Pokemon Omega Ruby - 0 Exp Part 1: Roxanne

Channel:

MoogleBoss

Subscribers:

6,640

Published on June 20, 2016 5:34:09 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgTnuS9tfvM

Game:

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (2014)

Duration: 3:31

2,688 views

47

I announced this would be shared, and in fact had already made a good bit of progress before I finished uploading the Pokemon Y 0 exp video series, so... you all know what to expect from this.

Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c1PNYH-llf1dNbuoB3ONrsG

The rules are the usual:
- 0 exp / no levelling (includes Day Care and Rare Candies, which are banned) with the help of hacking
- No legendaries (applies to Groudon, but more prominently, Latios, who'd be pretty valuable given its mega evolution)
- No item usage in battle (could well make endgame battles like Steven hell... so I eagerly anticipate the difficulties)
- Species clause
- No increasing wild Pokemon levels with DexNav / Black Flute (discussed below)

Several years ago I completed a 0 exp run in Sapphire (rules a tiny bit different to this one) - https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=986C7BC1ED99BA8D - however, the changes caused by being 3 entire Pokemon generations away from the original Hoenn experience certainly make it worthwhile. I also like to think I've got better at in-game Pokemon during this period of time, so I'm more flexible when coming up with a strategy for a boss battle. Some of the ones recorded so far have been pretty counter-intuitive.

Unlike XY, while ORAS does bring Exp Share back and allow overlevelling in a regular run, eliminating all challenge, this isn't applicable to this challenge run. All the wild Pokemon remain at somewhat lowish levels compared to the opposition at a given point of the game, keeping the original level gap intact.

One big change is the introduction of DexNav, allowing an easier capture of desirable Pokemon once one has been caught. The abusable aspects of DexNav include allowing you to farm for Pokemon with rare egg moves and upping the max level of a Pokemon in question to +10. Now, to give one example to illustrate the issue at hand, Brawly isn't an easy gym leader, but circumventing all challenge by farming for a lv. 20 Zubat that knows Brave Bird is NOT how we want to play this. I will generally abstain from using DexNav'd mons' egg moves, and the maximum possible level without DexNav is as far as I'm allowed to be levelwise. Also worthy of mention is the Black Flute item, which now adds +1-3 to a wild Pokemon's level. Once again, no going above the normal maximum level, but at times I use the flute to more quickly find the highest-levelled mon of a desired species when the game is too greedy and gives me like 20 lower-levelled versions in a row (makes the Black Flute so handy).

So Roxanne is the first gym leader we face. She hasn't changed much and the Rock Tomb TM she represented in original RSE has become the series' staple, given to the player by nearly every rock-type gym. Her two mons have unlearnt Rock Throw, in contrast to their vanilla selves and Geodude now has Sturdy, which would prevent it from being OHKO'd but we lack the firepower to achieve that anyway.

Roxanne's lead lv. 12 Geodude is actually not the easiest mon to face - it's high-levelled enough to outspeed most of its grass and water counters, exception being Wingull, who packs a nasty weakness to rock, so once it weakens Geodude it's going down. Geodude is now at low enough HP to trigger a Potion use from Roxanne, so any grass/water with 4x effective will do. Starters now get STAB moves right away in this generation, so I use the starter Mudkip to weaken Geodude again. It seems like Mudkip and Geodude are somehow speed tied, as on some runs Mudkip outspeeds Geodude and on other attempts Geodude goes first and OHKO's (no secondary ground-typing to resist the damage until evolution to Marshtomp). I resort to finishing it off with Makit, suffering poison damage, which I didn't want to happen.

Nosepass, Roxanne's biggest mon, is much more defensive than Geodude, with a better typing to boot. Water/grass mons don't fare so well here anymore, so I unleash the power of MAKIT! The traded Makuhita now comes at a fixed level of 9, making it very competent. I get it poisoned to receive a damage increase from Guts. Focus Energy and Arm Thrust are crucial moves for our success here.

Makit switches into Nosepass paralysed by Shroomish (not OHKO'd here because of acceptable phys bulk + Nosepass's unspectacular offence), and uses Focus Energy. With gen 6's new critical hit ratio mechanics, that gets him to 50% - very convenient because Nosepass must've started using Harden by now, as crits ignore defence boosts (not quite, but that's the easy way to explain it). Arm Thrust procs five hits (1/8 chance), four of which are crits (don't care to calc, but each crit is a coin flip) - incredible luck allows Makit to destroy Nosepass the same turn it begins attacking! Really didn't see that coming...

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