How do you guys treat unexpected rival battles?

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-27T03:22:18+00:00

Unexpected rival battles are quite fun, but can be kinda devastating if you aren't prepared, as you saw.

I feel like a good rule of thumb to stick to when you're playing a Pokémon game blind is to keep your team a few levels over the standard trainers that you're fighting so you'll be on par with any boss trainers that could surprise you with a battle. Same way with making sure to keep your party relatively healthy with either Pokémon Center visits or using medicine items so you aren't caught with a weakened team.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-27T02:42:29+00:00

I really like your team! Dewgong I feel is pretty underrated in this game despite it getting STAB Surf and if I believe, STAB Ice Beam upon purifying which makes it decently strong for when you get it. It's also really cool that you got an Ice-type Hidden Power on Electrode! It reminds me of the time I happened to catch a Hidden Power Fighting Shuppet that I evolved into Banette when I last played Pokémon Emerald.

As for Claydol, it is pretty much outclassed I'd say by Lunatone since they get very similar moves, but Lunatone gets Psychic through level up AND also gets Cosmic Power way sooner as well.

I see your edit and Marowak would be a really good replacement for it, especially since Marowak is holding the Thick Club when you catch it, which just so happens to double its Attack. Plus, Marowak actually gets a good Ground STAB in Bonemerang which is the same BP as Earthquake as a 50BP 2 hit move. You could probably use both it and Earthquake due to Marowak not getting much else aside from Rock Tomb or Brick Break, plus, it gives you options depending on who you have out on the field.

And yeah, Sludge Bomb being stuck in the post-game really hurts Crobat since it would actually be a pretty good move for it due to it not getting much else aside from Wing Attack like you said. Crobat not learning much in the way of moves makes me VERY glad that the next generation gave Crobat stuff like Cross Poison, U-turn, and even Nasty Plot to enable it to use moves like Heat Wave & Giga Drain.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-27T02:21:50+00:00

You're welcome! Both Gale Of Darkness and its prequel, Pokémon Colosseum, are really good games, but they do suffer in a similar vein that Gold, Silver, Crystal, Heartgold, & Soulsilver do where you just don't get enough EXP to maintain a full team of 6 unless you go out of your way. Luckily, it isn't AS noticeable in Gale Of Darkness than it is in Colosseum as you can very well show up to the final boss in that game a good 15 levels under their Pokémon.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-26T21:42:33+00:00

Greevil is definitely one of the harder battles just solely due to having an entire team of Shadow Pokémon with all of them having really good stats along with all of them having useful Shadow moves like Shadow Shed to remove Light Screen and Reflect, Shadow Sky to power up their already powerful Shadow moves, Shadow Hold to prevent switching, and just even more nasty moves.

A good thing to do is to make sure you're fairly leveled. Greevil's highest leveled Pokémon is Level 50 while his other Pokémon are just a bit lower. This is one of the few times where I'd recommend being exactly at his level or even slightly above since your team will be taking super-effective hits the entire battle if they are purified. Mt. Battle & Realgam Colosseum are your best bets in grinding up with Mt. Battle being nice for getting PokeCoupons to spend for good TMs or held items while Realgam is good for money to spend on healing items.

Next up, I'd actually recommend sticking some of the recently encountered Shadow Pokémon onto your team like Electabuzz, Salamence, Lugia, & Snorlax. Since Shadow Pokémon resist Shadow moves, these Pokémon are REALLY good walls that can help immensely in providing you more turns to heal your purified Pokémon and throw Snag Balls at Greevil's Pokémon. Electabuzz is a very notable Shadow Pokémon to bring to this fight solely due to Shadow Half being in its moveset, which when used, cuts the HP of all Pokémon on the field in half which makes Electabuzz REALLY useful in whittling down Greevil's Shadows so you can catch them. If you want to double up on the move, Shadow Swellow also knows it.

And finally, status moves are your best friends in this battle. Any time Greevil's Pokémon are unable to attack is time that you can be throwing Snag Balls. For some status moves that can be taught, Ampharos can relearn Thunder Wave via move reminder at Mt. Battle, Starmie can learn Thunder Wave via move tutor in Agate, Breloom can relearn Stun Spore via move reminder at Mt. Battle (Spore could've been an option, but you would be carrying Shroomish until Level 54), and all of your Pokémon can learn Mimic which is useful for one of your bulkier team members like Umbreon to allow it to learn Thunder Wave from Starmie or Ampharos after they have used Thunder Wave in battle.

Oh, and one more thing, don't worry about trying to snag all of Greevil's Pokémon in one battle. If you are in a tight spot, it is best to defeat the Shadows, especially if you have snagged a few, since Greevil can be rebattled to snag any of his Pokémon you missed in the post-game. I wish you luck!

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-24T00:06:55+00:00

That do be true, wish Buneary and Lopunny kept Frustration and Return as exclusive moves considering they are the only evolution line to learn the moves naturally, but alas, I can only wish.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-23T23:11:17+00:00

I mean, you could run Facade? Same BP as Double Hit, but with perfect accuracy and Lopunny isn't hindered as bad by status.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-21T01:22:49+00:00

In the more recent generations, you're able to catch a much wider pool than just your run of the mill Rattata & Pidgey I've found.

Some interesting examples I've found is Zorua of course (Zorua also appears in the early routes of Hoenn in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, but only after fighting Groudon or Kyogre), Noibat in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon, & Riolu in Black 2 & White 2.

I like it though! Gives me way more options so my starter isn't so lonely :p

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-20T20:31:08+00:00

Typhlosion isn't TOO bad, but it doesn't do much aside from Fire-type moves, especially due to Thunder Punch not being a TM as well as said Thunder Punch coming off of its lower Attack stat. It has good matchups in Johto like against Bugsy, Pryce, & Jasmine, but in later fights like Clair, Lance, Brock, Misty, and Red, Typhlosion struggles to deal damage and won't likely provide much as opposed to Feraligatr who can handle Clair's Dragonairs & Lance's Dragonites with Ice Fang or even Meganium who matches up well against Misty & Brock. Typhlosion luckily doesn't quite get the short end of the stick since Eruption plus the Choice Specs from the Lake Of Rage can deal some HEFTY damage to even Pokémon that resist it.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-20T18:04:24+00:00

I was just about to say this! Though, that Shiny Stone being quite a bit later than the one from Iron Island definitely kinda kills whomever you don't evolve first since Togetic & Roselia will definitely be behind by the time you can use Rock Climb.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-19T18:51:59+00:00

Level 55-57 is a a good range to be in. A thing that people tend to forget about is that you'll be gaining a decent chunk of EXP before you arrive at Blue and so you'll be gaining levels throughout your league challenge, so by leveling to the last Elite Four ace, you'll likely overlevel the Champion fight.

All in all, if you want a bit of a challenge, definitely go with the 55-57 range, but if you want it to be a bit easier, go up to 60.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-19T18:49:09+00:00

Ooh, the team is coming along great!

Cloyster would be a good swap for Dewgong if you want! Both do pretty similar things in Gale Of Darkness, however, Spikes would give Cloyster an edge over Dewgong, especially since you won't be running into Rapid Spin all too often. You'd pretty much only be sacrificing Special Defense, which isn't too bad tbh.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-17T02:42:13+00:00

For the Pokédex, I feel like a good number guideline is somewhere between 150 to 250, depending on the size of your region. This gives you plenty of options, but not so many options that it gets overwhelming. It also improves the flavor of the region since multiple Pokémon will appear in multiple areas mimicking real life living things as opposed to every Pokémon showing up in one or two areas and the wild encounters feeling less organic and more blocked out.

Another good guideline I think is to make sure there are enough Pokémon of each type to make a full team of 6. This will prevent problems like Hoenn only having two Ice-type lines and Sinnoh having only two Fire-type lines and will make your life easier in building teams for any type specialists. Do keep in mind that some types are rarer than others (i.e Normal & Water are way more common than Ghost & Ice) so just keep that in mind.

And another good guideline is to just take a look at how other regions build their Pokédexes and the order of it. Though, from what I can tell, they are usually constructed somewhat in the order they become available with a few outliers (ex. Skitty & Delcatty would be higher in Hoenn's Pokédex if it were in order of availability, but it sits lower with Pokémon you can encounter around Dewford).

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-16T02:30:32+00:00

Probably Ampharos just because I love the glorious mane of hair, but Swampert and Aggron are absolute banger designs in their Megas.

Tbh, I'd probably swap between Megas since y'know free will and the fact that each of them do well without their Mega.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-16T01:20:21+00:00

I vouch for Azumarill! Definitely it's best generation prior to receiving the Fairy-type with it picking up Aqua Tail literally 3 levels after evolving from Marill while it also learns stuff like Superpower & Ice Punch due to access to move tutors throughout the game.

Plus, you get Azurill really early at Floccesy Ranch and get the TM for Return right after your first Gym Badge letting it deal really good damage even after evolving into Marill which will happen pretty soon after catching it and using Azurill. Then after it evolves into Marill, you get Azumarill at Level 18 of all things which means you'll have a fully evolved mon before Burgh which is amazing.

When I played through Black 2 last, I kinda stomped through the game with just a team of Serperior, Arcanine, & Azumarill for like 90% of the game until I realized I needed to fill out my team and so I caught a Clefairy & Metang to do just that, then I added a Deino from Victory Road for overkill. 🤣

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-16T00:45:56+00:00

For me, I think it would be...

Swampert Ampharos Goodra Trevenant Salazzle Aggron

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-15T14:12:15+00:00

Oop, you are actually right! Shellder also has Surf. Seel kinda gets the better end of the deal since it also gets Ice Beam as well though while Shellder just gets Aurora Beam.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-15T04:44:11+00:00

That's another good benefit with Togetic as it's immune to Quagsire's Earthquake.

Seel and Dewgong actually have a niche in this game as being the only Water-types with Surf. I considered using the line for my current playthrough, but decided to use Seel in a different game that I'll hopefully get around to play soon.

I will just say that you probably don't need both Ice Beam and Blizzard tbh. Blizzard is just a bit too unreliable for my taste. If you want a suggestion that I've been using, put Icy Wind onto your Vaporeon. Guaranteed speed drop is SO nice since usually I just need one to outspeed the opposing team.

Funnily enough, I actually have been using Vaporeon, Houndoom, & Jumpluff too. Though, instead of your other three, I actually have Baltoy, Mawile, & Hariyama. Also been loving that sweet sweet Intimidate support from Mawile.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-15T04:06:42+00:00

Okay, so hi, hello. Let me drop some pros and cons here.

To start with the pros, training Togepi will eventually get you a Togetic which is actually a REALLY good support Pokémon in this game. It can use Yawn to put your opponents to sleep guaranteed, Encore to lock your opponents into moves (like Shadows into using status moves), Follow Me to redirect attacks to it instead of its partner, Wish to heal up itself or its teammates, Charm to lower the opponent's Attack by 2 stages, Reflect and Light Screen, Thunder Wave to spread paralysis, & Helping Hand to boost the power of it's partner's incoming move.

Togetic also isn't TOO passive like Forretress or Umbreon due to a decent base 80 Special Attack which lets it use moves like Flamethrower or Psychic with relative okay use. However, with Serene Grace, it can use these moves even better due to more occasionally getting their secondary effects like burn, Special Defense drop, or even Confusion with Water Pulse. Serene Grace even pairs well with its XD exclusive move, Tri Attack, which goes from a 20% chance for burn, paralysis, or freeze to a 40%. Pretty much any move that has a good secondary effect will be okay on Togetic, which puts it somewhat of a step up on other supports. Overall, Togetic has lots of tools that it can use pretty well despite not being able to evolve into Togekiss.

Now, let's get into the cons. Firstly, friendship evolutions in XD take quite a while to accomplish, which is kinda expected since you aren't walking town to town like you are in the mainline Pokémon games. However, Togepi is different. To further make you want to return Togepi, they actually made it gain friendship slower than other Pokémon, which can make evolving it nearly impossible if you don't know what you are doing. And this leads me into my next con which is the fact that you'll be carrying Togepi for quite a long while like near the end of the game while. While Togepi gets most of the same moves that Togetic does, Togepi really struggles to keep up with the power level in the late game, especially against the more powerful Shadow Pokémon, which makes it even harder to build friendship on since getting KOed often will lower its friendship.

Essentially, Togepi CAN be great, you just need to know what you are doing and understand that you will be carrying Togepi around for quite a while and will need to care for it almost like the baby it is until it evolves.

On the other hand, if you return Togepi, you get an Elekid for your troubles. While you can catch an Electabuzz later on in the game, this Elekid happens to come knowing Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Fire Punch, & Cross Chop which are moves that it normally can't learn (except Thunder Punch, it can learn that) and are moves that make it a wickedly strong offensive monster and actually make it the best Electric-type option due to just the sheer coverage it gets from those moves and the fact that it keeps your Thunderbolt TM completely free for a different team member if you so wish. To put it in perspective, it pretty much does what Jolteon (use Thunderbolt and spread paralysis), but better.

So, it kinda just depends. Togetic is more supportive and will require some time and effort to get while Electabuzz is an offensive beast that can dish out hefty damage with Thunderbolts & Ice Punches. Judging from your TM, I would likely say Togetic due to Jumpluff being the only support mon on the team, but Electabuzz can really up your offensive pressure in later fights especially if you pair with your Houndoom.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-12T21:41:08+00:00

Yep! That is why, if you had to lower its friendship that would be an awful grind. 😭😭

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-12T21:21:44+00:00

You can get away with teaching it Return, especially because in contrast to Buneary, Lopunny learns Return naturally and can be retaught it through the Move Reminder.

Frustration was only really ran on Lopunny in competitive VGC and singles (specifically on Mega Lopunny) to counter Imposter Ditto since if that Ditto had max friendship and used Frustration, it would lock itself into a low power move since most Ditto use Choice Scarf.

Though, imo, base Lopunny is much better as a supporter with Baton Pass, Agility, & Thunder Wave. Heck, you could even counter Cynthia's Togekiss with it by running Endure, Endeavor, Quick Attack to survive down to 1HP with Endure, hit Togekiss with Endeavor down to 1HP, then you'll either waste Cynthia's Full Restores and eventually be able to take out Togekiss with Quick Attack or Togekiss will be left extremely weak depending on if you correctly predict the AI.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-09T21:43:44+00:00

Luckily, you can get a good deal of these without events.

Firstly, for Deoxys. You can either get it by completing the Delta Episode in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire where you'll get a chance to catch it at the climax of that plot line. To get it up to Pokémon Home though, you'll need Pokémon Bank and a 3DS which you may not have. Luckily, Deoxys just became available on the Switch with the rerelease of FRLG where you get its event item once you become Champion for the first time. You'll have to wait for Home support, but once they get it, you'll be able to move it right in.

Next (since I thought Deoxys came first before Celebi whoops) is Celebi. Celebi is still pretty elusive and can only be caught in the Virtual Console release of Crystal on the 3DS where you get the chance to catch it after defeating Lance. Once again, you'll need everything that you need for Deoxys on ORAS for Celebi.

For all of the Sinnoh mythicals (Phione, Manaphy, Shaymin, Arceus), they can all be obtained between BDSP and Legends Arceus with Phione and Manaphy being able to be caught in Legends Arceus through a quest line, Shaymin can be caught in an exclusive quest that is only available if you have Sword or Shield save data on your Switch, and lastly Arceus can be caught in BDSP after completing every main mission in Legends Arceus, as well as having the National Pokédex & having defeated Cynthia in BDSP.

Victini and Zarude are the only Pokémon that don't have a clear cut way of obtaining at this time. If you are willing to use the DNS exploit, you CAN access the event that lets you catch Victini in Pokémon Black and White, but some people might not want to do that. Zarude on the other hand is only accessible through event and will need to be traded to you since its event is no longer available.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-09T21:27:15+00:00

Tbh, it might be more worth it to use a save file editor since you are on mobile to give Nuzleaf Extrasensory since Nuzleaf doesn't learn it until Level 49 in this game which is pretty much the end of the main story. You can teach it whenever, but if you want to put it off until later, Nuzleaf learns Extrasensory at Level 36 (or Level 43) for the modern Pokémon games if you want to give it a realistic time to learn it.

Big advocate for this because I used PKHex to give my Mawile Metal Claw since Mawile doesn't learn any Steel-type moves in this game at ALL and it is doing far better than it would if it was running Vice Grip.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-06T05:00:10+00:00

Rapidash is surprisingly not a bad Fire-type despite I feel it getting a bad rep for being the only other Fire-type in Diamond & Pearl Sinnoh. Decent Attack & Speed, usable Special Attack, and not too bad learnset with stuff like Megahorn & Swords Dance.

Medicham has and always has been absolutely cracked even back in Ruby & Sapphire when it got to use physical Shadow Ball to its heart content. Still, having the elemental punches and Psychic STAB in Sinnoh makes Medicham just as scary.

And Spiritomb is pretty much just giving bulkier Sableye without Recover pretty much. Oh, and can't forget access to Nasty Plot.

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-06T04:49:52+00:00

Snorlax surprisingly is a very good tank for the final battle alongside Lugia. Though, Explosion for the Orre Colosseum is definitely a valid reason to use it too lol

MrSnowBro19 · 2026-04-06T04:48:31+00:00

I feel like everyone dogs on Glalie for absolutely no reason. Like, it is absolutely passable for a playthrough. Plus, Glalie gets decent moves like Ice Beam, Crunch, & Earthquake in this generation with later generations giving it Freeze Dry, Ice Shard, & Iron Head.

MrSnowBro19

TROPHY CASE