After watching quite a bit of Twitch Plays Pokemon, I got a hankering for some challenge in the form of a Pokemon play through. Now, at normal speed, Pokemon is boring as shit. Holy hell is it boring. Thus, I acquired Fire Red version, loaded up VBA, and gave it a go.
The rules I used:
- If a Pokemon dies, it's dead. I dumped them into Box 2 in my PC. That was my perma-dead box.
- I could only catch the first Pokemon in an area.
- If the first Pokemon in the area was a duplicate of a Pokemon already in my party, I was allowed one more encounter. Another duplicate was either one I just had to catch or kill and move on.
- No legendary Pokemon.
- Pokemon acquired by any other means were okay to use. This made up for the fact that a lot of places had a bad habit of only having Rattata, or Raticates, or Pidgeys. Most areas had a really bad diversity of Pokemon problem.
Okay, so, that was the rule set I set out with. The journey was certainly rocky, and I'll outline specific losses below. By the end of the 7th gym, I was down to only four Pokemon over level 40 in my party, the rest lost in the Pokemon Mansion to that ridiculous Weezing and its self destructing. By the end of the 8th gym, I had only one Pokemon left over level 40, no Pokemon that could use Strength, and two insects that were only levels 22 and 28. Despite this, I continued on to Victory Road. I turned my level 28 Vileplume into a level 35, but it died shortly after entering Victory Road from some bull crap or another. I did catch a Marowak who I named Hope though, as luck would have it, from my first encounter and gained the ability to move through the cave.
Upon getting out (and barely making it), I only had a level 62 Vaporeon named Winner, who I had since level 25 and was my saving grace. Knowing I couldn't beat the Elite 4 with a level 62 Vaporeon and a level 46 Marowak, I went to level grind on Victory Road. I walked out of there with Vaporeon at level 82, and Marowak at 54.
I rolled through the entire Elite 4 and the Champion with only Vaporeon, along with the aid of a couple of Full Restores and an Elixir. It was some skill, some time, and some great success.
First up, my victory screen:
FINAL POKEMON NAMES/LEVELS:
Winner (Level 83 Vaporeon)
Hope (Level 54 Marowak) (Didn't use at all in the Elite 4/Champion fights)
My final stats:
That time isn't quite right. I was playing at 400% speed, so the amount of hours I put into that was more like 1/4 of it, so less than 10 hours total.
Now, for those lost:
In order from left to right, top to bottom:
Bird Jesus (Level 12 Pidgey): Lost while level grinding early on.
GEODUDE (Level 14 Geodude): Lost to a lucky hit inside of Mt. Moon.
Moonkey (Level 5 Mankey): Lost almost right after being caught right next to the road to the Pokemon League.
Try Hard (Level 5 Metapod): Sacrificed so that another could live.
BEEDRILL (Level 26 Beedrill): Lost inside the Rocket Casino base.
Baller (Level 22 Voltorb): Lost inside the Rocket Casino base.
Lee (Level 33 Venusaur): Lost inside of Silph Co.
Ratman (Level 36 Raticate): Lost inside of Silph Co.
Bush (Level 15 Oddish): Lost so others could live in a battle that was nearly my last.
Ghost (Level 18 Ghastly): Lost while trying to level it up. Mistakes were made.
Air (Level 33 Lapras): Lost inside of the Pokemon Mansion. The first of two losses.
Wolfy (Level 40 Arcanine): Lost to a Weezing that self destructed in the Pokemon Mansion.
Lord Helix (Level 33 Omanyte): Lost at the start of the 8th gym. I overestimated Helix's ability.
B. Jesus 2 (Level 42 Fearow): Lost halfway through the 8th gym from a lucky shot.
Kick Bitch (Level 41 Hitmonlee): Lost a little over halfway through the 8th gym. Things were iffy.
PARAS (Level 22 Paras): Sacrificed around the start of Victory Road.
Gloomietta (Level 32 Vileplume): I tried to make this a replacement party member, but lost him around the start of Victory Road while attempting to grind.
It was an interesting journey, and it was very iffy when I finished the 8th gym with only my Vaporeon still at a decent level and alive. I barely beat my rival on the route to Victory Road, but I managed. The grinding was a good choice though, as had I tried to face the Elite 4 as I was at the end of Victory Road initially, I would have lost and my time would have been more wasted than it already was doing this challenge to begin with.
Overall: Mission success!
The rules I used:
- If a Pokemon dies, it's dead. I dumped them into Box 2 in my PC. That was my perma-dead box.
- I could only catch the first Pokemon in an area.
- If the first Pokemon in the area was a duplicate of a Pokemon already in my party, I was allowed one more encounter. Another duplicate was either one I just had to catch or kill and move on.
- No legendary Pokemon.
- Pokemon acquired by any other means were okay to use. This made up for the fact that a lot of places had a bad habit of only having Rattata, or Raticates, or Pidgeys. Most areas had a really bad diversity of Pokemon problem.
Okay, so, that was the rule set I set out with. The journey was certainly rocky, and I'll outline specific losses below. By the end of the 7th gym, I was down to only four Pokemon over level 40 in my party, the rest lost in the Pokemon Mansion to that ridiculous Weezing and its self destructing. By the end of the 8th gym, I had only one Pokemon left over level 40, no Pokemon that could use Strength, and two insects that were only levels 22 and 28. Despite this, I continued on to Victory Road. I turned my level 28 Vileplume into a level 35, but it died shortly after entering Victory Road from some bull crap or another. I did catch a Marowak who I named Hope though, as luck would have it, from my first encounter and gained the ability to move through the cave.
Upon getting out (and barely making it), I only had a level 62 Vaporeon named Winner, who I had since level 25 and was my saving grace. Knowing I couldn't beat the Elite 4 with a level 62 Vaporeon and a level 46 Marowak, I went to level grind on Victory Road. I walked out of there with Vaporeon at level 82, and Marowak at 54.
I rolled through the entire Elite 4 and the Champion with only Vaporeon, along with the aid of a couple of Full Restores and an Elixir. It was some skill, some time, and some great success.
First up, my victory screen:
FINAL POKEMON NAMES/LEVELS:
Winner (Level 83 Vaporeon)
Hope (Level 54 Marowak) (Didn't use at all in the Elite 4/Champion fights)
My final stats:
That time isn't quite right. I was playing at 400% speed, so the amount of hours I put into that was more like 1/4 of it, so less than 10 hours total.
Now, for those lost:
In order from left to right, top to bottom:
Bird Jesus (Level 12 Pidgey): Lost while level grinding early on.
GEODUDE (Level 14 Geodude): Lost to a lucky hit inside of Mt. Moon.
Moonkey (Level 5 Mankey): Lost almost right after being caught right next to the road to the Pokemon League.
Try Hard (Level 5 Metapod): Sacrificed so that another could live.
BEEDRILL (Level 26 Beedrill): Lost inside the Rocket Casino base.
Baller (Level 22 Voltorb): Lost inside the Rocket Casino base.
Lee (Level 33 Venusaur): Lost inside of Silph Co.
Ratman (Level 36 Raticate): Lost inside of Silph Co.
Bush (Level 15 Oddish): Lost so others could live in a battle that was nearly my last.
Ghost (Level 18 Ghastly): Lost while trying to level it up. Mistakes were made.
Air (Level 33 Lapras): Lost inside of the Pokemon Mansion. The first of two losses.
Wolfy (Level 40 Arcanine): Lost to a Weezing that self destructed in the Pokemon Mansion.
Lord Helix (Level 33 Omanyte): Lost at the start of the 8th gym. I overestimated Helix's ability.
B. Jesus 2 (Level 42 Fearow): Lost halfway through the 8th gym from a lucky shot.
Kick Bitch (Level 41 Hitmonlee): Lost a little over halfway through the 8th gym. Things were iffy.
PARAS (Level 22 Paras): Sacrificed around the start of Victory Road.
Gloomietta (Level 32 Vileplume): I tried to make this a replacement party member, but lost him around the start of Victory Road while attempting to grind.
It was an interesting journey, and it was very iffy when I finished the 8th gym with only my Vaporeon still at a decent level and alive. I barely beat my rival on the route to Victory Road, but I managed. The grinding was a good choice though, as had I tried to face the Elite 4 as I was at the end of Victory Road initially, I would have lost and my time would have been more wasted than it already was doing this challenge to begin with.
Overall: Mission success!
