21/10/2020

Pokemon Ruby: The Ninjask Solo Run

 


A.k.a. even a lazy Pokemon solo runner relishes a good challenge once in a while. Mind you, the idea of a Ninjask solo run didn't exactly come out of thin air: it was first suggested to me by my fellow Pokefan Sieg, and I encountered a couple of such runs on Youtube. I always knew I'd cruise with Ninjask sooner or later; and this summer autumn, the time was finally ripe. 

Right of the bat, I was faced with a quandary regarding the evolution timing of my Nincada. Things were pretty simple: the first half of the game was going to be a serious challenge no matter what, but the nature of that challenge would vary depending on my little Moonstone's form. If I evolved him, I'd have to endure three super-effective Gyms in a row; if I didn't, I'd have to make do with a totally crappy Attack stat. I finally decided to evolve him normally and to rely on his sky-high Attack and Speed as a Ninjask to power my way through the Gyms. It worked in the end; but darn, was it tough. If not for a combination of Battle Items, grinding and Rare Candies, I'd never have made it through that first half. 

 
Once I was done with Flannery's Gym, though, things suddenly became much cushier. Not only did I slowly but surely start to level up faster thanks to the Erratic rate, but I also gained access to much better Moves. Return, Shadow Ball and Aerial Ace came to replace Slash, Secret Power and Thief; Leech Life, on the other hand, remained firmly in place until the very end. Considering Moonstone had it already at Lv.7, that's 93 levels of Leech Life; pretty honourable longevity for such a weak Move, shall I say. And since I mentioned the very end, I can tell you the Elite Four showdown was supremely interesting — so interesting, in fact, that I'm going to write a dedicated post. 

I was genuinely surprised by the shallowness of Ninjask's learnset. It learns a grand total of five offensive Moves through leveling up and ten through TMs; on top of that, it learns no Bug Moves apart from Leech Life and Furry Cutter, and its only Flying option is Aerial Ace. No Silver Wind or Sky Attack for you, mate! Ninjask's learnset has fortunately been revamped since; but gosh, was it underwhelming in Gen III. Mind you, it didn't prevent me from becoming the Champion, as you'll see soon enough in my battle report. Until then, dear fellow gamers, keep gaming and take care!

2 comments:

  1. Shallow learnsets intrigue me, sometimes, especially when there's some neat status moves mixed in. Makes me want to give Spinarak a go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The good thing with shallow learnsets is that you don't have to endlessly agonize over your choice of Moves. On top of that, every new Move feels like a complete treat, to be received with tears of gratitude. I never challenged myself with a fixed Move set or one-Move-only rule, but that's definitely something I'd like to tackle one day.

      Delete