Pokemon Omega Ruby - 0 Exp Part 7: Norman

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MoogleBoss

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Published on July 7, 2016 4:44:15 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-SCgW0MNmw

Game:

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (2014)

Duration: 6:32

1,999 views

33

The game won't let us have a rest, and moments after beating Flannery Norman becomes available! Will we prevail against the perfectly sane man who named his own daughter Boy?

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

In 0 exp context, Norman is known for two things, one being the ludicrous stats of his two Slakings and the second one being the level gap that will have been produced in such a run, with very few up-to-date Pokemon available (we just get to play in the sand a little, which offers too little of value for this gym battle).

Now, everyone who's played this fight again since being a 14 year old can tell you Norman's not all that hard, and as long as you can survive a single attack from a Slaking, you can heal off the damage, buff up with Bulk Up, hurt him with fighting-type attacks and special moves, etc. etc. We're still facing lv. 30 mammoths with 160 base attack, getting STAB on 140 BP Retaliate upon switching out (and since this isn't Alpha Sapphire, Sableye can't be summoned to circumvent said Retaliates).

There are still ways to 'cheese' Norman, and I must've demonstrated snippets of said strats in my time uploading Pokemon challenge videos to YouTube. This video is just the Omega Ruby 0 experience variant of strategies that aren't exactly wholly new to my world.

Did I promise the lv. 8 Skitty who owned Brawly would be making a comeback in further gym battles (yes, I did use 'battles' in the plural just now)? Well she IS back and some Heart Scales got this Skitty a neat new move to fool around with Slaking in Fake Out. Since Slaking follows a strict odd-even turn order for active-passive turns, it'll miss the turn it lost with Fake Out, which lets Skitty do anything she pleases on the 2nd turn. It can't do much (the most is probably a 55% accurate Sing, which can't do much for us I think) so I just use Toxic - a TM that wasn't available at this stage back in RSE. Nice!

Skitty's job is over however, as we enter the survival stage as Toxic gradually depletes the 1st Slaking's HP. Skarmory is the obvious candidate, taking two Retaliates easily. Though it can get a +defence proc from Steel Wing, that doesn't necessarily allow it to take an extra hit. In the end, I switch out to Lileep to carry on doing more of the same. Norman uses up his only potion as Slaking dies. None of my doods do, but they will start sacrificing themselves for the greater soon shortly...

Vigoroth will attempt to avenge his brother by using Retaliate against whoever is in, and I can't exactly outspeed and OHKO Vigoroth in a 0 exp game. I have somebody take the hit instead, weakening Vigoroth in the process - it's lv. 12 Mawile switching in with Intimidate! Mawile was the big reason for getting Omega Ruby instead of Alpha Sapphire as Sableye seemed lacklustre in comparison, but its low base level in Granite Cave means waiting for endgame for some actual sexy Mawile action (mega or not - plenty of guys want to be mega in E4 battles).

Surprisingly, Mawile can survive the 140 BP Retaliate from a Pokemon far higher-levelled than he is. Hardly matters though, as now I can safely switch Machop in without fear of being OHKO'd. Machop is setup for Guts to activate and OHKOs with Revenge (120 BP before STAB after taking damage on the same turn). Machop's the heaviest possible hitter we can possibly have in this fight, yet keeping him alive isn't really in our plans for the final matchup here...

Slaking brutally annihilates Machop with Retaliate (dealing what, 800% damage compared to its max HP? this is my guess, probably exaggerated and farfetch'd) and we let him do that. It's in its slacking-off turn now, which is where I switch in Trapinch, the most powerful user of Dig. Trapinch will bury itself underground this turn, and attack AFTER Slaking's action on the next turn. There is absolutely nothing Slaking can do now; in fact, it's so helpless we might have done it with like a lv. 2 Zigzagoon or something (maybe with a held Leppa Berry not to run out of PP idk). Except Trapinch actually has 100 base attack, is decently levelled and has its Dig attacks powered up by Metronome. Slaking falls rather quickly and in the most shameful way possible.

Beating Norman gives us Surf access, opening a very large and interesting part of Hoenn to work with on our 0 exp adventure. It is at this point that we get our first legendary, the lv. 25 (Mega) Latios, though in accordance with the run's rules it isn't used at all. It would've grown obsolete fairly quickly like all the other low-levelled megas I can use at some point, I imagine. Those stats look shockingly good on paper though.

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