- Greetings, Pokefans! Michael here, and
it's finally time for another one of my Pokemon
playthrough challenges, this time of Pokemon HeartGold. I apologize that
it's been so long since I posted the last one, but forgive me, because
these take eons to make. The rules for this challenge
will be very similar, and in fact identical
to the rules for my Platinum
playthrough challenge. I am not allowed to
catch any Pokemon, with catching being defined as throwing a
Pokeball at a Pokemon, but other methods
of obtaining Pokemon other than out-game-trades
are still fair game. Therefore, the
Pokemon that I obtain via whatever other
methods I can find are the only Pokemon I
can use for everything. Most playthrough challenges
allow the use of extra Pokemon for the sake of
progressing with HM's. But not for this one. If the Pokemon I can
get in this playthrough can't learn the necessary HM's, it's just not possible
to beat the challenge. By the way, if you don't
like that this challenge is the same premise
as the Platinum one, blame the people who
voted in the poll for it. But real quick
before we dive in, I'm super excited to tell
you guys that I am selling what is probably my coolest
merch design ever: this one! I unlocked Champion brand
products on Teespring, so you can buy this awesome
Galar-champion-jersey-inspired
design on high quality
Champion brand products. I'm calling this
design A Champion Time, because I'm extremely funny. It is only available for
a limited time though and once the window ends, it
will genuinely never come back. So, if you want it, you
have to get it ASAP. Link is in the
description below. I know you're gonna want
it, it's a dope design and the products are
super high quality. But now that I've
covered the intro stuff, don't forget to subscribe to
my channel and hit that bell to turn on notifications,
and let's dive in to find out if it's possible to
beat Pokemon HeartGold without catching any Pokemon. The first Pokemon I can of
course obtain is my starter. And I narrowed down my choice
between Totodile and Cyndaquil because Chikorita's
not actually a choice, because I am not a masochist. I went with Totodile
for two reasons. The first is that in my only
two previous Johto playthroughs I've picked Cyndaquil and
I wanted to change it up. The second reason
is that Feraligatr can learn a lot more HM's. With my no catching
Platinum challenge, I meticulously planned out
which Pokemon were necessary for which HMs at which time. But for this playthrough I
didn't do as much planning. I just kinda looked
at the Pokemon, like oh, how many HM's
can it learn, several? That should be fine. Nothing of particular
interest happened other than the
first rival battle which was just like every
other first-rival battle, until I reached Violet City, where I can now
get three Pokemon. Oh yes, you heard me correctly. Without catching any Pokemon, I'm gonna have four
members of my team before the first gym. In the Violet City
Pokemon Center, there's a guy called Primo. He will ask you for two
phrases to describe him using the easy chat system, and if you input
correct phrases, he
can give you rewards. Most of the rewards
are PC box wallpapers, but he can also
give you three eggs that will hatch into a
Mareep, a Slugma and a Wooper. I didn't have to throw a
Pokeball at these Pokemon to get them, so
they're fair game. The phrases necessary
to get specific awards are different for
every save file, so I input my game's info into this wonderfully convenient
site, got the phrases, and obtained all three eggs. After quite a bit
of running around, I had eventually
hatched all three. I named them Mareep, Woolliam, because that pun is hilarious, I named Wooper Wooperman because that pun
is also hilarious, and I named Slugma Fast, because I guess in the moment I hoped that naming it that would impart that
attribute unto it. Spoiler alert: it did not. I then grinded up Mareep
and Slugma, but not Wooper. Since Wooper overlaps
with Totodile in typing, I decided it was most
useful to me as an HM slave, because Quagsire can
learn five of the eight. It was then time
to take on Falkner. Mareep made easy work
of his Pidgey first. Thundershock then did
about half to Pidgeotto, but then it used Roost, meaning my next
Thundershock did less. My Static paralyzed it on
its next attack though, allowing me to
outspeed and KO it without needing to
use any Potions. Gym one was done. Immediately after
beating the gym, I am given my fifth
Pokemon: the Togepi egg. I head south toward Azalea Town, and Togepi hatches
quickly along the way thanks to Slugma's Magma
Armor speeding up the process. I named it Gnocchi because I guess, the pasta
kinda looks like eggs? But I didn't grind up the Togepi and actually just
continued onward. While Togekiss was
extremely useful to me toward the end of my
Platinum challenge, in HeartGold I can't
turn it into a Togekiss until after I get
the National PokeDex which is just too late
because Togetic really sucks. Besides, I can
afford to not use it because I have more than one better Flying type
Pokemon options coming later in the playthrough. Woolliam evolved into Flaaffy
soon after hatching Togepi, and soon after I
arrived in Azalea Town. I then dispatch Proton
in the Slowpoke Well with relative ease,
then take on Bugsy, intending to use my Slugma
to wipe the floor with him. This turned out to be a
more interesting battle than I was expecting. First off, he led with Scyther,
which I was not expecting. It went for Leer while I went for a four times super
effective Rock Throw, which disturbingly
did less than half. Thanks to Leer, its
next Quick Attack did more than half of my health, but Ember didn't KO it back, meaning it would KO
me on the next move. However, my Ember was
super clutch and burned it, meaning I survived
the next Quick Attack and was able to finish it
off with my next Ember. His Metapod and Kakuna
were then trivially easy, and I won with just Slugma. Next was my rival
battle with Filbert. Oh yeah, I think I forgot to
mention that I named him that. It just popped into my head. That's the case for a lot of
the names in this playthrough. Flaaffy took out Gastly but took some Curse
damage in the process. Totodile easily took out Zubat. Then Slugma took out Bayleef but took several turns to do so because this stupid thing
kept spamming Synthesis and my Embers kept getting
just shy of KOing it. Next was Ilex Forest, and sadly
I had to teach Totodile Cut because it was the
only member of my party that could learn it. I arrive in Goldenrod, and
Reptar evolves into Croconaw during the course of battling
the surrounding trainers. Then after a bit of confusion
as to where exactly he was, I found the man who gives
me Kenya the Spearow, which I am supposed to
deliver to his friend. Ah... nah. I commit grand theft Spearow
and claim Kenya as my own. It's a great Pokemon to have
which I know from experience using Kenya in my
Silver playthrough, since it gains boosted
experience points. But now my next
mission is Miltank. What is probably the hardest
gym battle in all of Pokemon, especially if you don't have
access to a Fighting type, like I don't. Miltank's move set is
already extremely rude. Two of its moves can
prevent you from moving, one of them allows it to heal after she's run out of potions,
and the fourth is rollout, which can get
disgustingly strong. In addition to that, Miltank has a base
stat total of 490, which is disgustingly high, especially this
early in the game. In order to beat her,
I have to basically, over level my Pokemon
because, like I said, I don't have access
to a Fighting type, I can't do the endgame
trade for Matchup because I can't go
catch a Drowzee. This is going to be
a terrifying battle and I grinded up a lot
in order to beat it. After my training,
I take her on. Clefairy took a few
Ice Fangs to KO, but overall I took it
out with relative ease. Then she sends in
the cursed Miltank, and I bring in Flaaffy, knowing that to beat it,
I have to paralyze it. If I don't make
the Miltank slower, it outspeeds my entire team. And that is something
I can not deal with, because otherwise Stomp
flinches will ruin my day. Additionally, paralysis
making it occasionally not able to move
is super helpful not just because it's
nice for it to not move, but also because it
can interrupt Rollout. Miltank immediately
uses Attract, but thankfully my Thunder
Wave gets through. Unfortunately, it immediately
gets rid of the paralysis thanks to its stupid Lum Berry. Which, might I say, seems like
an unfairly excellent berry to have this early in the game. The Pokemon's not even level
20 and it has a Lum Berry? I'm then immobilized by
love, then flinch from Stomp. I'm forced to heal back up and
take some damage on the turn, but then its next Stomp
CRITS and KOs Flaaffy. Woolliam got in one
final punch though paralyzing the Miltank with
Static right before he fainted. Salute to you, Woolliam. What an incredibly clutch
accomplishment of your mission. I then bring in Croconaw, hoping to flinch
Miltank a lot with Bite. It does way too
little damage though, as does Water Gun, and
then I get Attracted. I switch into Kenya, which
is risky because of Rollout, but I need it there
for two reasons. The first is that Kenya
cannot be attracted since it's female,
and the second reason is that I can not whittle
down this Miltank. Whittling it down
bit by bit just means its gonna heal with
Milk Drink or Potions. I have to get big hits on it, and since none of my Pokemon
are strong enough to do so, I have to find another way. And that other way
is Kenya's Leer. Kenya takes a big hit
upon switching in, but thanks to full paralysis
on the following turn, Kenya lands two Leers
rather than just one. I then bring in Reptar, and over the course of
the next eight turns, incredibly Miltank only
gets to attack me once. I flinch it, I don't
and it attacks, she heals it, I flinch
it, I flinch it again, she heals it, I flinch
it, I kill it, I win. I can not tell you how
incredibly satisfying it was to give Whitney a taste of her
own immobilization medicine. I never had that insane
luck with flinches before and it was against the
worst person in Pokemon, so it was great. After the whiny
crying baby child, who should never have been given any position of responsibility, has to be reminded
to give me the badge, I grab the watering can
and KO the Sudowoodo. I then meet Bill in the
Ecruteak Pokemon Center, then immediately head back
to Goldenrod for two reasons: The first is that I forgot
to get my bike, Oops. And the second is that now Bill will give me my next
team member: an Eevee. I named it Riser as a reference to my
intended evolution, Espeon. I came to this decision via
a process of elimination. First, no Leafeon or Glaceon
because there is no Moss Rock or Ice Rock in all
of Kanto or Johto. The evolution is impossible. Secondly, I got rid of the
original three eeveelutions because I already
have their typings with other members of my team. So the decision came down
to either Espeon or Umbreon. While Umbreon is helpful
against Morty and Will, Espeon is helpful
against a lot more. Also Morty because all his
Pokemon are poison types, then against Chuck, then
against Bruno in the league, and also against all
of the poison types the Team Rocket has throughout
the entire playthrough, of which there are a lot. Espeon is my decision and the name Riser
references the rising sun. Unfortunately,
evolving it is not fun. Freakin' friendship evolutions. Why is friendship so hard. Leveling a Pokemon up is a great
way to increase friendship, but unfortunately I can't
level up this Eevee too much. Espeon learns confusion at
level 15 and Eevee does not. So I have to evolve
it before level 15, because otherwise
Espeon won't learn a psychic type
move until Level 36 and that's just not gonna fly. So, how did I increase
it's friendship without leveling it up too much? Simple, I gave it
a ton of haircuts. I get it a haircut from
one of the haircut bros in the Golden Rod Underground,
save and quit my game, move the game's
clock forward a day, then get another haircut. I repeated this until
the friendship lady told me it was high enough,
then gave it a couple levels and thankfully it worked. And I now have an Espeon, which by some
miracle is not bald. Hard to believe
it still has hair after the 15 haircuts I gave it. Oh, by the way, at some
point during this process Kenya evolved into Fearow. It only had to grow one level
to do so, so there you go. After catching Riser up
to the rest of the team, I took on my rival
in the Burned Tower. Espeon easily dispatched
his Gastly and Zubat, but Bayleef took even longer
than last time to defeat due to Slugma not
hitting hard enough and it spamming Synthesis
to a disgusting degree. It took burning it and
Slugma getting poisoned to finally end my suffering. He then brought in Magnemite,
which Slugma lost to because it hurt itself
in its confusion three consecutive times. Slugma! Dude! WTF! How did you lose to a Steel type that's a lower level than you? You know what, I take it back. The confusion hacks,
that was unfair. There's no way you're
gonna continue to lose to Pokemon you're strong against that are lower level
than you, right? Right? Espeon thankfully took
care of the Magnemite without much issue
right afterward. So after that battle of
dominating my rival... mostly, I was feeling pretty
confident with Espeon. I'm thinking I'm just gonna
bust into Morty's gym, outspeed and OHKO all the
poison ghosts in there using my base 130
special attack stat and it's gonna be great. I...underestimated him. While I did exactly that to
his Gastly and first Haunter, his Gengar was faster
than I anticipated. It outsped and OHKO'd Espeon
easily with a Shadow Ball. I brought in Croconaw to try
to use Bite to my advantage, but Gengar nearly OHKO'd it and
Bite did only about a third. I switched in Kenya to
absorb a Shadow Ball, hoping to do big damage
with neutral Aerial Ace. Gengar then trapped me with
Mean Look, then put me to sleep. I healed the sleep away because I thought
it had Dream Eater and was afraid of that, but then Gengar
used Sucker Punch, which of course failed. It put me back to sleep, then Sucker Punched
me successfully while I was mashing Aerial
Ace trying to wake up. And that's when it clicked. I have seen his Gengar
use Shadow Ball, Hypnosis, Mean Look,
and Sucker Punch. That means if I don't
go for an attack, this Gengar literally
cannot hurt my Fearow. So while asleep, instead of mashing Aerial
Ace, I mashed Leer. Within just three turns due
to Sucker Punch's low PP, Gengar was out of
ways to hurt Kenya. KOing it took awhile due to it putting me to
sleep over and over again, but eventually after
landing two Leers, Kenya woke up and finished
off Gengar with an Aerial Ace. Who would have thought
that Leer would save me in two gym battles in a row? His second Haunter
took a bit to KO due to Curse forcing
me to switch to Flaaffy which then got trapped and KO'd. But Fearow was able to
come back in and clean up. Morty was done. Now that I've beaten Morty, I teach Croconaw Surf by getting
the HM from Dance Studio. It's not the ideal move since
it's a physical attacker, but still quite good
in the meantime. I make my way to Olivine,
fight through the lighthouse, and receive Jasmine's
request for medicine. I surf to Cianwood
and almost immediately take on Chuck at the gym. I Aerial Ace with Fearow, which does big damage on
PRIMEAPE, but doesn't OHKO. It goes for Double Team, which I don't care about
since Aerial Ace can't miss. Him healing up and two Aerial
Aces later, Primeape is down. Next is Poliwrath. Turn one, it goes
for Focus Punch, which I stop with Aerial Ace. Turn two, I Aerial Ace again,
and it misses a Hypnosis. Turn three, and it's over. This was probably the easiest
gym battle I've had so far. I didn't take a single hit. Afterward, Chuck's
wife gives me Fly, which I immediately
teach to Fearow. I then find a man who wants
me to borrow his Shuckle named Shuckie for awhile
to let it see the world before returning it to him. I immediately boxed it
and never gave it back. I then took some trips
with my new Fly power to collect some
HMs that I missed, those being Strength
and Rock Smash. I taught Rock Smash to Wooper, but then realized that
it has to be a Quagsire to learn Strength. And I attempted to grind
it up to evolve it, but it was too slow without
the Experian Share especially, so I decided to
just wait to do that until I had the Experian Share. I gave the medicine to Jasmine and now have the ability
to challenge her, but decided not to
because her Steelix was five levels higher than
my highest level Pokemon, and my Slugma, my only
answer for her Magnemite, was under-leveled. However, giving her the medicine now allows me to travel
west from Cianwood along Routes 47 and
48, which side note, have probably the best route
music in all of Pokemon. The trip was mostly uneventful, other than this battle with
this pair of Ace Trainers which I almost lost
because this Electabuzz outsped everything
and did massive damage and my team really cannot handle
electric types well at all. Oh, also I battled
this young couple whose Pokemon were
an Onix and Cloyster. Oh, my. I arrive at the
Safari Zone gate, but dare not enter in case I'm forced into
a mandatory tutorial. That may not exist, but
I didn't want to risk it. Now that I can fly back here, I make my way east from
Ecruteak over to Mahogany, then up to the Lake of Rage. I encounter the Red
Gyarados and KO it, because I'm not
allowed to catch it. I've intentionally run
from shiny Pokemon before in Let's Go and I think
the Ultra Wormholes, but I think this
might be my first time ever intentionally
KO'd a shiny Pokemon. Maybe I did it to an Ultra
Wormhole Shiny at some point, but I still think this
might be a first for me. Beating it gives
me the Red Scale, which I take to Mr. Pokemon and swap for the Experian share. Grinding Wooper and Slugma
up now will be much easier, which I go do in
the patch of grass just south of the
Safari Zone gate. Part of the reason I wanted
to go to this side route area is because the Pokemon
in this grass patch are the highest level
Pokemon available to me at this point in the game. I do a good chunk
of grinding here. God, I been saying that a lot and it's going to continue
because, dear God, there's so much grinding
in this playthrough. And during this, Reptar
evolves into Feraligatr. I evolved Wooperman
into Quagsire as well, finally able to
teach it Strength. I then cleaned out the Rocket
Hideout back in Mahogany and was very amused
by this Murkrow mimicking Petrel's voice. I had totally forgotten
about this scene since I don't believe it's
in the original Gen 2 games. During my fight
through the hideout, Woolliam evolved into Ampharos. I now was feeling
confident enough to take on Pryce and Jasmine,
going for Pryce first. Ampharos made easy work of Seel, then Piloswine came in
and I sent out Feraligatr. This fight took a little while due to lots of healing
on Pryce's part and Feraligatr took
a lot of damage due to a few Mud Bombs and Hail, but Reptar eventually won out. Pryce's last
Pokemon was Dewgong, which Ampharos handled
with two Thunder Punches. I went straight
to Jasmine's gym, leading with Slugma to
counter her Magnemites since it's really my only
Pokemon that can handle them. Then her Magnemite
outspeeds and OHKOs Slugma with a Thunderbolt,
without even critting it. Dude! Slugma! You had one job! I spent a good chunk
of time grinding you up for the sole purpose of
defeating Jasmine's Magnemites, because every single
one of my other Pokemon is either weak to Electric or only has moves that
Magnemite resists. And you just die immediately? Whoever decided that Slugma,
this very weak Pokemon should not evolve until Level 38 deserves to have to use a
Slugma on a playthrough team. If I had known it would
be this bad going in, I might have chosen Cyndaquil and just used Quagsire
as my water type. I'm now in a tough spot
due to what I just said about how my team
handles Magnemite, but I send in Espeon who
can only hit Magnemite with resisted hits, but
it does have Synchronize which works with paralysis on
electric types in this gen, so even the Magnemite paralyzes
it, I will do so right back. Unsurprisingly, she Thunder
Waved me immediately, and while I confused
it with a Confusion, it didn't hurt itself. It didn't matter though, since after three
total Confusions, Magnemite number one was down. Out comes Magnemite number two. I used a Paralyze Heal so that I could Synchronize
paralyze this next one as well. Its Thunderbolt
almost KO'd me though, so I was forced to heal
two turns in a row. I can then go for an attack, and it finally Thunder Waves
me, paralyzing us both. A few Confusions
later and I KO'd it. Finally was her Steelix,
which oddly enough, was the easiest Pokemon
for me to handle. Feraligatr took it
out with two Surfs. After the battle, I
learn about Team Rocket taking over the Radio Tower. During this process I meet
Filbert in the underground and take him on once again. Ampharos beat Golbat after a bit of confusion
and flinching annoyance. I send in Slugma
against Sneasel, which does more than
half damage to Slugma, but Slugma only does
about a third in return, so I'm forced to switch. Slugma, a solid mass of lava, would have lost to an ice
type if I had not switched. Why is this Pokemon so bad? Feraligatr is almost
able to KO Sneasel, but before it can he
switches to Meganium. I bring in Fearow, who absolutely destroys
it with a crit Fly. Next up is Magnemite, a Pokemon that's been
the bane of my existence this playthrough, and I decide
to give Slugma another chance since this Magnemite is
weaker than Jasmine's. It paralyzes me
instead of attacking, and Ember almost OHKOs. Its sonic boom isn't
enough to KO me and Slugma finally
does something good. Espeon OHKOs his Haunter, then Feraligatr finishes
the job against Sneasel ending the battle. I fought through the underground and the other parts of the tower until reaching Ariana,
because Proton was a pushover. Espeon beat Arbok but got
paralyzed in the process. Ampharos then beat
Murkrow easily, and then I tried to use
Slugma to beat Vileplume, but Ember did less than
half to this grass type. After being put to sleep and
hit by some Acids, Slugma lost. Espeon came in,
finished the battle. So let's recap. Slugma has lost to two
different Magnemites, would have lost to a Sneasel
if I did not switch it, and lost to a Vileplume. The Vileplume was
the final straw. After that happened I
decided I'm not using Slugma at all anymore until
I can evolve it. I'll just grind it up later. The battle against
Archer wasn't too bad. Feraligatr beat Houndour
and Espeon beat Koffing, but Houndoom got a bit tricky. Faint Attack got Reptar
too low for comfort due to previous damage from
switching in on Houndour. Its next Bite crit
and did a lot, but Reptar survived
the next Faint Attack, finished off the
Houndoom with Surf. Team Rocket is now
officially no more. I can now head east from
Mahogany through the Ice Path and the only thing of note here was finding the Waterfall HM, which I can teach to Feraligatr so it has a physical
water type move. I can do so as soon as
I reach the move deleter in Blackthorn, which I use
to finally get rid of Cut and replace it with Waterfall. But now I have to grind...again. Clair's team is around Level 40 and my team is in
the mid to low 30s, especially considering that I
have no super effective damage for her strongest
Pokemon, Kingdra, I have to be generous
with my levels. So, back to the grinding. During this grinding
I finally got Slugma to evolve into Magcargo, but I didn't grind
it past level 38 since I only planned to use it against Clair in an emergency. Once I got the rest of
my team to Level 40, I could finally take on Clair. She led with Gyarados, forcing
me to switch to Ampharos. Dragon Rage was
no problem though, and one Discharge
later, it was down. Ice Fang almost
OHKO'd Dragonair, but it held on and paralyzed me. On the turn she healed,
I healed the paralysis, hoping for a better damage
roll on the next turn, but I got a worse one
and was paralyzed again. I healed the paralysis again, took a Dragon Pulse, and
KO'd it the next turn. The next Dragonair was
much easier to deal with since my Ice Fang was a
critical hit, OHKOing it. Next was Kingdra, who I
brought Ampharos back in for. I immediately healed the
previous damage from Gyarados as Kingdra went for Hydro Pump, which thankfully
did less than half. I barely lived another
one and paralyzed it. I then decided to fire off
Discharges until I fainted, but after one turn, I changed
my mind and healed again. After a few turns
of back and forth, Clair sadly used a Full Restore. However, my next Discharge
immediately paralyzed it once again, which was wonderful. I followed up with
a Thundershock as to not get it so low
that she healed again, then finished it
off with Discharge. Clair was done, and I now
have all the Johto gym badges. Well, I would if Clair wasn't
a sore (bleeping) loser. I chase her to the Dragon's Den, prove myself worthy with a quiz, and finally get the
badge from Clair. I can now get two more Pokemon, the first of which I get
by exiting the Dragon's Den and going right back in. The elder gives me a
Dratini with extreme speed, which I named Yowza. I don't know why. However, despite
having this Dratini, at this point I didn't
intend to train it up. Dragonite is of course amazing, but it doesn't become a
Dragonite until level 55, which is five levels higher than the highest level
Pokemon in the Pokemon League. It would just take way too
long and it would be overkill and Kenya's been doing
pretty solid as a flying type so I decided if I was going
to train this Dratini up I was gonna wait until I had
access to higher level Pokemon. But the other new Pokemon
I can get right now, I do intend to use. I head to Mt. Mortar
and climb the waterfall that I could not climb before. After navigating through the
labyrinth of the back rooms, I find the karate King. After easily defeating
his Pokemon using Espeon, he gifts me a Tyrogue. After a bit of research, I decided I wanted to evolve
this Tyrogue into Hitmonchan. It's coverage with the
elemental punches is fantastic and I just figured that
would come in a lot handy. I did have to spend quite a
pretty penny on Irons though to raise its defense
before evolving it, but it was worth it. I named the Tyrogue "Montage"
for one very specific reason: it's now time to start
training Montage. After a disgustingly long
amount of time grinding, Hitmonchan is now at the same
level as the rest of my team. I head to Ecruteak and defeat
all of the Kimono girls before being awarded
with the incredible honor of climbing the Bell Tower
for a chance to capture the legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh. And I freaking crushed him! Hah, suck it you
overgrown chicken! You call yourself a legendary? My booty you're a
legendary, you went so easy! I can now make my way
to the Pokemon league. The victory road had no trainers until my rival challenged
me towards the end. Hitmonchan first
obliterated Sneasel. Fearow easily defeated Kadabra. Magneton proved a bit annoying since Hitmonchan missed
two attacks in a row, and then he withdrew
it for Golbat. That forced me to
bring in Espeon, who easily defeated Golbat,
then Haunter right afterward. Meganium was pretty annoying
with its usage of reflect to drop my attack power,
poison powder to hurt me, and synthesis to heal. I eventually resorted
to using Fearow's Leer, and after two of those
plus reflect wearing off, Aerial Ace OHKO'd it. His last Pokemon was Magneton, which Hitmonchan
finally got to KO. My next task is to defeat
the Pokemon League, and guess what, more
grinding's necessary. I know some people think
that the newer Experian share introduced in gen six
makes the games too easy... No, no, it just removes the
incredibly annoying aspect of grinding in the Pokemon
games, which is wonderful. Dear God, I wish that
had been in this game. I grinded my team members
to different levels depending on how easy
the grinding was. For example, Feraligatr
could easily OHKO everything in the victory Road, so
I got it up to level 50 in a reasonably
short amount of time. But Magcargo sucked at
everything it tried to do, so I just stopped grinding
it at like level 41. The rest of my team
was somewhere between
level 44 and 50. Now that that was done, it was time for me to take
on the Pokemon league, starting with Will. First, Ampharos took
out Xatu number one. I then tried to use
Magcargo to beat Jynx, but, surprise, that
didn't go very well, so I brought in Espeon
to finish it off. Ampharos then easily
took out Xatu number two, Exeggutor, and Slowbro. Next up was Koga. Fearow took out Ariados
after taking a bit of damage. I brought in Espeon
against his Muk, but I foolishly tried for
future sight on the first turn instead of going for Psybeam. Muk's Gunk Shot did
a lot of damage, but I stayed in expecting
my next attack to OHKO. Unfortunately it did not,
and Espeon went down. I then brought in Magcargo, and Koga surprisingly
did not heal his Muk. Therefore Magcargo's next
attack knocked out the Muk, and it wasn't long before it
knocked out his Forretress too. Magcargo actually
did something good! Isn't that weird? After that, Fearow
took out Venomoth and Ampharos took out
Crobat, thus defeating Koga. Next up was Bruno, and it was the easiest
fight of the league. Espeon first took out Hitmontop. Then Feraligatr took out Onix. Fearow took out Hitmonchan, then Espeon took out
Machamp and Hitmonlee. Next up was Karen,
and may I just say that this image of her... Damn. First, Hitmonchan takes
out Umbreon with two hits. Then Ampharos defeats
Murkrow with ease. Houndoom was a bit rude
by flinching Feraligatr with Dark Pulse, but after
it foolishly Nasty Plotted instead of attacking
again, Waterfall OHKO'd it. Fearow's Fly sadly was not
enough to OHKO Vileplume, so we ended up healing
on the same turn. The next turn I
went for Aerial Ace to not get it in red again as
to prevent her from healing, but the attack was a crit,
so it OHKO'd this time. Her last Pokemon was Gengar, which Espeon outsped and OHKO'd
getting Gengar redemption after losing to Morty's
all that time ago. Finally was Lance. Ampharos had to take
a hit from Gyarados but OHKO'd it with Discharge. He then sent out his
strongest Dragonite, which is five levels lower
than a Dragonite should be. Lance, what's going
on, are you a hacker? And I sent out Feraligatr. Ice Fang wasn't enough to KO, but he locked
himself into Outrage, which did less than
half my health, so my next Ice Fang took it out. His next Dragonite was
surprisingly somehow faster than Feraligatr despite the
higher level one being slower, but thankfully
hit Thunder missed because otherwise that
would have been bad. My Ice Fang does about
the same as it did to the first Dragonite, then
on the next turn when he heals, I attack again, this time
landing a crit and OHKOing it. He sends out his
final Dragonite, which is again somehow
faster than the level 50 one. He paralyzes me, and
I again am just shy of OHKOing it with Ice Fang. He heals, and I attack again. He Hyper Beams, which
Reptar incredibly survives. It then breaks through paralysis and finishes off the Dragonite, meaning Reptar beat all
three of Lance's Dragonites without needing
any healing items. This playthrough has given me a newfound appreciation
for Feraligatr. Ice Fang is incredibly helpful
against Clair and Lance, so much so that I
might change my opinion that Typhlosion is
the best starter in HeartGold and SoulSilver. Typhlosion is absolutely
still the best in the original gen two games since Feraligatr doesn't
have Ice Fang in those games. But getting access to Ice Fang when there's two dragon type
bosses is a big friggin' deal. In comes Aerodactyl and
I bring in Ampharos, who barely survives a Rock Slide before firing back and
OHKOing with Discharge. He then brings out Charizard,
and I bring in Magcargo, who Charizard really
can't do much damage to. Two Ancient Powers later,
and Charizard goes down. I beat the last Pokemon of the
Pokemon League with Magcargo. How's that for a plot twist? I am now officially the
Pokemon League Champion using this team of
which I caught none of, which is overall a
pretty cool team. Now if it were up to
me I would be done, but you guys
overwhelmingly voted that I had to go
all the way to Red so... Thanks. Kanto doesn't
really have any plot other than like the little
power plant stealing part thing, so for this next segment I'm really just gonna focus
on describing the gym battles. Although I do wanna say I
made the disturbing discovery that the Pokemon, the
wild Pokemon in Kanto, are not higher levels! They're the same levels
that they would be if you started your
journey in Kanto, which is extremely stupid. It's a post game area, all the Pokemon should
be higher levels. But, as soon as I saw that and realized that the only way I was going to get
higher level wild Pokemon is by beating all eight gyms, I gave up on trying
to level up Dratini. That was just gonna
be too much work. It's a pseudo-legend,
it's growth rate is slow, just ain't no body
got time for that. First I took on Janine since
she has the weakest team and I actually did this
with a not-healed team because I was dumb and
got too in the rhythm of beating the gym trainers that I forgot one
of these Janines was actually the real one. First Ampharos took out Crobat. Espeon then took out Weezing, then Fearow took out Ariados. I then brought in a not-healthy
Magcargo to beat Ariados since I felt it
should get some reps and it did OHKO Ariados thanks
to burning with Lava Plume. I healed it up to use
it to beat Venomoth, but Sludge Bomb did
3/4 of it's health, so I let Magcargo fall to
bring in Espeon safely, which then crit OHKO'd it. I then tried to
make my way to Brock before coming to the
horrible realization that literally the
only way to Pewter City was through Diglett's Cave, which required the use
of Cut on the other side. That means, unfortunately,
I had to reteach Cut to one of my team members, and this time I
taught it to Espeon. I deleted future sight since
the only time I used it, it didn't go well. Next was Brock, which was
not a difficult fight. Graveler was easily taken out. Kabutops proved to be a bit
annoying for Hitmonchan, but he got the job done. Feraligatr then easily
took out Rhyhorn and Onix, then Ampharos defeated Omastar. Next was Misty, who
led with Golduck, which was easily
dispatched by Ampharos. Quagsire was a bit annoying since I didn't have any
super effective damage for it and it barely survived
my second Fly. I Drill Pecked it twice
before I let Fearow go down to bring in Espeon safely,
who then finished it off. Ampharos then OHKO'd Starmie, and while Hitmonchan got
big damage on Lapras, it put me to sleep. I switched to Ampharos
to finish the job. Erika was next, and side note, I hated the interior
of this gym. It was so confusing where I could move to the
side and where I couldn't. I ran into the walls
countless times. Erika led with Jumpluff, which
I OHKO'd with an Ice Punch. Fearow OHKO'd Victreebel
with a crit Fly after it set up the sun. To take advantage of the sun, I brought in
Magcargo for Tangela, who did an annoyingly
large amount of damage with Ancient Power before
falling to Lava Plume. Bellossom then brought
Magcargo to just one HP, but Lava Plume couldn't OHKO. I switched to Fearow,
but then as I flew, Bellossom healed
up with synthesis. Then my Fly missed, and
Bellossom was back to full. Fly barely didn't OHKO, so of
course she full Restores it. This time I go for Drill Peck
once, then she heals again, I Drill Peck again, and hen again after
living a Solar Beam, it finally goes down. Stupid pointless hula
flower stupid little thing so resistant to dying. Why I can't keep plants
alive, why can she? At this point, my team has
leveled up a good chunk since the league, but I'm
still afraid of Lt. Surge, 'cause as I've mentioned a
couple times in this video, my team's got nothing
for electric types. So I did a bit of
research and discovered that I missed the Earthquake
TM in the victory road, so I went and picked it up. I taught it to Montage,
deleting fire punch and oh my god was that
the correct decision! Hitmonchan single handedly
swept through his entire team, OHKOing every Pokemon with either Earthquake
or Close Combat. It was beautiful. Next was Sabrina,
and I led with Espeon against her Espeon for
a fun mirror battle I was sure I'd win since
mine was a higher level. My Shadow Ball did most
of her Espeon's health, but then hers did all
of mine because it crit. I sent out Ferlaigatr
who took a big hit before KOing it with Crunch. I hoped Reptar would
survive a hit from Alakazam, but it surprised me
with Energy Ball, which of course KOed Feraligatr. I brought in Ampharos
and had to hit with Signal Beam four
times due to berry and full restore
healing before KOing it. But thankfully I only had to
take one hit in the process. Mr. Mime took a long time to KO due to Light Screen especially, but eventually Ampharos
got the job done. Next was Blaine. First was Magcargo, which
was an easy OHKO with Surf, because as we discussed, most of the time
Magcargo is garbage. Feraligatr OHKO'd Magmar but
was burned in the process, nerfing his Waterfall power. I full healed the burn
when he sent out Rapidash, then almost KO'd
it with Waterfall after being hit by Bounce. Two hits later and it was
down, winning me the battle. The final gym leader was Blue. I started by OHKOing
Exeggutor with Signal Beam before it could
set up Trick Room. Feraligatr then took care
of Rhydon with no issue. Espeon hit Machamp
with a Psybeam, barely lived a crit Stone Edge,
then finished Machamp off. Arcanine's Intimidate
forced me to use Surf instead of Waterfall on it,
but that turned out fine because it crit OHKO'd. Ampharos then cleaned up by
OHKOing Pidgeot and Gyarados. I've now beaten every
gym in the game. And now comes the
part of the game that has made me
decide to never ever do a playthrough challenge
of a Johto game again. After progressing through Kanto
and beating all of the gyms, my team is now in
the high level 50s. Red's team is
entirely in the 80s. This enormous level gap is clearly intended to
be shrunken over time. Go rematch the gym leaders,
work on your Pokedex, beat the league with higher
level Pokemon a couple times. You know? Just do other things
until your team is finally strong
enough to beat Red. But for me, someone who
freakin' has a video deadline and needs to get this video
out, it's freakin' stressful. But I did it. I suffered for my
art, you're welcome. Side note, I should mention,
I didn't actually realize that rock climb was
necessary to reach red until Professor
Oak gave me the HM and then I had a
mild heart attack 'cause I was like "oh god,
can none of my Pokemon learn this move? But thankfully both Feraligatr
and Ampharos can learn it, so I just taught it to Ampharos. I grinded my team all
up to about level 68 and I picked this number
because I remembered in my original
SoulSilver playthrough, the first time I ever
played through the game, I beat Red with a team
in the high level 60s. So I figured hey, that's
probably good enough for this team too, right? It was not. Red's Pikachu outsped and OHKO'd three of my Pokemon immediately. This "incident" reminded me
that my old team had a Golem, a Golem who does not care
about Pikachu's quick attack into electric moves. And, yeah, Iron Tail
is super effective, but Golem has huge defense and it's not a stat
move from Pikachu. I'm assuming if I remember
correctly, I don't know, that Golem just
survived an Iron Tail then fired back with
a stab earthquake that just obliterated
the Pikachu. So that's part of the reason why I was better able to
handle the Pikachu before. And also I had a Suicune
and Lugia on my whole team so that probably
played a role as well. Somehow though, I actually
ended up making the battle kind of close via the use
of a disgusting amount of healing items, including
Max reviving more than once. Eventually it came down
to just my Feraligatr versus his low HP Venusaur
and half healthy Charizard. I went for Ice Fang expecting
to finish off Venusaur then finish off the
Charizard soon after, but Red used a full restore. Ice Fang didn't do
nearly enough damage, and while I did make
a last-ditch effort to max revive Magcargo since its moves were good against both Venusaur
and Charizard, Venusaur put Magcargo to sleep, blasting it with
sludge bomb soon after. I officially lost to Red. I'm having so much fun
grinding, that's a lie! I go back in with a
team now at level 75. This time Hitmonchan
lives the hit from Pikachu and fires back with
Earthquake, KOing it, but hail damage finished
off Hitmonchan right after. I sent in Ampharos
against Charizard. It got in a big hit
with Flare Blitz, but I hit it back harder with
a Discharge that KO'd it. Red then brings in Snorlax,
and I bring in Magcargo to take hits while I
Max Revive Hitmonchan, which I feel is necessary
to beat Snorlax. Magcargo gets in a Yawn and a
bit of damage before fainting, so when Hitmonchan
came in afterward, it was free to Close Combat
Snorlax into oblivion. He then brought in Lapras, which I decided to try and
KO with another Close Combat, and while it came
close, it wasn't enough. Lapras of course destroyed
half-defenses Hitmonchan, but it allowed me to
bring in Ampharos safely. I healed on the
same turn he did. We exchanged hits, but
since I was faster, my second Discharge
defeated the Lapras. Next was Blastoise. I knew I needed a
chance to heal Ampharos, so I sent in Feraligatr to
tank hits while I healed it. I swapped Ampharos back in, which unfortunately ended up
with lowered special defense thanks to Focus Blast. I went for Discharge, but the Blastoise's
Blizzard froze me. Normally a freeze
is a freak accident, but when you consider the fact
that this is the fourth time he froze me, because
he froze me three times in the first battle, I get a
little cross with this ass hat. I have no choice but to switch, both to have a chance to heal up and to get my
special defense back. I bring in Espeon and full
restore Ampharos in the back. Espeon lives two Blizzards and has a chance
to use Grass Knot, which gets Blastoise
into red HP. Blastoise finishes off Espeon, and I bring a healthy
Ampharos back in. Red of course full Restores,
but now I get a free Discharge. He full restores a second
time, and I Discharge again. Finally, he attacks
instead of healing and I KO this stupid
freakin' turtle. Last is Venusaur, and
I leave Ampharos in to attempt to paralyze it. Unfortunately it
puts me to sleep, but Ampharos wakes up
immediately, landing
the thunder wave. I get off some
Signal Beam damage before Hail finishes
Ampharos off. I bring in Fearow
and go for Fly, which is thankfully
enough to KO. Red is done, and I
successfully beat HeartGold without catching any Pokemon. My takeaways from this
challenge are number one: Feraligatr with Ice
Fang is very good. Number two: Ampharos
is incredible and a staple in any
Johto playthrough. Number three: Magcargo
and Slugma are garbage most of the time. This playthrough
challenge was kind of fun, certainly more fun than
the no new move emralds one 'cause I can make my team
actually have good moves, but the grinding was
excessive and exhausting. I think that's probably
HeartGold and SoulSilver's biggest flaw is how much
grinding is necessary. I've genuinely been
having hand and wrist pain from how much I was holding
the controller grinding. So I suffer for my art,
appreciate me, damn it. Thanks so much to my patrons
who are helping support me during this difficult
time for YouTube ad rates. And also if you want to support
me and get some cool merch go pick up the shirt, it's
limited time, get it soon! The link is in the description. Alright, that's
all I have for now. Till next time Pokefans. Gotta catch them all.
