When I set foot in Oreburgh City, little did I know how hard it would prove to get out of it. Sure, my little Stormcloud was not the strongest of ‘Mons, even with her boosted Attack; and she wasn’t armed with the best Move Pool, wielding only Moves that were not very effective against Rock. Still, this wasn’t my first Rock Gym under rocky (ha-ha) circumstances, and I was confident I could make it. Surely Glameow couldn’t struggle more than Vivillon, now could she? Ooh yes, she sure could. And boy, she did.
I started panicking when I discovered that my Lv.10 Stormcloud couldn’t beat Worker Colin’s Lv.7 Geodude and Onix in Oreburgh Cave. Now, what is Roark’s team made of? A Lv.12 Geodude and a Lv.12 Onix, with a Lv.14 Cranidos on top. Two ‘Mons with stellar Defense and one with stellar Attack, all armed with pretty decent offensive Moves. I went to the Gym to test the waters; and not only did I get my arse handed to me by Roark’s Geodude, but I couldn’t even get past the Junior Trainers’ Lv. 8 and Lv.10 Geodudes. In a nutshell: I was in deep, deep trouble.
I needed level-grinding, that much was obvious. However, brute level-grinding alone wouldn’t do the trick; I also needed a strategy. The main issue was how little damage Stormcloud dealt; combined with her measly Defense, she would invariably get knocked out before her opponent. Thus, I needed to: a) boost my Attack, and b) find a way to take less damage. The first part of that plan was carried out by grinding in the grassy patch on Route 207, until Stormcloud reached Lv.17 and learnt Aerial Ace. Not just grinding on any ‘Mon, mind you; grinding exclusively on wild Machops, in order to get precious Attack EVs. For the second part, I resorted to a combination of three elements: Growl, Hypnosis and the X-Defend I picked in Oreburgh Mine.
And now comes the battle report! I opened the fight with Hypnosis to put Geodude to sleep, resetting until it worked; otherwise, Geodude would use Defense Curl or Rollout, making things harder for me. Once Geodude was asleep, I used my X-Defense and proceeded to pummel that darn rock into oblivion with Aerial Ace. I did the same thing with Onix, using Hypnosis again when it woke up to put it back to sleep and do my thing unhindered. Rinse and repeat with Cranidos, with a couple of Growls on top to ensure it wouldn’t destroy me with Headbutt or Bulldoze if it woke up before I was done. Not gonna lie: there was a fair bit of luck involved, and it took me a couple of tries to get the right combination of successful Hypnosis, long naps, critical hits and convenient misses. But! I finally made it past Roark, and it’s all that matters. I’m not the best Pokemon strategist out there; but I’m always happy and proud when I manage to put together a viable strategy, even if it involves luck — which is almost always the case. Let’s say this is just my very own strategic style, shall we? 😜 Take care and see ya soon, dear fellow gamers!
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