Pokemon Sun: The Incineroar solo run

It should surprise no one that my first solo run of Pokemon Sun starred the feisty Fire Starter Litten. Because, you know, cats. Fire Starters are not my favourites when it comes to solo runs, but the fiery kitten was the obvious choice and did a fine job during the 17 hours I spent cruising Alola by his side.

I can safely claim that this solo run was the hardest and most challenging Pokemon solo run I've ever tackled. It was even harder than my Purrloin solo run of Black, and that's saying something given that Purrloin is overall a crappy 'Mon whose evolution Liepard belongs to the NeverUsed Tier. The difficulty level was definitely ramped up in Sun and Moon, and the game's wide array of Trials, Captains, Totem Pokemons and random Trainers roughed me up on a regular basis. Even more telling, my Litten-turned-Incineroar only boasted a paltry Lv. 64 when I finally reached the Elite Four headquarters, which is just the most unusual thing ever; at this point in the game, my lone 'Mons usually boast levels between 90 and 100 and can pretty much one-shot their way to the champion accolade. Not so in that case; I had to fight 'Mons that were a mere ten levels below me, and believe me, it was a struggle.

Not that I would let ramped-up difficulty stop me, mind you; before long, I had found a brilliant and reliable solution to get myself out of any bind and compensate for my Litten's weaknesses. This solution was none other than the regular and diligent use of some items I had neglected until now, i.e. Battle Items. Anytime I had trouble with a battle, I stuffed and buffed up my Litten with X Attacks, X Defense and the like, and voilà! Formerly impassable battles suddenly became manageable and I could progress unhindered. I can shamelessly claim that I would never have taken down the Elite Four and the Champion without those wonderful Battle Items, and I'm immensely grateful for their very existence. And now that I've learnt to assess their wonderfulness, I can go back to my unfinished Purrloin solo run of Black and finally put an end to it with the help of a huge stock of X-whatever.

Litten's move pool was decently varied, but not staggeringly so; and while his double typing was interesting, it didn't hold a lot of novelty for me given that I had already played a solo run with a Dark-type Cat Pokemon. Is there some kind of hidden rule at Game Freak stipulating that all feline 'Mons must belong to the Dark type? Anyway, I had already wielded Dark moves on a regular basis and knew them well enough to be a bit blasé towards Litten's ability to learn them. I was also not impressed by the teeny-tiny number of Fire moves Litten can learn over the course of his evolution: we're talking about a meagre four moves there, and I don't think it's enough for a Fire 'Mon. More fire moves can be learnt through the use of TMs, but one must get their paws on them first, and I have to admit that I didn't perform honorably when it comes to acquiring these precious items and thus ended up with a very small choice of Fire moves.

I also have to admit that for all my love for Litten and his middle evolution Torracat, I had a shock when he finally crossed the ultimate evolutionary threshold. When Incineroar appeared before my incredulous and horrified eyes, I had to fight a very strong urge to turn off the game, erase my save file and try to forget I had ever witnessed that. I mean, how did this happen? How did we go from Love Meow to John Cena in a single evolution? That's certainly not how I expected Torracat to evolve, and it took me a very long time to get used to Incineroar's deviant art-infused design. It certainly didn't help matters that I had to repeatedly massage the creature's heavily muscled chest during the Pokemon Refresh sequences, making me feel like I had gotten myself stranded in a bad case of fanfiction. But hey, time heals all wounds, and I finally managed to get used to Incineroar's questionable design and to stroke his bulging muscles without cringing. Thanks a lot, Game Freak, for giving me the unforgettable opportunity to get up close and personal with an humanoid cat looking like Machamp's long-lost brother. I'll remember that solo run, oh yes I will.

Game Freak's dubious design choices aside, my Litten solo run of Sun was a fairly entertaining one. It was so entertaining, in fact, that I started exploring postgame segments with enthusiam, before realizing that what I really wanted was to relive the early stages of the game with another 'Mon. I thus started another solo run with another Starter; and that's a story I'll tell you in my next run report, dear fellow gamers. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!