Beedrill-line Solo Challenge - Pokemon FireRed

[@thomashollingshead015]

Even though I know it’s not a great pokémon, Beedrill will always be number one in my heart.

[@valor1omega]

Beedrill and Butterfree both share that spot followed by Nidoqueen.

[@MrSpictastic7208xD]

Floor shit and three floor shits will always be my favy

[@StreyoneX]

I solo challenge with Beedrill on every game I've played where I can catch it!

[@stellarsub-orbital9922]

Profile pic checks out

[@kode-man23]

Beedrill was probably my first favourite pokemon when I didn’t know how to see all of the first 151 haha. Still one of my favs though.

[@milkdud8993]

Beedrill is the best Pokémon. Longest game time? More like impressive stamina! Highest level? Just a result of prodigious experience. Too many resets? More like indomitable spirit! Arin Hanson would be proud of you lol.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

This comment made Beedrill happy!

[@derekrobb2458]

Cant wait for the mega beedrill backport lol good video as always Scott

[@midge2946]

Glad to see the League rematches and Sevii Islands portions get included. Poor Beedrill got to actually use its best moves! I do think that modding out the requirement is probably the best option honestly, definitely agree that having to get the 60 catches in every run would be a huge pain. I remember in DPP, rather than catching Pokemon it just wanted you to have seen every species, and they designed trainer rosters to make that not too difficult to do. But either way, I'm just glad to see the full endgame. Totally agree on it being cool to actually have a Tyranitar on a team for once.

[@brettl4941]

Scott please don’t underestimate how much we missed you. I am so happy every time I see an upload from you.

[@ricksdarkness3257]

You can always catch a Spearow and then trade it for Farfetch'd in Vermilion, which learns both Cut and Fly

[@omarkennedy7056]

I always get the farfetchd on any playthroigh of fire red or leaf green. Its just useful

[@dadish90]

I used to do it every time even in red and blue, the mighty Dux

[@AzureDragon158]

@@dadish90 Farfetch'd is unironically amazing in gen I, I love my silly little duck.

[@Skipatronic]

Scott I decided to work out on my exercise bike to your videos so the longer the video the longer the workout

[@momoapples]

I should try this!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

I should do this for Gym Leader Matt releases! I need to stay healthy.

[@troyboyd3187]

I watch his videos when I lift weights

[@Sazandora123]

I wish I could do this, too. I just have no room for an exercise bike in my tiny apartment :( Sounds like such a wonderful idea!

[@perrycoffey5410]

​@@ScottsThoughtsPokemonlet me guesa you need too lose weight

[@salesforcejeremy]

This was my favorite video you've done. Your blend of commentary was higher quality of the 20+ videos of this type I have watched. Congrats and keep it up Scott! Big fan here :)

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Wow, thanks so much! I've been working on my narration - I'm glad it's paying off.

[@DanielLeonis]

Seeing a trainer with a Tyranitar on their team made me so happy! I love that cute little wannabe Godzilla so much ❤ Thank you so much for this awesome run! I never played through the rematch either, so it's really cool to be able to see them, especially in a solo run 😊

[@TastyMeerkat]

Venomoth Fact #1: Due to its unique Ghost/Ghost typing, it is so far the only Pokemon in the series to have a double immunity to single type attacks. But since the original Gen 1 games were so broken it's as if I programmed them, this caused an overflow glitch where the code couldn't calculate how to do double immunities, so instead it just inflicted double super effective damage on the Pokemon using the move. This was fixed in Gen 2 onwards

[@ashemabahumat4173]

Lol wat? Now that's nutty

[@AzureFlute]

8:06 worth mentioning that Berries do respawn in their overworld locations in FRLG, but they take a long time to respawn because they can only respawn by step count, and I might be wrong but I believe only the Berry Forest has these respawning berries, which is completely out of the way of a solo run such as this, so for challenge runs you really don't have a reliable way to farm more berries.

[@tsawy6]

Yeah, it's just there. I generally find that you don't /need/ /that/ many for a run, and tbh i kinda like them as limited resources. (tho more sitrus would be nice...)

[@escapecamper]

I really love how long you put into each video making sure each Pokemon is represented as best as IS possible. keep up the good work!

[@carlosruizperez5042]

Normally I never comment, but I've been watching your videos for more than a year and I love them. Just wanna say that 😅 keep up the great work and amazing content you bring to this platform! Pd: I also love the edition of your videos and layouts + the humor you use!

[@brettscuiletti2333]

Thanks for making a point of going over the final evolution’s base stats in the video once you evolve the Pokemon into its final form. I often consider the Pokémon’s base stats throughout the game while watching your videos, and I worried when you started doing videos where you evolve throughout the playthrough that we’d miss that component.

[@frostbite2890]

I'll take this opportunity to answer your request for more positive feedback by saying I'm really happy you're doing the rematches! I was actually going to suggest that you could add them as NPCs like you did with Oak in Yellow before I saw you doing them at the end here. I definitely agree that the 60 Pokemon requirement doesn't mesh well with solo run conditions at all. I personally would lean towards just removing it so Pokemon have access to all the items and tutors and exp on the islands and because I actually quite like that section of the game. I know the Sevii Islands are kind of unpopular, but I really enjoyed them when I was a kid. They're an important part of the game for me and having them as a timed part of the run is preferable to leaving it untimed because pokedex completion involves too much RNG.

[@ShukakuTheCrazy1]

Can we take a moment to appreciate how cute weedle's backsprite is

[@geojesse9230]

The kakuna back sprite is sus though

[@GoFastLily]

I am always impressed by how thoughtfully you approach your misplays. I'm looking forward to future FireRed runs with other weak/early-game Pokémon.

[@lordgeovanni]

For the credits sequence, I don't know if it has been suggested but I believe just having more than one on screen at the same time would be the most effective. Compared to leaving only portions in the individual videos, I am in the camp where everyone gets attention, even if it is "diminished" by being shared. I have had like 2 or three thoughts on this so far: First option would be to just set up 3~4 "staging" areas where you have like multiple "screens" scrolling by different Pokemon/contributors. This would also allow for different "sections" of the Pokedex to be seen more often, rather than just 20~50 Pokemon from where you feature. My Second option is something similar to the first, but also reminiscent to the Hall of Fame from Pokemon R/S/E and LGFR, where two rows of three Pokemon are shown. And instead of flying across the screen, you could have that "tile" get replaced by the next if you wanted. I don't know. Just some random thoughts I had.

[@Sh4rkQueen]

Excellent video Scott, I really felt your pain lol As soon as I saw your damage mid game, I was like oh no this is going to be bad. It's nice to watch you learning a new game and seeing the mistakes. Same mistakes I make in games as a novice runner myself and harkens back to the old days when you first started. At least you know the type chart now.

[@weaselrider]

Scott, I'm so glad you are getting all the hype you need. Been watching you from video seven. I can't usually stand this kind of content, but your banter makes me love every second. Been a huge fan for a while, and I love all this hype. Keep it up. I'd love a gen-one bug showoff in gen 3, so see which ones are the best when they have actual (garbage) bug moves. Bug and Poison has always been my favorite types.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

We both love the same types! I think it’s because I like to cheer for the underdog, but I also love the aesthetics of a the bug types.

[@isaacwright1275]

Always loved beedrill, can't wait to see what it can do.keep up the great work man!

[@adadgamer1]

Choosing the hardest starter is much harder in this game, while the type advantage makes sense, if you chose venusaur you'd be looking at two intimidate mons, arcanine and gyarados. Might be harder for a physical attacker. Good job on the video, I'm glad you took January a bit slower, work life balance is key my dude

[@misirtere9836]

It makes sense to prioritize the starter's type matchup above all other factors when possible. The entire point of choosing the hardest starter is to match how the games choose it, and that's the only metric the actual games account for.

[@tsawy6]

There's also big assymetries in the starter mon strength. Early game, 'saur is tanky, and a real bastard with sleep powder. Later, Charizard is really strong with blaze flamethrowers from Silph, whilst Blastoise is stuck with water gun until he's the champ

[@ShiningJudgment666]

@@tsawy6 Blastoise gets Surf as soon as you have access to Surf. But yeah, Charizard would get Flamethrower sooner if you stick around the levels of the gym leaders.

[@tsawy6]

@ShiningJudgment666 no i mean for the rival. The quality in use is tricky, but the quality of the rivals team is fixed

[@Goofy8907]

Keep up the good work Scott, your channel brings me joy and happiness ❤

[@tefnutofhoney2832]

Even if you dont make the postgame regular, it was nice seeing it this once. Even if they dont count for the time, its fun seeing them at their full potential

[@mullet_muffins]

glad to see you returning to FireRed. I feel like you're getting better and better at the game. keep it up!

[@dafsvad5517]

Any record is a good record! LETS GO BEEDRILL

[@escapecamper]

WOW!!! This guy is great at the game. He really has a good thought process around the game and he puts together really intelligently done videos. The data and the methodology and stuff is rigorous and we trust his results.

[@iskander0725]

Alright, so, this is the first solo challenge I ever took on as a kid. I figured it would be more hard then Butterfree and Raticate because Raticate is a beast actually and Butterfree has CC that isn't poison. This run took me 3 months and a break to complete. I have suspicions you may just outdo my child self today.... Edit: I snorted at your Sand Attack typing. You win today, Scott.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Glad that one got you!

[@megariderfire1994]

What do you mean by CC? I hope you don't mean Close Combat because that makes absolutely no sense.

[@AxewKairiSora-db9gz]

@@megariderfire1994 Crowd Control with Compoundeyes Sleep Powder.

[@megariderfire1994]

@@AxewKairiSora-db9gz Oh... "crowd control" that makes sense even if I dunno what that means. Tbf, you could've just said Compoundeyes Sleep Powder, which I understand from that alone, but good thing I asked what you meant anyways.

[@iskander0725]

@@megariderfire1994 Crowd Control. I have MOBA brain for game terms mostly at my age. I usually just call it Close Combat when I'm talking about the fighting move.

[@GeneralWiggins]

This has easily been my favorite video in recent memory. Fantastic job!!

[@victoriancu5661]

Wow that level. My hat goes off to you and the patience you had to grind. If only sd was not a post-game tm

[@sashasscribbles]

Thank you for this lovely video! I would love to see a stream some day of fire red beedrill with swords dance and sludge bomb. My poor baby wasp was so limited by the lack of those moves ;-;

[@TheRestedOne]

Gen 1 bug: Stings you twice with 12-inch pokies. “Yeah, it hurts about as much someone tackling me.” Gen 4 bug: Wiggles the wings to make buzzing noises. “The crickets! Not the crickets!”

[@CelticGuardian7]

It's kind of terrifying to imagine Beedrill punching through brick walls with its needles.

[@Lucurryo]

I always loved, how the cocoon evolutions loose defense, when evolving into there final forms :D

[@TheDarkFiddler]

No comments on the run itself, since you do good self-analysis, so instead, thiughts on Beedrill. In this modern era, I think Twinneedle deserves a damage buff. It's so weak at this point, even for an early-game 'mon. I'm glad it got a stat buff and a mega... wonder how much those would have changed for you here? Love the buzzy boy. Shame it's saddled with the downsides of being a gen one early game bug. As far as the national dex and such, I think giving it after completing the Sevii Islands is the way to do it. And lastly... nifty run! Thanks, Scott, as always!

[@luckcab]

Audio sounds much better and less poppy on the high end! Don’t know if you were trying to do that but it’s much nicer to listen sped up

[@bettyunicorn6132]

Don’t speed it up he gets less watch time.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

I changed mics. Was using the Shure SM7B last year and now I’m using the Electro Voice RE20. I’ve noticed that it gets a lot less mouth sounds which constantly vexed me before. I’m glad you noticed the audio change. This is the first comment and it was a positive one! (I was worried I’d get a lot of negative feedback for changing something so integral.)

[@UnknownVir]

@@bettyunicorn6132 not if I rewatch videos ^^ and I watch most videos at least somewhat sped up, I know I'd watch less overall if it was as slow as it normally is. People have less time and sensory needs, you can always watch the videos at slower speeds if you want to give more watch time though.

[@luckcab]

@@bettyunicorn6132while I didn’t know that, I’m just one person and I am married with a child. My time is really limited to do the things I enjoy. So like… dude I’m just a person

[@diamonddom60]

Glad to see the regular vids are back!

[@chrisdaignault9845]

So presumably the most consistent way to activate the national dex would be to simply set the “caught” flags to 1 for at least 60 Pokémon once you beat the league the first time.

[@naraiceylob]

Hi Scott I like the second league. Feel free to edit the pokedex component if you want. By the way do you use the VS seeker to bring add in extra battles for grinding. It may be worth making a mini list of which battles are dense experience and using the VS seeker when passing.

[@deafening_silence04]

I think giving poke balls a 100% catch rate is a good approach to HM users. You mentioned in one of your live streams that minimizing RNG helps keep the results comparable, and technically speaking you CAN catch any Pokémon from full health. Just like how you can have bad encounter luck, you can also have bad catch luck.

[@Mozumin]

Good stuff 👍 Always remember that, much the same way as Super Effective damage can be a trap, STAB can be a trap too. It's not worth it to keep around a weak move with one of the worst offensive types in the game just because it's STAB.

[@kingbeerz7978]

Beedrill! Woot! my favourite mon, I actually did a solo run of it in Fire Red a while back, had to rely on a lot of focus energy RNG because they locked swords dance and sludge bomb behind post game. Hope your run goes better.

[@TJF588]

Heck yeah! Fearow is my favorite "regional bird", especially on part of its appearance in _The Electric Tale of Pikachu._

[@EmeralBookwise]

I would say just mod out the national dex requirements and treat the E4 rematch as untimed bonus content like Professor Oak in gen1.

[@jamesh2499]

YES! I love Beedrill so much, been hyped for this video for a while now! Sorry Butterfree fans but I hope it outpaces it in the tier list 👌

[@Dpmt]

I’m so excited to see you going through round 2 of the elite 4! Edit: Add them as a timed component, but hacked so there is no catching requirements.

[@pyrotempestwing]

I had no idea that Beedrill could learn Brick Break. To be fair, I never use it in LeafGreen, so…

[@JustAnderw]

Mega beedrill turns beedrill into the pokemon 10 year old you thought they were getting when they evolved beedrill and thought he was the coolest thing ever

[@domc55]

I think you should complete the sevii islands after the league and then let that completion set the flag for the league rematches rather than the national dex. That feels more like a parallel to completing the Kanto gyms in crystal before your battle with red while still removing the RNGness of catching 60 pokemon. So you'd have time to defeat champion blue 1, time to complete sevii islands, and time to defeat champion blue 2 all of which will be determined by pokemon battling ability rather than any amount of arbitrary RNG

[@wompus_king]

Wait am I hear for the premiere? COOL!

[@wompus_king]

I’m second! Ha. Awesome. So close.

[@weebrahim]

I think you should try a gen 6 move learnset megabeedrill play through of this game to give beedrill some redemption.

[@mickgorro]

Scott: The game is off to a slow start. Me: I watched MDB playing black with Regigigas yesterday, I know something about that :).

[@nbonasoro]

Have you considered composite runs? Maybe you do 3 runs and you take the best splits from each. Run 1, has the best Brock, misty and elite 4 splits, run 2 has the best Blaine, surge and Erica splits etc... You add the best splits from the 3 runs to get the quickest total run time.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

I have thought about that! To this point it’s just felt too theoretical. There is this urge in me to have to play start to finish.

[@TheGamingCamel22]

It's really interesting to see how much swords dance makes a difference

[@TripleShizzle]

My vote would be modding out and keeping untimed similar to the oak battle at the end of gen 1 videos, great run!

[@UnknownVir]

I'd say mod out the national dex requirement somehow.

[@frewthelookingglass860]

I think it might be the design, but I’ve always loved beedrill. Such a great aesthetic

[@marlysalt]

I think the bonus round for league matched (untimed) is nice. It's like the Mewtwo matches, or Oak battles.

[@lamiaprincess6371]

So a couple of play things I noticed while watching and wanted to point out as I really want to see your Fire Red gameplay improve. So a couple of pointers: -I actually think you should have picked up Substitute before Koga. Even though you didn't run into a reset, you're already there and don't need to backtrack and it prevents any Smokescreen problems from popping up, and it would have been really good against Rival 5 too. -In the first Lorelei fight, not only do I think Mega Drain was overrated (I don't think this move is useful at all really, Brick Break is a lot stronger for everything you need it for), but more Substitute use would have prevented the reset. When your Substitute can take two hits, you essentially get to use it for free and Lorelei is a really good use case for it. -Past Agatha, you do not need Aerial Ace. At all. The move is really, really bad past that point, as it only has 60 BP and no relevant type coverage for Beedrill. Yes, it hits the Exeggutor the hardest, but if you look at Exeggutor's moves, nothing it does is important since you have Substitute. -Secret Power / Brick Break / Rest / Substitute for the Champion. Aerial Ace does...basically nothing for this fight and really did not do anything period. Beedrill would have clocked in a lot faster with this. -This all being said I uh, I don't have much in the way of advice for either Blaine or Lance. I was thinking about re-learning Focus Energy for Blaine to increase the chance for random crits but you cannot even go to the Sevii Islands by that point so that's a no-go. I'm not really sure if the Sevii Islands are even really worth it in general, but it might be worth exploring the possibility for really bad Pokemon as its an extra source of EXP and you can go to the Berry Forest to grab berries in case you really need them. -Sidenote: Extremely frustrating that Hidden Power is Pick-Up only. Gamefreak really made decisions here. I do want to say! Overall! This was a really fun and enjoyable video! This game is really hard for Beedrill in a way that Yellow isn't, and I find that super interesting. I've really begun to stop looking at the game as "RBY with one or two strategic changes" because I think that limits a lot of Pokemon. In addition, I love seeing the rematches. I do know that the speedrun has a catching route for mostly optimal running, but I don't know if that's a great idea to include in the runs themselves, so having it as an untimed extra is the best idea. P.S.: I'm pretty sure Platinum just needs you to do Stark Mountain in the post-game, so I think that Platinum should actually end with the League Rematches.

[@lamiaprincess6371]

Ah I guess you need to see all of the Pokemon in the Sinnoh Pokedex to get the National Dex. That's a lot less bad but it might be a weird amount of busy work for a run.

[@notme7859]

even if its not a great pkmn stats-wise, beedrill in fire red is actually pretty good, if you get a +speed nature, with tween needle, you mostly one shot every alakazam in the game!!!

[@fyerbrandtactics878]

I feel like league rematch should be like Oak. Mod them in and take a single try against them to see how you do.

[@CasualVideoGamer]

Beedrill is still one of my favorite bug-types. I just love its design.

[@MrEnte3000]

Beedrill COULD have one shot Tangela with Twineedle.

[@ggw1776]

I haven't clicked on this all day because it looked so much like one of your old thumbnails - I much preferred your old template for FireRed

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Good feedback, first time I saw something like it. I’ve mostly got good comments so far but I’ll keep watching for others to get a sense for what everyone is thinking.

[@DennisUrMenace]

A Scott’s thoughts modded version of a pokemon game would be so great! You’ve played them enough to know how accessible Tm’s, rare candies, opponent levels and movesets and so much more. I know there’s the kaizo versions but they’re a bit excessive at times

[@Gungho73]

Beedrill will always have the hearts of Pokemon Shuffle fans if nothing else.

[@rooislangwtf]

They really did Beedrill dirty with Swords Dance and Sludge Bomb, almost as dirty as Scott deleting Return :P

[@youtube-kit9450]

It's crazy how, because of the amount of poison types in Kanto and because bug used to be super effective against poison, extremely useful bug type moves are in gen 1, but really bad in gen 2 since the drop from "super effective" to "not very effective" really screwed bugs over. I personally wouldn't mind if bug was normally effective against poison again.

[@reicherwallace6774]

I'll never understand why they made twin needle 18 power. But I guess it's pretty strong against Alakazam

[@GabrielFMayer1]

For league rematches you could do the following: set up a save file in which you did manage to get access to it and then trade the mons you want to fight the rematches via box editing in your save file. Then you could just time the rematches independently rather than starting in the beginning of the run. I think this method could work since you’d not be doing anything the game wasn’t meant for, given that trading mons between games has been a major feature of pokemon series since the beginning

[@TheSnoopHogg69]

Can't wait for the fire red rematch between Pinsir and Scyther

[@RealClassixX]

Considering Beedrill is one of my favorite Pokemon, this is going to be painful to watch.

[@ralonnetaph6450]

I'm a bit late to the party, but I would like to add an idea to help with grinding and resources a bit, pickup. if you load up your extra party slots for the grinding segments with some route 6 meowths with pickup, each one will have a 10% chance to be holding an item, for fire red that's the berries, hidden power tm, rare candies, pp ups, and nuggets. If you don't consider gen 3 pre-level dependent pickup party slots to be an exploit atleast. It means that if you hold onto the rare candies you can make like lvl 75+ be feeding a candy or two for the next attempt instead of late game high exp needed grinding, can hold pp ups for the final movepools, add berries to your plans, and make hidden power a flexible move with potentially unique coverage. I think even just allowing the rare candies and berries can be a much needed reprieve from the amount of grinding needed for some pokemon.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

I’ve intentionally banned pickup hm users from my challenges in gen3. In some games they can be used to obtain rare candies and it all feels a bit too RNG for me. Plus the HM user is obtaining items that the main pokemon then would use, which feels like a bit too much Hm user contribution. I’ll allow pickup, but only if the solo mon has it as an ability.

[@quinceekingston4335]

Beedrill is one of my fave bug types. Loved when it got a mega

[@shootingstardust97]

Scott, for gen 3 runs, in comparison to gen 1 and 2, it is almost always better to sink in time either early in the game or just slightly past celadon to do intensive EV training as those extra stats do make a huge difference for solo runs, also it would be nice to remember some locations optimal for receiving big amount of certain EVs stats such as blaine's gym/ birdkeepers for speed, fighting dojo/cycling road cue balls for attack evs as EVs tend to cap quite early if u are just randoming fighting trainers or pokemon for exp. Based on my personal runs, attack/defence and speed evs are the easiest to earn from trainer matches with special attack being the hardest (though u can grind at the pokemon tower for wild encounters at the cost of time). I have heard your regards for hidden power for FRLG about it being rng and i do agree a lot but for certain pokemon it just seems impossible to have a optimal run without it, maybe there could be a compromise of HP being used only for League 2 attempts.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

I’ll chat with Eggsceptional about this.

[@Zakaria-nc7iu]

Maybe you should do round two in fire red. The elite four get better pokemon.

[@SmashMath151]

The changes from RBY to FRLG definitely aren't kind to Beedrill. Personally, I like the E4 rematches untimed. It feels like truly postgame content unilke Kanto in GSC and Steven in Emerald is only 1 trainer. The moveset upgrades in the Sevii Islands do help some Pokemon shine though.

[@UnknownVir]

I'd definitely rather use Beedrill in the remakes for most other situations. The type coverage feels a lot better

[@UltraSilver2]

Pokémon Stadium rules guy here. In terms of getting the national Dex with limited RNG and doing things semi legit I think you have 3 options. 1) simply give yourself the national Dex upon beating league. Downside being removing the spirt of Oak's goals throughout the region which are very much intended. 2) the natural way of grinding through the RNG of encountering 60 unique species rolling damage/status condition/ crits to not kill.

[@UltraSilver2]

3) heavy modding to maintain the spirit but make it viable for your data science. Similar to you removing encounters once you obtain an HM user, you can have that species stop appearing, reducing the RNG of simply encountering the pokémon. Furthermore there is the party bloat. Perhaps Pokémon outside your designated HM users could be immediately sent to PC. But there is still the multiple pokeball rolls. This I'm least decided on. Maybe make all balls garunteed once wild Pokémon are

[@Helligrad]

BEEDRILL!!! I've posted this elsewhere, but seeing as this is a Beedrill video, I thought it would be a good place. It's a short summary as a nuzlocke I did a long time ago. It also happens to be... A love letter to Spike the Beedrill. Now, I won't lie, like anyone else who makes a Fire Red run, I was very disappointed to encounter a Weedle in the grass of Route 2, just before the Viridian Forest. I would have preferred a Pidgey. However, I was hurting for team members since this run had a "No Starter" clause, and I had "returned" Professor Oak's Squirtle after catching Nibbles the Rattata, so I kept Spike on as a placeholder Pokémon. I largely ignored him at first, keeping his level just barely up with the rest of the team. It wasn't till right before Misty that I finally started to give him any real attention at all. Rose the Oddish proved to be a little on the fragile side and I was worried about her handling Misty's Starmie. I trained Spike so that he could use Twin Needle on the part psychic Pokemon. A good choice on my part, since Rose ended up confused from Starmie's Water Pulse, leaving Spike to bail us out. My luck hadn't been very good this run, and by the S.S. Anne, I had only captured eight Pokémon. Than, just north of Vermillion City, my luck sank even farther. While using the Versus Seeker to train, Camper Jeff decided to get revenge and murdered both Nibbles the Raticate and Baboon the Mankey. Shortly after, Diggy the Diglet was killed by a Goldeen's Horn Attack. I was quickly finding myself lacking the Pokémon I needed to fight Surge. In an act of desperation, I taught Tomcat the Meowth Dig to handle most of the electric types I'd encounter, and Spike learned Brick Break to deal with any Magnemites. The two of them wiped Surge's gym rather easily. By this point, Spike had earned a begrudging spot on the team. His Brick Break was surprisingly effective in most of his battles, and despite his species reputation as fragile speedster, he proven himself very durable. And than I challenged Sabrina. And as I'm sure many can attest, Sabrina is a murderer. It was a stupid move on my part. Four of the Pokémon on my team carried a poison typing. I should have gone south after Sliph Co, challenged Koga, leveled up some more. But I overestimated my chances. The key to my strategy was Wisp the Haunter. Her Shadow Ball destroyed most of the gym, including Sabrina's Kadabra and Mr. Mine, with One-Hit-KO's. And than Sabrina sent out her Alakazam, who proved that he was just as quick on his feet physically as mentally. I don't know how much damage Shadow Ball would have done since Wisp never got the chance to use it. She evaporated under one Psychic attack. Tomcat the Persian was my back up, but he only landed one Feint Attack before falling to critical Psychic hit. And now I was in trouble. Both Rose the Gloom and Regal the Nidoking were far too slow and would both die immediately. Hawke the Fearrow was certainly faster and lacked a type disadvantage, but his only dark attack was Pursuit. Besides, I had been planning on saving him for her Venomoth, and I very much doubted he could take them both. So, as a last minute Hail Mary, I sent out Spike, praying that his speed would be greater than Alakazam's. It wasn't. I remember how my heart sank with that health bar. I had barely caught sixteen Pokémon by this point. Of that, five had already died. After my whole team got taken out here, I wouldn't even have enough for a full roster when starting over. I wasn't sure I could handle that. This run was over. On a whim, just a mere half an hour of game time previously, I had used an HP-Up that I found in Sliph Co on Spike. It had given him two extra health points. I should have used more stuff on him. Hindsight. And than his HP bar stopped. At exactly 2 HP. The elation and excitement I felt was indescribable. And than Spike attacked. Twin Needle, which was both Super Effective and a STAB attack, was than in turn boosted by Spike's specially ability, Swarm. Alakazam, who still had over three quarters left in his health bar, fainted immediately. Spike didn't even need to hit him with the second needle. That was the moment that he went from a begrudging member of the team to my partner. And he stayed there, digging my team out of trouble time and time again. For a Pokémon with a Docile nature, he proved to be one heck of fighter. I wish I could give you the ending of Spike's story, but I can't. While training for the Elite Four, I messed up. I left my NDS with my copy of Fire Red on the sink in the bathroom at work. It only took me ten minutes for me to realize my mistake, but by then, it was gone. I searched everywhere, asked my coworkers and supervisors, but it was nowhere to be found. I won't lie, it hurts knowing I'll never see the ends of that run. I imagine a big climatic final battle between Spike and my rival's Venosaur, named Faunus (Processor Oak gave all his starters very grandiose names, the Squirtle I borrowed was Poseidon). But such is life, I suppose. Spike the Beedrill was easily one of the best Pokémon I've ever trained. He went from just another useless Weedle to my battle tested partner. Goodbye, Spike. You really were amazing. SPIKE THE BEEDRILL Caught: Route 2 Levels: 4 - 59 Nature: Docile Special Ability: Swarm Move Set: Cut Focus Energy Brick Break Twin Needle

[@alexrobinet7576]

Scott beeDRILLING these runs.

[@zadien8409]

Intimidate lead on the champion is so brutal for physical attackers in this game for solo runs.

[@valor1omega]

Sparrow if you wait to evolve it you will get a free A-Ace allowing you to save the TM for it thus giving you a bit more flexibility.

[@bomberwarren]

I did a let's go Pikachu run with a shiny Beedrill as my main, it was so much fun

[@iantaakalla8180]

I bet that this ability to punch well above its weight is part of why Mega Beedrill was minmaxed as it was

[@BlazingDiancie]

I remember Masuda'ing a Shiny Weedle in Ultra Moon because I loved Mega Beedrill so much.

[@lyoukeefen7199]

I checked bulapedia and it seems that each hit of twineedle having an independent poison chance was added in Gen 4

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Good catch, and correction. I misread the gen3 entry. I want to make graphics that allow me to more intuitively lay out all of these changes / effects. Hopefully I’ll have time in 2024.

[@Undrave]

Beedrill might not be good solo but this show that it can still be useful 'till the end of the game as part of a team!

[@UnknownVir]

Looking forward to this! (just got back from errands)

[@tb12161991]

Scott you are AMAZING!!!

[@JustAnderw]

I think a small optimization in the final battle you could implement in the future is when you're rival is spamming low accuracy moves like fire blast or hydro pump, going for substitute over and over again to burn through their pp and fish for a miss would help out greatly. Fire blast might hit 85% of the time, but the chances it will hit 4 times in a row is only 52%. That means the other 48% of the time your pokemon will be able to get an extra hit in. Definitely useful if they're doing more than 1/4 per fire blast and the odds are even better if the accuracy is lower

[@Kris2005isMine]

That exact final moveset is in the deathbox of my most recent Leaf Green nuzlocke. It got replaced upon death with a Primeape.

[@bersa2398]

You could do bonus scenes at the end giving those moves to the pokemon, just for fun

[@RemS500]

I love beedril, its just a shame he lacks in just enough areas to make him hard to use, but it as good to see. I remember the last time I used a Beedril on a team was in my own fire red playthrough as a kid. I may have come across as a bit rude before when I mentioned the rematches in the hypno video, maybe because it felt like what it would be like to remove kanto from crystal, and fire red was a big deal to me as a kid so I probably took it too personally lol. But it was nice to actually see them. I honestly forgot about the requirements of 60 pokemon to even do the post game, but that's probably because the single time I played it I had that many naturally. Though the compromise of doing them in an actual more final version of the series does make more sense. Personally if you can mod out the lock it makes more since in terms of a timed playthrough solely since it just saves time from doing it irl, since it puts them all on an even playing field, and removes the rng of it all. If anything it was cool to watch the bee blitz through the rematches, even if she was level 100 lol. I always liked the rematches because it really gave the impression of these were the 5 trainers at their peak, and seeing new party members was so cool as a kid.

[@DarkMario9000]

I'd love way way down the line a portback of Megas and have either a permanent Mega or maybe look into the coding of the other rom hacks to make a Mega mechanic and just run through the games with Megas at hand in the old games, can imagine Adaptability Mega Beedrill sweeping the whole game and giving this bug the reedeming arc it had in Gen 6-7. Was expecting it to perform poorly but not this bad Bug types really got their glow up in Gen 4-5 where they finally got access to some really good STABs and the ever so coveted Quiver Dance, not to mention the roster of Gen 5 bugs was stacked for it's time

[@theotheyoutubewatcherista]

Since the league rematches function similarly to how you use the Pokemon yellow Oak battles, i think modding out the requirements to trigger it is the best way to do it. The gen 3 runs can already take a good chunk of time, no reason to add bloat if it can be cut down

[@banditrests]

This one must have been rough to play, oof. Awesome to see the E4 rechallenge though! TTar is my favorite Pokémon and it’s really great to actually see its front sprite in game. Also Misdrevous on Agatha’s rematch team is one of only 2 non poison types she’s ever used lol. Honestly since these aren’t standard speed runs, I don’t think there’s an issue with just turning on the national dex flag once you beat the champion, a lot of the later games just give it to you anyway without the catching requirement so it’s not really against the spirit of the series. Separately, I had a funny stupid though, so weedle essentially mathematically can’t beat gen 1 within reason, right? Well what if it had beedril’s learn set? Lots of other Pokémon learn most of what their evolutions get just at earlier levels except for like hyper beam and maybe a signature move, except literally just weedle, Caterpie and magikarp for no reason. And it works out to a Weedletwineedle reference!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

We will see when I get to Weedle

[@banditrests]

@@ScottsThoughtsPokemon lol, ominous. That’ll be interesting, weedle has some real math problems.

[@thebigbean8783]

Ohhhhh boi! I love beedrill so much and do believe it is a good pokemon! It's certainly not great, but it's still one of my all time faves. I love kakuna too. I know it won't do great out here, but I want it to good soooo bad! Cmon beedrill!!! .....dude. wtf.

[@imlrg9164]

Oof, there were a LOT of mistakes in this run... There's a lot of room for improvement as far as move selection and early game training goes. Will it significantly affect big bee's placement?... Eh, probably not. Beedrill will always be difficult to use as a weak BST Bug/Poison Pokemon. I enjoyed the 2nd league run! It was pretty cool to see a Pokemon that struggled do better with a post game moveset. I'd love to see more of those done in this series!

[@jptheflipper3825]

not bad Scott, but this why I use Hidden Power in Fire red, a HP rock would of shaved about an hour, maybe hour and a half from your run here, using a weak HP rock (around 30-40) I got through the league at level 79

[@BamaMophi]

I can’t wait for the Butterfree only run. Or dare I say… Beautifly only run