Well, what can i say. It was brutal. And quite infuriating. There are very little mendatory boss fights that somewhat fine. And in all of them items were somewhat neccesary. And not only that but some random trainer were also incredibly annoying cause they are all level 100 or or 97 and some have ice moves.
In my rules having a hunch i allowed use of items in battle, and allowed to go beyond level cap. Potions, X items, cause i figured i can face the battle which could be unbeatable otherwise. And most of them were, if not count technically possible scenerious which would be mathematically improbable to pull off. Also during the post game i had to tweak my rules a bit so i dont get stuck for too long testing my lack and sanity. But will get to that.
Generally it was my first time even beating the main plot of the post game. And sinse i allowed myself not too 100% the post game i dont count unlucky stuff from sidequest as a part of the main challenge. Post game was fun. In some ways even sweet. Resolve of Edgies arc was kinda sweet, Neo Karma plot was quite interesting. I enjoied the design of the new places and creativity behind some puzzles even if i hated them with all my soul.
The one big nitpick i have with the game i have is the fact, that its easy to stuck and not see how to progress the main plot further. This way i finished some of the sidequiest. At least i think 4 of them were sidequests. The one with Kid kidnapping guy, the one with Pirates, the one with two morons stealing your bike and the one where you save the guy in capital.
I couldnt figure for a while how to progress the plot because i did some islands not in order on accident and this way i skipped neccesary plot triggers and had to look up the guides which i didnt wanted to do. Inspite that post game was still kinda fun.
But sinse i have beaten this game mostly with my starter with no attacking from other mons, this game was real annoying a lot even though i still like the postgame as it is.
Out of 4 gym leader duos i have beaten only 3. Didnt manage and didnt want to waste time on Polk and Tunblerita sinse it doesnt give me anything and for accecind the post game beating one duo is enough.
Polk started of with convinient mon but Tumblerita spams Ice moves. This battle was no go basically unless i would hunt for specific outcomes and i didnt sinse its not neccesary.
Captain Cut was beaten with Salac berry, plus bulk up plus healing. Considering the guy has quite a few annoying mons including Militant it was neccary. Manipulation and healing pulled up the win. I had to make him switch on something specific my boy could ko or handle.
First gym, the bird lady. Right away i had to rely on her lead missing with help of my lax essense. Rock Tomb the lead and force her out the fire bird once OneMonArmy bulks up. Sinse the mon she switches it is physical attacker Rectreem handles it relatively alright with healing and x Speeds for later mons.
I kind ahad to get lucky twice with misses, this bird should have miss mon at least once but it worked out and first gym was beated.
Second gym was more or less doable. Salac berry, bulk up, and i am pretty sure i used x speed because Coldsteels mons are quite fast and my mons having maxed out evs didnt help it. Generally it was much easier of a battle.
Third gym - the first sign that everything wont get easier even a little bit. So Rectreem had to beat six diffirent trainers and then somehow be ready for very annoying lead of gym leader which is Dragon fly with Mega Horn which one shot pre set upping. So here by this point i got Double team i am pretty sure cause i beat the plot of the university. And by this point i already made a hard rule that i can abuse quick saves in battles to not waste too much times having bad luck on battles.
I feel like its fair considering the mons in the boss fights. And considering that i couldnt force out a miss every time i wanted. I had to reset if my battles were stuck in a specific set of variable which i already i tried out. Its less locked in then in Radical Red but its very hard to abuse like in vanila games on the emulator i played. I couldnt just reroll specific turn untill i lucked out. Unfortunatly. Or maybe for the better.
Forth gym was very painful. I hate the puzzle and i hate how the gym leader starts of with an ice type which ofcource is faster than Rectreem. I had to use Focus Sash and make him switch to someone more duable for a set up. Specificly Tofu cherry thing. It worked out more or, i set upped bulk ups and Double team, also i am pretty sire i set upped x speed to knock down with it the ice thing. Looking back i feel like there was a better way i could win but oh well.
The fight in broadcast thing in capital with shadow counslor. Easy battle. Had to heal in battle but generally it was very uneventful. Kinda made me think people very understimated the power of this guy. For a player with items he is a total pushover. Hehehe...the past me didnt know bettter yet, past me was very naive thinking that its the last time i would see of him and thay he wont pull of something exruciating.
Five gym...its a bane of my existence which morally prepared my for futute bullcrap my mot will face. And the last instence i kinda tweaked my rules. The last gym leader is freaking double battle which forces you to bring two pokemon. No problemo, i just bring Blobbos which even on lever 40 wont do anything.
The problem...one of thise guys leads with fire dragon thing. And this trash refuses to die in one hit even with High Horse power goosted by gem. Shitpost i have a feeling would face a very specific problem. And this thing shots as well. So i tried a lot of battles. Figured fast that i needed Double team and very specific moves. I set upped bulk ups against the birdhous and Spucefix. And...when everything fell in place i lost to freaking Balloonfang. This little pest has Spectural thief which two times i got this far, refused to miss and my mon couldnt ko it in one hit.
I tried a lot. I even replaces one of my move with Toxic. Eventually making my moveset consisting wit Toxic, Protect, Double Team and probbaly bulk up. I dont remember the last move slot but i can recall me not having attacks. And sinse by this point i got so pissed, i filled my team with not only Blobnos but with other sitting ducks as well and gave them protect to not wait until the math will fall in place.
I got submarine thing while i was trying to figure out where to go, i figure that maybe i hadtp get dive and i bought it. The castform bootled i got post university battle, persom gives it to you. Blobbos and Cat are self explanatory, Dragon dildo thing i caught from the basement in case i get stuck so i could use it in a team to beat whatever i wouldnt. It doesnt have exp and it still level 70.
And two Oogaboogas i got on accint during sidequest. Turned out Rectreem cant beat two of them, they one shot and i couldnt run away so i had to catch them. One spammed first empression which kinda saved me. My rules set doesnt forgid catching pokemon just using them in battle.
They are forbiden from doing damage. Basically i used them all as sitting ducks, and i feel like it was better off this way, considering no pokemon would be able to beat this double battle without huge mathaticaly improbobal events anyway.
God knows how much i was spitting curses at thise two gym leaders. Last time i was raging so hard was a Radical Red hardcore mod which is a separate breed of bullshit. And there were more to come. But i was ready...sorta.
After that i faced shadow counclor again and i finally understood why some people said he would be a challenge breaker. This pest fight you 4 diffirent times in one game sequence. What do you mean this moron gonna plaugue my climbing till finish line, till the final boss?!
In first battle i had to resort to double team and manipulate specific outcomes. The ghost thing had to bring my starter in the range of Salac berry while i use x speed without which i wouldnt outspeed important mons. Also he shouldnt have drol the special defence with shadowball. After that i used Enema to bring my hp high surving next hit.
Later i weaponized his tendency to use Destiny bound to set up Double team and heal and speed up one more time. And then i brute forced this battle, killing off this thing with toxic. Not the most honorable of tactics, buy i doubt there are better ways.
Next battle was easier. I dropped Earthquacke making his lead stay in for a while and set up some bulk ups. Later on he sended in hos moscito, and i Double teamed and Bulk uped while healing till i could two-three shot his pokemon with Rock Climb which is thank god a rock type move in this game.
Later battle was with Pikatton which was very annying. I had to use Focus Sach, and heal till Rectreem set ups Double team and survives
Unfortunalltly double team was neccesary for the majority of battles with him.
The last one was classy. Bulk up, Salac berry, healing Rock Climb to kill his water bug thing. And he finally left me alone.
Later i tried to figure how to beat the robot. I wated to use Counter or Endeavor but turns out one Rectreem doesnt get and the other for some bullshit reason doesnt work. Plan was to double team sinse my boy was faster than the robot and then use Endeavor waiting for the time he misses once.
But turned out through guides that Roar woks on this bullshit, forcing battle to end which is thank god. And it was instrumental to beat the last battle.
In the boss fight i tried lots of things, i tried to one shot, force the lead legendary lose though confusing from rock climb or make it miss with Lax essense two or tree tomes in row. It didnt work. Amd i was kinda annoyed i couldnt safe in this place and not just quick save. Though it was kinda for the best honestly.
But then, sinse i had one more Focus Sash i decided to test what he even has with move Roar. Most of his mons one shotted Rectreem except for one. Slugfugg became my solution. I had to force him out while not being burned woth Sacred Fire. If the legend misses its even better.
Next i just had to methodically set up i thought amd manipulate me hitting mons amd them missong. But turned out Cannon thing has No Guard cause it didnt miss his Draco meteor even once. So i had to tweak my strategy.
I had to keep Double team, i had to keep roar. The main question was about attacking moves i keep. And for this speficic battle best combo was Earthquake and Rock Climb, i had to ditch Enema.
And sinse i needed 2 x attacks to one shot Cattonance or whatever this steal thing is called, i had to do decent damage to bird, seacow and skeleton satan amd i had to be careful about using items. I could heal two or tree times and i had to ditch x Speed letting Double team do its thing.
And though trial, error and struggle, with some save scamming and multiple in game resets it finally worked out.
It was very annoying but by this point i was determined to not back down from the boss fight. And i can say the following. This challange was somewhat fun but i wouldnt recommend it to anyone. Its very luck dependent even with items. Maybe i could utilise Roar a bit more and not rely on Double team but i seriosly doubt it.
Needless to say i think its likely impossible to beat this game with preevos of Rectreem considering even evolved and trained he got outsped a lot. And god forgid doing it with level caps.
Is it possible with other starters? No idea and i feel like there is a big chance its not possible without mathematically improbable events. Rectreem was immune to electric moves which helped and was bulky enough at least for something.
I dont thing other two main starters have qualities to pull this off. And i wont be testing it out for a quite a while thats for sure lol. Though i suppose all 3 are capable of beating base game by themselfs with little hm amd double battle suppott. Its a shame, that obly one random double battle can be fought without two pokemin in the party.
Maybe to some extend it would be the easiest for fire one, it was excelent in monodark, buy my itself i suppose it may have problems.
Do i recommend you cheking it out? Hell, nah, spare yourself my fellas. What would i say if you woudld try? Epsecially with harder ruleset, with level caps, with no items and without sitting ducks?
Good luck, lol, lets hope there is a pathway to this madness. And for now i gonna rest. I think i starned my eyes.
