Can you beat Pokemon Red/Blue as JAMES from TEAM ROCKET with just a Koffing?

Prepare for trouble, but this time make it double After 3 years we're going to try and defeat all of Kanto while using just a Koffing, like James from Team Rocket. You know, I'm really starting to think the Pokemon weren't the problem here...
Edited by: @SimplyAJ ( / simplyaj )

[@lmnisop5516]

Looks like after jrose prepared for trouble 3 years ago, he finally made it double

[@IAmMissingnoMaster]

Meowth, that's right!

[@dawnsbuneary]

​@@IAmMissingnoMaster Wobbuffet!

[@FreaKenOuT]

😂😂

[@MegamanStarforce2010]

i love that they followed the same thumbnail style and everything. attention to detail!

[@Xpwnxage]

I can't believe it's been 3 years

[@lmr4403]

Smog with 20 power was too strong, so they had to nerf its accuracy.

[@fizzbrew]

The idiots at game freak have always made poison pokemon garbage. And eventually they made it literal garbage.

[@chvIry]

@@fizzbrew *croagunk enters the chat

[@xelac1334]

Maybe they thought the 40% chance to poison would make it too strong otherwise? That's the only explanation I can think of. Game Freak isn't always good at figuring out balance. Take Pokemon like Regigigas that they nerfed into the ground with its ability, for example.

[@shanemiller1182]

​@@xelac1334probably so that playing against poison types in single player isn't too annoying. It makes more sense if you think of gen 1 pokemon as dragon quest instead of a competitive game

[@Zoroarkarceus123]

​@@gamermanzeake I mean, you can sleep powder with Butterfree (I don't think it's at that unreasonable of a level, but I don't remember) and burn with Charmander

[@wol3059]

Always a good day when my boy Jrose uploads a run. We've missed you dude

[@Agora0000]

It's like Christmas for me, the fact that it happens so rarely just makes it more precious

[@jordand8371]

We were truly spoiled during the month of Jrose

[@gogreencomi]

You guys are sad lol just watch him on twitch

[@aftertheelectrike1847]

Any time he uploads is a huge W.

[@OasisCherryjuice182]

@@gogreencomi damn that went mean quick

[@logans.7932]

The most bizarre design choice in RBY is Brock’s 10 Full Heals. Like, were they so determined to teach type matchups that they didn’t want anyone to use strategy? If someone wanted to use Poison instead of Bulbasaur/Squirtle, let ‘em. That’s creative, assuming they’re a totally new player in 1999

[@DJFracus]

25:02 This is the TAS speedrun strat because Self Destruct instantly sets HP to 0, instead of the HP bar taking some time to decrease. So even if you can OHKO the Weezing, a Gen 1 miss Self Destruct is the luckiest possible thing that can happen in terms of time :P

[@Infindox]

The Pokemon they had were never the problem, it's that both Jesse and James were good at a lot of things except actually being bad guys lol

[@zdelrod829]

That's why they started their podcast

[@vondas1480]

> Strongest stab move was 65 bp sludge (which I don’t think they even used) > weak to psychic and ground which does have powerful moves > no resistance > did have coverage but never used It’s pretty bad team when lickitongue is an improvement

[@STOCKHOLM07]

blasting off again

[@InfernosReaper]

Hell, they couldn't even get the Team Rocket mantra right

[@TheKingQazbatt]

​@@vondas1480 wobbafett being the best on the team

[@BaoHadir]

I'd say the reason why Koffing's level-up move pool is so crap is because they didn't expect players to have a Koffing that was below level 30 (30 or 32 is the level of Koffing at the Pokemon Mansion). Actually, a lot of Pokemon you couldn't get at starter level didn't learn moves until you leveled up past their base capture level. Gen 2, I believe, is when they started having low-level move pools for Pokemon that can breed, since you could get one as an egg, where it would hatch at level 5.

[@ladyriethegoldendelmo5441]

true but honestly u would have to trade a koffing from silver to red but problem with that? it wont obey u. and u would have to rush just so it will obey u lmao

[@osets2117]

​@@ladyriethegoldendelmo5441 not true, they wouldn't obey you if they were above a certain level. The boulder badge states anything over level 20 will now obey you, even traded Pokemon.

[@velvetbutterfly]

@@osets2117and before that level 10 is the default, at least in some gens

[@raineob4996]

Koffing is in that category of Pokémon (along with stuff like Tangela and Grimer) where it’s only available in the late game right before evolution and so you were never meant to (and can’t because no breeding) use it at this level, and so the developers just didn’t bother to give it any moves.

[@shadowseeker97]

maaan i *wish* tangrowth existed in gen 1.

[@wadespencer3623]

I mean it doesn't get any moves in later levels either.

[@aceclover758]

Yea but you then have pokemon like Mewtwo with good moves at level 5 Still, I see your logic, thats what makes solo runs with mid to late game pokemon that are caught in the wild in the mid twenties to mid thirties, much harder.

[@bencri6248]

@@aceclover758 well that may be lore, i mean, Mewtwo in the movie can easily destroy like an island at a theoretical lvl. 1 so it makes sense, or, it’s gen 1 and it’s all just messed up💀

[@andrewadams5058]

I feel tackle smokescreen shoulda been the starting moveset

[@samig9032]

These gen 1 solo runs feel like Christmas morning. Rock on JRose!

[@LinkEX]

These probably feel more like purgatory to JRose, lol.

[@Mr.wednesdayallfather]

Amen brother let's hope the mr. Jayroe's keeps doing videos until the lizard people finally take over and reap their horrible vengeance on mankind

[@EggOfNobleArms]

I just want to appreciate how, at 16:33, the save screen showed he had 3 dex entries and 3 badges at 3:33 play time. Perfect.

[@SemiHypercube]

You know the run went pretty well if he's at the elite 4 like 75% into the video instead of halfway through

[@illyannalavynne2033]

Was very surprised that Koffing can't learn body slam. Seems like it's gonna be a *sludge* fest... 😂

[@dynastystar5515]

That joke was toxic

[@JoseFlores-xh5cj]

Everyone doing smog azz puns

[@dynastystar5515]

@@JoseFlores-xh5cj oh god, the poison is spreading!

[@osets2117]

I hate all of you😂

[@Ruesen]

Technically, Jessie has Ekans AND Lickitung (then later, Wobbuffet). James had Koffing and Victreebell for a long while.

[@evenhartwick4422]

yeah i think to make it more like their actual teams not only should he have been allowed to evolve Ekans and Koffing but he should have also been able to use their other pokemon if he really wanted this to be like what its like to play as team rocket

[@bigdogbelmont8628]

James also had his growlithe, which would have made the psychic match up a lot less painful.

[@kwest9747]

He had a Growlithe, but it wasn’t something he was using in the field as Team Rocket, which I think is the spirit this run through tries to capture. Agreed it would have been interesting if James got his second iconic pokemon / evolutions.

[@wolkarianknight6086]

He also had a magikarp and then it evolved into gyarados

[@TheGlitched64]

I love how no matter how many Red and Blue challenge videos you put out, there is always another fun challenge concept and it always ends up interesting. Always here for it.

[@SawedOffLaser]

The colors for this episode are really nice. Also, love how Gen 1 move pools will give you no good STAB or type coverage, but TWO moves to make your Pokemon explode.

[@EresirThe1st]

For real. Wtf were game freak smoking back then? Furthermore why did they even have the whole theme of type-based gyms and not have 6 Pokémon of each type?

[@AceFuzzLord]

To be fair on the move pools side of things, this was the very beginning of the franchise. As far as I am aware, there weren't have any games like this out at the time for them to reference, so they did their best on what they thought would be balanced. At least they've gotten much better over the years.

[@emisor9272]

​@@EresirThe1st it's almost like they didn't know how to make a good Pokémon game back then

[@osets2117]

It's almost like the first Pokemon game was a proof of concept and wasn't intended to be an actual series

[@FlyGli1]

@@emisor9272 It's almost like there were no pokemon games back then to improve on

[@Leetz88]

Finally, Jessie isn't alone anymore

[@TheHeartlessAlchemist]

Remember kids: Any move that isn't 100% accurate is 50% accurate.

[@HarveyMeadowlark]

Great to see JRose. Those daily uploads during the month of JRose really spoiled us. Hope you’ve been well, thanks for the video, excited to see the fiasco that is solo koffing

[@P4brotagonist]

I feel that. I kept counting down the videos during the month dreading when it would end.

[@Daan_Knobbout]

You all do know the month of Jrose pays more money, because december is the holiday season ad revenue is higher.

[@gigidy5]

Anyone else go back and watch old videos while waiting for new ones? The amount of hours I fell asleep listening to this man....

[@skullraider27]

every day :)

[@puddlespuddles5208]

he is one of my top 3 go to channels for falling asleep to. Love his content and dedication.

[@coryfusting9294]

Now this is a good start to the month THANK YOU JROSE

[@rordongamsay8478]

The return of the king! We've missed you man. This videos never fail to entertain.

[@cloudfinraptor]

Crazy to think that the Month of Jrose was 4 months ago! I hope the break was revitalizing! Glad to see you back out here producing bangera

[@mattdeluccia153]

It’s so funny how in modern Pokémon the 1st gym is always a joke, like borderline tutorial, but in Gen 1 (without Bulbasaur or Squirtle) Brock is by far the hardest fight in the game.

[@mortovivo9655]

Actually Charmander is faster at reaching and beating Brock than Squirtle and Bulbasaur. As long as you have any special attack you're good to go :v

[@maximilianbelmont4901]

I get the reaching part, but how is Charmander supposed to beat Brock faster than the other two?

[@mortovivo9655]

@@maximilianbelmont4901 it's a sum of the two, because Brock only needs a special move to be destroyed if I'm not mistaken Charmander is actually 1-2 minutes faster than both Squirtle and Bulbasaur due to ember being way better than vine whip and bubble

[@GhengizKanye]

​@@mortovivo9655no chance, ember is resisted and vine whip/bubble are 4x super effective. all charmander has is a slight advantage over the bug catchers but he can still get poisoned and bulbasaur cant so its pretty much nulled out.

[@kwest9747]

Brock is a nightmare before you work out the trick to bide or the difference between special and physical moves. He’s also a really hard fight if you don’t want to use a starter!

[@itsamemario6588]

So excited! The Red/Blue challenges are my favorite ❤️

[@perkypenguin1663]

I am excited to see another Gen 1 solo from this channel! Your R/B solos are some of my favorite YT content. I did have a few criticisms, however. Some parts felt a bit awkward, particularly when you skipped the wins against the self destructing Hiker. The “show don’t tell” aspect of your solos is what makes them so great, so missing out on some victories was a bit weird. Also, I remembered that you used Rest in your Weezing solo, but didn’t here, which would have made the self destructing Hiker as well as Giovanni much easier. In all fairness, it had been some time, so you likely forgot that you did that, but I was bothered by that. With that said, I’m happy to see a new Jrose video and this was no different. I still really enjoyed it and I’m excited to see what the future holds for this channel! Edit: turns out you did show the Erika win and I missed that part. Sorry about that.

[@SealableLlama]

Great to see you back. Hope you’re feeling better!

[@cryptodentist]

Gen 1 miss on a selfdestruct is hilarious, especially when Koffing was untouched by Koga’s first three.

[@lazertv3702]

Glad to see you back dude! Your twitch streams always happen when I'm in the middle of work so I've been missing out lol. Its funny you uploaded this today, I was watching a random "impossible things gamers have done" video yesterday and your Magikarp fire red run was included.

[@luismiguelgallegogomez8000]

Holiday in my country, great start already! :) The best parts: - The new title of Surge. - Weezing getting a gen-1-miss on self-destruct.

[@ShabbaDabb]

FR

[@nazbol1141]

YES! Really missed your videos! Glad to see you back!

[@mjm1987]

Love that front sprite. Just the right amount of menacing and derpy

[@SomeGuy712x]

(25:03) I laughed so hard when Weezing used Self-Destruct and got the Gen. 1 miss. That was simply amazing, and resulted in your Koffing beating that gym battle without taking any damage.

[@MrMojoRisin070371]

I feel asleep to these all the time and I mean that in the best most positivity way! Love em!

[@thecreecher3286]

What a surprise, just what I needed a new jrose. I was literally checking your channel yesterday for updates🎉😂

[@ruthlesace]

Haha, been waiting for this exact run for so long. Very glad you finally got to do it. Thank you for the entertainment over the years.

[@ensonbe1]

not enough love for this awesome palette swap. black on all the sprites looks just like Team Rocket and the red matches the brand superbly. Great choice J!

[@AnimeNut101]

FINALLY!! Was wondering when James would get his turn. Love the content, JRose!

[@2punk]

Watching this in between times when I can see my newborn son on the ICU has saved my sanity a little for the day thanks for the great content ❤

[@bugcatcher8989]

Nice to see a Jrose video again after all this time, I missed seeing you on here big time. The twitch streams I’m just not into. You’ve helped me stay positive during my time off work sick, especially during the month of Jrose. Thanks again man!

[@nekosedey]

legit paused brushing my teeth just to drum on my thighs when you called us out for not drumming lol. Good stuff as always Jrose :) Ty for your hard work!

[@phoebe5114]

His long awaited return is nothing short of magical. Good seeing you upload, hoping life's good!

[@demizorua570]

Very funny that the Ash (and thus the Jessie and James) era of the anime full on ended in between these two videos. Delighted to see another upload from you! Glad you're doing better, and great content as always!

[@Maple.leaves]

Jessie and James carried the anime, they deserve their own spin off lol

[@FrizzlenillCAN]

That edit on the movepool to remove Selfdestruct and Explosion was SMOOTH!

[@SimplyAJ]

Haha thanks! I was wondering if anyone would notice, it's always fun to put in a little stylistic flair here and there~

[@PlatonistAstronaut]

The final video in the playlist. It was a great ride. Thank you for the videos, Jrose and AJ!

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

Thunderbolt and Fire Blast are great for Koffing.

[@mortovivo9655]

Yeah without them koffing would give Pidgey a run for its money

[@093Megaman]

Finally! I've watched all the challenge videos, but I was inspired to do my own run at the time of the Jesse video. Here are my stats so I can compare after the video. Hit the elite 4 at level 60 and rare candied to 70. Finished at 73. Atk-146 Def-198 Speed-112 Spec-134 Moves: sludge, smokescreen, mimic, thunderbolt. Can't wait!

[@Lab__Rat]

I really love all the new music! Great video as always, love you Jrose 💖

[@Ch1pp007]

Couldn't sleep last night and thought I should put a jrose video on to fall asleep to. Your Kakuna Rattata vid didn't do the trick but the Arcanine one did. Glad to see you're still going strong.

[@chaossnowkitsune6377]

Well that was a lot of fun. Finally getting to part 2 of this little mini series is great. See you in another 3 years when you get to part 3 with Meowth

[@fazbearking87]

I always like seeing the different colour pallets for these runs, but the shading colour was definitely too dark this time, it makes the player on the title screen look like a burn victim

[@ShabbaDabb]

Rewatching and holy shnikeys yeah

[@StormEagleCH]

I thought he just flat out forgot to do a color pallet for this vid

[@Unholychaos987]

Rewatching the series, and there are a few that hurt my eyes, like the Mewtwo and Gyrados runs. Some are on point though!

[@Angel_Boii]

Welcome back bro🎉 Ive been itching for more haha

[@IAmMissingnoMaster]

Awesome stuff! I like Koffing a lot- Weezing's actually my favorite Pokémon! Sucks that Koffing is just objectively not great for a solo run, but all things considered this went pretty well! Also, nice to see you uploading again! Love these videos. I do miss that little intro, though.

[@rikajougasaki3296]

3 years later? Damn, this puts into perspective how long the entire thing is.

[@bongosmcdongos4190]

He'd be done with the base forms if he had focused them and not adding final evos. Not that I'm complaining mind you.

[@HardcandyofJustice]

Finally Koga's selfdestruct just missed. Gen1 at it's finest.

[@gilesm5716]

Oh man I am so ready for this, my internet has been down since Thursday and as soon as it's restored I open KZbin to a brand new Gen 1 video! I watch a gen1 video every night going to sleep and at lunch at work, I can't get enough of them!

[@schwartd]

Jrose so happy to see you back! Love your Gen 1 and sometimes Gen 2 content! Had an idea, something I'm actually curious about: what is the best possible Poke Cup team you can make with 1 playthrough and cartridge? Only 1 starter, 1 of each TM, no trade evolutions (Kadabra might be the star of this team), no event pokemon, trade backs, etc. Natural move set becomes way more important, move pool less so, stats will be key and type coverage?

[@JoaoMagc1998]

Thanks for this, mate! You're the best! Take care!

[@S2ATunes]

Gen 1's handling of poison type Pokemon was the reason I never used them for the longest time. I only discovered how good they are when fairy type was released and since then frequently had a free space in my team for them. Mostly Muk. Muk is love 💙

[@gaminggoddess85]

It took me until Toxtricity to like poison types lol.

[@mortovivo9655]

It's actually fun that a some of the top tier mons for solo runs in gen 1 are poison types too (nidos, Gastly line Bellsprout line)😂

[@pawlbologna]

Glad to see you doing another gen 1 run Jrose. Appreciate you making these awesome videos

[@mizublackriver7021]

Glad to have you back, great video as always!

[@FriendofMineralTown]

When I was a kid I use to do this one. Koffing was always one of my favs. Yeah it wasn’t easy… I think I gave up on a single Koffing and would end up doing Koffing, Wheezing, Ekans, Arbok and Meowth so I could actually play the game without being knocked out constantly lol.

[@gaminggoddess85]

Could've added Victreebel, Lickitung and Growlithe to that.

[@minty9245]

The Man, the Myth, the Legend, with another video!

[@MikeSkinnerAudio]

So happy you’re back! Feels like Christmas morning again

[@sniperfosho]

JROSE I NEEDED YOU AND YOU SHOWED UP! love you man, great content 💯

[@dr.yatusrii]

He returned when the world needed him the most🎉🎉

[@Azurious]

Looks like we are blasting off into a subcategory (of sorts) with these solo runs

[@nanosum1]

Congratulations on 300k subs!! Super deserved

[@Nyaatastic]

i love your content, it calms me down so much. thank you for existing!!!

[@joefarrow1599]

Koffing has Thunderbolt, Sludge and Fire Blast. I appreciate that this was a struggle in the early game, but I think that's quite a good movepool with a range of coverage

[@RaphielShiraha64]

no point having good special attack moves, if you have shit special stat.

[@joefarrow1599]

@@RaphielShiraha64 if you watch the video you would see that thunderbolt allowed Koffing to deal with gyarados and other water and flying types, and fireblast allowed it to deal with rock ground types

[@RaphielShiraha64]

@@joefarrow1599 Yes my point still stand, even with supereffective if your special stat is crap, it will still do crap damage. Also fire blast has a decent change of missing and rock types literally resist fire moves i have no idea where you got that it would help.

[@joefarrow1599]

@@RaphielShiraha64 because he uses them in the video and it helps?

[@velvetbutterfly]

@@RaphielShiraha64rock doesn't resist Fire, it's neutral

[@MegaHoro]

I always wondered how Koffing knocked out Onix in "Clefairy and the Moon Stone"

[@Un_Elysian]

Ahh it’s been a while! Always excited to see an upload, love the 1 Pokémon runs

[@weekendgamer9288]

I really do enjoy your videos! Glad to see another upload :)

[@ShabbaDabb]

YESSSSS I've been so ready for this Edit: i tried adding a koffing to my Yellow team..... for about 5 minutes.

[@OasisCherryjuice182]

While being an adequate color scheme it's pretty hardcore to look at haha

[@crazychristopherfromzoukon101]

I'd expected Butch to be James' rival, not Jessie.

[@Lestoni814]

Jrose, thank you for the time, effort, and dedication you put into your videos. You've helped me fall back in love with Generation 1, and its quirks that make it special and unique! It's always a treat to have your runs playing at my side, as it makes some of the more menial tasks in my daily life a fun escape.

[@TheLudicrousLuv]

Any day jrose uploads is a fantastic day

[@raptors11111]

Yeah i'll look forward to his next upload in like September

[@Larkias1]

I realise it's not in the spirit of the challenge, but I was really hoping you would let Koffing evolve near Fuchsia City, since that's where James' Koffing evolves in the anime. It might have made the challenge too easy for you though!

[@razzdiamond6447]

Imagine if he did it just to get the joke in and then reset to right before evolving him :P That would've been epic

[@doughyneman66]

Heck yeah man glad you’re back! Clicked this immediately as soon as I saw it

[@bigrigjoe5130]

Hey! Welcome back dude ! Super cool to see you uploading again. You were missed

[@TixSloth]

James finally gets his time

[@verran.lokison]

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I see a Jrose video and just auto-like it. He’s just that good and entertaining that I know I’m going to enjoy it. Thanks for all the content!

[@cartoonistanonymous]

2:07 "I can tell you're not drumrolling }: ( " Me: agdangit, alright hold on. *Leg-slapping*

[@damianwarner4876]

I dont comment on many vids and i dont care for many channels, but i always love these jrose gen 1 videos, mad nostalgic. Great content as usual, keep em coming!

[@Richard_Nickerson]

44:55 There's a 3rd PP UP you can easily get without going out of the way. Instead of hugging the West wall on the Bike Path, hug the East wall. You can avoid all encounters, and there's a hidden PP UP a little bit below the guy who's hanging out 1 step away from the East wall. I can usually grab it without wasting more than a few seconds. There's also a hidden Rare Candy in the grass that's at the top of the East wall.

[@aurochtamer]

I would think you should lean into the fact that you're using a bulky poison type. This is the kind of mon where you bust out Toxic, Bide, and Rest. It seems like trying to force it to be a fast sweeper is a mistake.

[@mortovivo9655]

Yeah, rest on the rhydon at the final battle works pretty well. The problem is that you need those levels anyway for Agatha, you don't want to rest into something that can use dream eater 😂

[@Arrzarrina]

Welcome back man :) Looking forwards to the disaster of this run!

[@marlysalt]

Hey, glad you're back! Hope your down time was good too!

[@BrawlLegendLink]

2:10 Jrose "6 damaging moves" while there are 7 moves on the screen. Not counting Bide. Huh?

[@ordinaryalan]

Would mimicking Light Screen from Mr. Mime not have been a better move than Barrier to reduce special damage from Alakazam?

[@sonicdoommario]

Light Screen doesn't boost your Special the way Barrier boosts your Defense, Light Screen is just a blanket reduction in damage from Special attacks. With Barrier, he can raise his other stats (namely Special and Speed) through badge boosting in hopes of outspeeding Alakazam or tanking a Psychic attack.

[@kiwiciwi123]

Jrose good to have you back ! Love the content

[@dogandcatofamerica]

I need this guy to make more , I watched like 5 to 10 time some of his work . I need to expand my go to sleep playlist please do more

[@TheTakato122]

Tackle, Smog, Sludge, Rage, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Fire Blast and technically Bide would be seven/eight not six/seven.

[@velvetbutterfly]

Rage and Bide are garbage in gen 1

[@somestrangecircus5505]

Koffing just got frustrated with its own time and was like "you know what I'm tired of this game, I'mma just win the Elite Four real quick" Also, glad to see you back again!

[@SWISS-1337]

Missed your videos! Welcome back again again.

[@RosyKitteh]

I missed these so bad. Welcome back, Jrose!!

[@cronoedge]

Keep making these guy, i love em.

[@johnnyrankin]

I was just thinking I haven’t seen a JRose video in a minute! Great video man!

[@sanyo_neezy]

welcome back

[@PESHajnal30]

No way, I just looked up some of your old videos (the old kakuna rattata run) because I felt like watching Jrose today and a little bit later you upload this video!