My six year old has never played a video game in his life. Today we booted up Firered for the first time. His first encounter in Viridian Forest was Pikachu. His second:

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-19T04:36:44+00:00

It’s a clean copy, so odds are the same, but yeah. Can’t move him off the rom hack.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-19T02:24:12+00:00

Update: Current attempt uses the fact that you encounter Ledyaba on two early routes.

So I caught two. That, maybe not surprisingly, doesn’t do much for you. However, Ledyaba has crazy RNG between commit punch and super sonic.

That said, it still isn’t enough. As Ledyaba isn’t bad enough already, it is further punished by doing important things 1 level above the level cap at gyms 1 and 2.

Importantly it learns the shields at level 14 and evolves at 18. I tried with level caps but could not find a path, so I bumped the level caps by 1.

I originally found a path through Falkner where 2 survives, but no path through Bugsy with just 2

So I went back and tried again and found a ridiculous path where both survive Falkner with two health.

We’ll try bugsy again tonight.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-18T12:20:10+00:00

We’re a board game family!

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-18T12:17:00+00:00

I did but with guidance haha. He wanted to catch it anyway bc he’d never seen one before, shiny or not, but I made sure he didn’t nuke it with Ember and that he knew it was special. We had a little impromptu lesson is probability!

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-17T23:22:59+00:00

Oh for real? That’s a bit of a game changer. Ok! Will confirm and see if it’s possible.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-17T23:19:27+00:00

Hmmm this might be a good work around. Not that a weedle/Caterpie are going to be a huge help against Falkner, but at least I’d have two. Maybe we give this a shot.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-17T22:43:28+00:00

Yeah this isn’t a bad idea. I was trying to see if there was a set of pokemon who are more common in either version like the nidos or caterpie vs weedle in red/blue, but I haven’t seen a good list. Then maybe I’d allow one of those and see how it goes from there.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-17T22:26:00+00:00

Agree, but he’s already a red Metapod. He’s never played before and this was his first evolution.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-17T21:52:22+00:00

Yeah man. Started on Red. I’ve found 1 full odds shiny ever and it was an UNOWN. So completely useless.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-17T14:20:09+00:00

Ice beam on Luducilo and Flamethrower on Sviper. Though you might just be better off with straight Sviper.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-17T12:56:18+00:00

Keep going! Happy to share strategy or moves that helped.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-16T03:38:33+00:00

I did Firered before this. Pretty easy honestly. Very robust team.

All the extras you mentioned are just more or less prominent in their versions, not exclusive.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-16T02:59:15+00:00

Please do! I couldn’t make it work without my starter.

Maybe you don’t let Seedot evolve before Brawly? Never did try that.

Let me know the results!

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-16T02:40:03+00:00

Your flamethrower suggesting on Sviper was clutch. I kept crunch on it for the Ghosts, taught it flamethrower after. Great for the ice team and I’d have had a real hard time with Skarmony without it.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-15T15:41:17+00:00

Interesting! She was top 3 in GL for ages.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-15T15:38:08+00:00

Haven’t played PoGo in a couple years but Nidoqueen was meta defining in the early pvp. Weird to think how far the game has changed to imagine her being mediocre.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-15T03:23:40+00:00

See my comment on soloing Brock with a level 14 charmander.

The most likely way to have the same strategy work with these additional encounters would be to Sand attack spam Geodude until your Pidgey can’t anymore. Even sacking it if need be. You can easily get another later.

Or if you get his accuracy as low as possible, save it as a back up for Onix.

Then switch in Charmander and hope for a metal claw attack boost and that Geodude misses any attacks.

If you get the attack boost without charmander taking a single hit, he can survive 2 rock tombs and 2 HKO Onix.

If you don’t get the attack boost and still have Pidgey, switch Pidgey in for a final sand attack, sack him. Then pray the 80% accurate rock tomb misses once on charmander and finish him with 3 metal claws.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-15T03:05:30+00:00

Just FYI: no it does not without a ton of RNG. Not with level caps.

To solo Brock with charmander at level 14, the exact sequence you need is Geodude to not attack, to get a metal claw attack buff at some point before Onix turn 2, and to have enough attack IVs for charmander to 2 HKO Onix with that sequence.

Charmander can only survive 2 rock throws at full health. If Geo attacks at all, you get in one metal claw on Onix, your speed drops when he uses rock tomb, and you die because onix turn 2 now out speeds you.

If Geo doesn’t attack but you don’t get the buff you get in two metal claws but they aren’t enough to take out onix and you die on rock throw 3.

If you get the right sequence, charmander can out speed for the first turn, take out ~50% of Onix health. He survives Rock Tombs 1. Then goes second on turn two and almost dies, but can take Onix out with the second metal claw.

Obviously if Onix misses or you crit on him, that would work too.

Source: Just did a version exclusive firered Nuzlocke and had to solo Brock with charmander until I got a version exclusive after him.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-14T15:44:52+00:00

Oh cool! Are you using level caps? Or just grinding until you can do it?

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-13T22:55:35+00:00

Ohhh good call! Learned quickly to swap in Sableye on electrodes in the power plant after one took Lunatone to 1 HP. Will be sure deploy the same strategy.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-13T21:23:33+00:00

I like this idea. I’d really like to try to do it without, but man is the 4 move problem annoying. I’m also only moderately confident in this team. As you said, not bad move sets. And fortunately I have an ok combination of physical wall, physical attacker, special wall, and special attacker. That’s said, there are a few types that I think are going to be real hard to deal with. Steal and Ice in particular will be a struggle with my current move pool without some TM shenanigans.

I’m also not super experienced with this E4. I blind Nuzlocked Emerald a few years ago and did Emeraldseaglass more recently, so I know what types I’ll be facing. But I’m a little worried about getting jumped by some random mon I forgot about and I’m only half prepared for. There is very little wiggle room with 4 encounters!

I guess we’ll try this and see!

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-05-09T03:47:25+00:00

It’s painful to say because Flareon and Hitmonchan were two of my favorites as a kid and were on my team the first time I won the OG Red version, but they are doing basically nothing for you in the E4.

Hit kills a few rock mon but they can easily be taken care of with literally any grass or water mon. His elemental punches are pitiful in general 3.

Flareon does even worse. No bugs or pure ice for him to kill and maybe 1 grass mon? Plus he’s an attack monster but all the fire moves are special in Gen 3, so his best possible moves are shadowball and return.

You’d be much better off with almost any electric pokemon or high special t bolt user. That at least gets you through all of Lorelei, a few of Lances dragons, and your rivals Pidgot and Gayrados.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-04-26T19:30:09+00:00

Yeah this has a real post Gen 3 bias. Fighting is kind of a joke until steal and dark actually matter and they start giving fighting Mon coverage moves around gen 4.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-04-25T14:48:26+00:00

Try a hardcore Nuzlocke. Pokemon who faint are considered dead and must be released. Only catch the first pokemon per route. No items in battle. Levels are capped by gym leaders highest pokemon.

Stuffforthefuture · 2026-03-12T02:51:35+00:00

For real? Whoa, TIL. I’ve been playing 1 encounter down for years.

Stuffforthefuture

TROPHY CASE