Pokemon Sun - 0 Exp Part 6: Totem Lurantis

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MoogleBoss

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Published on January 22, 2017 3:25:52 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTR3YiC7-eI

Game:

Pokémon Sun and Moon (2016)

Duration: 5:00

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Challenge playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbSv8zSDR9c3UXPZqUgrokIuZtllPl-9A

Third and last totem battle on the second island, it's Mallow's grass-type trial in Lush Jungle. I consider this to be the first really challenging fight in the challenge.

Lurantis is a Pokemon with all-around good stats in all but one area - its base speed of 45 (typical of new Alola mons), which doesn't deter it from outspeeding us because the totem boost gives it +2 speed.

Lurantis's coverage in this battle is limited to physical attacks of two types - grass, for which she gets STAB, and bug. This would suggest that a flying type would have a field day here, but this isn't quite true.

Lurantis's minions synergise with it in extremely appropriate and clever ways this time. The Trumbeak that gets summoned when Lurantis is at or near full HP has Rock Blast which is 4x effective against the two Pokemon who don't mind Lurantis's attacks most of everyone available in this challenge - Butterfree and Fletchinder. It's also got Pluch if you think bringing Paras is a good idea, but likely you don't since Lurantis's X-Scissor makes that problematic, and Paras has little to threaten the boss with. The other possible SOS summon is Castform, summoned when Lurantis is at around 2/3 of its max HP or lower. Its base stats are fairly competitive at this stage of the game (70s across the board, and STAB Weather Ball in the sun hurts pretty badly). Castform makes a good ally to Lurantis because it makes Synthesis restore two thirds of Lurantis's HP, making the boss difficult to take down.

Since we can't stay on the battlefield indefinitely due to the additional no items in battle restriction in this challenge run, and eventually overpower the boss, defeating Lurantis is no easy task. The plan is to OHKO Lurantis with a 100 BP fire-type Z-move (with Flame Charge taught via TM) at +2 atk from Work Up with intense sun up. Missing either the attack boost or the sunlight causes us to miss the OHKO, and allows Lurantis to heal off the sustained damage and keep on spamming its physical moves (120 BP Solar Blade doesn't need to be charged up in the sun, too).

Since Trumbeak's Rock Blast is too dangerous and we need Sunny Day to be used, we have weaken Lurantis on the first turn to get Castform SOS-called right away. Butterfree using Silver Wind does the job just fine. Then Fletchinder switches in, with barely enough durability to survive the attacks thrown at it to use the fire-type Z-move for the OHKO on Lurantis, not letting it heal off the blow as it did with the Silver Wind hit.

Dealing with Castform afterwards is a trifle; anyone bulky enough to take a Weather Ball can do so without much difficulty. The Salandit who contributed in the Salazzle totem battle grabs the kill for me here, but of course it's Fletchinder who's the real MVP here.

It's a pity Talonflame will never appear in this challenge run in one of the strategies. While you can get it in a trade for the optional Red/Blue cameo battles (with which I intend to finalise the series), it comes at a level too low to be of much use anywhere.

So that's that for the first actual challenge in this run. There's another battle that also forced me to think coming up very soon, and the source of the challenge is very unlikely (can anybody try to guess perhaps?).

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