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jaybug-jabbers · 4 years ago

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Bug Run 7: Alola, Bug Friends

I’ve done bug runs for six generations of pokemon games by now. I wasn’t going to leave gen 7 out of the fun. However, it does mean a little tweaking of my usual rules. New bug pokemon in this game are fairly rare and spread wide apart. So, to pick up some of the slack, I’m also going to allow bugs that aren’t new to gen 7 to fill out my team.

Despite the relative rarity of new bugs in gen 7, there are some really, really cool ones. So it’s well worth spending more time with these fellahs and going on our island trials with our new insect allies.

Now, keep in mind this is a pretty long post that goes into details on the major battles of the game. If that’s not your cup of tea, I suggest checking out the summary post instead that I’ll be doing soon. But if you enjoy reading the full story, then this is for you!

So grab your shades and your sunblock, and let’s go enjoy a tropical paradise, complete with the mugginess and mosquitoes!

Rules of the Bug Run

1.) The team must be bug types only, and only bugs found in Alola.

2.) No trainer items used during battle (unless the foe uses them first, and then you may only match the items one-for-one). Held items are allowed.

3.) No over-levelling. Pokemon should be at roughly normal levels for a given area and not be at a higher level than the maximum-levelled pokemon in a major trainer’s team.

Pretty simple, eh? Well, maybe. After doing a lot of these runs, I’ve often found the very start of the game can be one of the hardest moments. The start is when you have access to the fewest moves, almost no items and TMs, and there just isn’t much room for strategy if you run into trouble. Let’s see if we can overcome the first hurdles.

Early Gatekeepers

At the start of the game, the grass right beside your house offers four bug types: Grubbin, Ledyba, Caterpie and Spinarak. I chose to grab two of those, Grubbin (Gaz) and Ledyba (Protoman).

The first major battle, against Hau during the festival, is difficult but very possible for Grubbin to solo: Mud-Slap against the Pichu, hope you don’t get Tail Whipped too many times or, if you get paralyzed by Thundershock, that you don’t lose too many turns to paralysis– all of this so you can survive the fight against his starter (in this case, Popplio).

The first true difficulty was the teacher at the Trainer School, who has a Litten if you chose Rowlet as your starter. I had to equip both my pokes with an Oran berry, and then just barely squeaked by the battle with my two pokemon.

However, the next difficulty was fighting Ilima. With my Grubbin and Ledyba at level 11, I just couldn’t make it by Yungoos and Ember-weilding Smeargle. I thought hard about strats and decided to reset the game.

Sure, I could have added more pokemon to my team, but I wanted to see how well I could do with just two. So I picked Grubbin and Ledyba again– this time with better natures. This Grubbin was Brave and the Ledyba was Serious (a neutral nature). Now of course, when Grubbin later evolves, an Attack-boosting nature won’t do her much good. But in the early game, she’s a physical attacker and those extra points can make a big difference.

I also chose Litten as my starter. This allowed me to pass the teacher fight at the trainer school (Popplio) without using the Oran berries. Thus, I could face Ilima with both of my pokemon holding berries. My Ledyba could Swift Yungoos almost to death (even after an annoying potion) but went down hard after a Tackle following all those Leers. Grubbin finished the Yungoos off and then managed to solo the Smeargle: get several Mud-Slaps off, and with the help of one potion (since Ilima had used one earlier) and the berry, Grubbin could just manage to Bite the dog to death.

The fight proved the importance of very tiny factors turning the tide in my favor, such as pokemon natures and berries. This is especially important early game when there just isn’t a lot of options for strategy. Again, I could have just powered through with a team of four, but that seemed to run counter to the spirit of the challenge run. Perhaps I was just being stubborn. In any case, after passing Ilima’s gatekeeping, I was finally free to reach route 2 and add the third member to my team: Cutiefly (Ms. Sidle).

The remainder of Melee island was rather trivial. Cutiefly’s excellent speed and strong special attack made it essential on the team– especially when it picks up relatively high BP moves pretty quickly. The first totem pokemon was a piece of cake, and the Grand Trial was easy with Cutiefly’s Draining Kiss. Ledyba’s Swift was also very nice for Makuhita spamming Sand Attack.

Akala’s Trifecta

Arriving at Akala, I eventually decided to add a fourth teammember before facing Hau, since he had four partymembers. I trained up a Spinarak (Dipper) and sallied forth. Dartrix was slowly and patiently worn down with Ledyba (via screens and swifts and roosts), who eventually prevailed. Noibat still went down like a rock to a single Draining Kiss. Honestly, the only one on his team to give a little trouble was Dartrix.

At this point, Cutiefly and Ledyba had been the MVPs. Cutiefly’s speed and offensive prowess mowed through most foes. However, she is a delicate little thing that cannot really take hits, so Ledyba held all the tanking power. While Ledyba’s physical defense is poor, Reflect and Roost helped mitigate some of that. And Ledyba, of course, was a good spec. def. tank when compared to its kin. While Ledyba’s offensive ability is practically nil, at this point in the game, its move Swift was still very viable and useful. Ignoring all the Growls and Baby Doll Eyes and various attack drops, as well as all the Sand Attacks and other such issues, Ledyba had the bulk to get off enough swifts for victory. The two basically carried Grubbin; the poor little squishy babe just couldn’t do much. However, that changed when Grubbin finally evolved. Just in time for the water trial, too!

With Charjabug on our side, all it took was a couple Sparks to take out the Araquanid totem. Cutiefly finished off the ally.

After the totem’s defeat, I caught a Dewpider and put Spinarak on the bench for the time being. It didn’t take long to train Dewpider up and evolve into Araquanid. This would end up pretty important for the next trial; the fire trial.

My Araquanid, Neptune, was quite the beast, able to solo the totem and its ally, surviving on 5 HP even while poisoned. Obviously, the water Z-move helped seal the deal.

For the last Akala trial, grass, it took a couple tries to figure out the best strat. I finally settled on one that took advantage of Gaz’s new tanking abilities. After my recently-evolved Ledian provided dual screen support and a little chip damage, and I gave Gaz a Sitrus berry, Gaz could tank hits from Lurantis and its ally long enough to bug bite ‘em both to death.

Not long after our grass trial, my Cutiefly Ms. Sidle evolved and we added yet a new team member: Wimpod (Luciel). We then sped toward the grand trial of this island– a dreaded rock team. But it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I had expected. Gaz took Anorith out with 2 Acrobatics. Ms. Sidle took Lileep out with her Pollen Puff. And Neptune could Z-Bubble Beam the Lycanroc to doom. We won the game of pokemon rock, paper scissors, because bug beats everything.~

Going Electric in Ula’ula

Truth be told, it wasn’t until the third island, Ula’ula, that things started getting a little sticky. The electric trial was a miserable affair. Togedemaru, with high spec. d. and totem-buffed defense, Spiky Shield, a million resistences, a Sitrus berry and an ally that laid down Stealth Rock (a terror for bug teams) and Tailwinds (so even Scary Face couldn’t help me), it was just a pain in the ass. Did I mention half my team was weak to electric?

I placed Dipper the Spinarak back on the team and trained him up; I also trained the team up to level 33, went around and collected some TMs, and pondered some options. After trying a number of ideas, I finally prevailed. What helped was this: teaching Reflect to Ms. Sidle (the only member to naturally outspeed the totem) so she could get that up first turn and then toss a paralysis onto the ally for good measure and even some chip damage on the totem before going down. Next, teaching Brick Break to Golisopod; he could get it off before dying to Zing Zap since the screen was up. He got a lucky critical hit and did loads of damage and triggered the Sitrus berry. Next, I brought Neptune in, set up Aqua Ring to let the totem Spiky Shield (it tends to do this when you’re holding a Z-crystal), and then popped the z-move. It took the totem out and Neptune could finish off the ally, too.

It was a relief to get the fight out of the way. As a reward for all my suffering through the electric trial, up next was my favorite boy. It was a joy to fight Guzma at long last, defeating his Golisopod with my own. And soon after, I could finally evolve the last member of my team!

I should mention that I kept Gaz at level 30 and didn’t use her during my electric trial because I really needed to get Bug Buzz at level 31 when she evolved. So I had no choice but to wait until after the trial when I could finally reach Blush Mountain. It was kind of a pain not being able to use her during the trial (and Guzma’s first battle– both his pokes weak to electric. Well, I used Gaz while fighting him but carefully arranged it so she would faint and not get exp) but at least it wasn’t a longer wait.

With my starter now fully evolved, and my team rounded out to a full six, we were sailing pretty smoothly now. At this point, my crucial ally Ledian was staring to lag behind everyone else. Protoman had no offensive presence, of course, and things were starting to outspeed him enough now that he couldn’t even get his screens off anymore. Even Ariados was doing okay for himself; with the priority moves (Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch) to make up for his crap speed and Swords Dance to make up for middling attack, he could manage to scrape by. However, time would tell how things would pan out in the long run. Perhaps it was just a rough patch for the Johto pair.

Dark, Darker, and Darker Still

The spooky ghost trial was up next, but we took it in stride with enormous ease. Starting off with support from the Johto duo, Dipper used Scary Face– somehow spooking the king of spooks, Mimikyu– and broke the disguise with a Shadow Sneak. Protoman got up a Reflect and heroically took the Curse from the ally before going down. Then I just sort of hacked away with Golisopod’s Shadow Claw. I finished it off with flare with Gaz’s z-powered zapping.

We were then led into the dark back allies of Po Town, one of my favorite parts of the game. We find big bad Guzma moping in his room and challenge him to a bug DUEL.

Guzma is a man who likes to hit hard right away. He always opens with his ace. However, don’t be tempted to do the same. If I used up my Vikavolt on his ace, well, I’d face problems later. So instead, I opened with Protoman and got up the usual Reflect. Truth be told, I had intended Protoman to simply be First Impression fodder, but for some reason that move never came. Next in was Ms. Sidle, who halved Golisopod’s health with her buzzing, getting him into Emergency Exit range. Guzma sent in Masquerain next. At full health, my Vikavolt could survive a hit and use its Z-move. Golisopod was back in, poor Ariados was next for First Impression fodder, and Sidle could finish the water bug off. Finally, Pinsir was the last; I beat him down with my own Golisopod and Neptune. It wasn’t exactly graceful, but it got the job done. My team was a little under-levelled compared to Guzma’s, but it was a satisfying fight.

Angry at losing the BUG DUEL, Guzma storms out of his own house and I pilfer one of his bug z-crystals like a common crook. And sit in his chair, because who wouldn’t?

After this, Gladion drops by and rambles about Nebby and we’re supposed to follow him to the weird Aether Paradise island. Although the island grand kahuna challenges us to a quick match on the docks before we go. The match was, as you might guess, incredibly easy for my team, so we finish up fast and then ship out.

Our task, of course, is to expose the dark underbelly of Aether Paradise. It’s a long trawl through the facility, especially since I arrived admittedly rather under-levelled for the place, so I have to take my time with the battles. Slowly but surely, though, we claw our way through. All through the bottom labs, through the weird man in the green glasses, through all the Aether employees and Skull grunts, until finally we reach ya boy Guzma again.

Ya boy … has been training. And he’s added a Vikavolt to his team. I get my ass handed to me. Honestly, though, I’m thrilled he’s not a pushover. And it revealed some crucial flaws in my team:

(1) I already knew this but yes, my team is very weak to electric.

(2) Holy shit my team is SLOW. Golisopod: base 40, Ariados: 40, Araquanid: 42, Vikavolt: 43. Only Ribombee is fast (124) and Ledian is fair (85). I knew Alolan pokemon tend to be grossly slow, but this was a painful reminder.

(3) Some of my pokes had movesets that didn’t really make full use of their potential.

So, I had to do some rethinking. First of all, I had to let go of Ledian’s dual STAB. It didn’t make sense. He was a support pokemon, not a fighter. I’d keep one attacking move because he still needs to grind, but for now, I removed Bug Buzz.

Second of all, Swords Dance on Ariados was no longer working. For grinding, yes, but not for serious fights. He just could not survive long enough to use it. So, I give him a new tactic: Toxic, Protect, and Sucker Punch. He would tox stall and throw some sucker punches in there in between stalling. He also had Black Sludge to help with the stalling (he’d always been holding it– I stole some sludge from a Grimer way back at the start of the game). He was hardly a tank or an ideal pokemon for stall, but it seemd a viable option until he picked up some of his late-game moves.

Third, Neptune was at an awkward place right now. Still limping by with Bubble Beam, and with an odd mix of moves because I had yet to decide what I wanted to focus on with him. I thought about it for a while, but ultimately got bored and decided I’d figure out Neptune later. For now I wanted to give the fight another go.

First up, I had Protoman get up his Reflect and U-turn out of there into Gaz. Gaz did take Guzma’s Golisopod out, though unfortunately only after heavy damage. Next up was Pinsir. I sent out my own Golisopod to deal with it. The plan was to use my newly acquired Rock Slide. I opened with a First Impression which did a nice, entire 50% of Pinsir’s health, but things go less nice from there. Pinsir’s Stone Edge lands and my Rock Slide misses. Because my Rock Slide missed the last battle, I am pretty salty. And Pinsir’s second Stone Edge also lands. Ffs. Luciel goes down before he can finish things. (He was holding a Sitrus berry to stave off Emergency Exit.) Ms. Sidle has to finish off the Pinsir instead.

Ok, it would be rough without Golisopod, but we were still in this fight. Guzma sends out Vikavolt next. I use Protoman to Light Screen and then faint. Then I send out Dipper. To my surprise, Dipper’s new strats work great and he’s able to solo the Vikavolt.

Finally, Masquerain, whose speed and Air Slash are terrifying. My idea is to paralyze it with Ribombee and then HOPE that is enough for Gaz to outspeed. But it is not. Gaz had too much damage done earlier from Golisopod and simply goes down. It was thus all down to Neptune. He’s able to live one Air Slash– not well, but he can– and doesn’t flinch, so he gets his z-Bubble Beam off. It does a lot, but it’s just not enough to take Masquerain out.

Obviously, the next Air Slash will kill, so I assume it’s over. But then, it isn’t. Because I forgot Air Slash has a 5% chance of missing. The damn thing misses and I can finish it off with a Bubble Beam.

I’m happy to call that a win, because it seems fair after my Rock Slide miss.

Guzma steps aside to let us by, but first calls me out for forgetting to tell my mom I was going on a trip. Oopsies.

A Whole New World

After visiting my poor mother and doing a little extra training, I came back to battle Lusamine. I was a tad concerned about Clefable, as Ariados, supposedly my fairy killer, wasn’t yet up for the task, in my opinion. So I tutored Iron Head onto Luciel. While I was wandering, I also picked up a Light Clay for Ledian.

After that, the battle with Lusamine actually went quite well. I opened with Protoman, got up the Light Screen, switched to Luciel, and Iron Headed away. With Sitrus berry, he could stay in long enough to get the job done.

Next up I planned on tox stalling the Lopunny, but when I put Dipper in I realized I had forgotten to put Protect back on him. Whoops. My plan B was to punch at it a lot with Luciel, and when Emergency Exit activated I finished the job with Sidle.

Lilligant went down easily to Vikavolt’s specs-powered Bug Buzz, although I was surprised at how much damage a Petal Dance did to Gaz. Sheesh. Milotic was next, but Gaz was locked into Bug Buzz, so I sent out Neptune. Apparently Milotic couldn’t do much to Neptune but spam Dragon Pulse. So Neptune just spammed Lunge to whittle Milotic down and eventually came out on top.

The last was Bewear. I sent out Protoman originally with just the intent of getting a Reflect up, but it turned out Protoman could solo Bewear with just his Air Slash. He got a couple flinches, which helped him survive long enough to win. I had Sidle waiting in the wings in case this failed, but it was surprisingly nice to have Protoman do it all himself.

And that was it for Lusamine.

After she hops into the portal (followed by Guzma), the next major battle really isn’t until the dragon trial on Poni island. I’m afraid that was a pretty dull battle; I just toxiced the Kommo-o and stalled a little before clearing out the ally with Ms. Sidle. Considering the Roseli berry the Kommo-o held, this was just the simplest way to take care of things.

Necrozma’s first form was easy enough for my team to defeat as well, especially for Neptune. It wasn’t until we stepped into the wormhole ourselves and reached super uber weird space and battled Ultra Necrozma that things were a little trickier. The thing was 10 levels higher then us and had insane stats. Fortunately, some chap had given me a focus sash at some point, so Dipper could still get a toxic off.

Luciel delivered the final blow.

Boss Rush

When we return from saving the universe and all that nonsense, Mina still wants us to complete one last trial, which she explains will be a boss rush. Eh, ok. I mean, I guess that’s cool.

Most were a piece of cake. Kiawe, being Fire type, is somewhat noteworthy for a bug team to face. I had Neptune use Reflect and then z-Bubble Beam, but it didn’t quuuuuite kill Arcanine. It went down to recoil after clearing out poor Dipper, though. Gaz tanked a Brave Bird and took out the Talonflame, and the Marowak was easy pickings for Luciel. The surprise ambush by Kiawe’s friend was kind of annoying, but Neptune was able to finish things.

Electric type battles are an old nemesis for my bug runs, but this one wasn’t bad. Neptune almost one-shot the Golem (but not quite) and Dipper finished it off with Sucker Punch. In the process, he FINALLY learned Poison Jab. It’s ridiculous how long it takes for him to get a good poison STAB. Anyway, after a nice Light Screen Gaz could finish off the Magnezone with Dig.

Everyone else was simple enough. I love how a couple didn’t even bother to fight and were just sort of, “Whatever, take the flower petal, I can’t be arsed right now.” The fairy totem was likewise simple enough to take down. Ribombee is a sweetheart, but even with Quiver Dance she isn’t exactly difficult to deal with.

With our final trials and tribulations out of the way, we moved on to climbing the icy slopes to the new Elites.

But first, Gladion ambushed us for a final smackdown.

I had Ledian as my lead at the time, so the poor fellow just died to speedy Crobat. Fortunately, Gaz could survive a hit and retaliate. Next in, I was nervous of Lucario, so I sent out Neptune to z-Bubble Beam it to death. Unfortunately the damned thing was Zoroark. It’s funny how often I fall for that trick. The Zoroark used its own Z-move and killed Neptune. D:

Silvally was next, and I looked at its color and assumed ice. I suppose it made sense to me since it was hailing, so why not match to the environment? Dipper toxiced it and Sucker Punched it to soften it up, and then sent out a weakened Gaz to basically just faint and rack up more toxic damage. It’s not as though Gaz is outspeeding anything. Then I sent out Ribombee to finish things off. Finally, Lucario (the real one) was here, and Ribombee went down. It was all down to Luciel. Thankfully, Lucario wasn’t so scary after all. It just used Aura Spheres on me. I took it out with no problems.

After clearing Gladion aside, we climbed the mountain and did a little training. Stocking up on items and enjoying hot tapu coccas in the last Pokecenter, we braced ourselves for the final push.

Elite Four

The Elite Four was not too frightening a prospect for my team. The most difficult two would be Rock and Flying, of course; but having already faced Olivia’s Rock team, I wasn’t as worried about that one. The scariest to me seemed to be Flying.

Kahili

Kahili was indeed a difficult opponent I had to be very precise with. I opened with my Vikavolt, which was able to tank a Brave Bird from the powerful Braviary. Truth be told, I intended to stick a Coba berry on Gaz, but I mixed up the names and put a Colbur berry instead. Oooops. Fortunately, Gaz can tank like a beast, and Braviary went down to the thunderbolt.

Kahili sent out Mandibuzz next, which was a fine opportunity to set up a Tailwind with Ms. Sidle. I had, in fact, carefully tutored this move onto Ribombee for the occasion. Mandibuzz loves to open with Flatter, but I had Sidle hold a Lum berry so she could get a Dazzling Gleam off guaranteed . Sadly, it didn’t kill– Ribombee never can actually get the kill when she attacks, it seems. She goes down to a Brave Bird. No matter! I had Gaz and Thunderbolt, with Tailwind at my back! Unfortunately, Kahili has Full Restores. I don’t quite take the healed Mandibuzz out with one t-bolt, but before I can finish it, Kahili oddly switches out into Oricoro. I have no idea why, but it does down to a single Thunderbolt, and then she switches Mandibuzz back in and I finish that off too. Tailwind peters out, and Toucannon is up next.

Now, I know Toucannon is the z-crystal holder, so I sent out Dipper and Protect on my first turn. I know that generally speaking the Elites like to use their z-move first thing when they get their poke in. Dipper survives the hit, barely; then I use Toxic. Of course I don’t expect Dipper to outspeed, but I do expect Toucannon to use Beak Blast, a two-part flying move signature to the species. It does so and I get the Toxic off before dying. Next I put Protoman in.

Unfortunately for me, Kahili then Full Restores again, making my poison useless. But Dipper’s sacrifice was not for naught. It gave Protoman the chance to Reflect. On the following turn, Protoman also gets to use Tailwind before dying to Beak Blast. After these setups, I get Gaz in to take out Toucannon.

The final of the foe’s team is Hawlucha. Gaz is in red health by now, and as it turns out, Hawlucha outspeeds despite the Tailwind. However, it goes for a Throat Chop for some reason, which Gaz resists– it only did a few HP of damage. We thunderbolt and finish the team off.

Olivia

Our second-hardest Elite, Olivia didn’t give us much trouble. I did my typical opening with Protoman to get up a screen (Reflect) before dying to some horrible rock move. Then I get my heavy hitters out– in this case, Neptune– and start blasting away with Liquidation. Down goes Armaldo. Z-Liquidation on Gigalith. Down goes Gigalith. Olivia sends out her ace, Lycanroc, so I put poor old Dipper out there as z-move bait again. He doesn’t live long. Neptune then comes in to take care of the Lycanroc too. Probopass means I switch things up a little, setting up Tailwind and then using Dig with Gaz to kill it off. The final, a Cradily, is simple for Luciel to take out.

Molayne

The steel Elite had the potential to be very scary, but we did surprisingly well against him. Gaz could open and take out Klefki with a few thunderbolts. This was nice because she was immune to the Thunder Wave the darn thing loved to spam. He sent out Dugtrio next, which was easy for Liquidation to demolish. Magnezone faced off against Gaz. I knew it died to two Digs, but unfortunately, Gaz was a little to weakened from Klefki, and went down to a second Tri Attack. It left the foe at at an awkward piece of ¼ health that was hard to cleanly take out, so I used Dipper to Sucker Punch it a couple times before sending out Luciel to First Impression and finish it off. Next, Bisharp goes down to Neptune’s Z-Liquidation, and Metagross is our last foe. Luciel uses First Impression and Liquidation to help chip it down. After using up his berry on the first turn he emergency exits out of there on the second turn, and Sidle gets off a Bug Buzz to contribute to the chipping. It does a nice chunk, but she goes down too. Luciel, back in, once again gets off a Second Impression, and after a hit ends up on 3 HP. Lucky for us, I am obsessed with keeping multiple priority moves and Luciel also has Sucker Punch, and he could finish off the Metagross.

Acerola

By far the easiest of the Elites, Acerola was a pretty quick mop-up. Protoman gets up screens and faints, Luciel takes out the Bannette (after it annoyingly potions up). Froslass is next, and I regretfully send out Dipper once more to just take one for the team– this time while I potion Luciel back up. Dipper does, however, manage to do a huge chunk to Froslass with a Sucker Punch before going down. Luciel finishes it off. Pallosand takes a big hit with Liquidation but it boosts its defense a bunch. As Luciel Emergency Exits out of there I send in the big guns and use Neptune’s Z-Liquidation. It works great. Dhelmise acutally falls quickly to a couple Bug Buzzes from Ms. Sidle (she survives the Slams), which is nice, because she rarely gets a kill all on her own. Finally, Drifblim goes down to Gaz’s thunderbolt.

Hau

Of course, it would not be a pokemon game if they made you the champ after defeating the Elite Four. There’s always at least one more fight to clear. In this case, it’s your old buddy Hau. After previewing his team, I formulated a rough plan and headed in, feeling wary.

Hau opens with Alolan Raichu. Fortunately for bug trainers of Alola, this is a boon. Luciel’s First Impression takes it out cold. At least that’s one out of the way.

Next up was a pokemon I had only a shaky plan for, Crabominable. This horrible-looking evolution of Crabrawler has the spooky Stone Edge and a terrifying Attack to back it up. This was also basically Protoman’s only chance to get a screen up, so I had him Reflect. We get a lucky Stone Edge miss so I also Tailwind before he goes down. Then, to my great fortune, Neptune can kill clean with a z-Liquidation.

Noivern up next, a foe that’s always gone down neatly to Ms. Sidle’s Dazzling Gleam. Somehow I suspected this time, it wouldn’t quite do it– and I was right. I finish off with Luciel’s Iron Head after taking a Super Fang to the face.

Tauros is out next, a relatively straightforward pokemon. I plan on poison-stalling this one and send out Dipper. It seems to work great– I Toxic, protect, the Reflect is helping a lot in surviving Double Edges, I’m about to finish things off and deliver the final blow … and then Hau Full Restores.

This one stung, people. Poor Dipper, the punching-bag of the team, was about to finally land a rightfully earned kill of his own, and Hau takes it away with his cheap item usage. Reflect runs out after this, to rub salt in the wound. Without Reflect up and on low health, I can’t repeat Dipper’s strat. So I have to let Dipper fall valiantly once again as I potion up Luciel. Then my Golisopod finishes off the bull.

Decidueye is out next. This is the z-crystal holder. I have three pokemon left: Neptune, Luciel, and Gaz. It really is about choosing who dies to a z-move at this point. I decide Neptune is the least crucial for defeating Hau’s final two pokemon. Neptune falls to the grass z-move.

Then Luciel can come in and take a big chunk with his First Impression before his Emergency Exit triggers and kicks him back out. Gaz thus finishes up with her Bug Buzz. She fortunately doesn’t take much damage from Decidueye’s Spirit Shackle.

Finally, this leaves Hau’s Vaporeon. I get a First Impression off first, as usual, which takes Vap down to around half health. Golisopod survives a Hydro Pump and lives on a few precious HP, and I’m excited about getting a Sucker Punch, but unfortunately Vaporeon has Quick Attack. Ah well.

My last pokemon was Gaz, at around half health. It seemed fitting it should all come down to my starter. It really was a question of whether she’d survive the incoming Hydro Pump before she could Thunderbolt, because of course Arceus knows she wasn’t outspeeding anybody.

I’m still not sure if she would have survived that hit, but I like to think she would have. At the time, I had faith she would. She had surprised me a lot with tanking hits and pulling through, after all. In the end, Hydro Pump missed, and she could Thunderbolt cleanly.

And Gaz took the championship for us all.

Could we finally rest now, having been named the Alolan Champions? Or was there still something left to do?

… stay tuned to find out! :D

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Aug 13, 2019.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun7 #mycontent #pokemon playthroughs

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