02/07/2017

Pokemon Black 2: (Proudly presenting) the Boldore Solo Run


A.k.a. The Run I Would Never Have Dreamt of Tackling in a Million Years. The very existence of that unlikeliest of runs can solely be attributed to a tease from faithful reader Sieg, who innocently dropped a little bomb in the comment section of my Tepig Solo Run report going as such: "If you ever solo Pokémon BW/BW2 with Roggenrola, I have to admit you have some top-quality gaming caliber!" Oh boy, little did Sieg know what he had stirred there. I'm a sucker for playful challenges and a serial solo runner who needs but the slightest excuse to tackle new Pokemon solo runs; and once I read that tongue-in-cheek suggestion, there was simply no turning back, and I was more than thrilled to take up the gauntlet and dive head first into that new and most unexpected endeavour.

Mind you, I did my homework beforehand. Endurtaking exciting challenges is all well and nice, but I had to make sure that a Roggenrola solo run was even possible at all before digging up my cartridge of Black 2 from my precious collection. I pored over the little rock's Stats on Bulbapedia; and lo and behold, it turned out that Roggenrola actually had a couple of cards up his sleeve stat-wise — cards that could make him more than fit for cruising solo. For one thing, he boasts a stellar Attack stat, which means guaranteed one-shooting; for another, he's blessed with high Defense and loads of HP, which allows him to be a damage sponge and take hits comfortably. This automatically took care of the cute geode's crippling weakness, i.e. his abysmal Speed stat: even though I never got to act first in battle, I would still be able to stomach my opponent's hit before unleashing my own devastating moves. Last but not least, Roggenrola's Sturdy ability ensured that my little rock would never be one-shot at the beginning of a battle. There was definitely some potential there, and good hopes that I could indeed succeed and pull off a Roggenrola Solo Run.

As you probably guessed already, I did indeed succeed and took my Roggenrola affectionately renamed Geode all the way up to the Elite Four and beyond. And guess what? It wasn't even that hard. In fact, I dare say my Roggenrola Solo Run was easier than my Snivy run of White 2 and my Rowlet and Litten runs of Sun. That was wildy unexpected all the more so as I didn't even get to benefit from Roggenrola's final evolution, which can only be triggered through Trading and believe me, I relished the surprise and the whole ride that came in its wake. Despite Roggenrola's many elemental weaknesses, I was never in real trouble in any of the Gyms nor in the Elite Four, for that matter: my ample amounts of HP and sky-high Defense allowed me to take damage while biding my time, and a couple of Battle Items took care of padding my Geode's lousy Sp. Defense when necessary. Cherry on the cake, Geode managed to overcome his natural limitations on the Speed front through overleveling: in the late stages of the games, I got to strike first in roughly one third of all battles, which was a most pleasant development. Now obviously, I did endure a lot of first hits and thus a lot of damage through that run; but that gave me the opportunity to stock up on healing items and use my mountains of cash, which usually remain mostly untouched during my runs. On the Move side, I spent most of the game wielding Rock Smash (Fight), Return (Normal), Bulldoze (Ground) and Rock Slide (Rock) and managed to take care of all battles situations with that powerful quatuor of Physical awesomeness. Rock 'Mons may have a lot of weaknesses allright, but there are sure many Types that are weak to Rock in return: Rock Slide was by far my most used move, a terrific one-shooter that could send Flying and Dragon 'Mons crashing to the ground just as readily as knock out Ghost and Psychic 'Mons into oblivion.  

So you have it: the unlikeliest solo run of them all, presented by yours truly and kickstarted by a playful comment. This is actually the second time a comment by Sieg prompts me to undertake a Pokemon solo run I would never have thought of in the first place, and I'm starting to think that we share some kind of cosmic Pokemon connection. At any rate, here's to you, Sieg: a solo run that proves once more that valid candidates for Pokemon solo runs come in all shapes and sizes and that even the occasional crappy, crippling stat can be overcome when the rest of the numbers are in all the right places. And now, after four solo runs in a row, I'm taking a break from Black and White 2 but not from the series. I still have a couple of runs to get out of my system right now, and I'll keep gorgeoing on Pokemon until my itch is fully scratched. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

12 comments:

  1. You went and did it. You absolute madman! I really gotta tip my hat to you, Isleif.
    Despite knowing about the high Attack stat, I still thought you would have several big problems with Roggenrola being so slow and a Rock type but I guess I was deeply wrong. And this pretty much proves that almost any kind of Pokémon really has potential for a Solo run. I'll wait and see what kind of Solo run you're going to cook up next. :p

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    1. Why, thank you for "suggesting" me that run, Sieg.^^ It was loads of fun, and a neat challenge to boot!

      Here's a teaser: I just tackled a solo run with a Pokemon that is truly and genuinely unfit for solo endeavours, although not for the reasons you'd think of. More on that very soon!

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  2. You went and did it for real? Congrats Isleif. Now try a bug type. Nah, they're not really good on their own, I just say that because I'd be a bug specialist if I was a real trainer, but I use teams. I completely forgot Roggenrola even had a high attack stat to begin in, so it's not that bad a pokemon, especially if you used an eviolite on it. You've come very far in your solo runs, now you check a pokemon's viability beforehand and everything!

    To be fair, this run would have been way harder in the water ridden areas of Hoenn, so Sieg wasn't completely off the bat...

    Did you do any grinding at all? Or is that level from trainers and regular battles only? Cause geesh, 95, no wonder you even managed to outspeed some things. As one who always goes in with a team of 6, I struggle to get my pokemon up to 60, so I haven't had a pokemon with a level higher than 76 in years.

    Also, ins't Roggenrola fairly cute for a rock? Another gen V pokemon whose design I like way more than the original, this case being Geodude. I never liked that thing.

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    1. To be honest, I would be totally open to a solo run with a Bug Type. My recent solo runs with Psychic, Rock and Grass have expanded my horizons, and there are still many Types I'm itching to try. The ultimate challenge would be to tackle at least one solo run with every single Pokemon Type--bar the ones that come too late to be viable candidates, such as Dragon.

      Nope, there was no grinding involved: these lofty levels were solely granted by Trainers and random battles. Overall, the 5th generation is quite lenient with leveling-up speed and XP: in all my solo run of these game, my one and only always reached the 90s by the time I challenged the Elite Four.

      Yup, Roggenrola is quite adorable. Too bad his crystaline heart doesn't glitter and spark like the ones of real-life geodes, that would have made his design totally perfect. :p

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    2. A dragon run isn't as impossible as you think. You can get Axew in the connecting cave in X and Y before the second gym, even earlier than you can get an Eevee in that game (X and Y being the other game where an early Eevee run is possible).

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    3. Good to know! Thanks for the info.^^

      It turns out that there are not so many Types I haven't covered yet, especially if Double Typing is taken into account: the only Types I truly never dabbled in are Ground, Ice, Bug, Poison, Dragon and Fairy. I'm not so far from full Type coverage after all! :p

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    4. >Now try a bug type. Nah, they're not really good on their own
      Actually, I caught a Venipede at the very beginning of Black and it lasted me until the Elite Four just fine. Decent movepool, decent stats plus Poison Point. It's probably manageable to complete a solo run with one.

      >Also, ins't Roggenrola fairly cute for a rock? Another gen V pokemon whose design I like way more than the original, this case being Geodude. I never liked that thing.
      Indeed, it is! The design alone would be enough to train one but the final evolution being trade-only made me steer away from that idea. And I do find Geodude and Graveler to be kinda meh/boring as well. Golem is considerably better though.

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    5. Hmm? I could swear I had left a comment earlier in the day, but I guess I didn't post it before I restarted my PC...

      Anyways, ironically enough, I suggested a Venipede as a bug type pokemon like Sieg did. It's bug/poison type, which tackles two of the types you need and it's much better than a typical bug/flying type (it has no 4x weaknesses). It's got great stats, excelling in speed and HP, with attack and defence still being very good. None of its stats are truly awful, so it can work with a lot of natures.

      It also has a great movepool thanks to TMs. Earthquake (ground), Poison Jab (poison), X-Scissor (bug) and Return are great moves that take advantage of its great attack stat, have no repercussions, good PP, perfect accuracy and a minimum of 80 attack power. If you have a Venipede with a good special attack, Sludge Bomb (poison) is a better option, and maybe Solarbeam (grass) if you're tired of using return with everything (it does take two turns to use though). If you still want to have a normal move and have a good attack stat, Giga Impact can OHKO almost anything, but if it doesn't you have to rest the next turn. There's also Gyro Ball (steel) to make things interesting, but its attack power depends on the speed of the rival pokemon.

      Either way, it's a great movepool that should get you through the game no problem. Venipede can be caught extremely early in X and Y, almost right after the first gym, but if you're patient you can get it fairly early mid game in the BW games.

      There's other good bug pokemon of course, but most of them have a secondary type you've already used. If all else fails, you can get bug/fighting type Heracross really early in Heartgold/Soulsilver by heabutting trees in Azalea Town.

      >Sieg
      I do find Golem cute as well, but heh, trade evolution pokemon suck. Another reason I like to have at least one hacked nintendo system, so I can play hacked roms that bypass that dumb restriction. I'm not kidding, there's roms hacks I play solely for that reason, even if a lot of them also increase the difficulty. I refuse to go through life without ever having owned a Kingdra or a Gourgeist. Seriously GF, why did you have to lock both Ghost/Grass gen 6 pokemon behind trade evolutions? Why not just one?

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    6. >Isleif
      Oh, if you want a full Type coverage then maybe consider picking up Omega Ruby or Alpha Sapphire and catch a Shroomish in Petalburg Woods at almost the very beginning. It's a Grass type that later evolves into a Grass/Fighting type and it's a pretty good all-rounder with pretty high Attack and despite a meh level up movepool, it can learn some really good TM-only moves. Oh, or Nincada for a Ninjask/Shedinja. Ninjask for a crazy speedy Bug/Flying or Shedinja for a Bug/Ghost Pokémon with 1 HP.
      (Or maybe go full crazy and catch a Slakoth and solo the game with it :p)

      I support the Heracross suggestion by Kumiko. It's a really great Pokémon with some sky high Attack. In the same game you can also try out Pineco/Forretress early in the game for a defensive-focused Bug/Steel Pokémon.

      The bigger problem is Ice type. Is there even a game where you can catch an Ice type early on?

      >I refuse to go through life without ever having owned a Kingdra
      Kingdra was and is one of my all-time favorite Pokémon. Great design, great stats, great movepool, great Pokémon. Back in the Gold/Silver era it was fairly easy to find someone to trade with, so I did manage to have one. And it was a blast.

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    7. Thanks for all the suggestions, guys! ^^ Those are 'mons I probably wouldn't have thought of/uncovered myself, so it's even better.

      I didn't want to spill the beans, but... I'm currently attempting a Venipede Solo run of Black, which I actually started BEFORE reading your comments! We're totally on the same page here, a true meeting of great minds. :p

      Indeed, the lateness of Ice 'mons is very much a problem. Vanillites can be caught in Driftveil City in Black/White, i.e. after the fourth Gym, and I don't think it can get any better than that. My only viable options for the time being are thus a Vanillite solo run of Black/White (with some level-grinding involved to compensate for recruiting him so late in the game) or a Eevee/Glaceon solo run of Platinum.

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    8. Horray for Venipede, I am so happy to see it get more love. If it wasn't for my nostalgia for Venomoth, it would be my favourite bug type.

      For ice, there's always Amaura, a Rock/Ice type. It's one of the fossil pokemon you can get in X and Y right before the second gym.

      Other than that...hmmm, maybe Shellder? Cloyster is part ice type. You can catch it in the starting town of Heartgold with only a good rod. That's fairly early! It's a very rare encounter though, but it's a very solid pokemon.

      Oh, there's also the option of catching Rotom in platinum and using his frost form. You need cut, and can only catch it at night I believe, but that's still way earlier than getting a Glaceon. You'll spend 3/4 of platinum with a plain Eevee if you go for that route, whereas you can get Rotom after the second gym.

      Other than that, there's really nothing. And there's no pure ice type you can get early game.

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    9. Thanks for the suggestions! Amaura seems like a solid option, and probably the one I'd be the most inclined to consider. I also want to try an Eevee/Glaceon solo run of Platinum, if only because I love Glaceon so much. Given that regular Eevee is a decent fighter, cruising 6/8 of the game with him shouldn't be too much of a problem.

      I find it hard not to love Venipede, to be honest. He's all decked up in flashy colours, and his half-blasé, half-sleepy eyes are just hilarious. Cherry on the cake, he has three vastly different forms that each have their charm; in fact, as far as evolution is concerned, I think it's one of the most inventive 'mons ever designed.

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