Pokemon Brilliant Diamond - 0 Exp Part 1: Barry 1

Channel:

MoogleBoss

Subscribers:

6,590

Published on March 6, 2022 3:00:16 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKVZXnT_M_s

Game:

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (2021)

Duration: 4:08

661 views

33

This challenge shouldn't be a huge surprise (thumbnail unrelated) to anyone who's followed this channel for any significant period of time. Over the period of over 10 years, pushing 11, I've done 0 exp runs in 15 mainline Pokemon games and 2 ROM hacks, the entirety of which can be found in this playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c1yFi5pg4zf5yWnbidDTm_l

The big question was whether BDSP was worth doing having completed a 0 exp run in Platinum several years earlier. I never 0 exp ran the original Diamond/Pearl, which differ from Platinum in some ways, most people preferring the latter for obvious reasons. BDSP has gen 8 mechanics, with 4 generations having passed since the originals. Though there were no huge changes like the physical/special split, it uses the new mechanics as well as Sword/Shield learnsets, which leads to substantial changes. Moreover, BDSP aren't based on Platinum.

Another question to address would be what I think about BDSP as a game. Don't I hate it like everybody else? There seems to be a tradition of holding all new Pokemon games following Black/White 2 in contempt. While the games are a tad too faithful to the originals (being 'different' is definitely a strong point in my book; I like the changes the Alola games introduced to the usual gym leader formula for instance), the quality-of-life changes and overall presentation (besides the zooming on on the chibi characters during the story sequences - what the hell?) are very compelling, and it's an entirely enjoyable experience as a gen 8 game (apparently, our last).

Perhaps more importantly than anything else, the unprecedented focus on giving the trainers strong teams is a great advantage. Key trainers like gym leaders and elites have held items that either bolster their strengths or rectify their weaknesses, so the level of challenge is pleasantly high, and it should be even more pronounced playing a 0 experience run. With the postgame being hailed as a refreshingly well-crafted experience for a recent Pokemon game, I'm very much motivated to try and tackle that too. All in all, it should be a refreshing change from the oftentimes easy newer Pokemon games (though some of the battles in, say, USUM and SwSh were very memorable, champion battles more so than the rest).

Visually, the videos in this challenge will be different because the method of removing experience gain from the game has changed, likely due to the game running on the Unity engine. Instead of painfully editing each Pokemon's base exp value to 0, resulting in 1-2 exp gain after each fight, the entire script for gaining exp has been removed, so there's no message of any experience being gained when the battle ends. I've simply downloaded the mod by Nifyr from gamebanana to make this challenge possible; the easiest run to set up following Black/White with their AP measures.

The other restrictions introduced in the run are as follows:
- no item use in battle (held items are fine)
- no rare candies or levelling up; no vitamins
- no legendaries
- species clause
- no Pokemon from the Grand Underground

The final restriction is a no-brainer. The GU is meant to offer the players a chance to catch Pokemon added to gen 4 via Platinun and lets you catch overlevelled mons far stronger than anything available in the wild at any given point of the game. I'm sure it could be fun to fight Gardenia using Houndoom and Scyther, but maybe not in a no experience run. I'm going to allow digging for items and maybe buying random items from the merchants, but most likely I won't have any patience for the grind.

As in the original games, Barry uses a Starly and his starter at lv. 9. No matter what starter you choose to begin the game with, Barry's will not have a STAB move (though your starter most certainly will in a normal game with level-ups). Most Pokemon in the wild won't have any super-effective STAB moves, either.

Starly is a physical attacker countered marvelously by Shinx. Getting a high-level one with Intimidate eradicates all difficulty from the matchup, though I may or may not have got lucky with the survival at 1 HP - sadly, there are no Oran Berry trees to help us yet.

I went with Piplup as my starter so that Turtwig is used. As a grass-type, there won't be a shortage of wild Pokemon with SE attacks against it, and eventually it will have a double weakness to ice to try and OHKO it. Nothing can hit it super-effectively yet with the weak wild Pokemon we've got, but we can also block its attacks fairly reliably with Geodude. I use Sandstorm to accrue some damage over time in addition to what my unimpressive attacks incur, and after I see Withdraw used a couple times switch out to Unaware!Bidoof who can at least attack while ignoring the changes to Turtwig's defence while also enjoying the STAB on normal-type moves. With a big enough team, I really cannot lose this one, whether berries are available or not.

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