- This video is
sponsored by Audible. Greetings Pokefans! Michael here, and it's
time for another one of my play-through challenges. If you missed the first
one, where I attempted to beat Pokemon Platinum
without catching a single Pokemon, you can
watch that right up there. This challenge will
be in Emerald version, since it's been several
years since I last played it, and the specific
challenge was actually suggested by a few of you: Can I beat the game
without teaching any new moves to any Pokemon? To further elaborate,
I cannot alter the move set of any
Pokemon I obtain. The moves it has when I catch it are the moves it's
stuck with forever. If a Pokemon has
less than four moves when I obtain it,
then it just ends up with the next level up
moves that it will learn. That's not really me
altering the move set because if it has
empty move slots, the next level up moves
happen automatically. So is it possible
to beat Emerald without teaching any
Pokemon any new moves? Well, technically, no. It's not, because there are
several HMs required to beat the game that no
Pokemon learn by level up. And with this rule
set, the only moves available to me
are level up moves. However, for the sake
of actually being able to do the challenge,
I'm going to make use of a rule that many
other people who do Pokemon play-through
challenges utilize: a Pokemon can be taught
an HM move, but then it cannot be used in battle. Here are all the rules
for this play-through. Number one: I may
not teach any Pokemon any new moves, excluding
the automatically learned ones via level
up if a Pokemon has three or fewer moves
upon obtaining it. Number two: Pokemon
can be taught HM moves for the purposes of
game progression, but cannot be used in
battle if they know any HMs. Number three: trade
evolution Pokemon are modified to evolve
by level up instead. And number four: no
using legendaries. In Emerald, you can
get a level 70 Rayquaza with Outrage and Fly
before the Pokemon League, and that just seemed too cheap and too easy, so I'm
not gonna use it... Or the Regis. Also, before I dive in,
on my last play-through challenge, several
people said that it was too easy because I
had six fully-evolved Pokemon when other
people are beating games with just
one weak Pokemon. Well to you slanderers,
I do say that you're absolutely right,
it was much easier than the other play-through
challenges out there. But for now, I don't
want to do challenges that are too hard because
I'm an angry weenie who doesn't want to
suffer through an entire play-through that's too hard. But also another thing
to consider about this challenge and the last one, is that a big part of
the challenge is actually the research; figuring
out whether it's possible, what Pokemon I can
find that will be good for my team, and
stuff like that. That's a part of
the challenge that doesn't really show
up in the video, so just keep that in mind. I spent a lot of hours
researching for this. And also this particular
play-through ended up being a lot tougher and
a lot more frustrating than I originally
intended, so if I get a little
irritated or snippy while I'm filming
this video, I'm sorry, I'm reliving memories
that were painful. But enough defending
my wimpy butt, let's finally dive in
to can I beat Pokemon Emerald without
teaching any Pokemon any new moves. The first decision I
am met with is choosing a starter, and I selected
Mudkip for two reasons: the first is that it will
end up with two stab moves, that being Mud Slap
and Water Gun, whereas the other starters will
only have one stab move. The second reason is
that the typing of water/ground is really
good in the early game, being super effective
against three of the first four gyms. I named the Mudkip
Dirtlobber, as a reference to the type of wasp
called a dirt dauber, but with the name
changed to mean that it's throwing
the dirt rather than making a nest out of it. The next chunk of the game
was pretty uneventful, being just like any other
early Hoenn game play-through. I finally caught another
intended team member in the Petalburg Forest,
that being a Shroomish with the move set
of Absorb, Tackle, Stun Spore, and Leech Seed. While Absorb is terribly
is weak and Tackle is Tackle, I figured
that Leech Seed and Stun Spore would come
in a lot of handy, especially for the
stall-type battles. I named the Shroomish
Disruptor because that is its intended purpose; to disrupt the battle. I arrived at Rustboro
City and my next goal was to catch an Abra. Since Abra only knows Teleport, that means most
of the moves that it'll end up with
are Kadabra moves. Those being Confusion,
Disable, and Psybeam. While Psybeam isn't
amazingly strong, it's still got solid power, plus Teleport will be nice for
when I don't have Fly. Unfortunately, Abra
did not want to behave. After about 10 minutes
of trying to find one with its low encounter
rate and every single one fleeing, either
after I threw a ball or before I had the
chance to paralyze it with Stun Spore,
I needed a break. Those 10 minutes were
played at 10x speed. So if I'd been playing
a game that I could not speed up, I
would've spent well over an hour just failing
to get an Abra. I did get to level up
Shroomish and Mudkip in the process, but
still, it was ridiculous. I decided to go ahead
and defeat Roxanne, which wasn't hard since
my team's move sets are still normal for
this point in the game. Mudkip OHKO'd her
Geodudes, then I decided to use Shroomish
to beat Nosepass. Nosepass took awhile since
Absorb didn't hit hard and she healed up
multiple times. But with Stun Spore
and Leech Seed, I was never in danger of losing. Mudkip evolved into
Marshtomp after the battle, and I sadly had to
say no to Mud Shot. It was once again
time to attempt getting an Abra, and again
I was met with failure. I tried getting
Shroomish fast enough to out-speed and Stun
Spore in hopes of making it get fully
paralyzed, but nothing worked. After less time than
my first attempt, I decided that if I was
going to stick it out and get this Abra, I
wanted a higher level one, so I'd get it in Granite Cave. I rescued Peeko and took
the boat to Dewford Town, immediately heading for
Granite Cave upon arrival. After many more failed attempts, I finally caught
a freaking Abra. I named it Cryptid,
the term for an animal whose existence is
unproven, like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster,
because for a while I was unsure that one
that could be captured actually existed. Seriously, this was
the worst time I have ever had trying
to catch an Abra. Like, I failed probably
over 30, it was ridiculous. I grinded Abra up via switch
training until it evolved then proceeded to wipe the floor with the Dewford Gym trainers. The battle with Brawly
was similarly one-sided. Kadabra OHKO'd his
Machop, two-hit KO'd his Meditite, and
OHKO'd his Makuhita. It was a breeze, but only
'cause I had Kadabra. Side note, remember
how one of the rules is that trade
evolutions are changed to level up evolutions? Well, that's the
reason why I did not immediately evolve
Cryptid into an Alakazam. It, along with all of the
other gen 1 trade evolutions were changed to evolving
by level up at level 37, which I think is fair. You know, about the same
as a fully-evolved starter. I arrived in Slateport
and progressed through this section
pretty quickly, and Disruptor evolved while
battling in the Seashore House. Next up is the infamous
Route 110 rival battle, which actually wasn't a problem. Kadabra handled her
Wingull, Grovyle, and Slugma pretty easily. I got to Mauville
and got the bike, then beat Wally in
front of the gym. I immediately started
fighting through the gym, because the next team
member that I wanted required Rock Smash
for me to access. The gym trainers
weren't much trouble, so it was time to fight Watson. I led with Marshtomp
because of the ground-type advantage. Voltorb went down to a crit
Mud Slap which was nice. Electrike required
two, but it didn't do much damage in the
process, so that was fine. Magneton, the Pokemon who's
four times weak to ground, also required two
Mud Slaps to KO. This move is just,
it's disgustingly weak. Finally, in came Manectric,
and unfortunately Mud Slap only did about one fifth
to a quarter of its health. I brought in Breloom
to go with the Leech Seed stall strategy,
because otherwise I would have run
out of Mud Slap PP. It took a while, but I was
never in danger of losing, and Manectric eventually fell. I rushed off to the Fiery
Path as fast as possible to get my next team
member, one I knew would be extremely
helpful the entire play-through: Machop. Machop has Focus Energy,
Leer, Karate Chop, and the truly amazing
move Low Kick. Low Kick's power depends
on the opponent's weight, which means it has a maximum
possible power of 120. It'll be great against
heavy steel and rock types that are weak to fighting. I named the Machop Combattant,
realized I misspelled it, and then ran back
to the name rater in Slateport to correct it. I then grinded
Combatant up against all the trainers I had skipped, then began the
journey to Fall Arbor. On Route 112, Machop
evolved into Machoke. I headed to Meteor Falls
and witnessed the robbery and such, then headed
through Rustboro to get the experience share. I then went up Mount
Chimney to handle the Grunts and Tabitha before my first battle with Maxie. Machoke beat Mightyena in
two hits due to Intimidate. Kadabra OHKO'd Zubat,
and surprisingly Marshtomp needed two
hits to KO Camerupt. I head down to Lavaridge
and straight for the gym. After fighting, it was time
for the Flannery battle. Marshtomp OHKO'd Numel. Slugma survived
the first Water Gun and annoyingly set up Sunlight, forcing me to switch to
Mud Slap instead to KO. She then brings in
Camerupt, which I wear down with Mud Slap, waiting
for the sun to go away. The sun is still up, but
another Water Gun that I tried, and it ended up
being enough to KO it with about a third
of its health left. Finally, she brings in Torkoal, which unfortunately set the
sun back up immediately. I'm spamming Mud Slap
to lower its accuracy, but it didn't miss
a single move. I finally try a Water Gun
to see if it does more, but thanks to the
sun, it does not. Torkoal then goes for
Overheat boosted by the sun, which I foolishly though
Marshtomp might survive. It did not. I bring in Kadabra, who
thankfully out-speeds, and is able to KO
Torkoal from that range. The battle didn't end
up being too hard, but I was starting
to see how Water Gun and Mud Slap really just
aren't gonna be cutting it as well anymore. I head back to
Petalburg for the gym I'm confident
Machoke will destroy. The gym trainers
turn out to actually be kind of a pain and
required several trips to the Pokemon Center and back, but I wasn't worried
about Norman. Uh, yeah. I should have been. Norman leads with
Spinda, who doesn't go down as easy as I'd hoped. I switch out Machoke
to keep it healthy, and then KO Spinda with Kadabra. Then comes Vigoroth. Machoke beat it, but took
some hits in the process. He next brings in Linoone,
while I switch to Kadabra, because I'm worried about
Linoone out-speeding and KO'ing Machoke. I go for Psybeam
and do about half as Linoone goes for Belly Drum, leaving with what
looks like it could just be one or two HP. I think I'll be okay
though, as Psybeam does about half, so it
should be a two-hit KO. I Psybeam it on the
turn it heals up, then do the same again,
and it lives with one HP! Look at that! Look at that, you almost
can't even see the red! Linoone then sweeps
through my entire team, and I lose. I decide that it
was just bad luck, so I can just try again. I use Kadabra to take out Spinda so I don't take any
damage on Machoke. Then I bring in Machoke
to defeat Vigoroth and do so, but again, take too
much damage in the process. Norman then brings
in the demon Linoone. I'm terrified of
Belly Drum, so I don't wanna heal and risk
it getting a free attack max on its first turn. I go for Low Kick, hoping
to either live a hit or have it go for Belly Drum and then faint from my attack,
but neither happen. Linoone's Facade KO's
Machoke, and it's a crit. Did the crit matter? I admittedly don't know. Was it an unnecessary
slap in the face after my first loss? Yes! Yes it was. I bring in Breloom,
and Linoone immediately goes for Belly Drum while
my Leech Seed misses because of course it does. Linoone then
obliterates Breloom, but Effect Spore poisons
it in the process. That's actually a
godsend, because Kadabra can now out-speed and
finish it with Psybeam because it'll have
below half health. Kadabra comes in
and does just that. But now, there's Slaking,
and I don't have Machoke. Kadabra just did a little bit
of damage and then fainted. Marshtomp comes in, and I Growl on the truant turn
to hope I survive. Then it Yawns me
as I Growl again. I Growl a third time,
hoping that -3 attack will be enough to let
me survive some hits. I heal the sleep as Slaking
uses Facade and it crits me. Ignoring the -3 attack
and OHKO'ing Marshtomp. I was so effing mad. Like, I didn't play
for a couple days. 'Cause I just like,
I didn't wanna play. This game was rude to me. I needed to grind, I
didn't wanna grind, so I just didn't play. Literally two days
later, I was like, okay I can't just
not play this again. I gotta finish this
play-through challenge. So I went back in, but
decided not to grind because I thought
hey, maybe if I go in with the strategy of dear God, keep Machoke healthy so it
can KO Linoone and Slaking, otherwise you will
lose, then I might win. I lead with Marshtomp to,
as I said, protect Machoke. After three Mud Slaps
getting Spinda to a bit over a third health
and lowering its accuracy to -3, I brought in Machoke hoping that whatever
Spinda uses would miss. The switch-in Teeter
Dance missed, but
the next one did not. Thankfully, Machoke
did not hurt itself and Spinda goes down. I switch back into
Marshstomp to get rid of Machoke's confusion and begin
my Mud Slapping once more. Once again, after getting
him to -3 accuracy, I switched Machoke in. The switch-in Slash hit,
but the next one missed, so Machoke took a bit of
damage before KO'ing Vigoroth. In comes Linoone, and
I bring in Breloom. Linoone Belly Drums, but I
paralyze it with Stun Spore. While this paralysis
will power up its Facade, that doesn't really
matter because it's got max attack, it's
gonna OHKO anything anyways, but with the paralysis,
now I can out-speed it. I have Breloom use Absorb
to get it below half health, then allow it to
faint to Facade. I bring in Kadabra to
KO it with a Psybeam that I know will KO it this
time because it's under half. Finally, Slaking. Since Machoke isn't
at full health, I'm super nervous it'll get
KO'd by the first hit. So I leave in Kadabra
and get some Psybeam damage off before
sacking it off. On the truant turn,
Machoke Low Kicks and it does a lot, thanks
to Slaking's weight. Slaking's berry heals it enough for Norman to not use a potion, so on the next turn
Machoke out-speeds and finishes it off. The cursed daddy battle is over. I soon get Surf, which opens up a lot of the Hoenn
region for me. The first place I wanna
go is New Mauville, because I want a Magneton. It knows Thunder
Wave and Sonic Boom, both helpful for
catching Pokemon, along with Super
Sonic and Spark. Strong electric types are great for the rest of
this play-through because they're super
helpful with Winona, Archie, Juan, and
Wallace, and Magneton with Spark is my best option. I went to New Maville,
progressed all the way through, and found the 1%
Magneton on my way out. I caught it first try
and named it Powerline. Side note, while
doing this, I thought that it had to be a Magneton
for it to know Spark, turns out if I had just
found a level 26 Magnemite it would've known Spark
and I would've been fine but whatever, I
got what I wanted. I then went up to
the northern part of Route 115 and caught
a Swellow because it came with Wing Attack, and I
thought that might be helpful. I did some more training
on the water routes between Dewford and Slateport
before finally moving along on Route 118. Once I reached Route 119,
I decided it was time to swap out my grass type. While Breloom's Stun
Spore and Leech Seed were nice, Absorb
is basically useless and I need something
that can hit with decent grass type damage. Tropius, with Razor
Leaf, is my best option. It's not a great
option, but all of my other ones either know
like, one really weak grass type move, like
Absorb, or just don't learn any grass moves at all. I found a Tropius and
named it Brontosoar, a name that would've
worked well as its species name, in my opinion. I traversed to the weather
institute, defeated Team Aqua inside, and
received the Castform, which I named Castforce,
as a reference to an old Pokemon
Go video of mine. Next was the rival
battle with May, in which I attempted
to utilize Castforce. It almost beat Grovyle,
but fell to a Leaf Blade. I then tried to grind
Castform up a bit, due to its Powder Snow
seeming helpful, but it was super tedious
since it struggled to KO anything other than the annoying
status-causing Oddishes. I lost patience pretty quickly. I love Castform, but
God it's just so weak. I decided to attempt the
gym battle against Winona. Magneton made quick
work of Swablu, which considering it
was eight levels higher, was unsurprising. She then brings in
Altaria, and I think Castform might
have a chance with four times super
effective Powder Snow. I use hail on the first turn,
and Altaria Dragon Dances. Uh, yeah. Forgot it knew that. Castform survives a
+1 Earthquake, but Powder Snow doesn't
even do half. Castform goes down
in the next turn, and then Altaria sweeps
through the rest of my team. I have now failed
my first attempt at a gym battle twice in a row. Anyone who says this challenge
was too easy is wrong because an easy challenge would
not irritate me this much. I decide to
immediately try again. Magneton easily beats
Swablu, and again she sends in Altaria. This time, I know I
need to paralyze it before it can out-speed,
even with Dragon Dance, so I click Thunder
Wave with Magneton, risking an Earthquake KO. Magneton thankfully survives,
and I get the paralysis off. I switch into Castform
to preserve Magneton and let it take a hit. I get off a Powder Snow,
which actually crits, and Altaria gets
fully paralyzed. I Powder Snow again,
but then Aerial Ace ends Castform's run. I bring in Kadabra to
finish Altaria off, but then this stupid,
dumb bird that should not be a dragon
freaking survives. Winona heals back up and
I furiously spam Psybeam hoping for the confusion,
but don't get it. I wear it down a bit
before it KO's Kadabra. I then bring in
Magneton because it's the only one left
standing who can actually do decent damage to this
thing, and click Spark. Again, the stupid
fluffy chicken lives and Magneton goes down. I bring in Tropius and
finish off the Altaria because thankfully,
she didn't heal. But now I'm left with
only a grass type, a fighting type, and a
ground type to defeat three flying types. I'm in a bad spot, and
I realize the only way for me to win this battle,
is to revive Magneton. So I did. I know, I know,
many people consider using revives in
battle to be cheap and other people do harder
play-through challenges without using any in-battle
healing items, I get it. But as you can probably
tell by how worked up I'm getting during this
video, I was getting kind of annoyed and
not really enjoying these tough-as-nails
gym battles, so I decided to adopt the
policy of win by any means necessary so that
I can freaking move on. Also I ran a Twitter poll
immediately after completing this battle, and
79% of you said you wouldn't judge me, so uh (snap) (snap) (snap) thanks. To the 79% of you. With Magneton
healthy again, I was able to defeat
her Pelipper after hurting myself in
confusion twice. Skarmory in just one hit,
and Tropius in a few hits. Prior to moving on in the story, I decided to do a
bit more research to figure out my
exact final team for the Pokemon League,
'cause I was getting into the later
parts of the game. During that research, I
realized something that I had missed before: I can get
a Raichu with Thunderbolt. If I find a Pikachu in
the Safari Zone that's at least level 26, it
will know Thunderbolt. A base-95 power stat move. Considering there are
two big water type bosses left in the game,
I had to get one. And also wished I would
have known about it prior to battling
Winona because that really would've helped. It took a while, but
finally a Pikachu of adequate level showed up. Thankfully, I caught
it before it fled, and I named it
Stormsurge, intending to reference surge
protectors and totally forgetting that
storm surge is a term for a big wave
caused by a storm, so I guess it still
tangentially works, 'cause surfing
Pikachu is a thing? Mount Pyre was uneventful,
as was the Magma hideout. The battle with Maxie was a bit interesting at times, though. And by interesting, I
mean super aggravating because at one point, Magneton didn't get to attack
for five turns in a row due to
confusion and flinching. So yeah, that was fun. Also Marshtomp lost to Camerupt, which was pretty embarrassing. I did win the battle,
but a water type losing to a fire/ground type? It's not great. I head back to Lilycove for the final rival battle of the game, which wasn't very difficult. Magneton beat
Tropius and Pelipper, Marshtomp beat Slugma,
and Machoke beat Grovyle. At this point, I decided my team needed to be more fully-evolved, so I evolved Marstomp,
Kadabra, and Machoke in rapid succession. Next was the Aqua
hideout, which I rushed through pretty quickly. Now that the blockade was gone, I could finally get two
members I desperately wanted. The first required me
to get into Shoal Cave, and all the way to the bottom. Once in the icy bottom floor,
I found myself a Snorunt. I needed one that was
28 or above because it learns Crunch at that level. A move I wanted to help
with Tate and Liza, plus Phoebe and the League. Its other moves are Headbutt,
Protect, and Icy Wind. Icy Wind isn't the best
ice type move in the game, but it's the best ice
type move in this game on an ice type, so
I really wanted it, because I'm expecting it to be instrumental against Drake. I named it Permafrost,
then headed straight back out to Mossdeep City
to get the Super Rod. I then began fishing
on the shoreline, because with the
Super Rod, I could find wild Wailmer
up to level 45. If I catch a Wailmer
that's at least level 41, it will know Water
Spout, the most powerful move available to
me in this rule set other than self-KO'ing ones like Self Destruct and Explosion. If Wailord is at full
health when it uses Water Spout, the move
has 150 base power. After a little
while, I found the high enough level
Wailmer that I needed. I named it Geyser and
used my one Rare Candy to evolve it into Wailord
pretty much immediately. And yes, getting this
Wailord means that I am boxing my
starter, Swampert. I feel kinda bad,
but when my options are Water Spout or
Water Gun, I'm gonna pick the move that is
almost four times as strong when Wailord is healthy. I then spent the
next chunk of time battling most of the
various water route trainers in an effort to
level up Snorunt. Once it evolved into
Glalie, I felt I was ready for the Mossdeep Gym. I led with Glalie and Wailord using Icy Wind and
Water Spout first. Xatu got off a Calm Mind,
annoyingly making it buffer to my special hits. Icy Wind didn't do
much, but slowed them down for future turns. Claydol's Earthquake
wasn't too bad, but unfortunately it did
weaken Water Spout, which still did a large chunk to Claydol, but just a bit to Xatu. The next turn I went
for Icy Wind again, because I wasn't sure Crunch
would do more to Xatu. I used Water Pulse
with Wailord this time because I was worried
Claydol would make Water Spout weaker again
with another Earthquake, but Wailord out-sped
now, thanks to Icy Wind from the previous turn. Water Pulse KO'd Claydol
before it could move as Solrock was brought in. Xatu's Psychic really hurt
Glalie, but he held on. The next turn I used Crunch on
Xatu, which barely survived. Solrock absorbed light,
but then Wailord's Water Spout KO'd both opponents, actually being a
crit on Solrock. I don't know if it mattered, but I was still stoked about it. Lunatone was their last Pokemon. Glalie Crunched it, then
fell to its Psychic, but Wailord finished it
off with a Water Spout. I beat their four
Pokemon with only one, which was really nice after the nightmares that the
last two gyms were. The next step was clearing out the space center, a
task I did not remember was a thing, since
it's been so long since I've played
Emerald specifically. Also question, does
Maxie smack Steven back several feet here? Is that what's happening? Like, it really
confused me, and also just didn't make sense. Does Maxie have
like, super strength to smack a grown
man back that far? Like, what was that? It was now time for
the multi-battle with Steven against
Tabatha and Maxie, which wasn't very hard. Machamp, Wailord,
and Steven's Metang made pretty easy work of
all the opposing Pokemon. Also something
interesting that I realized during this
play-through is that in Emerald you fight
Maxie three times and Archie just once. Like, isn't that kinda weird? You'd think they
would've figured out a way to have like, two and two, not three and one, I don't know. That's weird. I then headed straight
for the seafloor cavern. I got through pretty quickly
before reaching Archie. Machamp handled Mightyena,
and while Crobat took a while due to
annoying confusion, Magneton beat it, then
Sharpedo right after. The world starts to end,
but before I do that, I decide it's
finally time to start grinding up my Pikachu in
advance of the battle with Juan. I evolve it into Raichu
immediately because I don't need to worry
about it missing moves. Off I go to the
Sky Pillar, where I tell Rayquaza to
wake his booty up and control his children. It calms Groudon
and Kyogre down, and after some
grinding, it's time for the battle with Juan. He leads with Luvdisc,
who Raichu easily OHKO's. Next is Whiscash, who
Tropius OHKO's with a critical hit that
ignored its Amnesia special defense boost. Next is Sealeo,
who Machamp OHKO's. Then he sends in Kingdra. This evil, evil creature. Battling this one Pokemon
took over ten minutes. I realize ten minutes
doesn't actually sound like that long of a time, but it felt really long to me. I had no super
effective damage for it, so none of my attacks did
a whole lot of damage. Additionally, it had
freaking Double Team, one of the most BS
moves in the game, and Rest, something
that would instantly negate all my
hard-earned damage, and any status conditions. It's a nightmare. At one point, I had
finally gotten it down to low enough health for
Spark to finish it off, so I didn't heal
Magneton, fearing a Rest. Not only did Spark miss
due to Double Team, but Kingdra wasn't
fully paralyzed, so Magneton goes down. I bring in Raichu, but
Thunderbolt misses. As Kingdra Rests back up
to completely healthy. After many turns of
missing, at one point I decide to leave in
Raichu on a risky turn to try and paralyze
it or maybe crit it. The move hits, but
doesn't KO or paralyze, and Kingdra KO's Raichu. I bring in Alakazam to out-speed
and KO before it can Rest, but Juan uses a
freaking Hyper Potion. Psybeam does land
twice in a row though, and it looks like
it's a three-hit KO. But then the third
misses and Kingdra heals back up to full. I land two more while
it's sleeping and it gets me down to
red with Ice Beam. I have to go for
Psybeam to KO it before it can Rest, and it hits! But this piece of garbage,
stupid, straw-nosed fish lives with one. I thought the last
play-through of barely surviving hits was bad. This one? Ugh. So much worse. It was awful for
my mental health and, spoiler alert, there
are still more to come. Kingdra KO's
Alakazam immediately. My only hope is
Machamp, since Tropius would instantly
fall to an Ice Beam, and my sixth party
member is the Surf user that I had to have
to reach the gym. I try a Low Kick, but
Kingdra out-speeds and Rests. After another miss
due to it being at about +4 evasion
by now, I realize my only hope is to land
crits for big damage, so I use Focus Energy. I land one, and it
does a good chunk. I miss one, then have to heal. I land another, but
don't get the crit I need and Kingdra survives. I try a Karate Chop
in case it's stronger, but it's not. I heal out of necessity again. Then the stupid thing
Double Teams two more times, most definitely
now at max evasion. Machamp lands a hit though,
but then it Rests again. I land another Low
Kick, then another, and the second one
is the crit I needed. Kingdra finally goes down. Machamp easily OHKO's
the dark type Crawdaunt with a Low Kick, and this
wet hell off a battle is finally over. Now that I can use Waterfall, I can get my final
intended team member for the League: Bagon. I head to Meteor Falls
to search for one that's at least level 33, otherwise
it won't have Dragon Breath. With its other moves
being Ember, Headbutt, and Focus Energy. I wanted Salamence
not only to help with the battle against Drake, but also because I
wanted a really strong Pokemon with neutral
damage capabilities, because I anticipated
having to use that a lot in the battles against
Phoebe and Wallace. After a short while, I find
one that's high enough level and named it Fafnir,
the name of a dragon from Norse mythology. I give it the
Experience Share and head for the Victory Road. Suddenly, Wally arrives
at the beginning, which surprised me,
as I did not remember that his battle is at the start of the Victory Road in Emerald. Glalie handled Altaria and
Machamp handled Delcatty. Glalie fell to Gardevoir,
but Magneton finished it off. Alakazam barely didn't
OHKO Roselia twice, but did eventually beat it. Magneton was a giant
pain due to paralysis and confusion, but finally
Machamp defeated it. Then, Bagon evolved as
a result of this battle. The trip through the Victory
Road was mostly fine. I dodged most trainers
so I could get through as fast as possible. I got through
mostly in one piece. And now it's time for the grind. And this, oh God,
it took a while. I recorded 70 minutes
of grinding footage all played at 10x speed. So like, if this
was a regular game, like, oh my God, that
would've been hours and hours and hours. Shelgon evolved during
the course of the grind and once it was done,
I had my final squad of six, all at level
52, knowing the moves they knew when I caught them. It was finally time
to take on the League. First was Sidney,
whose Mightyena intimidated Machamp,
lowering its attack and causing Low
Kick not to OHKO. After Mightyena's Sand
Attacked, I decided to switch to get
rid of the attack and accuracy drops. Magneton tanked the incoming hit no problem, and while
he healed Mightyena the next turn, Spark
was an easy two-hit KO. Magneton then KO'd
Crawdaunt easily. Shiftry's Double Teams
got a little scary, but Machamp landed the one
Low Kick necessary to KO. Machamp then cleaned
up by OHKO'ing both Absol and Cacturne. Sidney was done. Next was Phoebe, who
wouldn't be as easy, since I didn't have stab
super effective moves for any of her team members. Her first Dusclops
was a bit annoying due to trying to
Protect pressure stall out my Crunch PP,
which was something that I was a bit worried about. One Crunch did about
half and got the special defense
drop, but because I was worried
about more Protects wasting the Crunch PP,
I decided to switch to someone whose
strongest move had substantially more PP to burn. That someone was
Magneton, who did lose some extra Spark
PP due to Protect, but finished off the Dusclops. Next was her stronger
Dusclops, which doesn't Protect, but does have super effective Rock Slide. My first Crunch
didn't do a whole lot, but I got the special
defense drop again. And its Rock Slide missed. I thought I was going
to have a stretch of really good luck, but nope. The stupid thing lives on one! I am starting to
hate you, Emerald. Thankfully though,
the berry kicked in, healing Dusclops
enough for Phoebe not to use a Potion. My next Crunch KO'd, but thanks to pressure, I was
down to only five left. Her first Banette was
an easy two hit KO with Crunch, but I
couldn't immediately KO it on the second turn
because it used Grudge. I used Protect to stall a
turn, but then finished it off. Next was Sableye, who
isn't weak to anything, so I brought in Salamence
for powerful neutral damage. My first Dragon Breath
does about half, but then my second one
leaves it with one, because of course it does. She heals, then
it takes an Ember and two more Dragon
Breaths to KO it. Her final Pokemon
is her last Banette. Crunch does most of its health, but then she heals, then
two more Crunches KO it, meaning Glalie
finished the battle with literally
zero Crunches left. Glacia's battle was
a welcome break from the intensity, and
was pleasantly easy. Machamp's Low Kick
OHKO'd every single one of her heavy ice types. Then it was time for Drake. Salamence's Dragon Breath
was barely not enough to KO Shelgon, so we
took a Rock Tomb hit. As he healed, I
used Focus Energy, thinking the upped
critical hit ratio would help with later Pokemon. It ended up not
being needed though, as my next Dragon
Breath was enough to KO. He brings in Altaria,
and I bring in Glalie. Icy Wind does most, but
not all of its health, but thankfully it
did lower its speed to cancel out the speed
boost from its Dragon Dance. I expect him to
heal the next turn and click Icy Wind again,
but he doesn't heal. Icy Wind misses though, as
Altaria goes for Double Edge. It does a good chunk to
Glalie, but the recoil knocks out Altaria
in the process. Next is Flygon,
whose Flamethrower almost KO'd Glalie,
but he held on and OHKO'd Flygon with Icy Wind. Next was his Salamence,
who I brought in Magneton for in an
attempt to paralyze it, preventing it from out-speeding other members of my team. Unfortunately,
Flamethrower crit, and Magneton went down before
it could paralyze it. I brought in Raichu to sack off while I healed up
Glalie, hoping Static would activate on
the Dragon Claw hit. It did not, but Raichu survived. I Thunderbolted the next turn, and not only got
damage, but also got the paralysis that I wanted. Raichu then lands
another Dragon Claw, allowing me to get even more
damage off before fainting. Salamence's Sitrus
Berry healed it a bit, but I knew we were in the clear because it was most certainly
in Icy Wind KO range. Unfortunately, Icy
Wind missed again, and Glalie got a
Flamethrower to the face, something I'd been trying
to avoid this whole time with the paralysis and
damage from Raichu. Glalie survived though, and
the next Icy Wind connected, and KO'd. Finally was his Kingdra. A Kingdra much easier
to handle than Juan's, both because it doesn't
have Double Team and Rest, and because I have
super effective damage. Two Dragon Breaths from
Salamence were enough to KO it. Drake was done. Finally, it was
time for Wallace. The last battle of
the play-through. Magneton was doing
well against Wailord, until he did a strategic
switch into Whiscash, who absorbed the Spark
that would've KO'd. I brought in
Salamence against it, since the only moves
Whiscash can hurt Salamence with are
resisted Surfs and intimidated Hyper Beams. After it used
Amnesia, I switched to using Headbutts instead
of Dragon Breath. I wore it down over
time, but surprisingly he didn't heal when
it got to red health, so Salamence beat it. Wallace brings Wailord back in, and Magneton gets
to finish the job. Next is Gyarados, a
Pokemon I am scared of due to previous experiences,
mainly in Platinum. Instead of one of
my electric types, I bring in Glalie to
try and slow it down with Icy Wind a bit before
something else comes in. I lower its speed,
it Dragon Dances. I lower it again,
it Earthquakes. I lower it again, and
Gyarados KO's Glalie. I bring in Raichu, who finishes
it off with a Thunderbolt. Next was Tentacruel,
who proved to be tougher than I
thought it would be. Psybeam did about half,
then it poisoned Alakazam. I Psybeamed again, and oh! Oh would you look at that! It lives with one
or two or three HP. Big surprise, can't believe it. It's ridiculous! I take a Hydro
Pump, then he heals. My next Psybeam
confuses, I think maybe for the first
time all play-through. Tentacruel doesn't hurt
itself, but that's fine. I'm confident my
next Psybeam will KO, and even if it doesn't,
it'll hurt itself and fall. Neither occurred and
Tentacruel beat Alakazam. I bring in Raichu and
he heals back to full. Thunderbolt does
less than Psybeam, and Raichu has to take
some Sludge Bomb damage and get poisoned by it
before I can finally KO it. Then comes Ludicolo
and things got sticky. I brought in Salamence
because Ludicolo can do almost no damage to
it, since it resists Surf and Giga Drain. Unfortunately, Dragon
Breath doesn't do much, so I'm stuck whittling it down. After a little while,
it Leech Seeds, making things tougher. I got it down to red
HP and thought I was in the clear, but
apparently Wallace had another Full Restore,
despite already using several. Now that it's at full,
Ludicolo will start spamming Double Team like
crazy, and we know how I feel about Double Team. The combination of
missing most of my moves and the fact that they
didn't do much damage caused me to actually run
out of Dragon Breath PP. Headbutt did even less
than Dragon Breath, so after several
minutes, I let Salamence fall to Leech Seed damage. I bring in Machamp, who is
immediately Leech Seeded. I used Focus Energy
to boost my crit rate, and then tried a
Leer before realizing that could miss too, and it did. Surf also did more
damage to Machamp than it did to Salamence,
so after not landing a single Low Kick, Machamp fell. I brought in an only
partially-healthy Magneton, which I thought would
tank Surf hits just fine. It didn't land a single
Spark, and then Surf crit OHKO'd Magneton. My last Pokemon is
Raichu, and I Thunderbolt because I've given up hope. It actually lands, the first
hit I'd landed in a while, so I heal the next turn
because I might still have a chance. I land another Thunderbolt,
but then Ludicolo Leech Seeds me. I land a third Thunderbolt,
which Ludicolo survives. I have to attack the next turn, because if I don't
KO here, Leech Seed heals it out of
Thunderbolt's range. I click Thunderbolt,
and it misses. Giga Drain KO's, and
I lose the battle. So yeah, I got through
the entire Pokemon League until Wallace's
second-to-last Pokemon, which proceeded to use a
BS Double Team strategy that KO'd four of my Pokemon
over the course of ten minutes. I was fuming mad. I didn't break anything
or do anything crazy, I might've yelled a little
bit, but I was furious. I got that far and
then lost to Wallace's second-to-last Pokemon using
the BS Double Team method. It's not even worth it
to call it a strategy. It's not a strategy,
it's making the battle turn from strategy
into just RNG. Just luck, that's it. I lost because I
wasn't lucky enough. Double Team and other
evasiveness-raising moves, never should've
been in the game. So now, I'm just stuck. I'm mad as hell and
don't wanna play but feel like I have
to play, because I have to get the
play-through done so I can get this video done. I could grind my team up but I really didn't wanna
do that because I already spent eons doing that
and hated the entire process. And also I didn't even
know if that would work. I considered grinding
up that Swellow that I caught a while ago
because it knows Wing Attack and I would have super
effective stab damage against the Ludicolo,
but that'd be grinding up a Pokemon
from level 25 to 50. Like, oh God, I really
didn't wanna do that. After a dinner break
and venting to my fiance Jubilee, she
suggested just grinding up the Pokemon best suited
to fighting Ludicolo. Which I thought was a pretty
good idea, so I did it. I trained Salamence
up to 58, then gave it two Rare Candies
to get it to 60. I also got Alakazam
up a level to ensure that Psybeam could
two hit KO Tentacruel. I blazed through the first
four members of the League. I don't need to
explain these battles since I've already
beat them once, and did so more easily
the second time. My second attempt at
fighting Wallace started well, since Magneton
crit OHKO'd Wailord. I knew Raichu would
out-speed Gyarados, since Glalie did in
the first battle, so I immediately brought it in and Thunderbolt OHKO'd Gyarados. Whiscash took three
hits from Salamence to get down to red,
but then it made the mistake of Hyper Beaming. That prevented it from
healing on the following turn, so Salamence beat it. In comes Tentacruel, who
Alakazam can now guaranteed two hit KO this time,
due to the extra level, so I beat it no problem. Finally, I am once
again face-to-face with the evil Ludicolo. I Dragon Breath and then it
Double Teams immediately. Thankfully the second
one hit and paralyzed it, and no Leech Seed yet. I now realize it's not in
KO range for Dragon Breath, so I need to do a
bit of damage first, as to not get it into
Full Restore range. I Ember, but it misses. I Ember a second
time and it hits, and thank God,
Wallace doesn't heal. It takes a few more turns
because of Dragon Breath missing and needing
to heal Salamence, but he never Leech
Seeds or Full Restores, so when I land a Dragon Breath,
Ludicolo finally goes down. Finally, he sends in Milotic. Raichu's Thunderbolt
only does about a third, and Surf does a
lot, so I use Slam to get it into the
range of another attack before Raichu goes down. I forgot about the berry though, so Milotic then
heals to over half. I click Sonic Boom to
get it back below half, 'cause I didn't
think Spark would KO and I didn't want it
to go into red HP. But Surf does a lot
and out-speeds, so
I'm forced to switch. I switch to Glalie
to sack it off while I get Magneton
back to full health so it can live a Surf. But then Milotic uses Recover. I decide to spam
Crunch in an attempt to get a special
defense drop, 'cause I need to be able
to get big damage. I don't get it after
a few turns, though, and Glalie goes down.
I bring in Machamp hoping Low Kick will
be good enough damage, and oh my God, I should've
done this sooner. It does well over half, so
while the Full Restores, a Low Kick, surviving a
Surf, and a Low Kick later, it's over. I have finally won. This was my final squad that
I used to beat the League, but these Pokemon also
helped a good amount at one point or another
during the play-through. I consider all of
them part of the team. As for my final thoughts
on this play-through, as you can probably tell, I
didn't enjoy it very much. There was a lot of
grinding necessary, and, as you know, there
were a lot of battles that were very
frustrating for me. Plus, an annoying
aspect of this that I didn't really realize
until I started playing is that if I need any HM moves, any at all, I can't have
my full team of six. Like, if I just need
Surf or Fly I can't have the full squad because my
full squad can't know any HMs. I'm proud to have
completed it, though, so if you have any
suggestions for other play-through challenges
you wanna see me do that hopefully are not
as hard as this one, 'cause I value my mental health, let me know down in
the comments below. Also shout out to
Machamp, definitely gets the MVP crown for
this play-through. But anyways, before
I wrap things up, I wanna take a quick
minute to thank the sponsor for
this video, Audible. I'm actually really
excited that I got them as a sponsor because I have been using their excellent
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or text mandjtv to 500-500. Thanks so much for watching,
if you enjoyed this video and wanna see more of
my fun Pokemon content, I recommend this
video over here. Also, if you wanna
watch some more play-through challenges
to tide you over until my next one,
I made a playlist of play-through
challenges that I liked. Not just my own,
all sorts of 'em. All right, that's
all I have for now. So till next time, Pokefans,
gotta catch em all!
