Pokémon Black Sawk Solo

[Mekkah]

One of my favourite things to say about Sawk is that if he were the only Pokémon to learn Double Kick, we would never get to know it can hit more than once. It's just that good. So I decided to see if he was so good that he could take on the entire game by himself, in a game with a curved EXP formula.

Up until the 2nd gym city, Sawk is unobtainable, so I used Oshawott and Pansear. I looked in the tall grass and found a Docile Sawk that took me only one Great Ball to catch.

01[21:50:25] <&Mekkah> Dageki - #539 (Docile)

01[21:50:25] <&Mekkah> HP: 0 - 3

01[21:50:25] <&Mekkah> Att: 24 - 28

01[21:50:25] <&Mekkah> Def: 10 - 16

01[21:50:25] <&Mekkah> SpA: 14 - 19

01[21:50:25] <&Mekkah> SpD: 28

01[21:50:25] <&Mekkah> Speed: 0 - 3

The Atk and SpD are great, but regardless I kept looking. The Speed and HP are just really unacceptable after all. Then I found this one.

01[21:56:00] <&Mekkah> Dageki - #539 (Adamant)

01[21:56:00] <&Mekkah> HP: 10 - 16

01[21:56:00] <&Mekkah> Att: 4 - 9

01[21:56:00] <&Mekkah> Def: 24 - 28

01[21:56:00] <&Mekkah> SpA: 14 - 19

01[21:56:00] <&Mekkah> SpD: 28

01[21:56:00] <&Mekkah> Speed: Impossible

The IVs are overall worse, but agydfgyufwgf Adamant! The Speed was weird, I tried to see what'd happen if I reduced it by one in the IV calculator and it showed me something like 25-29 range, which means this was prolly about as fast as they get. Natures are much more important than IVs imo, and neither of them are strictly necessary to beat the game, so I decided to run with this one.

2nd gym: OHKO everything all the way up to the leader. The leader's Herdier used Leer on me, so I was like "ohshit Watchog is going to OHKO me with Retaliate"...and then Sturdy procs and I win. Lovely.

Team Plasma isn't even worth talking about ever. They love using Patrat and Sandile lines which tend to get OHKO'd by the first hit of Double Kick. I avoid most other trainers when I can.

So after I come out of the forest, I'm hoping to get Rock Tomb (and Dig, but less so) from the desert before I'd have to face the Bug gym. I heard you could get Pokémon from the desert so I assumed you could get the items too, but it turns out that's just because there's dark sand before the roadblock led by the guy telling you to go challenge the gym. Bummer. So I went back and gave Sawk the Retaliate TM, since his only other attacking moves are Double Kick and Low Sweep. Retaliate only has 5 PP but it's the best I can do. I make sure to get Amulet Coin from the dancers.

Going through the gym is painful, since Retaliate is only a 2HKO, but thankfully Retaliate + Fighting move does KO all of the unevolved Bugs. And Swebble is Rock/Bug, so I can just use Fighting moves. Still, I have to go back several times to refill PP. When I'm at the leader, I check my TM case and notice Sawk learns Work Up. I teach it to him, getting a set of Work Up/Low Sweep/Double Kick/Retaliate, and face the leader's Whirlipede. I set up Work Up while healing off Poison Tail damage, 2HKO Whirlipede, then Leavanny comes out. It's faster than me but misses with Razor Leaf, and I OHKO with Retaliate. Dwebble falls to Retaliate as well. Easy.

In the desert I grab Rock Tomb and Dig, after having to fight both of my annoying rivals, neither of which provide a challenge at all. After crossing the desert there's some minor Plasma-ing going on. I get the Bike, heal, and fight N, with Sigilyph providing the largest challenge (I hadn't put Rock Tomb on yet). He's already working hard on that Fighting weak.

I also go to the musical building.

4th gym is the worst gym ever. I hate the coaster with the carriages that never come when I want them to, I hate how they only know of 2 Electric mons, and I hate Emolga especially with a passion. Fortunately, Sawk is a king. He usually OHKOs Emolga with Rock Tomb as long as he hits...the first one managed to set up 2 Double Teams before that happened. I used my only Paralyz Heal before the leader, so I go in with my fingers crossed.

Emolga gets OHKO'd by Rock Tomb.

Emolga gets OHKO'd by Rock Tomb.

Zebstrika gets OHKO'd by Dig.

gg

Then I go west. More rival fighting.

Bianca provides the first legit challenge: Musharna. Fuck that thing. I had deleted Dig and Retaliate at this point so all I could do was repeatedly hit it, or try to Bulk Up, all while healing off 3HKOing Psybeams. Lucky Chant prevented crits, and Defense Curl kinda negated Bulk Up. I won in the end but it took more time than it should have.

Then Alder wants me and Cheren to beat up Toddlers. I want my Sawk to get all the EXP and beating 2 Herdier is just too easy, so I decide to try and KO all of Cheren's Pokémon without dying myself. Sadly the Herdier liked to target Sawk with Take Down so I didn't quite manage to kill them all but...with more healing I could have done it.

Some cowboy wants us to find Team Plasma and beat them so that he can release them again right after arresting, so I do that. At this point there is absolutely nothing that survives Sawk, except evolved Pokémon that aren't weak to Fighting like Gurrdurr. Plasma doesn't use that though.

5th gym is easy mode, just OHKO everything with Brick Break except the occasional Palpitoad (as in, it occasionally survives). The leader leads with Krokrokrokrrokrrkkrok. I Bulk Up like two times while it Bulldozes my speed down, but I don't care because now I can OHKO all he has. His Palpitoad misses with Mud Shot and Excadrill tries to Hone Claws.

That's where I am now. That ^ was all from memory. More detail might follow.

So now I'm in Chargestone beating up Plasmas and random scientists with Klink. Lucky Egg rules.

N is still weak to Fighting. More at eleven.

Had a Rotation Battle on the Route after 6th gym city. Wotter and the Pidove I caught for Fly got a bunch of levels and Wotter even evolved, even though they didn't do anything. Stupid Celestial Tower is full of Psychic/Ghost stuff and I only have 10 Payback PP.

Went through the whole tower, gratefully made use of the healing on 3F. I like how the FLYING gym leader walks back from the top of the tower. Flew back to the city, went through the whole gym Brick Breaking members of the Tranquill line while Rock Tombing everything else (missed like 1 out of 2 against the mooks). Went back to heal before taking on the leader. OHKO'd Swoobat with Rock Tomb, probably rolled low damage against Unpheasant with Brick Break on the first try. She used Hyper Potion and my next Brick Break OHKOs. Then I miss Rock Tomb once or twice against Swanna and get in somewhat critical HP range, so I use a Hyper Potion, then OHKO with Rock Tomb.

Owned the hell out of Cheren.

Went through Twist Mountain. Doctor was actually the hardest guy to beat since he has Musharna and Duosis.

List of things in the Ice gym that survived the first kick of Double Kick:

- leader's Beartic

More Team Plasma storyline. Next eventful event is Bianca battle. After being Intimidated by her Stoutland it's pretty hard to kill her Musharna. I was about to cheat but then I realized I could just spam Bulk Up on Stoutland then kill Musharna in one hit with Payback.

Skip some boring walking and talking, and I'm at the Dragon gym. Boring puzzle. My PP nearly runs out after all the trainers so I go back, heal and do the stupid puzzle again. Get to the leader, Bulk Up vs Dragon Dance Fraxure for two turns, then OHKO everything with Brick Break (I was still faster). Sawk is L60 now.

Crossed the Victory Road, nothing notable, Sawk OHKO'd everything with Brick Break or Close Combat. Now gonna buy X Items for the Elite Four.

Beat the Ghost Elite Four. Mummymon survived +1 Payback, nothing else did.

Psychic Elite Four was going to be the hardest part of the run. I planned to use Guard Specs/X SpDef/Bulk Up to set up, but I got critted, so instead I went with an aggro approach. Used Bulk Up, survived Reuniclus Psychic, KO'd it with +1 Payback. Musharna got OHKO'd to my surprise, then I saw I critted. The other 2 mons got OHKO'd as well. The rest will be easy.

OHKO'd all of Dark Elite Four with Brick Break.

Guard Spec + Bulk Upped a few times against Throh before OHKOing all Fighting Elite Four's mons with Brick Break. Well, except...Sawk! Fucking Sturdy + Full Restore.

Caught Reshiram with third Ultra Ball. I had to Brick Break to weaken it, since Close Combat OHKOs.

2HKO'd Zekrom with Dragonbreath. Its two counterattacks: Fusion Bolt and a missed Zen Headbutt. Then I realized that would be not solo'ing with Sawk. So I switched Sawk in on some attack (Fusion Bolt I think), tried to OHKO with Close Combat but didn't manage to while it Light Screened. Used Brick Break to break the Light Screen and finish it off but he used Full Restore, so that'll be a 2HKO then.

vs N: OHKO'd Klinklang, Vanilluxe, Zoroark (he didn't even Illusion), Archeops, Carracosta. Carracosta survived with Sturdy and hurt me with Waterfall (46 HP to spare) but that's all.

Game still won't let me change leads so I switched Sawk into Cofag's Toxic. Once again I fail to OHKO with +1 Payback but he offers me so much free turns between Psychic being a 4-5HKO, Protect and Toxic that it doesn't matter. OHKO Bouffalant, Hydreigon, Eelektross with +2 Brick Break. OHKO Seismitoad with Close Combat. OHKO Bisharp with Brick Break.

Solo complete.

Playing time: 22:50

Edited March 18, 2011 by Mekkah

[dondon151]

Why didn't you give it Grass Knot. =(.

[Colonel M]

I believe you cheated and made sure your Dageki had good Def and SpD IVs!!!

I kid, it's hilarious to solo the game with a Pokemon. Especially when your coverage moves are usually limited with Payback, Rock Tomb, and Dig. Strong Sawk.

[Anouleth]

Someone tried to tell me on GameFAQs the other day that Pokemon Black/White sold well because it was more balanced than the other generations.

[eclipse]

Do you think you'd be able to stomach a Throh solo? I'd like to see the comparison (and I do NOT want to restart Black for the 5% chance I'll get one).

[dondon151]

BTW Mekkah, I think that in a partner battle, your Pokemon gets all of the EXP.

[Mekkah]

Do you think you'd be able to stomach a Throh solo? I'd like to see the comparison (and I do NOT want to restart Black for the 5% chance I'll get one).

Not now. And I don't want to restart my White file since I did a lot of stuff there.

BTW Mekkah, I think that in a partner battle, your Pokemon gets all of the EXP.

I *think* but I'm not sure that I got around 400 for one Herdier when Cheren had something alive, and 800 when I didn't. Even if that's not the case, no regrets about killing Cheren's Pokémon at all.

[Momo]

Isn't soloing the game essentially what every eight year old does?

[Mekkah]

Sawk Solo - Part II

Decided Sawk rawks too much to collect dust when there's dozens of postgame trainers for him to kick ass on.

Let Looker instruct me on the use of the Super Rod. Talked to my 2 stupid rivals. Talked to Juniper for some TMs. Fly to Opelucid. Deposit Reshiram.

Before I want to tackle postgame, I'd like to upgrade Sawk's movepool. In particular, I want Earthquake and Rock Slide. The former is in Relic Castle, the latter in Mistralton Cave. So I Fly to Nimbasa and go to Relic Castle.

I meet Juniper and get a Ragecandybar. Explore some inside before I remember where to go. Scare Plasma Grunt and own him even though he as a L64 Krookodile that could have swept 3/4 of the Elite Four by himself. Run all the way left then up the stairs for Earthquake. I'll get Volcarona and the Sage sometime later because neither of them help or involve Sawk in any way!

Fly to Mistralton City and go north. Tornadus is going nuts here to the point where I can't see shit so I decide I might as well trigger its event. Then I remembered Mistralton cave isn't actually accessible from the city it's named after for some retarded reason so I fly to Driftveil. And I find that Tornadus is now active here. -_- I use Fly to get rid of it and crawl through the route into Cobalion's cave. I didn't have Flash so I used a walkthrough to get to Rock Slide. Taught Dig to my HM whore Sawk (used for Strength) and Dug my way out. Taught Sawk Rock Slide over Payback, and Earthquake over Brick Break. So now it has a semi competitive moveset of Bulk Up, Close Combat, Earthquake, and Rock Slide.

Back to Opelucid. Heal to get PP back. Time to go right and fight things like Frenchbackpacker!

I'm L71, and the postgame mons cap at around L68, so I figure I'll be fine. My goal from here is to explore the rest of the towns and beat trainers on the way, and then beat the Elite Four, Gamefreak dude, Cynthia, and Cheren.

Since I manage to OHKO three of the L64 Rapidash, Mantine and Cacturne, I figure not even postgame can stop Sawk. I accidentally press Earthquake on Snover, which turns out to be a 2HKO. Pass through the Village Bridge and visit the heal house (why is there no Pokecenter here?). Under the bridge there's a scientist with L62 Amoongus which is kind of scary, but Scientists just love using X-items turn 1 so the Earthquake 2HKO is no prob. Double battle with two Swoobats ends up with one Rock Slide miss, so Wotter gains like 6 levels. Funnily enough the Swoobat used Endeavor so nothing happened.

No challenge so far, I arrive in Lacunosa and don't even bother healing until a trainer made me run out of Close Combat PP. A Shroomish critted me with Giga Drain after I got 2 defense drops from Close Combat, it did nearly half of my HP...

One Youngster sends out a Nincada, which happens to resist all my attacks! I Bulk Up for fun and it Digs, so I get two Bulk Ups in and OHKO with Earthquake. The Plusle/Minun battle was funny. I put Pidove in the second spot and used Earthquake. It gained 6 levels, learned Detect and evolved into Tranquill. I actually had a close call after that versus a Chimecho, where I missed a Rock Slide and nearly got killed by Extrasensory. The next Rock Slide flinched though, then I CC'd while it got a Full Restore. Turned out CC was an OHKO. Then I arrived in in Undella and decided to take a chance and challenge Cynthia.

Her Spiritomb is set-up fodder but it also Double Teams, so basically it comes down to a little luck. I'm L76 at this point so I figure that after a fair number of Bulk Ups, she won't be in my way. Spiritomb turns out to prefer to go the offensive route with Shadow Ball, so I go with the X Special Defense/Guard Spec route, which makes it set up Double Team. I go the whole mile with an X Speed and 6 Bulk Ups. My second Earthquake hits and OHKOs. I OHKO everything else up to Garchomp, which surprisingly still outspeeds me and flinches me with Dragon Rush, but the turn after I come through with a Close Combat OHKO.

I sell my White Flute to the collector, and battle his son's Buizel for laughs and money. Then I continue on my track to Black City. I flew back once because I ran out of CC PP. The L68 trainer with Purugly/Espeon/Lapras had Espeon use Future Sight on me after a double Close Combat, but thankfully I won before that hit.

I hadn't seen Black City before so it was interesting looking around. First trainer had a L62 Magmortar so it looked like a nice training spot, but then the second one whipped out a L30 Electivire, so I got my doubts. L40 Victreebel and L40 Jumpluff made me lose interest. An Exeggutor gave me a little bit of a scare - it flinched on my first Rock Slide (which seemed to be a 2HKO), then it survived the second and fired off a Psyshock. It didn't quite OHKO, but it couldn't anyway because of Sturdy. The only other eventful thing was the Shadow Triad event where you get the 3 orbs for the DPP legends.

I Fly to Castelia, heal, and go to the Gamefreak building to fight Morimoto. I do an X Speed and 3 Bulk Ups, then OHKO all he has. Sawk is now L83.

I Fly to Nimbasa, heal, and head west to find Cheren. Then I Fly to the Pokémon League and seek him out on Victory Road. Marshal gives him that nice little speech and then we battle. Just like Morimoto, he leads with Liepard, so easy sweep. His Liepard has Aerial Ace, though. A crit took off like half my health, big deal. Bulk Up 3 times, X Speed. I OHKO Liepard and Unphesant, heal on Gigalith because I know it'll survive with Sturdy. It uses Giga Impact, so I use its recharge time to get an extra Bulk Up before finishing it off. Serperior trolled me by using Dragon Tail after surviving with Focus Sash, bringing out my other Sawk. fsr it used Dragon Tail again, causing my HM slave Sawk to KO it and waste hours of my life growing from 15 to 22. Then Haxorus killed it and I OHKO that and Simipour with Close Combat.

I savestate before entering the Elite Four for a second time, because you know, what if it's unbeatable? Will I be able to KO everything on the Psychic Elite Four as easily as last time? Will I crit Musharna again?

I go to Psychic Elite Four first to test. She leads with Musharna now. I look up her moveset and apparently she has Psychic/Hypnosis/Dream Eater/Reflect. Psychic and Reflect are both bad news. But she uses Hypnosis on my Bulk Up, then Dream Eater on my Full Heal. Jackpot. I repeat it once, then KO the entire team with +2 Payback or Close Combat if I can.

Against Ghost girl, I Bulk Up twice on Mummy while eating Will-o-Wisp + Psychic (Psychic being a 3HKO, 2HKO with burn). I Full Restore on the next Psychic, then want to go to town with my 6 remaining Payback PP but it survivesasdfg. It burns me so we both Full Restore. I Bulk Up a third time on a missed burn, then KO with Payback. Thankfully I could save a Payback PP by Rock Sliding Froslass (and Drifblim and Chandelure as well if I wanted to risk the miss).

I overwrote Payback with Brick Break and put a Max Ether on it. The remaining trainers have nothing I want to use Payback on, but I need a hell of a lot more than 3 Close Combat and 9 Rock Slide. I guess if you use 4 attacks and rely on X items instead, you have an extra moveslot and thus won't need to Ether.

Dark guy's Sharpedo seems like fine set-up bait, even if I won't need much. I Bulk Up twice, then Rock Slide to avoid Rough Skin. Liepard comes out, and I use the Fake Out turn to drop an X Speed. My main reason for Bulking Up is because Krook has Intimidate and Drapion might survive. It does even after two Bulk Ups and Full Restores so I CC, anticipating another Full Restore, but the AI just gives up.

I have 19 total attacking PP left for 2 trainers with 6 Pokémon each, which means can afford some whiffs now. I also have enough Bulk Up PP to go +6 on both. However, I only have 1 X Speed left, so I figure I'll save that for Alder.

Marshal's Breloom prefers Sporing over attacking unless you're kind of low on health, so it's easy enough to set up on. Turns out I'm faster than his speediest Pokémon (Mienshao), heh. Sturdy + Full Restore Sawk annoys me once again, but thankfully it only does so once. I decide to 2HKO Conkeldurr with Rock Slide since that's what I have the most PP left of. Now I have 3 Brick Break, 2 Close Combat, 5 Rock Slide left, and even 8 Bulk Up.

Accelgor trolls me by Me Firsting my Rock Slide, then dodging mine, but I hit the second one. I set up Bulk Ups + X Speed and heal vs Escavalier (I hadn't even done so before the battle, heh). OHKO'd his team from there.

Btw, I must have misread my playing time. It's 10:32 now. I must've looked at the clock in the save file by accident, oops! No real way of checking now.

One final shot of Sawk:

Edited March 18, 2011 by Mekkah

[Blademaster!]

It's to bad Sawk sucks competitively. I really like it. I'm guessing you went with Rock Slide over Stone Edge since it has more PP?

[Mekkah]

And 10% more accuracy, and higher chance of a side effect that pretty much does the same (skip a counterattack on something I 2HKO, either by them flinching or getting OHKO'd by the crit). And the TM was more accessible, since Stone Edge is deep in Challenger's Cave.

[Ken Zomg]

Very nice. My brother caught an adamant Sawk too.