Pokemon Soul Silver 0 Exp Game Part 13: Elite Four Bruno

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MoogleBoss

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Published on March 6, 2012 8:23:18 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oago-wjYCFo

Game:

Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver (2009)

Duration: 8:04

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12

Bruno, the third member of the E4, is a lot manlier than he used to be in the past games, with his fighters getting additional strength with the moves split into special and physical regardless of type. Hitmonchan's elemental punches now go off his far superior physical attack stat, giving him good coverage that's actually worth something, Hitmontop's weak attacks are powered up by Technician and Hitmonlee gets Blaze Kick for anything fire-weak that dares switch in.

This is the first time Steelix doesn't want to show up with its immense defensive strength and steel-typing, as everything will hurt it quite a bit, while it doesn't do a whole lot in return.

Bruno is essentially why I brought Dodrio in here. The one I caught is low-levelled - only lv. 36 - and its nature is the one that decreases its physical attack while improving its speed. It may seem like a weird idea to bring a -atk nature Dodrio when you want it to attack things physically, but the other five or so Dodrios I caught (they appear at 5% rates in the grass before Victory Road) had even less attack and far less speed, so I just went with this one.

Dodrio fails to OHKO anything, really, though it can deal with Hitmonlee if it's given a Choice Scarf, outspeeding it, using Fly, forcing Hitmonlee to hurt itself big time with Hi Jump Kick, and then finishing it off. The rest of the Pokemon are bulky enough to not even be 2HKO'd and Dodrio's defences are so weak it doesn't stand a chance... If only we could set up somehow...

And come to think of it, there is such an opportunity. Hitmontop, Bruno's lead, packs unimpressive moves, wastes turns using Counter, and its Technician boost to attack can be countered by having Gyarados repeatedly switch in with Intimidate. We can even switch in Tentacruel and set up a layer of Toxic Spikes, or two. The difference is that poison deals 1/8 max HP defence immediately while "bad poison" (two layers of Toxic Spikes) starts at 1/16 but gradually accumulates. Knowing what we want to do here, regular poison is actually preferred.

Anyway, Dodrio comes with a new move Acupressure which increases one of its stats (at random) by 2 levels. This means it can get boosts equal to Agility, Barrier, Swords Dance, Amnesia, etc. by just spamming this move while Hitmontop fails laughably at being any threat whatsoever.

Two boosts to attack are enough to OHKO everything with Fly, besides Onix who resists it. For Onix, I actually got a neat trick - I taught Dodrio Natural Gift, which is essentially a one-time use physical Hidden Power of desired type, but it depends on the berry you equipped rather than on your IVs (which can't be changed). I gave Dodrio a berry that makes Natural Gift grass-type (or was it water? no difference anyway). Onix still survives that somehow (must be that defence and the level difference), so I start with Fly first, and then finish it off with Natural Gift. It takes some poison damage too.

It's also a good idea, assuming Dodrio gains some evasion boosts in the process, to use Substitute. Two of the Pokemon - Onix and Machamp - have Rock Slide, which they WILL use to hit Dodrio in mid-air. Hitmonchan also has Bullet Punch, an increased priority move, which it may use to hit first before we can fly up.

However, defence and evasion boosts accumulated in the process turn Dodrio into a relentless killing machine. Who could've thought?

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