Pokémon receives from Fire- and Ice-types. For my fierce bear, it was nice to have, but it wasn't essential. On the contrary, it's quite important for Ursaluna to have, since it halves the damage from one of its weaknesses.

It seems counterintuitive, but even with Quick Feet active, Ursaring's Speed is still average, so I think that a Speed-enhancing Nature is necessary anyway. That's why my fierce bear was Jolly (+ Speed, - Special Attack) and not Adamant (+ Attack, - Special Attack).

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Still, I had no problem soloing this run on my first try.

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

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100 solo runs! What an adventure! So why not lengthen it? With the addition of White Basculin and Battle Bond Greninja as individual starters in version 1.12, the total number of runs required to complete this challenge increases from 570 to 572. But don't worry, there's no chance in the world that I'm going to complete it before the release of the Gen 10 games, so the total number of runs is bound to increase even more. Have you heard of a guy named Sisyphus?

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IN A NUTSHELL: A very lucky and broken run. My moveset was Darkest Lariat, Triple Axel, Dire Claw, and Power-Up Punch. I thought that Pickpocket, Sneasel's and Weavile's HA, was a slightly better choice for a solo run. Its Passive, Tough Claws, is highly recommended! Both Sneasel and Weavile have surprisingly worse Defense than Special Defense, so I gave them an Impish Nature. This run was beaten on my first try.

FULL POST:

During these posts, I usually evaluate the viability and strength of the starter that I used based on my experience of soloing a run with it. This time, I have a very hard time doing that. Because I've broken Weavile! At the start of the run, I was worried about its 4x weakness to Fighting, and its five 2x weaknesses. They are counterbalanced by the murderous weasel's dominant base Speed (125) and a very solid Attack (120). Still, its mid base Defence of 65 could mean that if Weavile can't OHKO an opponent with super-effective physical moves, or gets stuck in tricky double battles, it could end up in serious trouble. But not in my run, it seems! A lucky type swap provided by the 'Clowning Around' mystery encounter replaced the murderous weasel's bothersome Ice secondary type with Fighting, which removed half of its weaknesses. It still had a 4x weakness, this time against Fairy-types, but at least Dire Claw provided excellent coverage against them. A disgusting amount of vitamins and items made it faster, stronger, and bulkier, making it almost impossible to kill. Its aggressive and flexible moveset, which consisted of four different offensive moves that could easily make its damage output spiral out of control, was just the icing on an OP cake.

Speaking of my moveset, it was eventually made up of Darkest Lariat, Triple Axel, Dire Claw, and Power-Up Punch. The Darkest Lariat Egg Move, with its power of 85 and STAB, was the reliable move that I used the most. Not everybody knows that it has the feature of ignoring any changes to the target's Defense and evasion stats when it inflicts damage, which can be very helpful. Triple Axel is another Egg Move, and was kept even when it stopped being a STAB move because of its high damage output. It can potentially hit three times, and its power increases by 20 with each successive hit (20, 40, then 60). Every hit has its own 90% accuracy check, but throwing a single Wide Lens on Weavile makes it hit reliably 3 times in a row. In PokéRogue, this move is extremely proficient at grinding down multiple HP bars, especially when super-effective. It also provided useful coverage against Flying-types.

With vanilla Weavile, I used Darkest Lariat and Triple Axel in combination with Close Combat and Swords Dance. The Close Combat Egg Move (or another Fighting-type move) was meant as a coverage move against two of its weaknesses: Rock and Steel. Swords Dance was overkill most of the time, but it was my insurance policy that the murderous weasel could destroy everything it touched before they could counterattack.

After Weavile acquired the Fighting secondary type, Rock- and Steel-types were no longer a priority to deal with, and Fairy-types became much more of a threat, so I immediately swapped Close Combat for Dire Claw. It's a very solid move with its power of 80, and even if it was nerfed a little by Pokémon Champions, it still has a 30% chance of inflicting either poison, paralysis, or sleep on the target, which isn't bad (before Champions, it was 50%). I was looking for Power-Up Punch's TM for a long time, and when I finally found it in the shop, it was a no-brainer to have it replace Swords Dance. Back then, Weavile already had a Multi Lens, so every time it used that move, it had the chance to hit the target twice and boost its Attack by two stages, just like Swords Dance would have done. But unlike that status move, Power-Up Punch can also damage the opponent, and its meager power of 40 grows exponentially every time it boosts the Attack of its user! Add to that the fact that Macro Cosmos had the misfortune of being chosen as the evil team of my run, and a Fighting-type move was very useful in taking apart their numerous Steel-types.

Moving on to Abilities, both Sneasel's main and secondary Abilities (Inner Focus and Keen Eye) become Pressure when it evolves, while its Hidden one (Pickpocket) remains unchanged. For my solo run, I thought Pickpocket was the better choice, but I was rarely able to benefit from it. This Ability steals an item that the opponent is holding if it hits Sneasel or Weavile with a contact move, but due to their trademark Speed, it doesn't happen very often. The Passive Ability of both murderous weasels is Tough Claws, which boosts the power not only of moves that involve claws but ALL contact moves by approximately 30%, which is very nice to have when you have a moveset composed mostly or entirely of contact moves!

Since both Sneasel and Weavile have surprisingly worse Defense than Special Defense, I preferred to attempt to balance them by giving them an Impish Nature, which improves their Defence at the expense of their Special Attack. The game agreed with me and ended up offering me so many Irons and Soul Dews that, by the end of the run, the murderous weasel ended up having much more Defence than Special Defense. Be careful what you wish for, I guess!

I had to retry some fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Still, I had no problem soloing this run on my first try.

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

IN A NUTSHELL: Corsola is a terrible choice for a solo run, with its 4x weakness to Grass, its low Speed, and its disappointing SpA and HP. My moveset consisted of Scald, Freeze-Dry, Calm Mind, and Strength Sap. In a solo run, every Ability that Corsola can have is trash—just don't give it Hustle because it actively damages your run. On the contrary, Storm Drain, its Passive, is incredibly helpful and useful. I gave it a Timid Nature to improve its low, low Speed. I beat this run on my 5th try.

FULL POST:

FIRST TRY, BABY!!! ... On version 1.12, with 4 failed runs on the previous version of the game. I hope it doesn't come as a surprise that, with its 4x weakness to Grass, its low base Speed, and its disappointing base Special Attack and base HP, Corsola isn't a great choice for a solo run. I had two quick fails due to my Rival choosing a Grass starter, and two other fails because of an unlucky trip to the Power Plant and a random Leafeon that did way too much damage for Corsola to handle. Thankfully, the game had mercy on me and gifted me a run in which my Rival had a Water-type as a starter (Sobble), the evil team was Team Aqua, and I was finally able to get the 'Clowning Around' mystery encounter, which basically transformed my Corsola into a sad excuse for a Lapras by swapping its Rock secondary type with an Ice one. It was also a very lucky run in relation to the rewards that I found in the shop. The Leftovers and the great amount of Vitamins, in particular, were instrumental to the success of this run.

Speaking of version 1.12, with the gen and dex number order that I use for my challenge, Sneasel was up next. But just like what happened with Smeargle, I decided to bring forward Corsola's run because it has Salt Cure as an Egg Move, which has been nerfed by PokéRogue's newest version, just like in Pokémon Champions. I definitely failed in that regard, but don't worry about that. Version 1.12 arrived midway through my successful run, and by then Salt Cure was already out of Corsola's moveset, because that move isn't as game-changing for the cute coral as it was for Smeargle.

As for the moveset that I used for Corsola, it consisted of Scald, Freeze-Dry, Calm Mind, and Strength Sap. With its 30% chance of burning the opponent and its good power, Scald is a great Water-type move. The shop offered me the Surf TM at least once, but although that move has superior power and can hit both opponents in a double battle (which is priceless in a solo run), I preferred to stick with Scald. With its decent chance of inflicting a burn, it was very important for me to have a move that could cripple physical attackers (especially if they had super effective moves) and inflict passive burn damage to them. The addition of Freeze-Dry makes Corsola's moveset unresisted, since that Ice-type move is super effective against Water-types. It was the move that I used the most, because water hell was the safest route for Corsola, and even more so when that move acquired STAB thanks to the type swap provided by the clown. Another characteristic that makes Freeze-Dry special (in more than one sense) is its 10% chance of freezing the opponent, and Corsola can benefit massively from the stalling provided by that status condition.

Early into my successful run, I gave up Salt Cure for Double Team. Even OG Salt Cure wasn't that useful, (a) because Corsola is better suited as a special attacker, and (b) because the cute coral isn't as proficient as Smeargle at stalling, especially when facing special attackers. Double Team saved my run more than once, but this time I thought that offence was the best defence, so at the first chance, I swapped the evasion-boosting move for Calm Mind. It's a great status move on its own, but I think it works particularly well for Corsola in combination with Strength Sap. Calm Mind is used to boost the cute coral's Special Attack, but also to reduce the damage it suffers from special moves by improving its Special Defence. Strength Sap, on the other hand, can heal the damage that Corsola endured in the setup phase, or because of its slow Speed, and at the same time reduce the damage from physical moves by reducing the opponent's Attack. Add to that the fact that the cute coral has a base Defense and Special Defense of 95, and you'll understand why the damage reduction provided by the combination of those two status moves works so well. On paper, my strategy transforms Corsola into an OP Pokémon, but this is far from the truth: its very low Speed makes it take too many risks for its own good, and vanilla Corsola's 4x weakness to Grass is extremely hard to manage with Calm Mind and Strength Sap.

As for the Ability, in a solo run, every one that it can have is worthless (at least from what I can tell). Just don't give it Hustle because not only do you not get any benefit from improving Corsola's Attack, but you're also actively damaging your run by making the cute coral less precise. On the contrary, Storm Drain is a beast of a Passive Ability. Vanilla Corsola takes effective damage from Water moves, and Storm Drain not only negates all that damage but also boosts the cute coral's Special Attack!

Since Corsola is already balanced defensively and has the chance to reliably improve its Special Attack by finding Calm Mind's TM in the shop, when it was time to assign its Nature, I preferred to give it a Timid one, which improves its terrible Speed at the expense of its Attack.

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run).

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

IN A NUTSHELL: A strong carry, but its 4x weakness to Flying-types can be nasty. My moveset consisted of Pin Missile, Storm Throw, Rock Blast, and Swords Dance. My vanilla Heracross had the Moxie HA, which I highly recommend if you have it unlocked. Each of the stag beetle's Abilities becomes Skill Link when it Mega Evolves, which works very well in combination with its Passive, Technician. I gave Heracross a Jolly Nature because it loses 10 base Speed upon Mega Evolution. This run was soloed on my first try.

FULL POST:

When I commented on RazTheGiant's Heracross solo run post on this subreddit, I wrote 'With Skill Link and Technician, what could possibly go wrong?' ... Well, the answer is definitely 'Flying-types'! I almost lost my run at wave 120 because Korrina started the match with a Flamigo, and Mega Heracross fainted twice during the run: against Sinnoh's E4 Aaron and his Yanmega, and against my Rival's Mega Rayquaza (thank goodness that Reviver Seeds exist!). Vanilla Heracross is especially vulnerable to Flying-types because its 4x weakness to Flying is combined with a mid base Defense (75). But strong Flying-types can be a problem even for Mega Heracross, despite its solid and well-rounded bulk!

But except for their fear of Flying, Heracross and Mega Heracross are both incredible.

I gave vanilla Heracross its Hidden Ability, Moxie, which is basically OP on a Pokémon that never gets switched out, and even more so with Heracross's great base stats. Technician, the stag beetle's Passive Ability, works incredibly well in tandem with Mega Heracross's Skill Link, but it's incredibly helpful even for base Heracross. It can learn a great deal of sub-60-power moves that can receive the 50% boost from that Ability. I obviously recommend Pin Missile, because it's bound to become Mega Heracross's strongest move, but Bug Bite and Pounce can also work well on the vanilla stag beetle. Also, 3 out of 4 of Heracross's Egg Moves are boosted by Technician. Storm Throw is just busted with the mix of its base power of 60, Technician, STAB, and its guaranteed crit. Rock Blast is a great antidote to Flying-types (but watch out for Flying-types that aren't weak to it, like Pokémon with both the Flying and Fighting types). Scale Shot is obviously meant as a counter to Rayquaza and Eternatus, but the fact that it allows Heracross to trade Defense for Speed could allow the stag beetle to outspeed Pokémon that would otherwise OHKO it. The only Egg Move that doesn't benefit from Technician is Iron Head, which is meant as coverage against Fairy-types.

For most of my run, both with Heracross and Mega Heracross, my moveset consisted of Pin Missile, Storm Throw, Rock Blast, and Swords Dance. The latter is quite overkill on Mega Heracross, with its bonkers base Attack of 185, so I probably could have replaced it with Iron Head or Scale Shot without consequences, but in my solo runs I usually prefer to always have the chance to maximize my Pokémon's damage output. In the vanilla stag beetle part of my run, I wouldn't have survived the Korrina fight at wave 120 if I hadn't replaced Swords Dance with Bulk Up. I found its TM in the shop before Heracross could learn Swords Dance by itself, and the Defense boost it provided was necessary to survive an attack from Flamigo. Heracross was able to outspeed the feisty flamingo, but sadly it couldn't take it down in one turn because it wasn't doing enough damage to it with Rock Blast, and its other moves weren't very effective.

As for Mega Heracross, it's basically a machine gun. Every Ability that Heracross has becomes Skill Link when it Mega Evolves, and every shot of its multi-hit moves is boosted by Technician. If I remember correctly, only Eternatus was able to withstand a burst of 5 hits from Mega Heracross without fainting!

As for Heracross's Nature, if it couldn't Mega Evolve, I probably would have given it an Impish one, so that its Defense was improved at the expense of its Special Attack, allowing it to better endure physical hits. But Mega Heracross's defense is quite balanced, and it has slightly more Defense than Special Defense (115 vs. 105). So, with Heracross's Nature, I decided to play the long game and give it a Jolly one instead. It raises its Speed and lowers its Special Attack, which is important for Mega Heracross, because it loses 10 points of base Speed upon Mega Evolution.

I had to retry some hard fights that involved strong Flying-types and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Still, I was able to solo this run on my first try.

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

IN A NUTSHELL: Shuckle's Egg Moves make it a God-tier Pokémon. My moveset was Body Press, Salt Cure, Shell Smash, and Heal Order. My strategy was based on Contrary Shell Smash, so that I didn't have to rely on berries to set up with Stuff Cheeks. Harvest is a very useful Passive, because it allows you to recover a lot of berries. I gave Shuckle a Careful Nature to make it more resistant to super effective special moves. This run was beaten easily on my first try.

FULL POST:

It's been a while since I had so much fun in a solo run! I could probably have concluded it in a day, if I had had enough time. Shuckle, what a legend! I already know how well it works with a full team, but I was worried that with its ridiculous base Speed of 5 and the difficulty of relying on Stuff Cheeks for setup, it wouldn't be as reliable in a solo run. How wrong I was!

If you use Shuckle on a full team, I recommend that you give it the Gluttony Ability, the Harvest Passive Ability, and add one or two Pickup mons that can feed it a steady supply of berries. This way, you can use Stuff Cheeks—an Egg Move—to eat berries to boost its already OP Defense, and also earn the benefit of eating a certain kind of Berry. Harvest is very important to unlock because it gives the bulky Chad a 50% chance each turn to restore a Berry that it has eaten, until it's switched out, guaranteeing that Berries stick around way longer than they normally would.

In my solo run, I preferred to use another strategy, so that I didn't need to constantly give Shuckle Berries from the shop and could focus on other rewards. My moveset was Body Press, Salt Cure, Shell Smash, and Heal Order. My strategy was based on the bulky Chad's Hidden Ability, Contrary, and one of its level-up moves, Shell Smash. Normally, this setup move offers a two-stage boost in Attack, Special Attack, and Speed in exchange for a single drop in Defence and Special Defence. Contrary flips this great deal on its head, so now Shell Smash cripples Shuckle's Attack, Special Attack, and Speed just to grant it a small boost in Defence and Special Defence. Is it a problem for Shuckle? Not at all, if it has the Body Press Egg Move, because that physical move uses the user's Defense rather than its Attack to calculate damage. Shuckle has the second-best Defense in the game (230), on par with Mega Aggron and Mega Steelix—above them, there's only E-Max Eternatus! So it already does a huge quantity of damage on its own using Body Press, but using Contrary Shell Smash, or Stuff Cheeks, you can go above and beyond that, into the realm of the absurd. In the case of the bulky Chad, Defence is definitely the best offence. But raising Shuckle's Defence and Special Defence also makes it more unkillable than it already is, which makes Contrary Shell Smash a win-win on both the offensive and defensive sides. And what it actually loses (Attack, Special Attack, and Speed) are base stats that are already ridiculous for Shuckle, since it has a base Attack and Special Attack of 10, and a base Speed of 5.

The real downside of my strategy is that with -6 Attack and Special Attack, the bulky Chad basically can't do direct damage with any move other than Body Press. When Shuckle's Defence is boosted, it isn't a problem when that move isn't very effective, but Ghost-types are immune to it. The best solution to this problem is a move that does passive damage to the target. Until it gets nerfed by the Champions patch, your best option for this is another of Shuckle's Egg Moves, Salt Cure. When applied, it doesn't expire on its own like other moves of that kind, and it also does more passive damage to Steel- and Water-types, two types the bulky Chad is weak to. It's a long process to take down an opponent just through passive damage, but with its legendary bulk, Shuckle can more than afford it. It's even better if you have Heal Order, another Egg Move, so that the bulky Chad can heal the damage the opponent is doing to it in the long run. Keep in mind that Shuckle learns Shell Smash at level 65, so it takes a while to make Contrary Shell Smash work, but even waiting for it was less of a problem than I anticipated.

As for the Nature, I preferred to give it one favorable to its Special Defence, Careful (+SpD, -SpA), rather than one favorable to Defence, to make it more resistant to super effective special moves. In the end, it was the right call for this run, because I was able to find a good deal of Irons (5) in the shop, which more or less balanced things out with the 2 Zincs that I got and the 3 Soul Dews that I found in the late game.

In general, it was honestly a very lucky run in terms of rewards. The most valuable one was a very early Shell Bell that allowed me to go on the offensive most of the time with Body Press. That item would allow me to recover most, if not all, the damage that Shuckle had to endure from moving last. That's why my run took me much less time than I normally would to complete!

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Still, I had no problem whatsoever soloing this run on my first try.

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

IN A NUTSHELL: A challenging run due to Qwilfish not scaling up with the rest of the game, and due to frequent Psychic- and Ground-types. My moveset mostly consisted of Barb Barrage, Fishious Rend, Minimize, and Swords Dance. Sometimes it had a Dark-type move to provide coverage against Psychic-types, but I recommend Minimize instead. Poison Point and Toxic Debris offered me the best chances to poison opponents. I gave it a Careful Nature to improve its low Special Defence. This run was beaten on my first try.

FULL POST:

Like a lot of non-Legendary and non-Mythical Pokémon that don't evolve, Qwilfish works quite well in the first part of the game on its own, but it has a hard time in the second half of the run because it doesn't scale as much as the Pokémon around it. This time, it didn't help that I had the Aether Foundation as the evil team, with Faba and his team of mainly Psychic-types, and my Rival had Treecko as her starter. Although weak to Qwilfish's poison, Grovyle and Sceptile are fast and strong, and they hit Qwilfish effectively with their Grass moves. Also, my luck with items was lower than usual... until I found the Mini Black Hole at wave 181, which definitely evened things out and made my time with the puffer fish much more enjoyable!

The main strategy with Qwilfish is to poison the opponent in one way or another, because the damage of Barb Barrage—one of its Egg Moves—is doubled if the target is already poisoned. The puffer fish can poison its opponent with Barb Barrage itself, which has a 50% chance of poisoning the target; Poison Point, one of its Abilities; Toxic Debris, its Passive Ability; Baneful Bunker, another of its Egg Moves; and other moves that it can learn through leveling up or TMs, like Toxic. Another great move in Qwilfish's arsenal is Fishious Rend, which it can learn as an Egg Move. It has a respectable power of 80, which can be doubled if the user attacks before the target, or if the target switches in. But even without that boost, it can do a surprising amount of damage, even to Water-types, when used by the puffer fish! Swords Dance, which Qwilfish learns through a TM, is highly recommended, because with a single use of it, the puffer fish can one-shot a great deal of opponents!

Other than Barb Barrage, Fishious Rend, and Swords Dance, I initially started giving Qwilfish Dark-type moves like Crunch to provide it coverage against Psychic-types. But in the second and third matches against Faba, they weren't enough, so I made the puffer fish re-learn Minimize through a Memory Mushroom. In the second match against the Aether Foundation Admin, it wasn't exactly game-changing since his Pokémon were surprisingly accurate, though it still helped me avoid enough attacks to only faint once (thank God for Reviver Seeds!). But by the third match? It worked so well it almost felt illegal. I decided to stick with Minimize for the rest of the run, and I have zero regrets!

Since Qwilfish's Special Defence is very lacking, I gave it a Careful Nature, which improves its Special Defence at the expense of its Special Attack.

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Somehow, I was able to solo this run on my first try.

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

It feels like it's been an eternity since I got to Johto, but with Snubbull's run done, I'm only at 50% of all the Pokémon of this arduous region. The 'Johto Syndrome' is real! Let's hope that the second half will take me less time than the first.

IN A NUTSHELL: Dominant with the combination of its high base Attack, Pixilate Facade, Quick Feet, and Swords Dance. My moveset was Facade, Extreme Speed, Earthquake, and Swords Dance. Keep in mind that if you give a Flame Orb to Granbull like I did, the burn it causes halves the pink dog's Attack (except when it uses Facade). I gave it a Jolly Nature to improve its low Speed. This run was beaten on my first try.

FULL POST:

Granbull. What a good doggo! Especially with the great synergy between Quick Feet, Facade, and Pixilate! Quick Feet is one of its Abilities, and for your pink dog to have it, it must evolve from a Run Away Snubbull. It increases the Speed of a Pokémon with a status condition by 50%, which is great news for Granbull and its disappointing 45 base Speed. And if the pink dog is poisoned, paralyzed, or burned, the power of its Egg Move, Facade, gets doubled, from 70 to a mighty 140! Usually, this is a Normal-type move, but thanks to Snubbull's and Granbull's Passive Ability, Pixilate, it is turned into a Fairy-type move, like any other Normal-type move in the pink dog's moveset, and enjoys the x1.5 damage boost provided by STAB. And if you wanted to go above and beyond, you could give Granbull Swords Dance, which is another of Snubbull's Egg Moves. What a menace!

The most reliable way to inflict a status condition on the pink dog is either through a Flame Orb or a Toxic Orb. In a solo run, the 'bad poison' from a Toxic Orb is usually a death sentence. Because the damage scales exponentially, it will quickly outpace what a solo Pokémon can sustain during full-team battles or long gauntlets. For that reason, unless the damage from a Toxic Orb is purged by an Ability like Poison Heal, I always give the Flame Orb to my Pokémon. In Granbull's case, it's a mixed bag, because the burn it causes halves the pink dog's Attack, except when it uses Facade, nerfing every other offensive move in its moveset. With a base Attack of 120 and Swords Dance in its moveset, Granbull can deal with that loss, but it's something important to take into consideration if you follow in my footsteps.

Other than Facade and Swords Dance, my moveset included Extreme Speed and Earthquake. The former was more useful in the first part of the run, when Snubbull/Granbull didn't have its Flame Orb yet, and it wasn't as insanely fast as it became at the end of the run, thanks to its 5 Carbos, a Speed-boosting Nature (Jolly, which improves Speed at the expense of Special Attack), and 3 Soul Dews. That dominant Speed made Extreme Speed redundant. Still, I preferred not to replace it with other moves: most of the time, I was spamming Facade anyway, and I liked to always have the chance to move first no matter what at my disposal. Earthquake was obviously meant to provide coverage against Steel- and Poison-types, but sometimes, after a Swords Dance, it was sometimes able to KO both opposing Pokémon in double battles.

It's been a while since I let the clown from the 'Clowning Around' Mystery Encounter alter the types of my Pokémon! Actually, Granbull was able to defeat his Blacephalon and Mr. Mime, but it would have cost me a great deal of berries. And since the type change added the Normal-type to the pink dog, I thought that losing a resistance (to Fighting) to gain an immunity (to Ghost) was a good deal after all.

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Still, I had no problem soloing this run on my first try.

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

IN A NUTSHELL: A great solo runner, just be careful of Water and Ice special attacks. My moveset was Earthquake, Fly, Mighty Cleave, and Swords Dance. The Poison Heal + Toxic Boost combo is broken with a Toxic Orb. I gave Gliscor a Careful Nature to improve its lacking Special Defence. I soloed this run on my first try.

FULL POST:

Gliscor feels like a dream with its great stats and its Poison Heal + Toxic Boost combo! But it's also quite vulnerable to special attacks due to its low Special Defence, so its x4 weakness to Ice and its weakness to Water can be a pain in a solo run. Because of this, things didn't go as smoothly for me as one would think, especially since my Rival had Inteleon as her starter, which is a formidable and fast Water-type! But thanks to a so-early-it's-criminal evolution (wave 9!), a stupid amount of HP Ups and Carbos, a good amount of Zincs, and some X Items, I was able to keep it at bay and succeed on my first perilous try.

Gliscor's major strengths are its great Defence, its good Attack and Speed, and its Abilities. If you start with Gligar's Hidden Ability, Immunity (to poison), it will become Poison Heal as soon as the flying scorpion evolves into Gliscor. This Ability heals poisoned or badly poisoned Pokémon for ⅛ of their max HP, instead of them taking damage from their status. This has great synergy with Gliscor's Passive Ability, Toxic Boost, which boosts the power of a Pokémon's physical moves by 50% when poisoned or badly poisoned. Add to that the fact that Poison Heal Pokémon are eligible to receive a Toxic Orb as a reward from the shop, which grants them a constant badly poisoned status, and it's basically game over for your opponents! A small note: Gligar starts with Poison Touch as its Passive Ability, and it becomes Toxic Boost upon evolution.

My moveset for this run was Earthquake, Fly, Mighty Cleave, and Swords Dance. Earthquake in a solo run is much better than Gligar's Ground-type Egg Move, Thousand Waves, because it has slightly more power than Zygarde's signature move (100 vs. 90), and because if you have only one Pokémon on your team, you don't risk hitting your allies when using Earthquake in a double battle. I'm usually not a fan of two-turn moves like Fly, Hyper Beam, or Dig. I look at damage-per-turn rather than absolute power, meaning Fly is essentially a 45-power move to me—which is technically worse than Gliscor's other physical Flying-type options. For this reason, I started the run with Fly since it's another of Gligar's Egg Moves, but I intended to get rid of it as soon as possible. However, when Gligar evolved into Gliscor, I realized that Fly's preparation phase was actually an advantage for the bat scorpion. It basically works as a soft stall because, during that turn, Gliscor is semi-invulnerable to the opponent's damage, and at the same time, it can recover HP thanks to Poison Heal! So I highly recommend doing as I did and sticking with Fly as Gliscor's Flying STAB move, rather than aiming for something conventionally more appealing like Dual Wingbeat. The Mighty Cleave Egg Move was obviously a counter to nasty Ice-types, but it was also great for hitting Flying-types, who could otherwise use Hurricane to snipe Gliscor during Fly's semi-invulnerable turn. If you instead need a counter to Water-types, Gliscor can learn Thunder Fang with a Memory Mushroom after Gligar evolves into it. Swords Dance was my guarantee that the bat scorpion would destroy everything that crossed its path.

Since, as I wrote, Gliscor is quite vulnerable to special attacks due to its mid Special Defence, I preferred to give it a Careful Nature, which improves its Special Defence at the expense of its Special Attack.

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run).

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.

IN A NUTSHELL: A dominant solo runner, despite its mid Speed. My moveset was Extreme Speed, Magical Torque, Blazing Torque, and Coil. Great synergy between Dudunsparce's Ability, Serene Grace, and the Starmobile moves! Its Passive, Unaware, is always nice to have, but definitely not a priority to unlock. I gave it a Jolly Nature to improve its Speed. I soloed this run on my first try.

FULL POST:

After a hard solo run, like what happened with Forretress, it's always nice to get back some of the joy of solo running with a dominant Pokémon, and Dudunsparce didn't fail in that regard! It was a pleasure to spend a whole classic run with just the winged worm on the team.

Dudunsparce's Speed is quite disappointing. I usually don't have a great time with slow Pokémon, but this time it wasn't a problem. For starters, it has access to Extreme Speed as an Egg Move, which not only is a great STAB move, but it also has high priority, so by choosing it, you almost always guarantee the winged worm moves first, regardless of its Speed. But also, during the run, I was able to collect a stupid amount of Carbos, and with that and a Jolly Nature—which improves Speed at the expense of Special Attack—Dudunsparce was often able to move first anyway! Speaking of insane quantities of Vitamins, my 5 Carbos were beaten by the 7 Zincs I collected along the way, which completely made up for not having access to Confide for crippling Eternatus's Special Attack!

As for my moveset, it was composed of Extreme Speed, Magical Torque, Blazing Torque, and Coil. Ideally, the best strategy with Dudunsparce would have been to keep throwing the winged worm at the opponent using Extreme Speed after a little setup. But since that move can only have up to 8 PP, you can't use it as much as you want, unless you'd like to spend a fortune on Ethers and Elixirs. So most of the time, I used the Starmobile moves that Dudunsparce can learn as Egg Moves. Magical Torque was the best, with its base Power of 100, and Blazing Torque was useful when super-effective, especially against Steel-types. But what made those moves special, when used by the winged worm, were their additional effects and my Dudunsparce's Ability, Serene Grace. Magical Torque has a 30% chance of confusing the target, and Blazing Torque has a 30% chance of burning it, and these chances are DOUBLED by Serene Grace. Nice! Because of Serene Grace, I was tempted to replace Extreme Speed with Body Slam, since it normally has a 30% chance of paralyzing the target. In the end, I decided not to, because Extreme Speed's priority was so convenient, especially against fast Fighting-types like my Rival's Sneasler. Coil is a great setup move, thanks to its ability to improve Attack, Defense, and Accuracy in one go. Dudunsparce has a nice base Attack of 100, so most of the time, it doesn't need much setup before one-shotting everything. Dunsparce's and Dudunsparce's Passive Ability is Unaware. It was nice to have, but definitely not a game-changer. Still, I can't really complain since the winged worm already has that broken Serene Grace + Starmobile combo!

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Still, I had no problem soloing this run on my first try.

Highlights video of this run here.

Full run video here.

Hi, I'm Lone Absol, and this is 'How To Solo A Run With (Almost) Every Starter - Monthly Edition', the PokéRogue challenge that is going to take me 476 months (a little more than 39 and a half years) to attempt a solo run with every starter that is currently in the game! Or at least that's NOT the plan, and hopefully, you won't need to wait so long for the next solo runs of my challenge series.

IN A NUTSHELL: Sorry for the long wait! It took me 5 attempts to solo this run, and each of them dragged on forever. Forretress, despite its great Bug and Steel combo, is a terrible choice for a solo run because of its slow Speed and its paper-thin Special Defence, which makes it easy prey for Fire-types and strong special attackers. My moveset consisted of Leech Life, Gyro Ball, Earthquake, and Curse. Sturdy was a run saver on more than one occasion, and Iron Barbs was a Passive that provided useful chip damage. I gave Forretress a Careful Nature in a desperate attempt to give Pineco and Forretress more Special Defence.

FULL POST:

Sorry that it took me so long, but Pineco's and Forretress's Speed is already terrible, and after a couple of debuffs from Curse to set them up, it took me forever to finish my run, even while playing at x3 game speed! ... And it also took me 5 attempts to beat this solo run, which didn't help my release schedule.

As I always say, the 'fail chart' at the end of the image gallery isn't a tier list, but this time Pineco definitely ended up where I think it belongs: together with Slowpoke, Ledyba, and Wooper, which were three of the most difficult and least fun solo runs that I've done for this challenge. In the early game, Pineco's awful Speed and its bad overall stats (except Defence) make it easy prey for your Rival's starting bird, and every other Flying-, Fire-, or Rock-type that it faces, especially if they use special attacks. And in the second match against your Rival, good luck taking down a Phase 1 bird with an (unevolved) glorified version of a pine cone!

A little after that, Pineco is going to evolve into Forretress and acquire the Steel type and better stats. Bug and Steel is a great type combination, but Forretress's paper-thin Special Defence makes it VERY vulnerable to special Fire attacks—and to strong special attacks in general, to be fair. And it doesn't help that the steel ball's base Speed is quite low already (60), and that it's only able to set up offensively through Curse, which makes it even more vulnerable to strong attacks, status effects, and bad RNG. Both Sturdy (its Ability) and Iron Barbs (its Passive Ability) provided huge value in my run, but they can't save you from very bad encounters. This means that your 'strategy' in a Pineco and Forretress solo run is to pray not to come across any Fire-types or strong special attackers, or at least meet them as little as possible.

My moveset consisted of Leech Life, Gyro Ball, Earthquake, and Curse. Leech Life is one of Pineco's Egg Moves, and it's a must-have to attempt a solo run with that thing. The fact that it allows you to heal Forretress while damaging the opponent often grants it to recover the HP that it has lost from moving last. Leech Life also has great synergy with Curse—and every other Attack-boosting move—because it allows the user to heal from most, if not all, of the damage it endured in the setup phase, letting it end the turn with improved stats and high HP, which is a massive advantage in terms of tempo.

I started the run with the Spin Out Egg Move, but I replaced it with Gyro Ball, which Pineco and Forretress can learn by themselves while leveling up, because it's another synergistic move with Curse. As you probably know, Gyro Ball does more damage the slower the user is compared to the opponent, and it has a maximum base power of 150. Curse lowers the user's Speed by one stage every time it is used, and Forretress's Speed is quite low already, so there are plenty of instances in which Gyro Ball can do more damage than Spin Out. At the same time, Curse improves Gyro Ball's damage by raising Forretress's Attack. This move was also a great tool to turn Rayquaza's staggering Speed against itself. Earthquake was meant to delude myself into thinking I had an answer against x4 effective Fire-types. It worked best as a switch-in trap against them, but in a 1 v. 1 fight where Forretress didn't have the chance to set up earlier, it would probably end up roasted, even taking its Sturdy Ability into account. Curse is a hilariously good setup move for Forretress—since it's already quite slow, it doesn't have much to lose by using it! Combined with Forretress's high base Defence, it is great in front of physical attackers, but strong special attackers don't leave you much time for many Curses, and this could be a problem.

In a desperate attempt to give Pineco and Forretress more Special Defence, I gave them a Careful Nature, which improves that stat at the expense of their Special Attack. A Sassy Nature (+ Special Defence, - Speed) could have been better, especially if you aim at maximising Gyro Ball's damage output, but I found it too risky for my liking, especially in the Pineco part of the run. In the late game, with a Careful Nature and 4 Zincs, Forretress ended up having a decent Special Defence, but it was still very far from surviving strong Fire attacks. Moreover, the 2 Leftovers that it held provided great value, in combination with the healing provided by Leech Life.

I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run).

I've never caught wild Pokémon in my solo runs before, like some solo runners do to avoid tough fights and/or to strip wild encounters of their held items. This time, however, I had to break my own rule—purely out of spite/revenge. I caught a wild Greedent only to recover the Multi Lens that it managed to steal from Forretress with Covet. All my Pineco solo runs have been long and very frustrating, and it pissed me off so much that among all the items the steel ball was holding back then, Greedent managed to steal just the Multi Lens! Also, these solo runs have been very hard, and a Multi Lens is definitely one of the items that can make the difference between a successful attempt and a failure. I tried every other solution to prevent Greedent from stealing (for example, running from the fight or using different combinations of attacks), but nothing spoiled the heist. Fun fact: I was twice as angry when Greedent stole Forretress's Multi Lens, because exactly the same thing happened in a previous solo run attempt, and that time I wasn't able to recover the stolen property because the following wave was a double wild encounter. If the thief squirrel were on my team, it would have actively participated in a fight and made my solo run invalid.

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AN UPDATE ON DITTO AND UNOWN:

Starting with Pineco's solo run, I'm also changing how I'm attempting new runs of starters that ended up in the 'in progress' section of my 'fail chart'. Back when there was only Ditto in this section, I attempted a new Ditto run before every new try of a successive starter. Now that Unown has joined Ditto in the 'in progress' club, doing a new run for both of them between EVERY failed attempt of a new starter is taking way too long—especially with frustrating contenders like Pineco. From now on, I'll only do one Ditto and one Unown attempt per NEW starter, rather than matching them attempt-for-attempt.