Pokémon Emerald Deathless Solo Run - Flygon Only!

hi everyone my name is flag on hg and normally i do hardcore nuzlockes of various pokemon games usually with a twist but today i thought i'd do something a little different let's do a solo run of pokemon emerald using my favorite pokemon flygon i bet you didn't see that one coming so the funky thing about solo runs is that depending on your rule set they can be incredibly easy or they can be incredibly difficult for example with no level restrictions i could pretty easily grind up my flygon to level 100 and then sweep through the game but on the other hand with a typical hardcore nuzlocke level cap which would prevent me from leveling up past the next gym leader's highest leveled pokemon this challenge would be impossible without a tremendous amount of luck or an insane number of attempts you'll see why pretty quickly so i'm going to be picking a level cap and a rule set that sits somewhere in the middle not impossible but hopefully not super easy i did come up with this rule set at the start of the challenge with no idea what would happen so you're gonna have to be the judge of whether this was a good level of difficulty or not i'm also hoping that this video shows the stark differences between solo runs and nuzlockes they're both difficult in their own ways but where the difficulty comes from is very different so let's lay out the rules first i can only use a flag on in battle i'll be using other pokemon for hms because i have to but i won't be able to use them in battle second no items in battle held items are fair game though third flygon can not faint if flygon ever faints it's a reset so i guess it's still kind of a nuzlocke and lastly i can only fight in trainer battles this way i can't endlessly grind on wild pokemon and there's at least a soft level cap for each gym leader okay let's see how this goes i start by purchasing an exclusive copy of pokemon emerald called pokemon emerald flygon version in the flygon version of pokemon emerald the starter torchic is replaced with a flag on suffice to say i'm incredibly lucky that nintendo made an official version of pokemon emerald featuring my favorite pokemon i named the flag on hg and we begin our journey now you might be thinking to yourself this challenge is a total joke my starter is literally a third stage dragon type pokemon there's no chance that this is remotely difficult and to an extent you're right fortunately my favorite pokemon isn't sunkern because that would be really hard but even though i love this little goggle-wearing dragon he's got some major problems here's flygon's move set in pokemon emerald like most pokemon in generation 3 it's pretty awful no ground type moves by level up other than santoom and the rest of its moves are special in this generation meaning that flagon's base 100 attack stat is pretty useless until we get some tms so while flygon is still better than the zigzagoons that i'm fighting right now it's not quite as powerful as you might think it is by the time i get to roxanne hg has leveled up to level 17. roxanne's first geodude goes down to a few bites as hg remains damageless thanks to a flinch hg then gains a level and roxanne's second chedu comes out this one goes down to a single bite though and then nosepass comes out i set up a sand tomb which does really pitiful damage and then i start doing damage with bite roxanne stalls as much as she can with an oranberry and a potion but eventually the pass goes down and i get the first gym badge since hg resists rock types this was never going to be a particularly difficult battle next up is brawley and here's where our level up learn set starts to become a bit inconvenient flygon's main damaging moves are dark type moves which brawley's fighting types resist sand tomb with its 15 base power and 70 accuracy is in contention for quite literally one of the worst moves in the entire game so there's not really an easy way to take out broly's team quickly with hg's current move pool however after delivering a letter to steven not sure why it couldn't be an email but anyways he gives me the tm for steelwing so now i have a 70 base power physical move that hits brawley's pokemon for neutral damage this should be enough after clearing through all the trainers along the way i get to braley at level 21. he leads matchup and i hit a steel wing for about half health then machop gets a critical hit karate chop for a sizeable chunk of damage then i miss a steel wing so machop hits a seismic toss which activates my orin berry another steel wing knocks out the machop and then meditate comes out and i don't want to risk missing a steel wing so i just take it out with a few bites last is makuhita and i hit a steel wing which does just about half so makuhita retaliates with a vital throw and then its citrus berry activates on the next turn i get a low roll on steel wing and makahita sets up a bulk up so one more steel wing leaves makuhita in the red and then it retaliates with a reversal knocking out hg so that's a reset from that battle alone it should be pretty clear that doing this with a hardcore level cap would be pretty much impossible flygon just has a really bad level up move pool and without a setup move or some sort of status move or something there's not much that i can do here i do have sand attacks so i could get lucky with misses but makuhito has vital throw which never misses and i also really hate strategies that involve relying on accuracy for me they're just not very fun anyways on attempt 2 flagon is lacks nature which gives me plus defense and minus special defense that's actually pretty solid for a mixed attacker like flagon the early game of attempt 2 goes the exact same as the first attempt but when it becomes time to face brawley for the second time i decide to just ghost him and move on to slateport without battling him i'll come back when i have a few more levels just in case hg decides to miss a steel wing again past slateport and before watson there's a ton of trainers including my rival mae but hg is able to bite his way through her entire team of weaklings after fighting with some more random trainers i return to dufurtown and give broly a beatdown hg is now at level 32 and has no problem tearing through brawley's humanoid abominations that's badge number two after that i head to mauville city and mow down every trainer i can find along the way at level 33 hg learns crunch and at level 35 he learns dragon breath and so now we're starting to get a little overpowered but whatever watson is next but since hg is part ground type it's a pretty trivial fight watson also seems to forget that ground is immune to electric types because there are several times that he goes for an electric type move when any other move would have been better i'm not really sure what the explanation for this is but it means that i'm able to clear through watson without any problems even though a few of his pokemon actually do hang on from our attacks despite a 10-ish level advantage good game watson that's badge number three next up is another huge collection of trainers so hg is starting to become very powerful in fall harbor town i get the tm for dig so hg finally has a ground move that's better than santoom and that comes right in time for flannery after beating up the guys who want to recreate pompeii along with every other trainer around the map that i can find at this point hg starts the battle against flannery at level 42. dig is a one shot against the newmal and dragon breath kills the slugman and then another dig also one shots the camera and then flannery's twerkle is last i don't actually knock it out in a single dig so torkel is able to hit and attract fortunately hg manages to take out the love of his life after a few turns and that's badge number four after this there's just a handful of trainers in the desert to take care of the sanchez and sand slashes that all of these trainers have proved to be surprisingly annoying thanks to their sand veil ability but thankfully hg doesn't take passive damage from the sandstorm so it never gets too dangerous by the time i get to norman hg is level 44. norman leads spinda and i take it out with a single dig then vigoroth comes out so i hit it with a dragon breath this ends up being pretty stupid because i paralyze it and that doubles the damage that it does with facade after it heals with a hyper potion a few crunches take it out though lanoon is next but wastes time just trying to go for a belly drum and goes down without doing any damage last is slaking but because hg outspeeds it using dig means that slaking can't do anything i'm underground on the turn that it attacks and i'm above ground when it loafs so a few turns later slayking goes down and i get the fifth gym badge as usual norman is an embarrassment to the family next up i make my way to fortress city but on the way i stop in mauville city and unload most of my hard-earned cash on enough game corner coins to purchase flamethrower which i teach to hg by the time i get to winona hg is at level 50. winona leads swablu which actually survives the dragon breath i don't know it wastes time setting up a safeguard though and on the next turn winona uses a hyper potion but hg hits a critical hit crunch for the one shot alteria is out next and also manages to hold on to a dragon breath but alteria will always go for a dragon dance on its first turn and thanks to my level advantage i still out speed the alteria so i'm able to take it out on the next turn tropius goes down to a flamethrower after that then pelipper comes out and starts delaying the game with protect on the next turn it survives a dragon breath and manages to hit a supersonic it does heal on the next turn as i hit myself in confusion this is potentially a problem but a few turns later hg snaps out of confusion and pelipper goes down lastly is skarmory but now that we have flamethrower it cleanly knocks it out in one shot winning us the sixth gym badge next up is a huge chunk of the game that involves trotting all over home and to infiltrate the team magma in team aqua hideouts but it's all pretty trivial stuff i do find a master ball just sitting around in the aqua hideout though it seems a little suspicious so i throw it out just to be sure after team aqua escapes to the bottom of the ocean i sort of just decide that that whole thing is not particularly time sensitive so i go back and focus on my gym campaign that leads me to most deep city's gym leaders tate and liza also known as the technicality for every emerald solo pokemon challenge since tate and liza engage in a double battle they won't actually fight you unless you have two pokemon on your team so along with hg who's now at level 60 i bring a trap hinch named junior who will just use sand tomb until she goes down which happens almost instantly a crunch from hg takes out the zatu and solrock takes its place then cleodoll uses earthquake to ruthlessly knock out junior on the next turn i hit clayton with a crunch but it leaves it with a sliver so it retaliates with a psychic which happens to drop my special defense soul rock also sets up a sunny day tate and liza are going to heal the clay doll so i decide to take this opportunity to knock out the soul rock lunatone comes in so i try to knock it out with a crunch but it also hangs on with the sliver and then clay doll hits a psychic and gets another special defense drop as lunatone just uses light screen so now we've got a pretty big problem i'm able to knock out the lunatone with another crunch but claydal retaliates with the psychic which leaves me with a sliver thanks to my two special defense drops thanks to light screen there's no way that i can one shot that clay doll so my only play is to paralyze with dragon breath and hope that clay doll gets fully paralyzed or that i get a critical hit so i go for a dragon breath which does not paralyze and then flygon goes down that double special defense drop was stupendously unlucky but so it goes like the broly fight this should again prove that the luck needed to do this challenge with a hardcore level cap would not be worth trying maybe if i didn't do it deathless and i allowed myself to reset every time then i could do it after a bunch of attempts but challenges like that where you just try over and over again until you get a lucky crit or you land a low accuracy move aren't particularly interesting to me i much prefer challenges that make you come up with a more reliable strategy which is why for the most part i prefer nuzlockes over solo pokemon challenges i should say though that i have an insane amount of respect for poke tubers like madry bread who grind out solo pokemon challenges that require playing some battles 50 times props to all of you who do it anyways onto attempt 3 this time hg is female and she's timid timid isn't amazing since i don't need the extra speed and it lowers my attack but oh well it kinda sucks that i have to reset so far into the game but this challenge is actually pretty quick with speed up it only takes me about 90 minutes to get back to tate and liza which is orders of magnitude less time than it takes me to do my typical nuzlocke challenges the first six badges are pretty much the exact same as in the previous attempt so there's no need to show that all again but this time before challenging tate and liza i make sure to travel all around the map and take on any other trainer that i can find just to get a few more levels now hg is level 65 which is more than enough to be able to one-shot the claydol and the lunatone before they can do anything other than knockout junior and that's badge number seven from here it's time to save the world well actually the green space noodle saves the world i honestly do very little it's unclear if i'm the one that awakens rayquaza by going to sky pillar or something but in terms of actually stopping kyogre and groudon i don't do anything i just watch rayquaza is the real hero so let's not forget that wallace seems to have anyways during this cataclysmic event i find the tm for earthquake which flygon does not learn naturally for some reason so i teach it to hg and with that new move hg is able to pretty cleanly sweep through the 8th and final gym leader 1. dragon breath takes out his kingdra but everything else just falls to a stab soft sand boosted earthquake and now we're at the final challenge of the run the elite four and this is actually pretty scary mainly because one of the elite four members is glacia who specializes in ice types which are four times super effective to hg the champion wallace also has a handful of pokemon that can hit strong ice beams so i need to be at a high enough level to knock out these pokemon in one shot because if i don't a critical hit ice move will almost always kill me in one shot this again shows the difference between solo runs and nuzlockes if i could just reset any time that glacia gets a critical hit i could probably do the elite 4 at a much lower level but when i only get one chance unless i want to replay the whole game i need to be able to play around critical hits it's unfortunate that over leveling is the only answer but flygon's move pool is just too limited to try any other clever strategies i thought about substitute strats and a handful of other ideas but none of them are reliable enough especially since flagon doesn't have access to any setup moves other than double team so before facing the elite four i go around hoenn one last time making sure to fight every trainer i can find after doing this and clearing through victory road i get hg to level 78. then i collect as many rare candies as i can find and give them all to hg this caps are off at level 93 which should be more than enough to one shot even the bulkiest of threats so here's my final stats and my final move pool let's see if hg has what it takes as always first is sydney and hg is able to cleanly sweep through this with dragon claw not much to discuss here intimidate from mariana lowers my attack but dragon moves are special in this game so we don't have any problems second is phoebe and after her dusklops uses the obligatory protect earthquake knocks it out and then earthquakes knock out the rest of her team as well even with the timid nature stab earthquake is really powerful third is glacia the reason hg needed to be so over leveled all of her pokemon go down to soft sand boosted earthquakes as well even the threatening chunky walrus waiting in the back fourth is drake but all of his dragon types go down to a single dragon claw piece proving definitively that flygon is objectively the best dragon type pokemon last is wallace and now things actually get a little bit interesting emphasis on a little though we're still level 93. wallace leads whale lord which goes down to an earthquake second is tentacruel which also goes down to an earthquake third is melodic which goes down to a third earthquake but then gyarados comes out and that drops hg's attack with intimidate i hit it with a dragon claw as it just goes for a dragon dance wallace then proceeds to use not one not two but three full restores on the gyarados but eventually it does go down and then ludicolo comes out i hit it with dragon claw which doesn't kill so wallace uses double team well guess what i replaced crunch with faint for this exact reason never again will i wipe to this stupid looty colo for some reason though wallace has yet another full restore so i do need to use two more faint attacks to take it out this allows ludicolo to set up a leech seed which means i'm on a timer now if wallace had brought ludicolo out a few pokemon earlier this would actually be really bad but all that's left is his wish cash since gyarados dropped hg's attack i go for dragonclaw which does leave the whisk cash with a sliver but it just goes for amnesia and since wallace seems to have misplaced his 5th and 6th and 7th and 8th full restore a final earthquake knocks out the wiscash winning us the battle and the run well that was a pretty chill run it was obviously fun to use my favorite pokemon but i was pretty surprised at how much i had to over level to guarantee some of these kills as i said before flygun has a pretty straightforward moveset almost all of its moves are simple attacking moves at least in generation 3 so there's not much strategy to a challenge like this still it was a good break from the more strategically complicated challenges so i hope you liked the video hardcore nuzlocke videos will always be my primary focus but i'm looking to try out some other types of content so let me know what you'd like to see by commenting down below and if you enjoyed watching please like the video and subscribe or or don't i don't know but i do know that you should follow me on twitter and twitch to keep up with streams of my future nuzlocke challenges and you should also join the flag on hg community discord where you can discuss nuzlocking and make recommendations for future challenges the link is in the description below stay tuned for more nuzlocke videos and until then remember to always always always play around the critical hit

Channel: FlygonHG

Views: 360,846

Keywords: Pokemon, Pokemon Challenges, Flygon, Solo Run, Pokemon Emerald

Id: cxSlCOjxlEI

Length: 17min 49sec (1069 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 19 2021