Last month, Rachel and I decided to put a new twist on our Pokemon games. Generally, both of us go on our journeys in the core series with well-rounded teams — Rachel usually has an idea as to which types and Pokemon she wants, while I just go and collect Pokemon of different types that I think are pretty cool. For this challenge, we were each randomly assigned a trio of types that we could use, as well as a random region to go through.
Kris had to only have Pokemon that had the types Ground, Dark, and Dragon on her team. I was only allowed Normal, Electric, and Bug on my team. We also randomly generated which region we’d be in. Kris got a Hoenn Pokemon from the generator so she played Alpha Sapphire. I got a Unova Pokemon so I played White 2. It was… actually harder than we thought it would be.
While I’ve trained my fair share of Ground and Dark type Pokemon, Dragon was a type I wasn’t too experienced in and it was a bit difficult to find Pokemon that fit those three typings. I played by the rule that if at least one of a Pokemon’s types matched one of my three, then I could use it, such as Numel being Fire and Ground type. I also caught a Swablu due to its evolution being part Dragon. My Nincada, on the other hand, will never evolve as it’ll lose its Ground typing if it becomes a Ninjask.
I played a little differently than Kris. I wanted all my Pokemon to exclusively be Bug, Electric, or Normal. So, my party consisted of Stoutland, Audino, Karrablast, Shelmet, Galvantula, and Tynamo. So I had at least two Normal, two Bug, and two Electric. I look at the game guide and made up my team before I started playing to make sure it was doable. The thing was, I went through the first five gyms with just Stoutland and Audino because the other four weren’t available to catch until later. At that point, the grinding to get the other four caught up in levels was a pain.
My way of playing was just to go through the adventure naturally and only catch those that had at least one of my typings (with the occasional Zigzagoon when I needed HM help). The first three gyms I only had Mightyena and Nincada, and I was able to catch Numel, Swablu, Cacnea, and Trapinch later. Grinding was definitely annoying, and I found myself with fainted Pokemon much more often in trainer battles than I ever have before due to the type weaknesses. You have to keep your team a little over leveled to account for their type weaknesses, which slows down the game play a bit.
Yes, my Pokemon fainted a lot more than I usually let them too. As for HMs, I actually didn’t need to use any until after the fifth gym. It was surf – that Audino can learn – and strength – that Stoutland can learn. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to actually beat our games within our challenge timeline. I breezed right through the game up until right before the sixth gym where I needed to grind a lot. Though I plan on continuing to play this file and play at my own pace. I want this team to go through the Elite Four!
Oh, yes, I’m planning on continuing this file as well. We’re just about ready to face the fifth gym leader, so we’ll see how that goes! Aside from the grinding, it’s a fun challenge to try. Out of my team, Mightyena and Nincada are the only Pokemon I’ve trained before. The others are all brand-new to me, so giving them a chance in battle is definitely interesting. I wouldn’t mind trying a challenge like this again!
I agree, this challenge has allowed me to branch out with new Pokemon. I rarely have Normal or Bug Pokemon on my team. I would definitely try this challenge as well too. We’ll have to remember this idea for another time… Maybe even for Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield down the line!
Happy Friday!
