Part 16: Mini-Update: Pyrite Colosseum

Mini-Update: Pyrite Colosseum

Pyrite Colosseum can be rather challenging without any training at Mt. Battle; generally, any Pokemon lv.40 or under stands a good chance of fainting from one or two hits from your opponent. As a result, this video is about twice as long as the last one. Not so fast when you aren't the one who's fainting things in one or two hits. Sorry for some periods of inactvity during it; I was busy trying to do some calculations, to see if some attacks would be strong enough to merit using, or if another plan of action would be better.

Pyrite Colosseum, Entry One


ROLLER BOY AZAL
Linoone (Lv.51, M)
Teddiursa (Lv.50, M)
AZAL: Aah! A battle to clear my mind!


RIDER TRONA
Delcatty (Lv.52, F)
Jigglypuff (Lv.51, F)
TRONA: You know, you're awful. You don't have to get all serious like that!


BODYBUILDER BECHER
Furret (Lv.53, F)
Doduo (Lv.52, M)
Loudred (Lv.51, M)
BECHER: Woohoo! You're mighty tough indeed! I didn't stand a chance!


CHASER ZIME
Vigoroth (Lv.52, F)
Combusken (Lv.55, M)
Koffing (Lv.53, F)
Swellow (Lv.54, F)
ZIME: Urgh! I'm done for! It's not for nothing that you beat MIROR B.!

Pokemon Poopsock:  You'll notice that the Combusken using Overheat on Flaaffy was paralyzed by Static. In Gen 3, the attack was a contact move; contact and non-contact was a different division from physical and special. Most special moves were non-contact, and most physical moves were. A notable exception was that Earthquake was a physical non-contact move. In Gen 4, Overheat no longer is a contact move, and would thus not be paralyzed by Static. 

Pyrite Colosseum, Entry Two


HUNTER MUNA
Shroomish (Lv.51, M)
Oddish (Lv.51, F)
MUNA: Losing to you is already in the useless past!


CHASER KELL
Lileep (Lv.52, F)
Roselia (Lv.52, M)
Spinda (Lv.51, M)
KELL: Hey, no fair! You should've told me you're that strong before we battled!


BODYBUILDER TORF
Cacnea (Lv.53, M)
Gloom (Lv.52, M)
Machop (Lv.52, M)
TORF: There! Did you see? I lost, though...


RIDER LIGAM
Grovyle (Lv.52, M)
Lairion (Lv.52, M)
Nuzleaf (Lv.53, M)
LIGAM: When you're that strong, I guess it's only natural that you get all cocky.

Pyrite Colosseum, Entry Three


RIDER VOREM
Baltoy (Lv.51)
Numel (Lv.52, MF)
Hoothoot (Lv.52, MF)
VOREM: Shoot! I wouldn't have been able to beat MIROR B. after all!


BODYBUILDER SEBEN
Rhyhorn (Lv.52, MF)
Meditite (Lv.53, MF)
SEBEN: You lived up to the word on the street!


HUNTER ATHON
Graveler (Lv.53, MF)
Pupitar (Lv.54, MF)
ATHON: You can thank me for getting this win!
And indeed we can, thanks to EXPLOSION.

Alright. First time through, I lost to the following trainer. Second time through, same thing. Third time, success. Here are the level-ups of what happened that was edited out:

Attempt 1, Finals: Flaaffy grew to Lv.44, Feraligatr grew to Lv.40.
Attempt 2, Semifinals: Flaaffy grew to Lv.45, learned Thunder, forgot Thunder Wave evolved to Ampharos.
Purchased 14x Hyper Potion, 12x Revive



ROLLER BOY AREZ
Gligar (Lv.55, F)
Shelgon (Lv.54, M)
Quagsire (Lv.53, M)
Pelipper (Lv.53, F)
AREZ: Oh, yeah, okay. You are strong like they say.
This trainer is the one that was causing most of the delays. Pelipper and Quagsire are respectively resistant and immune to Water attacks, thanks to Water Absorb on the latter. Shelgon resists Water and Electric attacks, and Dunsparce just is a bit too frail to take the hits these Pokemon dish out. The video's battle four for this entry actually came from my third attempt to beat this entry set. During this time, Flaaffy leveled-up to lv.45, learned Thunder, and evolved to Ampharos. (It will no longer hold the EXP Share, as its level is greater than any of its teammates.) In addition, 12 Revives and 15 Hyper Potions were bought before my third try at this, costing most of the money won in the tournaments thus far.

Pyrite Colosseum, Entry Four


BODYBUILDER GANO
Minun (Lv.51, M)
Pikachu (Lv.52, M)
GANO: We got pulverized instead!


ST.PERFORMER BALTON
Voltorb (Lv.53)
Wailmer (Lv.52, F)
BALTON: I lost, but I had fun, so that makes it okay!


HUNTER ARGEL
Chinchou (Lv.54, F)
Larvitar (Lv.53, M)
Magnemite (Lv.53)
ARGEL: I lost to you? I guess my ambition to rule PYRITE TOWN is just a pipe dream.


RIDER HERAL
Electrode (Lv.54)
Lunatone (Lv.54)
Machoke (Lv.54, M)
Ampharos (Lv.55, F)
HERAL: Your fame is well earned! You are strong!

Net winnings: P$26,704, TM01 (Focus Punch), TM07 (Hail), TM05 (Roar), TM22 (Brick Break)

Now, to discuss the eight TMs we won:

Sunny Day, Rain Dance, and Hail were discussed back in the Weather section of "What the hell are all these terms?", but here's a refresher (repost):
Sunny Day: activates sunlight for 5 turns, stops all other weather effects. Most important effects: Increases the power of Fire-type moves by 50%, weakens the power of Water-type moves by 50%, allows immediate firing of SolarBeam, lowers accuracy of Thunder to 50%. Causes Moonlight, Synthesis, and Morning Sun to recover 2/3 of max HP.
Rain Dance: activates rain for 5 turns, stops all other weather effects. Most important effects: Increases the power of Water-type moves by 50%, weakens the power Fire-type moves by 50%, causes SolarBeam to do half-damage while still requiring one turn to charge, allows Thunder to bypass accuracy check and to hit through Protect and Detect 25% of the time. Causes Moonlight, Synthesis, and Morning Sun to recover 1/4 of max HP.
Hail: activates hail for 5 turns, stops all other weather effects. Most important effects: Effect: Damages Pokémon not of the Ice-type (in Gen 4: those who have the Ice Body or Snow Cloak abilities are also unharmed by hail), causes SolarBeam to do half-damage while still requiring one turn to charge. Causes Moonlight, Synthesis, and Morning Sun to recover 1/4 of max HP.
Solarbeam is a 120 bp 100% Accuracy Grass-type attack, normally requiring one turn of charging before being fired the second turn. In this respect, a Grass attack that has 60 bp would do the same amount of damage over the two turns. How long it takes to charge and how much damage it does are modulated by the current weather conditions.
Focus Punch is a 150 bp 100% Accuracy Fighting-type attack. At the beginning of the turn it is used, the announcement "$POKEMON is tightening its focus!" appears. The attack also has negative priority (i.e. goes after most other moves). On the turn that Focus Punch is used, it will fail if the user is hit by a damaging attack (other than Pain Split) before its execution. This is bad in most cases, unless the user is behind a protective Substitute that absorbs the damage. (Substitute is an attack that generates a decoy out of ¼ of the user's HP; the decoy won't break until it has absorbed that much damage.) This is doubly bad, given there are two Pokemon in the double battles that could potentially hit the user of this attack, thus nullifying its usefulness.
Roar is another negative priority attack that does no damage. Instead, it forces the targeted Pokemon to switch out, being replaced by a random other Pokemon in the target trainer's party. It has no effect on a Pokémon with the Suction Cups or Soundproof abilities, or one that has used Ingrain.
Brick Break is a 75 bp 100% Accuracy Fighting-type attack that performs an accuracy check; then destroys Light Screen and Reflect on the target's side of the field; and then hits. It destroys the screens even if the hit does not affect the target (example: if the opponent used Double Team to increase evasion), but not if the move misses.
Giga Drain, an upgraded Mega Drain, is a 60 bp 100% Accuracy Grass-type attack that gives half of the HP damage done the target Pokemon to its user.

Regarding our winnings, the only Phenac TM of these we can really benefit from, given our team, is Rain Dance. Ampharos would be the best candidate to learn it, but it should really be out with Feraligatr, who has the move already, and thus does not need to be taught it. Feraligatr should be using Rain Dance, as it's the faster one, while Ampharos uses Thunder. From Pyrite, Brick Break would be excellent on Hitmontop, should we intend to keep it on the team, but also respectably usable on Feraligatr. As a rough comparison, the three hits of Triple Kick come out to 60 bp, compared to Brick Break's 75. Triple Kick can break a Substitute and have the remaining attacks hit the other Pokemon, where Brick Break can removed the far-more-common Reflect and Light Screen barriers. (Well, far more common than the computer's Pokemon having Substitute.) Remember, TMs are one usage only. Other than that, none of the other TMs are all that decent for our team.

So, there's one last mini-update I have, before the effects of the following vote come into play, and that's just talking to arbitrary NPCs with new dialogue. Do we want to use the Rain Dance or Brick Break TMs? Who on? And do we want to kick Justy's butt, with Plusle sitting uselessly in our party while using the other five Pokemon we have, or shall we continue on with the story?

Current Team:

Dunsparce: Serene Grace, Adamant w/Silk Scarf (Lv.39, M, Ultra Ball): Yawn, Take Down, Glare, Spite
Dunsparce isn't taking too much advantage of the double-chance of effects from attacks brought about from Serene Grace. Then again, we haven't had any good TMs to teach it. If we take on Justy, there's a TM that, although without an associated effect, would make for a great replacement for Take Down.

Hitmontop: Intimidate, Relaxed w/Black Belt (Lv.42, M, Great Ball): Agility, Focus Energy, Triple Kick, Rapid Spin
Hitmontop seems to be doing well for itself on the team. Rapid Spin is dead weight, as most of the computer's attacks won't need to have Rapid Spin to clear the effects away (Spikes, Whirlpool, etc.).

Feraligatr: Torrent, Quiet w/Black Belt (Lv.40, F, Premier Ball): Surf, Slash, Bite, Rain Dance
Sturdy and reliable as ever, Feraligatr could easily keep this set to the end of the game and still be extremely useful.

Ampharos: Static, Quirky w/Quick Claw (Lv.45, F, Great Ball): Thunderbolt, Thunder, Cotton Spore, Light Screen
The addition of Thunder completes Ampharos's combo with Feraligatr. I wasn't ready to let go of Thunderbolt, Cotton Spore is useful for slowing down the opponent's Pokemon, to get your hit in before they can, and Light Screen complements Espeon's Reflect.

Espeon: Synchronize, Mild w/TwistedSpoon (Lv.42, M, Poke Ball): Psybeam, Return, Reflect, Helping Hand
Espeon is running strong, be it as an attacker through Psybeam or a supported via Reflect and Helping Hand. Return, thanks to Espeon's weaker Attack stat, is useful for lowering the HP of Shadow Pokemon in preparation for Snagging without fainting the target.
___________________

Pretty much. Hopefully this video will be a bit more interesting. Admittedly, I made some strategic mistakes, but the problem is that your opponents almost never switch out, which makes your own switching a waste of your turn. Sometimes, it's just better to let your own Pokemon faint in order to get a "free" switch-in.

About 30 minutes of battling, namely because of the slowness of battle animations, and occasionally taking half a minute to make sure things were still recording on the computer, 49 minutes total if you count the stuff that happened between rounds, such as saving and "congrats, you won, here's your prize money and TM" dialogue.