

The In-Game Mono-Type Team Challenge

Discussion in 'Stark Mountain' started by Itchni, Jul 19, 2010.

  1. Itchni


    Jun 11, 2008
    The concept is simple for this, basically you take a game and play through it using pokemon of only one type. Depending on the game and on what type you pick, it can either be just as easy as a normal play through or it can be hell on earth, possibly even worse then a nuzlocke challenge.

    My first mono-type challenge was a pure poison team in firered. It turned out to be pretty fun, but fairly easy with the availability of poison types.

    Here are some basic rules:
    You must only use Pokemon of the chosen type.
    Wildcards are not allowed
    If a pokemon evolves into a certain type, they are allowed but must evolve right away (such as charmander in a mono-flying)
    Must use a team of Pokemon, using just your starter doesn`t count. Try to keep them at equal power before the elite four too.
    I also made a rule for my own run that I could only use HM slaves of my chosen type (no fly FTL)

    I picked Bulbasaur as my starter and he was a pretty good choice for the grass/poison pokemon on my team. He worked out pretty well with the moveset Razor leaf/Growth/Sleep powder/Strength. He was able to setup easily on Bruno and sweep his whole team.

    Tentacruel was the powerhouse of my team. His movepool was quite amazing for challenging the elite four and was the only reason we were able to defeat the horror that is alakazam. For the elite four his movepool was Surf/Giga Drain/Blizzard/Barrier. His special defence and Barrier allowed him to sponge hits from just about everything (even psychic from alakazam) I augmented his movepool for the battle with blue with Surf/Toxic/Barrier/Double Team I simply forced pidgeot to switch using nidoking and then setup on the likely gyarados switch in. I then spammed double team and barrier and toxic stalled the hell out of gyarados. Alakazam then switched in and I lived with exactly 2 hp and got off a toxic. I then spammed hyperpotions on Tentacruel and toxiced when he used a full restore on Alakazam, sealing his fate.

    Nidoking was a real nice addition to the team. His bulk along with his nice attack and humongous move pool allowed him to so well in the elite four. His final moves were Megahorn/DoubleKick/Surf/Earthquake.

    Golbat was pretty good, but it didn't do anything really fantastic It would use confuseray and bite to do a bit of haxing along with air cutter and astonish. Astonish went off his better attack.

    Beedril was nice in the early game but by the 7th badge was was useless. Nidoking learned Megahorn and Tentacruel was much better specially defensively. He did nothing during the elite four but was a nice base during the early game when all my other pokemon were horridly weak.

    I caught a Arbok on victory road mainly for Intimidate. Glare was pretty nice too. Im actually pretty happy with how well arbok did as a fresh catch, he did alot better than Beedril >.>

    Some recommended Mono-type team challenges:

    Water in Sapphire - There are many great water-types you can use in Sapphire most of them having types that offset their weaknesses. pretty easy but good for an introduction. Pokemon you should look out for is Azumaril, Ludicolo, Swampert, Gyarados, Tentacruel, among others.

    Bug in Heartgold/Soulsilver - There are many cool and effective Bug types in HG/SS Including Ariados, Forretress, Scyther, Scizor, Yanmega,Venomoth and Heracross. The lack of any Fire gym or Champion really makes it very managable to beat. Unfortunately the first gym will be a giant roadblock that might have you stumped, but keep on trying.

    Flying in Firered/Leafgreen- Flying is a pretty cool type to use. Unfortunatley there are no pokemon that cover their electric or rock weaknesses but fortunately the gyms are found early in game and charmeleon can beat them before he evolves while the Elite four rarely use Electric and Rock moves. Pokemon like Charizard, Pidgeot, Golbat, Gyarados, Aerodactyl, and Fearow can fill out a nice team.

    Ghost in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum- Trading is strongly advised but this region is filled with diverse ghost typed pokemon like Mismagius, Driftblim, Gengar,Spiritomb and Rotom. A very interesting option that you should try out.

    Pokedexes sorted by type:
  2. Sprocket


    Jul 10, 2010
    Steel in Heartgold/Soulsilver would be pretty hard at first, as the only Steel types in HG/SS prior to the National Pokedex are Scizor, Steelix, Magnemite/ton, Forretress, and Skarmory (SS only). At least you can get an Onix early on by trading a Bellsprout.
  3. TheValkyries

    TheValkyries proudly reppin' 0 superbowl wins since SPYGATE

    May 4, 2010
    I did Grass in Sapphire. It's also another good introductory one, as the grass type offers a lot of secondary type diversity in that game, and has a very nice and convenient access to all of the HMs (Specifically abusing the shit out of Ludicolo's water typing and fitting every HM you can on it, and then have Tropius for Fly and Strength).
  4. min min

    min min

    Jun 26, 2010
    Won't a mono-bug team be short on Fly? And mono-fighting lol?
  5. Axa


    May 14, 2010
    Grass is absolutely terrible on HGSS, by the way.

    Disadvantages against 6 out of the 8 gyms (everything in Morty's gym is -Poison so they also resist Grass) as well as the majority of the Elite 4 (everything on Will's team except Slowbro resists or has a super effective move against Grass), no teachable STAB other than Bullet Seed and Solarbeam, and the Pokemon available have terrible STAB to begin with- Weepinbell doesn't learn Razor Leaf till the late 30s, for example, and has to deal with Vine Whip until then. It also hurts that Chikorita learns Body Slam much later now, and Lotad isn't available. Almost everything on the Rival's side has an advantage except Kadabra. Mass Poison everywhere also hurts. The only advantage is that just about no important opponents are immune to Leech Seed (Karen's Vileplume being the only one, maybe); however very few Grass types learn it in HGSS ingame.

    My best guess would be a team of Meganium/Jumpluff/Tangrowth/Victreebel/Bellossom/Dry Skin Parasect. Bellossom gets better offense than Vileplume, Victreebel can use STAB Sludge Bomb, and Tangrowth has... Ancientpower?

    EDIT: I just remembered Exeggutor is also available. That helps quite a bit, since you can handle Team Rocket and Koga a little better and you can get some strong attacks by Blackthorn (Seed Bomb, Wood Hammer and Leaf Storm. Alternatively, holding off on evolving it can let you learn Psychic before Kanto). It also learns the Screens, too.

    Lance would be absolute murder though, especially his Charizard- the only thing I can think of is a Light Screen'd Tangrowth's Ancientpower. His Dragonite with Fire Blast is also tricky.
  6. Athenodoros

    Athenodoros Official Smogon Know-It-All

    Mar 13, 2010
    I remember a friend and I tried monotyping Diamond, on condition that all Poke's are brought across from eggs from Platinum, so I chose Psychic. Eventually (imagine trying to level up psychics from level one. They all just know teleport or something useless) we ended up with awesome teams, and my psychic and his dark both had a reasonably easy run against the game. I know I had enough variation on typing that I had a resist to almost anything. I am considering doing the same for HG.
  7. The Pokemon Pimp

    The Pokemon Pimp

    Jun 14, 2009
    I have a Diamond cart available for a playthrough, but I can't decide which challenge to do. A monotype challenge sounds entertaining at least, I'd just be worried at how much you'd have to grind to level a newly caught pokemon. For example, it wouldn't be cool at all if, in a steel team in SS, you catch a Skarmory and have to level it up :P

    Has anyone had a problem with having to powerlevel? I try to avoid that if I can, but as long as it's not insane that's cool.
  8. Sprocket


    Jul 10, 2010
    An all-Fire challenge in HG/SS is hell, almost to the level of all-grass. Major abundance of Ground, Rock, and Water types, and trainers that use those attacks too. Clair and Lance would be absolute hell: Clair uses Dragonairs and a Kingdra, Lance uses three Dragonites, a Gyarados, and Aerodactyl.

    I think a good chunk of the Fire types can't be caught until Kanto, as well.

    Plus you'd be forced to use an HM slave for Whirlpool, Waterfall, and Surf.
  9. DDRMaster


    Jun 26, 2008
    Fly is never really neccesary to get through the game, so you can forgo it if you want to go all out. Although, you'll be short on Surf and Waterfall (unless you get a Poliwrath which isn't available in all games) so you would need an HM slave for those, anyway.

    I've done a mono-Bug run in Saphire and a mono-Poison run in Leaf Green. My team for the mono-Bug run:

    (HM Slave)
    (HM Slave)

    Beatifly was essential for beating Roxanne and STAB Gust was helpful against Brawly. After I got Heracross, it wasn't as neccesary as a sweeper but it could usually take a nuetral attack and fire off a Stun Spore to allow Heracross to sweep. Ninjask was basically just a clean up Pokemon after Heracross went down and the opponent was low on health. Shendinja was only useful as a wall that would give a chance to heal the rest of my Pokemon. Although, most Pokemon in the Elite Four could kill one way or another. It would have probably been more useful if I hadn't trading a Dig TM in and taught it to Nincada, since I would have had to PP stall all of Watson's Pokemon to take them out.

    My team for the mono-Poison run:


    Venasaur mad the first three gyms fairly easy and would often use a combination of Sleep Powder and Leech Seed to sweep a team of Poison-types and actually gain HP. Beedrill was pretty good in the beginning since Twin Needle is actually a decent STAB move. It was also able to learn Brick Break which helped it take down Rock and Steel types. Although, it still stuggled against Poison and Ghost types and wasn't that great near the end. I don't think it was able to outspeed my rival's Alakazam, either. Nidoqueen has great type coverage and was able to take down a lot of different Pokemon. I taught it Blizzard for Lance since it was my only Pokemon that wouldn't get 2HKOd by Lance's Pokemon.

    Crobat was great against Erika and it could actually outspeed most of the Psychic Pokemon and hit them with Bite to do plenty of damage. It had problems before it evolved because its only STAB move was Wing Attack but Fly helped it out a lot once I got the National Dex. I had to teach Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball to Gengar to make it useful but it could take down most Water-types and Ghost-types. I don't think it was able to outspeed my rival's Alakazam so Nidoqueen and Tentacruel had to take a hit and take it out. Tentacruel completely destroyed Blaine and Giovani although, it had trouble with anything resistant to Water because I didn't teach it anything other than Surf and Waterfall.

    I'm actually not done with this run since I still want to beat the Elite Four a second time and catch Mewtwo.

    @Power leveling: I only needed to grind in the begining with Wurmple, because it sucks until it evolves, and before the Elite Four in both games, like I always do.

    @HGSS mono-Fire: You can get Tyflosion, Arcanine/Ninetails, Flareon, Magmar, Rapidash, Entei, and Ho-Oh (HG only) before the Elite Four. So you could conceivably have a full team against them.
  10. Axa


    May 14, 2010
    Most types do require a HM slave anyway for the Water HMs, unless for specific types in specific games (e.g. Flying gets Pelipper in R/S/E, and Normal gets Bibarel in DPPt).

    Fire gets Typhlosion, Flareon, Magmar/Magmortar, Ninetales/Arcanine, Rapidash, Magcargo, and possibly Entei and Ho-oh... yeah, I can see a few issues. It's not quite as bad as Grass I think, since you have a lot better speed and generally stronger attacks (Fire Blast is available at Goldenrod, which means you can plow through quite a bit using sheer power). The latter gyms barring Jasmine are trickier admittedly. Still, you are always open to Smokescreen abuse (both Cyndaquil and Magmar learn it). Clair is tricky, but Kingdra can only use Hydro Pump 5 times, so you can stall her out with Revives.

    Lance is definitely more tricky though... Magcargo might be able to handle everything except Gyarados and Aerodactyl with Rock attacks, Typhlosion can take out Gyarados with Thunderpunch. You can abuse Arcanine's Intimidate in HG for Aerodactyl, or use Rock-resist berries and Ninetales' Will-O-Wisp in SS. Definitely more luck-dependant, but a lot more easier than coming in with a mono-Grass or Bug team.
  11. DDRMaster


    Jun 26, 2008
    You can't get Magcargo until after you beat the Elite Four and I don't think it can take Dragonite's Outrage without some serious power leveling. HG is definitely the way to go with a mono-Fire run since you can get Ho-oh (Ancient Power) and Arcanine (Intimidate) which might be the only ways to beat Lance's Gyarados, Dragonite, and Aerodactyl.

    I think the hardest challenges might be mono-Electric in Yellow and mono-Bug in DP (not Platinum becuase you can get Scyther fairly easily). In Yellow, you'd have to defeat Brock using only Pikachu and you'd only have one Pokemon up until you get to Celadon (where you can get Jolteon). After that, you would have to wait until you get Surf so you can go to the Power Plant and get Magnemite, Voltorb, and Zapdos. Even with Zapdos, you'd still have a pretty hard time because it starts out with terrible moves.

    In DP, you'd have to train a Kricketot on its own in the beginning and you would have to defeat Roark with a Kricketune, at most. After that, you'd only get Wurple, Skorupi, Burmy, Combee, and Heracross, the last three of which are only available from Honey Trees.
  12. rocky505


    Dec 13, 2006
    No you can get a slugma egg before E4 by giving the weird guy in Violet City a certain phrase.
  13. Roen


    Nov 15, 2007
    Slugma is actually available when you're in Violet City. You just have to use those phrases to get the Slugma Egg from Primo, so it's not a problem really.

    It's also funny to note that Slugma would be the first Fire-type (apart from Cyndaquil) you can get. Plus, it learns Rock Throw at level 11, so he could be helpful in taking down Falkner, although 40 base Attack without STAB isn't exactly useful, but still, it could work.

    Hmm, Slugma seems like a very good in-game Fire Poke actually (maybe the best Fire-type, maybe tied with Growlithe, depends...). He has an excellent level-up movepool with STAB in Ember/Lava Plume/Flamethrower, Rock Throw/AncientPower/Rock Slide, starts with Yawn, gets Body Slam, Earth Power, Amnesia and Recover.
    Damn, I think I'm gonna use one in my next playthrough..
  14. The Pokemon Pimp

    The Pokemon Pimp

    Jun 14, 2009
    So how about: Nuzlocke mono-type challenge?

    Wouldn't that just be the most fun thing ever?
  15. Tyranitar


    Jan 24, 2010
    This seems very fun, but ez since I usually solo the game with my starter.

    But I don't get it, are we not allowed to use fly or somthin?
  16. PremiumVerumFatum


    Jun 21, 2009
    Yeah, HGSS with Grass (or Kraut?) is indeed horrible, though I managed to do it. ;D It took me a few weeks, but well, that's actually not bad, because you can get a Leaf Stone each week - and I needed two of them in total. My HM slaves were not necessarily Grass types. My strategy against difficult was opponents was to Leech Seed/Reflect/Sleep Powder/Synthesis stall them somehow.

    Falkner (Chikorita/Bayleef, Bellsprout): Can't remember, but it's well possible.

    Bugsy (Bayleef, Bellsprout/Weepinbell): U-Turn Scyther lead is one of the most annoying things that I met throughout the whole game. I was dependent on perfect Reflect timing and some Stun Spore luck.

    Whitney (Bayleef, Weepinbell, Exeggcute): Leech Seed + Reflect + Sleep Powder Eggy > all.

    Morty (same team): Gastly and Haunter can be beaten by physical STABs (e.g. Razor Leaf), but Gengar wasn't beatable without enough sleep and Quick Claw (Exeggcute held one) luck.

    Chuck (Bayleef/Meganium, Weepinbell, Exeggcute): No problem.

    Jasmine (Meganium, Weepinbell, Exeggcute): This gym is really more annoying than it might appear at first... The Magnemites pester one with Thunder Wave, Supersonic and Thunderbolt iirc and Steelix's Iron Tail finishs stuff off afterwards. Finally, I fought the Mahogany Rockets first before I tried this gym again.

    Pryce (same team): Compared to the others, this one is again fairly easy. Ice moves do hurt, but Grass moves hurt him as well.

    Clair (same team): This one always used to be somehow annoying. It should be maganeable, some earlier ones were harder.

    My final team, used against the Elite Four:

    @ that charm which yields doubled money I think lol
    ~ Razor Leaf :(
    ~ Body Slam
    ~ Reflect (maybe Light Screen would have been better, but I didn't bother)
    ~ Synthesis

    @ Miracle Seed
    ~ Leaf Blade
    ~ Leaf Storm
    ~ Sludge Bomb
    ~ Sleep Powder

    @ Quick Claw
    ~ Psychic
    ~ Leech Seed
    ~ Sleep Powder
    ~ Leaf Storm

    Will: Ridiculously, only the Xatu were a nuisance.

    Koga: Ariados and Venomoth were easy with Psychic, Muk as well, Forretress was rather annoying but couldn't do much, so the arch enemy was Crobat. I needed more tries here...

    Bruno: The final breeze before the storm, no really serious threat.

    Karen: Gengar was easier this time, but Houndoom was even worse than Morty. Hardly possible without luck.

    Lance: I let Exeggutor beat Gyarados first, then I set (lol rhyme not intended) Meganium up with all the stat-boosting items I found throughout the game. Charizard and his strongest Dragonite were still dangerous. Finally I wasted Dragonite's Fire Blast PP and then it was quite helpless. That's what happened afterwards (yes, I replaced the HM slaves with the only other Grass stuff I actually owned for the photo):


    Kanto Gyms: Finally a pack of gyms that's not so outrageously demanding except Blaine, whom I eventually also beat easily with a timely crit. ;D

    Red: I still didn't challenge him, as I let the game rest after obtaining the last badge. I might try this last feat in the holidays... Though I'm rather not optimistic about that, because my team is underlevelled for him. You just don't get to 70 and beyond with more than one Pokémon against all that underlevelled bait of the minor AI opponents.

    Silver and Team Rocket were also awful foes btw.
  17. COKTAL


    May 12, 2009
    I've only done one mono-type play through, which was a fire one in my first playthrough in Pearl. I had an egg of every possible fire type in my diamond, grabbed 6 eggs, traded over (as eggs so no EXP Boost), hatched, and went off. I ended up with Charizard, Camerupt, Tokoal, Rapidash, Blaziken, and Houndoom. It was a rough start, with a few challenges along the way but it worked out as time went along. I'm thinking about restarting my pearl for another challenge run. Not sure which yet though.
  18. Sprocket


    Jul 10, 2010
    You can't teach Typhlosion Thunderpunch without access to the Battle Frontier, which would require outside trades, or maybe passing it down from an electric type through breeding (can you pass down move tutor moves as egg moves?). But yeah you make some valid points.

    *Edit* Cyndaquil can't learn Thunderpunch at all, so no egg moving it in the first place.
  19. Sprocket


    Jul 10, 2010
    How would you implement that? First wild Pokemon you see, if it's not the type you want you can't catch it? That just sounds like more trouble than it's worth.
  20. Chateau


    Jan 23, 2010
    I've done an mono-Normal run on Platinum. Not that hard as Staraptor takes care of the only weakness, and Snorlax is a beast.
  21. Sprocket


    Jul 10, 2010
    A mono-Rock run on HGSS would be interesting. The high point of a mono-Rock challenge is that you get a Larvitar in the Safari Zone and you're basically set. However dual weakness to Grass and Water (since most Rock types in HGSS are also Ground type, it's even worse) would be hell against some trainers, and a few gym leaders (Misty, Clair, and Erika in particular I'd think).
  22. Baztard


    Aug 31, 2009
    Might Water solo on HG or Grass on Ruby.
  23. Sprocket


    Jul 10, 2010
    Water solo on HG is cake: Totodile and its evolutions can basically solo most of the game thanks to its excellent moveset and high damage.
  24. Pokesephy


    Jul 19, 2010
    I'm gonna abandon my Nuzlocke run for a Mono-Fire run of Platinum.

    Team members include :
    HM Slave.

    Awesome sounding play I think...
    1st gym, Rock, should prove easy prey to Monferno.
    2nd gym, Grass , .....Trololololol
    3rd gym , Ghost , No problems with Houndoom. No problems without either .
    4th gym , Fighting, Could be shakey. Unlikely.
    5th Gym, Water , OH GAWD.
    6th Gym , Steel , .....Trololololol
    7th gym , ice, .....Trolololololol
    8th Gym, Electric, Meh. Easy I s'pose.

    Elite 4
    1st member , Bug, ....Trolololololol
    2nd member , Ground, OH GAWD.
    3rd member , Fire, Identical teams eh?....Interesting.
    4th Member , Psychic, He's a pain to fight anyways....Although this way his Bronzong will go down easy :D

    Champion , Varied, Meh. We'll see.

    All in all, This sounds fairly fun :D
  25. Arcticblast


    Nov 29, 2008
    I'm actually doing a Water run in Platinum. There are too many Water-types in Sinnoh... but I knew gym 2 would be rough, so before gym 1 I traded over a Lotad egg ^-^

    Gym 1: Easy. Cranidos will still hurt though.
    2: Ehh... better use that Pluck TM. Prinplup and Bibarel both learn it.
    3: Nothing really, although Mismagius has Magical Leaf.
    4: Go to Veilstone first, don't get Empoleon yet. Should be easy.
    5: ...and here it gets annoying. Hopefully you can pull it off.
    6: Here you should have a Gastrodon or Quagsire for Maggy.
    7: Not too hard... Abomasnow will be annoying.
    8: ..................................Gastrodon or Quagsire, please.

    1: Shouldn't be too hard. Gyarados would help.
    2: Trololololololololol
    3: See above.
    4: Meh. Gyarados with Bite maybe, Bronzong will eat faces though.
    Champion: Idk.

    Current team: On gym 4.

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