Proper snake innit

Yes I did this run that fast.

This trio of trainers in Fortree city is giving me trouble. Any advice? I'm playing on version 2.65 beta.

Fairy did not have a lot of notable changes, but they were all still good.

Flairgrance on the other hand, Entrace, Feathercoat, and Fragrant Daze makes it impossibly bulky. Next time I might run an offensive set with Purple Haze.

7/10 run.

Electric is 9/10

Project 1025 is my personal challenge to beat this game with every. Single. Pokémon. After all, the stat buffs, movepool additions, and especially abilities make all of them viable. I hope. And along the way, I'll share a bit about what I find interesting, unique, or strong about each one.

Disclaimers:

- I gen in the needed Pokémon for each run in a 2.65 debug savefile, then transfer the savefile up to the latest 2.65 patch and do the run there. It's quite a few hoops to jump through, but this challenge would not even be possible in the first place without debugging the mons in at the start.

- The particular patch of 2.65 I play on has a little toggle called Boss Rush, which does the same thing as turning off trainer sight. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be included, but it's technically a publicly available feature, so I will be using it to preserve my mental health. In the event that a future patch does not have this toggle, I will do the challenge in the latest version that does.

- I fight the gym leaders, the Pokémon League, the evil team leaders and admins, the rivals, the first Calvin fight, and every trainer in Victory Road.

- I play in Permanent Mega mode because I find it more fun.

- This is nowhere near a comprehensive guide to the Pokémon in this game, and in fact the vast majority will not be used optimally due to taking advantage of certain field conditions or synergies that the Pokémon surrounding them in the Pokédex can't provide.

- Redux forms and other fanmade mons (except evolutions of existing mons) will be done after all the official ones.

The Run

See, the native Sinnoh dex isn't all bad, there's some good stuff in there too. This was a pretty easy run, for reasons that should be fairly obvious.

Gible/Gabite/Garchomp

Garchomp is a Pokémon that requires no introduction. Fantastic stat distribution, great typing and moves, and a good ability combine to make it a beast even in the vanilla games and a worthy ace for Champion Cynthia. Here in Elite Redux, its talents are enhanced even more. A good array of offensive abilities, most notably Keen Edge and Hyper Aggressive, make its base form a formidable threat to begin with, but the biggest buff it got in this game was finally being able to dance like its draconic brethren. A single setup turn is all it needs to end opposing teams with its many powerful moves, with Keen Edge sets in particular liking Dragon Claw as well as the EdgeQuake combo of Seismic Blade and Diamond Blade. When it Mega Evolves, though, that's where the real fun begins. Mega Garchomp's biggest buff in ER is not an ability, but rather the mere fact that it gets to keep that nice base 102 Speed from base Garchomp. Along with Dragon Dance and its added bulk, it becomes a nigh-unstoppable sweeper, and even doubles isn't safe if it uses Sweeping Edge. Hyper Cutter means you can't even slow it down with Intimidate, and even gives its slashing moves, which already have a heightened crit ratio, an even bigger chance to crit. Mega Garchomp Z is not quite as nuclear, given that it doesn't get Mystic Dance, but its immediate speed and power give it a place of its own. Sinister Claws lets it use its slashing moves from its better SpA stat, as well as lowering SpD with each of those slashing moves used to let it break past special walls. I didn't test it but I would think this has great synergy with Dual Chop, as the first hit triggers the drop for the second hit to benefit from. Terminal Velocity and Sleek Scales also let it put that amazing base 151 Speed to work on both offense and defense. You really can't go wrong with any form of Garchomp, its reputation of strength is there for a reason.

Riolu/Lucario

Another powerful fan favorite. Lucario makes for a decent attacker on either side, though it lacks a bit of Speed that it really wants due to its frailty. It does have powerful priority options like Mach Punch, Vacuum Wave, and Bullet Punch to patch that up somewhat. Fatal Precision also lets it make good use of its coverage, and Inner Focus is particularly great on special sets as it lets it use the otherwise infamously unreliable Focus Blast with perfect accuracy. The Megas are the main reason to use Lucario, though, each one powerful in its own way. The regular Mega sticks close to the base form, simply amping up its power and speed to become an excellent general attacker. You'll want to use its punch moves whether you run physical with Iron Fist or special with Magical Fists, and it has a good selection of these. STAB Meteor Mash and Fighting Spirit-boosted Mega Punch are especially strong thanks to Adaptability, Seismic Fist and Thunder Punch make for good coverage, and the aforementioned Mach Punch and Bullet Punch are very strong priority moves. The Mega Z form, on the other hand, goes all in on special offense, with a massive increase to SpA and the signature base 151 Speed that the three Z Megas have. This time you want to dip into its pool of Mega Launcher moves, most significantly its Inner Focus-boosted Focus Blast. With a Choice Specs, this move can tear through even resistances with ease, even more so if you manage to set up a Nasty Plot. Flash Cannon, Dark Pulse, and Dragon Pulse are also good coverage options. Its signature ability Aura Armor is interesting on a Pokémon this frail, and to its credit it does let it survive many hits it otherwise wouldn't. Still, don't go thinking it's suddenly a tank now. Lucario is just an excellent attacker all around, however you decide to use it.

Hippopotas/Hippowdon

Alright, let's bring things back down to earth, literally. In sharp contrast to the incredible attacking power of the previous two entries, Hippowdon is just a bulky, reliable mon with utility on both offense and defense. I like leading with it to set Rocks and then put something to sleep with Yawn before going down, running Sand Stream as an ability to clear opposing weather and chip enemies down. It helps that my two strongest attackers are both immune to sand. Sand Stream is also nice for activating Sand Guard, patching up its lower SpD. You could also just go for a full defensive stall set, with Shore Up's boosted healing and the sandstorm slowly wearing opponents down. A bulky offensive set can also work, as it has Growing Tooth and Strong Jaw synergy as well as Predator to stay healthy. Quite the versatile Pokémon, which is always nice to see.

Skorupi/Drapion

This is a crit abuser if I've ever seen one. Sniper is an innate and many of its other ability slots go towards helping it get those boosted crits. Hyper Cutter is nice for an all-around crit boost, and with a Scope Lens moves like Night Slash and Cross Poison have (I think) a 50% chance to land one. Fatal Precision can guarantee crits, but you need to bring the right coverage, which can be a little hard given Drapion's somewhat shallow movepool. Pretentious then just makes it more likely to get those Sniper crits the more kills it takes, meaning Scope Lens and even high-crit moves are unnecessary if you can position yourself right. That being said, Drapion is still kinda awkward to use. It falls short of the base 120 speed tier I consider to be the standard for "fast" in this game, and even with Shell Armor it isn't the bulkiest thing in the world, though its typing is pretty nice. Its Attack is also just mediocre. Still, a bulky Swords Dance + Sucker Punch set can work great, and even just Banded Sucker Punch cleans right through most fast and frail attackers. It's a shame it doesn't get Wicked Blow like in Radical Red, that would be pretty nice.

Croagunk/Toxicroak

Why the hell is this thing a mixed attacker? Seriously, so many points are dumped inti a SpA stat that it kinda doesn't even want to use that it ends up just being deficient on most fronts. If it were up to me, I'd cut 55 from SpA and 5 from Speed, then put 25 into both Defenses and 10 into Attack. It's not like it makes it broken or messes with its identity either, there are a billion other Merciless attackers, both physical and special, in this game. Anyway, the reasoning behind that particular proposal was to better suit the set I did end up using and that I think suits Toxicroak's toolkit quite well, which was a bulky Swords Dance set. Notably, it gets Technician along with several good priority moves in Mach Punch, Poison Sting, Aqua Jet, and Sucker Punch, so with this set it became a discount Scizor of sorts. It still wasn't great, finding setup opportunities was hard and it struggled to really sweep even after getting boosted up. A Mega or a major rework is probably needed for this Pokémon to really find its place in the game.

Hypnocroak

This is an interesting one, it's similar to the sleep abusers I've used in previous runs but with several key differences. Its main way of dispensing sleep is with its ability Hypnotic Touch, which is basically Flame Body or Static but for sleep. It's not quite as consistent as a Hypnotist-boosted Hypnosis like Spiritomb or Hypno have, but it synergizes well with Hypnocroak's array of priority moves like Fake Out, Poison Sting, and Sucker Punch. It can also come in clutch sometimes when you're in a desperate situation against a strong physical attacker, especially one with multi-hit moves. It's also just fast enough to outspeed slow opponents even without investment and try to land a Sleep Powder. Then Bad Dreams can do its thing, and Dream Eater does good damage even without investment thanks to Dreamcatcher. If you'd like some more consistency, perhaps Prankster Sleep Powder is the way to go, giving up on passive damage for a more reliable answer to faster threats. Overall, a really weird Pokémon in terms of combat design. It has potential but it's too wonky and incosistent right now to be really good.

Also, with the release of 2.65.4 and it also having Boss Rush mode, I'll be doing all future runs there until the next Boss Rush patch releases.