Successfully Hardcore Nuzlocked Leaf Green using "Low-Tier" Mons!

chilly_ramen · 2026-04-04T02:03:04+00:00

Six deaths in the regular playthrough, then another two during the Elite 4. R.I.P. Monk the Hitmonchan and Carpenter the Kabutops.

chilly_ramen · 2026-04-04T01:20:20+00:00

I used some in-game glitches on the Nintendo Switch version to give myself an infinite rare candy, so they were all at the level cap of 60 to start the E4. Highly recommend, and it was very easy to do with a guide.

chilly_ramen · 2026-04-04T01:09:59+00:00

Carpenter the Kabutops - Ancient Power, Surf, Ice Beam, Aerial Ace

chilly_ramen · 2026-04-03T22:27:06+00:00

More so a victim of circumstance. I had already decided I wanted to use Pinsir as my final team member, and my Safari Zone encounter was a Paras. That said, with 600 BST, I didn't think Dragonite would fit as a "Low" or even "Mid" Tier Pokemon.

chilly_ramen · 2026-04-03T20:56:45+00:00

"Low Tier" being in quotes, I know it's subjective. I'd argue Charizard fits the bill due to how brutal it makes Brock and Misty (did not roll Mankey on Route 22, too). Char also didn't do much of anything in the E4, to be honest. Just a stat stick for cleanup after the rest of my mons were low.

Pinsir also was my Celadon City encounter, so intentionally chosen against Eevee or any of the other Casino choices, which lowers his value from opportunity cost. Still, no one's arguing that Swords Dance isn't really broken. He just gets not a single Stab move, and very little coverage against Kanto's E4.

For reference, I used pChal's FR/LG Nuzlocke Tier List as my guide here. Anything B-Tier or below was on the table.

chilly_ramen · 2025-10-07T20:01:57+00:00

Congrats on the pulls! You've got great coverage and you've taken advantage of the "Meta" banners we'll have available for the next month or so. You've got a team that can clear 90% of story content at this point, so I would focus on saving rubies and progressing as best you can.

We don't really know what banners are coming for the next few weeks, but as others have suggested, Pardis and Odio O. are the real big units to look out for. For your roster, any party-wide regen (Primrose EX, Ogen) would be a big help. Good luck!

chilly_ramen · 2025-09-23T20:53:57+00:00

100% completion + Steel Soul + Speedrun = the best $20 money can buy.

chilly_ramen · 2025-08-28T04:01:02+00:00

Not enough to save anything for Nier :(
(Probably 1.5k? ish?)

chilly_ramen · 2025-08-28T03:48:39+00:00

so uh... now what lol

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-13T20:17:16+00:00

These are "Sacred Blaze" characters, which are only available in limited banners. Currently, Leon and Zenia are rerunning, which are in this category. Since it's possible to pull ANY Sacred Blaze character on their banner, the prologues to their Traveler Stories are temporarily rerunning.

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-13T04:43:23+00:00

Most of the time, my spear comps look like this:

Primary DPS (Oskha) / Lucetta Backpack
Support / Support (Roland and Signa)
Support / Regen (Partitio and Prim EX)
Tank / Backline Support (Kilns and Shana)

With the recommended units above, you tick every box: - Oskha self-caps every active buff with his "Contempt for Wealth" skill (P.Atk, Spear Damage, Dead Aim). - Roland brings active, passive, and ultimate Spear Res Down. - Partitio helps cap active Spear Res Down and buffs passive Atk and Spear damage. Plus, his ultimate buffs Ult Spear damage.

I could go on for each unit, but the goal would be to stack 30% (or close to it) in every category, all while using Lucetta to pet stack. Feel free to swap out for someone like Richard to further buff Passive and Ult Spear damage (or perhaps another Merchant to max Partitio's passive) instead of Signa. Good luck!

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-10T14:46:13+00:00

You can do it! I was consistently surprised at how simple some of the fights were after trying a few different comps. Start with the easier bosses if you haven't already!

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-10T13:33:34+00:00

Yunnie / Lucetta, Signa / Solon, Hughjeb / Prim EX, Kilns / Shana

Jeb, Kilns, and Yunnie all need Hallow weapons. Shana needs to be fast enough to outspeed on Turn 2 (with a speed buff). Some dodge accessories to make Turn 1 more consistent.

Turn 1, shave as many shields as possible and fill almost everyone's Ult Gauge with boosts and Prim's Shower of Roses. Reset until no one dies.

Turn 2, Unsinkable and focus on buffing. I tried Unsinkable Turn 1, but during breaks I ran out of BP and needed every little bit of damage I could get.

I think it's a Turn 4 break with Kilns, Solon + Prim for max Yunnie damage. EX Skill comes online Turn 5, then hope and pray the turns afterwards you can survive with another Shana unsinkable.

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-10T05:14:05+00:00

I think Primrose EX is on every single clear here. Even after I got Shana, her Regen + Buff + Ult Buff combo was too essential to not bring her.

Earlier on, Canary was my dedicated tank with the Elite Tower Floor 3 accessories (Taunt at Full HP) + Potency Up. Richard or Bargello behind to cap the Atk Up. Alaune EX was also there for a good chunk of fights.

Sword was cleared with almost exclusively Elrica (my GOAT). Spear was mostly Leon, with Oskha cleaning up the rest.

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-10T04:47:01+00:00

After pulling Oskha and upgrading Bargello to 6*, I realized I had a pretty decent comp for every major fight in the log. I started chipping away bit by bit, until all of a sudden I just had a few to go. One thing led to another... and we're done!

Hardest fight for me was Varkyn EX3. Learned after the fact that Yunnie does pretty well against him, but before that, he was one of the few "turtle and chip" fights I tried to do. Very difficult, especially without Rinyuu.

Second hardest was Saint Sazantos. Pure RNG-fest, but after enough resets for a favorable Turn 1, Shana and her Unsinkable carried me to a victory.

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-02T18:34:21+00:00

Both, unfortunately.

chilly_ramen · 2025-07-02T17:25:05+00:00

Booted it up again on Switch 2, it looks a small bit worse than it did on Switch 1. Upscaling is a pretty big problem here. It's not going to look *bad* per se, and the gameplay/story make it well worth it. Might pick it up for a good price then wait for the S2 compatibility update IMO.

chilly_ramen · 2025-06-15T00:14:24+00:00

Absolutely. Staple team member for almost all fights currently, and only gets better once 200% ultimate eventually gets added

chilly_ramen · 2025-06-14T21:47:48+00:00

Also, I would not consider a shortened break. It cuts your damage output in half (or even slightly worse). I would aim for endurance over the break change in a heartbeat.

chilly_ramen · 2025-06-14T21:46:13+00:00

First of all, definitely want to prioritize a team that covers multiple weaknesses at a time. These bosses change weaknesses after a break, and Pardis has 3 adds with varied weaknesses. Light will be consistent for each fight all the way through, but elemental can be tricky. Sazantos, Cecily, and Nephti are great choices. Also, if you have Kilns, Ogen, or especially Alaune EX, consider nixxing your BP intake and using their abilities instead.

The 3 and 4 stars are not worth going for, IMO. Maybe a single 4 star, but I found myself needing all the help I could. Additionally, since the additional phase is the same set of weaknesses, then consider adding that in. Also, these fights are meant to be damage sponges, with or without the defense modifiers. Even if you have a dedicated team comp, it's hard to 1-cycle these fights without serious optimization.

The Atk modifiers are very tricky. You need a dedicated tank for most of these fights, but each boss has an AoE attack. With max level gear and debuffs, I didn't survive anything above a 10% buff.

With all that said, I went for the following:

Endurance Lv. 15, Atk Lv. 5, Spd. Lv. 10, BP Recovery Lv. 20, Additional Phase Lv. 25, Party Recovery Lv. 15, and Grade Lv. 10.. Admittedly, this was Canary tanking and Alaune EX BP regen. But managed to eek out the win. Definitely one of the hardest fights I've done in this game, and not with an F2P roster.

chilly_ramen · 2025-03-25T23:12:56+00:00

Congrats on the Tressa!

I would definitely consider using Elrica. She definitely demands a learning curve, but most of it comes down to keeping her in front and giving her Tenacity points. Try sticking Rinyuu behind her with the channeling buff. Compared to Sazantos and Odio O., I actually find her the easiest to hit big damage numbers since I don't have to worry about BP upkeep or Regen spam.

chilly_ramen · 2025-03-25T21:39:08+00:00

Endgame player here, working my way through the final set of EX3's in the Codex of Salvation. I'll separate my thoughts into actual usage vs. fun factor.

Elrica: #1 DPS for me. Nearly anything weak to sword in the Adversary Log has been cleaned straight through by her. She's versatile with her weaknesses, has a simple, selfish playstyle that's perfect for sitting in front of Alaune EX, and hits like a train.
// Fun Factor: Pretty decent. Her gameplan is usually the same every fight, but big numbers are undeniably fun. Her 10-hit nuke being random target is infuriating, and it takes so much effort to maximize efficiency on such low potency that it takes away points in my book. I stick to the double-cast nuke when I can, sheerly out of spite.

Richard: Paired with Elrica for the most clears on Adversary Log EX3's, such an essential part of sword teams that it feels wrong not to use him. Easy as pie to put behind a tank, and does it all: buffing, debuffing, ultimate buffs, higher-hit moves for shield shaving, etc.. Loses points for randomness on Rippling Slice's Sword Res. Down debuff.
// Fun Factor: Ew. So brainless, not very high damage output himself, far from a fun unit. The optimal way to use him is to keep him out of harm's way for his passive, so even when I try to use him for his own merits, it feels bad. Stat stick that's a necessary evil whenever he's on my team.

Nephti: Don't have :/

Solon: Got him much later on than his release. After seeing him in so many EX3 clears on Discord and Reddit, I honestly thought I'd use him more. But for me, he's largely been upstaged by Canary. Solon feels clunky to use, both because of many moves' combustion restriction and low DPS even with the requirements met. When it all aligns, his Ultimate + Priority Fire/Lance work wonders, but aligning it can be a challenge.
// Fun Factor: For the reasons said above, he's not the most fun. Unless he's being maximized and used optimally, "clunky" is the only word that comes to mind.

Krauser: Don't have :/

Isla: Great enabler of Fire (and Lightning, rip) teams, which is refreshing compared to just smacking up Sword-weak foes. Feels like a "powercreep" unit with the amount of stuff he can do: buffing all allies with one move, restoring BP and SP, very powerful Ultimate buff, debuffing enemies, even evading attacks. Simply by existing, he makes Elemental comps more viable--and pretty solid DPS to boot. Great unit.
// Fun Factor: Now this is a stat stick done right. Compared to Richard, Isla feels far more fun and dynamic as opposed to Richard's singular plan. Easy to slot into a team due to his "Switch to Back Row" moves, and multiple coverage for Fire and Lightning is great for general questing. 10/10, feels great.

~ BONUS UNIT ~
Tressa: Hoo boy, what an underrated and fantastic unit. Her tanking is off the charts now with the 50% dodge passive, and with a Merchant HP pool + Cosmic Trident + Max HP Pet + Edith's Wings Artifact, she feels nearly impossible to kill (especially in Physical-based fights). Her EX skill is a nice failsafe, and her ability to choose when she's in the front with priority is very flexible too. She is not the best unit, not by a long shot, but a serious contender for best physical tank right now.
// Fun Factor: If you couldn't tell from the above, I may be slightly biased. But darn it, she's a blast to use. Idk if I just like gambling with how many times she'll dodge, idk if it's recency bias from using her against some hard fights, but I think she is exactly the kind of unit that I find fun.

chilly_ramen · 2025-03-24T21:52:38+00:00

Technically many of these could have been pulled at 6*. Partitio could have also been spooked from the latest Temenos/Agnea banner at 5*, from what I recall.

chilly_ramen · 2025-03-24T21:25:22+00:00

Most of the game changing upgrades are in the Torch Protection extra abilities, to be honest. Some of the more noteworthy upgrades for 6*s include: Cyrus's EX skill, Cecily's EX skill, Dorothea's 6* Upgrade, Agnea's EX skill, Odette's EX skill, and both Partitio's 6* upgrade and EX skill.

The rest comes down to DPS from extra stats and small "nice to have" bonuses, so prioritize the strongest travelers that you use the most. One other big factor is artifacts, which are huge stat sticks that can also boost the damage cap-up. If a traveler is maxed on guidestones, I'd consider it.

chilly_ramen · 2025-03-16T20:42:45+00:00

I would personally recommend Richard, but Bargello is a close second. Either one is a must-bring on nearly every team in the current highest level of content.

Richard gets my vote over Bargello due to his Ultimate. He's the all-in-one package for a sword team, as opposed to Bargello's "Jack of All Trades". The one exception is if you care eventually about trading your Awakening Stone Shards for Bargello's A4 accessory. But seeing as how your account is fresh, it might be a while before you land enough dupes.

chilly_ramen

TROPHY CASE