Pokemon Black - 0 Exp Run Part 4: N

Channel:

MoogleBoss

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6,660

Published on March 12, 2015 6:19:14 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yzclWdbSmw

Game:

Pokémon Black and White (2010)

Duration: 7:13

1,604 views

26

First part of this challenge's finale, it's the battle against N! Black / White introduced a nice and welcome change to the homely Pokemon format of fighting 8 gyms, followed by 4 elites, followed by the champion in the Pokemon League, by altering its storyline-driven structure so that you don't actually face the champion during the maingame at all and instead fight two of the game's villains. In contrast to the very easy gym and elite battles in this runthrough, both N and Ghetsis pose a sufficient challenge to put a lot of tension on the way I build my team and go about fighting them in the final battles.

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c1fix81qqBY__9VIC8E3njJ

Now, I should start my description by immediately admitting that these two fights would've been the easiest ever (much like just about every battle previously fought in this challenge) if I hadn't restricted my actions by banning sweeping. A lv. 42 Excadrill with a moveset of Swords Dance, Sandstorm, Earthquake and Rock Slide/X-Scissor (former is the best for N's Archeops, while the latter destroys Ghetsis's Hydreigon) comes really close to soloing both the battles, and you'll just have your remaining five teammates gang up on the stragglers Excadrill fails to eliminate with the 4-move limitation. The "no sweeping" ban should basically be read as "you don't stay in to annihilate the next thing", and it means all the high-levelled Pokemon available at this point are basically fighting for one of those six teamslots... If you remember the details behind the Cynthia 0 exp battle I uploaded not too long ago, then this is a lot like it.

You get the chance to completely re-arrange your team after the E4 sequence, and that's handy. I don't actually change every little thing, as Excadrill, Durant and Sawk all seem like such great Pokemon that you can scarcely imagine abandoning one of them. However, I was very displeased with Durant, and this video should speak volumes about why that was so. Cofagrigus also ended up staying because of its incredible stall potential making it very important for some matchups, while Amoonguss's Giga Drain strikes something 4x effectively in both the final battles (but using it in both cases isn't exactly straightforward, not to mention it ends up contributing something else in the Ghetsis battle). I also brought Whimsicott along for priority debuffs/support, though Cryogonal is even more effective when up against Ghetsis (completely disposable against N though, and the two fights are about equally difficult without setup).

Before this battle, you have to capture Reshiram. He has a lower catch rate in this gen (same as Tangela or Onix), meaning it's easier to catch, but it's not like you care when the game will be over in half an hour or less, so some Master Balling takes place to save time (as we waste a lot of it resetting when developing a rather meticulously detailed and accurate strategy).

Following the unwritten rules of 0 exp challenge runs, Reshiram isn't included in the party due to its all-too-powerful nature (though I gotta say Excadrill is better here anyway).

But let's get to the battle against N. He doesn't joke around when he leads with Zekrom, and yet it's a Pokemon that's almost guaranteed to fall to Excadrill with its incredibly suitable defensive typing for this matchup. If we were playing White, Excadrill's fire-weakness wouldn't have let him pull off the same against Reshiram (and I also would've hated having to use Throh instead of Sawk at different points of the challenge). The only 'but' is whether Excadrill has enough health to do anything else after he beats Zekrom - postponing his attack until the second turn and holding a Shell Bell allows him to have a higher than normal chance of being useful even later on in this fight.

Seeing his most treasured Pokemon fall prey to Excadrill so easily, in desperation, N calls Klinklang! What can be a better Excadrill counter than a Pokemon all of whose moves are either resisted or completely negated by Excadrill, and with an EQ weakness to boot! Oh wait a second... You don't think this might be... a... Zoroark?

And since that's what it certainly is and we have decided not to sweep with Excadrill (which is so easy that even a child could do it), Sawk is sent out to first lower Zoro's speed with Low Sweep and then finish him off next turn. It doesn't seem like Zoro can OHKO Sawk at all with a non-crit (making Sturdy unnecessary here) but he's very likely to miss with a move like Focus Blast, so if Sawk happens to avoid being hit altogether, he will be extremely useful further on in the battle. This doesn't happen here though (and things actually get worse later, too).

(I seem to be on a roll with elaborate storytelling, so the rest of the description can be found in the comment section because of YouTube's silly character limit)

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