Pokemon Silver - 0 Exp Challenge Part 6: Morty
22The next gym battle isn't too hard seeing how Sudowoodo has high enough defence to not fret over Shadow Balls coming from the unreasonable base attack of the Gengar evolution line, and with some switching to avoid the effects of Curse and a lot of Awakenings, Sudowoodo might as well handle this on his own.
However, when I play Pokemon, even when it's an extreme challenge like this, I tend to rush impatiently into the next battle without even bothering with the shopping (I'm really OCD about picking up the berries on a daily basis though) so I had barely any Awakenings ready for the sleep assault that was to come.
Funny how the same kind of tactics that we used in the first three gym battles is now used against our party here.
Anyway, there are Pokemon who can do better than Sudowoodo in this gym. If we go east or west from Ecruteak, we can catch some cool stuff that's not exactly overpowered (Sudowoodo is still the highest-levelled Pokemon available), but quite useful.
Girafarig, for example. Very unique typing in Normal/Psychic grants him immunity to Shadow Ball and boosts his Confusion he comes with, with the same type attack bonus. However, if Curse is used, it's a good idea to switch him out to somebody like Sudowoodo.
It's worth noting that Night Shade, which is ghost-type and does damage equal to the user's level, doesn't affect Normal-types in this game (unlike in the first generation). This means Girafarig has only Hypnosis to fear from the unevolved ghosts here. Curse just allows him to beat his opponents quicker. Sudowoodo receives significant damage from Night Shade and his Rock Throw counters are unimpressive. He has Quick Claw equipped in this battle, which gives him a decent chance of going first. If you watch the video, you'll see that it saves his life at one point.
Gengar is quite different. Not only does he spam Hypnosis, but he also knows Dream Eater which will deal heavy Psychic damage and heal the boss Pokemon substantially. Since we don't have many Awakenings at all to just wait out until Hypnosis misses (it's only 60% accurate), I use some different tactics.
That is, I counter with Hypnosis of my own. Noctowl is caught in the same area south of the Lake of Rage where Girafarig is also found, and he is another Normal type that resists ghost attacks, not to mention that he starts with Peck, Foresight and Hypnosis, all of which are great for this fight.
Foresight removed the ghosts' immunity to normal and fighting type attacks, making it a perfect idea to switch to a great normal-type attacker like Tauros, Miltank or Raticate, and then use their STAB moves for great damage. I used a Steelix trying to bring Gengar's defence down beforehand, but he didn't withstand Gengar's cunning tactics for too long.
The Dig TM could be put to good use here; however, later on in the game there's a shortage of good ground-type attacks, so I'd rather conserve it for when the level gap between the wild Pokemon and the enemies is more apparent. Somebody like Graveler/Golem would really appreciate it, and I have a feeling I'll be giving the Earthquake TM to somebody else.
Anyway, if this can be done without Dig, there's no need to waste it since it's one-time use.
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