Gengar Only - Pokemon Crystal

Rules:
1. Only my starter in battle
2. No items in battle, except held items
3. No glitches, exploits, save states, or RNG manipulation
4. No evasion moves before level 100*
Rule details:
-- *In gen1, evasion boosting is allowed if the Pokemon does it through means other than learning the move by level up or TM. For example, using Mimic or Mirror Move to boost evasion is allowed. (This exception is to keep ranking consistent with my legacy videos.)
-- I am allowed to manipulate my starter
-- I play the game at 4x game speed
-- For fair comparisons all my Pokemon have perfect (or near perfect) DVs / IVs
-- I am allowed to catch HM users - I can use all field moves
-- All in-battle glitches are allowed in generation 1
-- In generation 1, I'm allowed to skip Marowak with the Poke Doll
-- Surge's trash-can-puzzle is automatically solved
-- The bike is allowed in gen1, banned in gen2, and allowed for bypassing terrain in gen3
-- Saving between league members is allowed
-- If the solo Pokemon faints and I choose to blackout it counts towards my reset counter
-- I can pause the game and timer to take breaks
-- The footage is sped up / slowed down to match the pace of my narration
-- The ability Pickup can only be used if the starter has it
Patreon: / scottsthoughts
KZbin memberships:
/ @scottsthoughtspokemon
Twitter: / psychicflying
Twitch: / scottsthoughtspokemon
Illustrations by / sarinavail
Thumbnail art by / brianlsart
STAB: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
DVs / IVs: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Damage Calculations: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Gen1 Stat Calculator: pycosites.com/pkmn/stat_gen1.php
Gen2 Stat Calculator: pycosites.com/pkmn/stat_gen2.php
Gen1 Crit Rates: www.smogon.com/rb/articles/cr...
Learnsets: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Base Stats: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...)

[@harrysmith6191]

I LOVE the gengar art

[@marcoasturias8520]

More like Gengart

[@darnedchris]

​@marcoasturias8520 I'm struggling to like this... on one side I really want to, on the other side, I couldn't live with myself if I did 😅😅

[@et34t34fdf]

I mean, I like it, but at the same time it doesnt feel right that its so much smaller than its pre evo's.

[@perkypenguin1663]

I’ll admit, I was initially scared of how Falkner was gonna go, but then I remembered that Struggle doesn’t work the same way as it does nowadays. It stinks that Gengar has to deal with an iffy early game that holds back its time so much, but oh well. The interaction between Ghost and Normal has always been an interesting one to me.

[@input-latency2684]

hello person scrolling by, hope you have a good rest of your day. i prefer haunter visually over gengar, but either way excited to see how this goes. ghost type is definitely a contender for my favorite generally speaking.

[@alexpowell1184]

the most like-bait nothing comment ever posted.

[@KenLikeEh123]

@@alexpowell1184the most edge lord ever comment posted

[@input-latency2684]

@@alexpowell1184 no u

[@ScottE-2]

My prediction was right. Funny that Dynamic Punch was the move that sorted out the Snorlax problem and the sheer luck in the second playthrough when you had only one left and it hit finishing it off. But I wonder how Gengar would perform in gen 1 starting right away with Headbutt and the elemental moves. Hilariously, Gastly can have the punches in gen 4 even though it doesn't have any hands. Reminds me of Wooper's ability to use Ice Punch. Though sadly they never kept Phanpy's egg move water gun. It was adorable. Solid run and quite the birthday gift. I turned 27 today.

[@mattiamerlo2688]

Happy birthday!

[@jaryant]

Love this video so when is beedrill gonna get a run in crystal

[@ScottE-2]

@@mattiamerlo2688Thank you.

[@mikkelsieburg89]

it wasn't that lucky to hit the last dynamic punch on snorlax. To miss 4 out of 5 coin flips would be rather unlucky. Happy birthday.

[@ScottE-2]

Thank you @DebbyHasKitties

[@okolo22000]

If you think Hypno got it bad; Chansey really got the shaft! She lost 70 special attack while Exeggutor lost 60 special defense. Tentacruel along with Hypno lost 40+ special attack whereas Victreebel, Cloyster, Seadra & Tangela lost 40 special defense.

[@samzito8067]

i think on the attempt where karen was beaten the whirlwind was in your favor since it reset the accuracy drop! So funny how things like that work, love the video!!!!

[@shimmianNS]

Love the channel -- have been binging the live re-ranking vods while replaying Legends Arceus -- fantastic times

[@abrakadabra3390]

Scott you are an amazing narrator it fits perfectly with Pokemon 🏆🥇

[@devinbuettgenbach2941]

I'm happy you uploaded a run for my favourite early gen ghostmon. I'm sitting in my bed recovering from surgery so this is a perfect time to relax and see the tricky ghost take apart the world yet again.

[@Ectar2003]

I really appreciate editing in the Dragonaire sprites atop Lance's Dragonites; I had the video playing in the background when I heard the slip-up, rewound a bit, and watched it again. Gave me a good chuckle.

[@inventiveusername5191]

I'll be interested to see how gengar, dusclops and banette end up comparing with each other. I feel like Gengar should be substantially better, but he does only start with lick while the other two get night shade.

[@GensoBees]

Fitting that Dynamic Punch was the key to break through Red's Snorlax. Even in competitive gen 2, Gengar often brings it for some extra fire power against T-tar and King Snorlax.

[@Submissive-Soul]

still watching ur vids over a year later lots of ups and downs dying in the hospital waking up and first video watched was one from this channel makes you appreciate the little things like never being able to see the channel grow if i died

[@Davidahle]

As always a great video, although I had hoped for Gengar to perform better. I recently saw that Smith Plays Pokemon have finished his optimized Crystal rom, fixing the midgame level curve with Pryce and the rockets as well as other bits to keep the challenge consistent, but still keeping as much of the original Crystal feeling as possible. And I thought it could be fun to see you have some of the top tier pokemon duke it out to see who earns the top spot in a challenge like that.

[@Byers2476.]

As always, great content. Love the thumbnail art! Spooky 👻.

[@GoikOShea]

The new Crystal hack gives Gastly an early buffed Smog which actually feels really good.

[@jackg93]

Which hack

[@sjacqVO21]

@@jackg93crystal legacy or sum. it was made by smithyplays

[@boxytunic4143]

Thank you so much for doing Gengar!!! He’s my favorite Pokémon. Always has, always will be. Keep up the great work man. Your videos are so good

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Thanks so much!

[@boxytunic4143]

No way! I got a heart and a reply from Scott!!!

[@shirounshiroun7555]

Even if it ended up in this tier, I still see its performance in a very good light!! Its spot in the list isn't because of a bad "performance", as you said I'm sure it could have shaven off the time needed to get in A or S if it didn't have to rely on Struggle. It really shows that a tier list doesn't tell everything imo because it basically didn't struggle at all in the 2nd playthrough and yet its time is still held back by the early game slog Anyways I'm glad you got to take a break from awful mons lol love you Scott take care !!

[@skateboardious]

I haven't seen a vid of your in a while and I'm impressed by how you've tracked the wall bonk difference is runs lol

[@dragonknight1560]

The foreshadow at the start of the video was really funny. This was great!

[@michaelpritchard4791]

your content never gets as many likes as they deserve. keep up the great content!!

[@MichaelSotoCE]

The Gengar sprite is incredible in this game

[@ULT_Ferrotarou]

Common gen 2 W

[@swagbear9965]

The backsprite is great too

[@descouch21]

I was waiting for this! My fav pokemon in my fav game! Gengar is the GOAT!

[@Colin1Moriarty]

Oh yeah it's time for my purple boi! Damn it did very well, wish I could know how well it performs if it didn't need to drain the pp to struggle through at the start. That'd save so much time! Another great vid Scott thanks!

[@CierraJohnson-bh4mc]

Great run. Gengar is my favorite ghost type next to Chandelure. ☺

[@Anditeshordo]

Awesome play through. Can't wait for the nidos and rhydon

[@paleoscinkus542]

Dynamic Miss came in clutch, you love to see it!

[@RenaissanceManchild856]

Great run! Left me really curious how Gengar would perform with egg moves to get it around some of the early game hurdles! Would make an interesting stream or top ten list style thing down the track! I play a tonne of Gen 2 and love your crystal content! I know it can be a grind but I feel less alone trying to grind out round 2 stadium 2 on my old hardware 😅

[@wiseguise5960]

The wall bonk counter, the MVP of this run!

[@MrVelyx]

"It was made by those who are Dead, and the Dead keep it" -Legolas Retrun of the King

[@LetsRot40]

One thing that I'm just realizing as you're talking about the elemental punches is that it would be nice to somehow display whether a move is physical or special in the ui. Digging the rapid fire uploads 😊🤘 love ya, man!

[@chrisdaignault9845]

Until gen 4 at least, all moves of a type are the same. All fire moves are special, all fighting moves are physical, etc.

[@pratyushsamal2167]

Is this a gengar vs victorious bell Edit : sike it's a crystal Hope the rematch for the throne comes sometime soon

[@R-1988]

You might have actually had an easier battle against Red's Snorlax if you used Curse. The Ghost version of Curse doesn't go away until the Pokemon switches out, the battle ends or until you KO it. It would still effect Snorlax for the entire 3 turns it would take to wake up after 1 Rest and while it's awake. To recover your HP, you could use a Berry via held item and combine it with Giga Drain via TM19. You could use Giga Drain on Blastoise since Grass moves were all special in this generation. Great job on finishing the run.

[@Shawnzy1]

Can confirm , I did this

[@patonosequecosa]

Im exited about this because Gengar is my fav mon

[@nightfan1983]

It always cracks me up when you say "In case you wanna miss" to describe how awful a move's accuracy is XD

[@jptheflipper3825]

very nicely played Scott, although a shame Gengar couldn't start with a better move to get it through the early game a lot faster. I wish you luck with the fossils in Emerald, I've used Armaldo in Gen 3 and it plays beautifully, you'll love it I hope, Cradilly on the other hand might be painful. our mutual friend Eggceptional tried it in Fire red and had a hard time and Emerald is a far harsher game. in your video last week, you talked about back porting dark types and dark moves, I think it possible and there is a fair way to do it. Pursuit is not the strongest of moves but is usable and faint attack could be as well, yes it never misses like swift, but who is to say it stays that way, make it so it can Gen 1 miss and it will essentially be your bite; dark type, base 60 and special. I looked into crunch as well, no Gen 1 Pokemon in Gen 2 get it, Nidoqueen doesn't get it until Gen 3, only Dark types got it in Gen 2, so back porting that for houndoom or T-Tar could be fair to an extent

[@abrakadabra3390]

Look forward to the Alakazam run now😂

[@johntarver5684]

I love October for these themed runs! Still waiting on Haunter tho!

[@ChaosWindScar99]

Gengar did a little worse than I expected (I thought it would get in the A tier) but that's the early game for you. Either way the dominance was impressive especially with no resets. Also I just want to point out that you froze Red's Venusaur both times, not that it matters it couldn't have done anything I just found that funny.

[@phyllotaxis]

Always loved Gengar after it carried me through the original Silver, even with physical shadow ball it was still a beast. Also its Gen 2 sprites were the best it's ever looked IMO.

[@kasumi5772]

putting the Dragonair sprite on top of the Dragonite sprites when you accidentally said Dragonair twice, made me laugh

[@Pepega580]

Man, you're right Lance entrance is the coolest!

[@marsella527]

I hope the Bonk Count becomes an official stat. Call it the "Puppet Pal Counter" (iykyk)

[@KeyEveris]

I love watching your videos in the background while I work on stuff. I think it would be cool if you could do some runs with no TMs, in a situation like this I can't help but think most pokemon can learn the punches or flamethrower / ice beam / thunderbolt, and that kind of makes this gengar run seem a bit less special. I guess gengar only has 10 level up moves to choose from, which is limiting in it's own way. Maybe just include TMs from gym leaders?

[@Deaf_Cat]

With Gengar's 130 base special att stat the Price badge boost for special defense actually came into play for the elite four. Rarely get to see that.

[@drewhostetter1715]

The Lance fight editing had me going lol

[@SmashMath151]

Sometimes it feels like DynamicPunch was made just for Red's Snorlax with it's surprisingly wide distribution. Certainly not the ideal first option, but nice to have in the bag for when it's faster to reset until you can hit twice rather than grind. Also, I really wish the early game wasn't such a Struggle so Gengar could reach it's full potential. It does learn Psywave as an egg move, which may or may not actually help.

[@reydragon2597]

Scott, I know it will take time, but considering the state of the Yellow tierlist maybe you could make a case for adding a Pryce tier to the Crystal list if or when the tiers start getting cluttered? He's the most Surge-y of the leaders from this gen.

[@Penguindude1]

Wow, a rare instance of Dynamic Punch coming in handy.

[@Sanisgillon]

I am here to cheer my boy 🎉🎉🎉 (Scott of course)

[@tneon9132]

wobbuffet fact: almost any wild caught wobbuffet in Crystal can survive an attack from Clairs Kingdra and oneshot it in retaliation. Assuming you catch it and bring it to the gym without training

[@busaif2322]

The venomoth jokes are brutal

[@ChrisZi.]

Good Job Scott!

[@Rxxul7]

Great editing 👌🏻

[@gmanz5]

MY FAVORITE FLUFFY SMILEY GHOST BOI!!!!!

[@TomatoSalad123]

Gengar ! One of my favorites!!

[@bateltheassistant]

Gengar is a soild Pokémon in the Jhoto games. But the minor changes in game mechanics gave it the shortest stick, especially in the early game,which slows it up slightly. But in return it gets all of the punches , which can basically steam roll throughout the game with ease up it has to face Red's Snorlax. Snorlax is hard wall for most special attackers ,and for Gengar that is definitely a problem. It's a shame that it can't learn sludge bomb like in gen 3, because it could have been useful. But I guess that can try in theory nightmare if you'd keep hypnosis on your moveset,to make sure it would be damaged every turn it's a asleep. Or to use psych up(its tm 09 you'll get it by trading the abra line from gen 1 to gen 2 and after the trade they should hold it) and copy the Snorlax's stat changes. 🤔

[@jadencory6169]

I love Gengar ❤.... you did my boi dirty Scott. 😢

[@Smileyrat]

Gengar: the Punching Fiend. Wasn't there another pokemon called that? ... Nope, nothing comes to mind.

[@jake205z3]

Loved it!

[@craftymage5996]

I spit my milkshake when I saw you put the dragonairs over the dragonites.

[@gaminggoddess85]

Shoulda named that ghost Little Mac for all the punching it's doing

[@frostbite2890]

Have you considered replacing Dynamic Punch with Curse and the Spell Tag with Leftovers for Red? Curse takes out Snorlax with little risk since it can't hurt you and Leftovers recovery keeps you safe from Blastoise and Charizard. I don't know if it's faster on average than punching, though.

[@tsawy6]

Wouldn't the Snorlax be able to rest past curse? You could uh, add in some damage to do that last quarter, but he will be amnesia'd to the nines

[@Joker22593]

He did use leftovers on red. It shows the text when he first loses to espeon.

[@evawhite1144]

Well, I'm not sure yet, but Gengar might just dethrone Feraligatr for that first spot in the rankings. With the 3 elemental punches it's just too good. Pd: Also, I know it has nothing to do with the run, but in the HG/SS remakes, the rival's Feraligatr team is the best one. His Feraligatr finally gets a very good stab water move in waterfall, ice coverage in ice fang, dark coverage in crunch that is now physical, and slash which isn't the best thing in the world, but it's still a damn good normal move to hit things for neutral damage. So yeah. Pd2: Uff, turns out I was wrong, Gengar isn't as good despite its coverage, like B tier? And worse than Venusaur, too! I really didn't expect that result, I was convinced the goshtly boy was going to dethrone Feraligatr 😅😅

[@rainerabt7911]

I would love a what If Video. You can choose 1 Attack to give your Pokemon which can Change the whole Run.

[@thebandit6886]

I fucking love Gengar ❤ objectively the best ghost pokemon to ever exist

[@jaxthewolf4572]

Yep ❤

[@catlinkerswell3696]

Thank you Scott

[@jeremyhubbard2908]

Hey it's my favorite Pokemon!!!!!! Well apart from the Piplup line in Diamond and Pearl

[@reshawshid]

Just curious, do you ever think you'll consider adding Pokemon's stats to the damage calculations for moves in your overlay? As in, calculating the move's power with the Attack/Special Attack of your Pokemon and the Defense/Special Defense of the opponent's Pokemon in mind. It seems you do that to some extent with your calculations for your second runs, so I was wondering if that would eventually extend to the overlay.

[@Missingn0mast3r]

The problem with that is twofold. First, any shorthand method will be inaccurate(specifically favoring special by about 30% with your suggestion applied directly if i'm remembering that old math correctly), so he'd LITERALLY just be programming a damage calculator into his overlay which is a ton of effort. Secondly is that using a damage calculator is HEAVILY against the spirit of a first attempt. Which, all taken together, is why he only uses one when routing a second "optimized" playthrough, and why it's not part of the main overlay.

[@bananaspice1967]

Jenjar time! It is fast ghost, and can punch a lot

[@TheLeviathan1293]

Before starting: Gengar's weakness is that both of its types are physical. Gengar's strength is that it gets special moves of all sorts giving it a good coverage for the entire run. The exceptions are the early game in which it has hypnosis and anyways it's immune to normal (lots of tackle pokes early game).

[@male_maid5951]

the interesting part of whirlwind it that it removes the accuracy drops - it might be worth concid3ring requiring banking all pokemon to avoid that.

[@theimperialtrident]

So excited

[@davidgardner6677]

Congrats on the personal growth to give up hypnosis!!

[@angelotirado3542]

And since it's an egg move, a run with d dance from the start would be insane

[@chefgrizz6284]

With Psychic so far away, this will be interesting

[@TheMoogleKing93]

I'm amazed how often they messed around with some Pokemon's level 1 moves, whilst some pokemon have such super janky movesets

[@joeybricks8401]

I'm definitely getting a Gengar tattoo.

[@KD8_NotTheShoes]

Cant wait to see emerald with slaking!

[@israelnevarez3118]

Imagine the alternate universe where ghost moves were special in the first three gens. Also dragon probably physical.

[@mayborneflower]

I recall Sludge Bomb, which is both STAB and Physical, being available in Kanto. How would that have compared against Dynamic Punch for facing Snorlax at the end?

[@maxspecs]

This run’s gonna be a struggle until you get those elemental punches in Goldenrod.

[@Spanky8402]

I can't believe I just heard someone being nervous about a Ratata. 😂

[@ma.2099]

Ursurang is going to have an amazing time

[@seedling345]

The wall bonk stat is necessary from here on out lol

[@browncow5210]

When fighting Snorlax, would using Nightmare after rest make things more consistent?

[@PerilousParadigm]

WOOOO let's go gengar!!!!

[@lamiaprincess6371]

I wondered if the answer to Red was going to be a set of Shadow Ball / Thunderpunch / Curse / Rest, because Venusaur isn't really a threat and you don't need Ice Punch for any other Pokemon, but Dynamicpunch definitely seems like the faster strat, so nice! I'm not even sure if the Curse strat would have worked, but D-Punch works just as well. I think it's placement also just kind of makes sense. It has a significantly slow early game and it still has pain points to account and strategize for.

[@lamiaprincess6371]

Oh yeah it occured to me as I was watching, but isn't it weird how it took Gamefreak until Generation III to make a physical Ghost, it was kind of mediocre, and then immediately they took away its best STAB. Gamefreak is super weird sometimes.

[@theimperialtrident]

Gengar is my favorite ghost mon

[@sandman5834]

Can’t wait for the Dragon, bug, rock and steel type Armaldo tear up the Hoenn region next week

[@LovelyAlanna]

My prediction is Gengar is going to obliterate Johto Edit: I'm honestly surprise it didn't demolish johto, that lack of damaging moves is really bad

[@marklisowski6549]

In addition to Oddish in the forest, Paras, if bumped into, is a good choice from other videos I’ve watched. Also, is getting Sweet Scent any benefit to assist in addition to wild Pokemon training when feels prompted?

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Yeah, Paras is good just really rare. Sweet Scent is just a waste of time imo

[@n64_kfp]

I was wondering how you would solve the snorlax. Completely forgot about dynamic punch. Although I was hoping you'd eek out an A tier finish, I'm glad gengar was still able to put up a good time.

[@dislexyc]

I thought focus punch was a thing, but that's probably because I've watched way too much ADV OU recently

[@n64_kfp]

@@dislexyc oh man, that would be something great to consider/look into in HGSS. I kinda want to do some of these for myself in HGSS to see how different things go with more moves, physical/special split, and abilities

[@thatponybro6940]

i honestly always found it interesting that Curse is the only move that i know of that has different effects depending of the Pokemon's type for its effect

[@MelodicTurtleMetal]

Pretty confident it's the only move

[@thatponybro6940]

@@MelodicTurtleMetal that's why i said that i know of, cause every new generation gets more and more confusing lol

[@MelodicTurtleMetal]

@@thatponybro6940 yeah - won't lie, i sat pondering what you wrote for a good 10 minutes. I kept thinking there was a grass move that felt familiar, but i think i was just thinking of synthesis being affected by sunny day.

[@SpecsJigglypuff]

It’s the only move that does this yeah

[@Willingmess]

I wonder if Hidden Power fighting would have been a good option for Karen and Snorlax?

[@corbangonzalez4935]

I didn’t even know the spell tag existed in gen 2, I thought it was introduced in gen 3

[@no1bandfan]

Unfortunately ghost moves were calculated off the attack stat and not special stat till the physical/special split.

[@sirkingdra]

Would you be able to do Pokemon Crystal using a Kingdra?

[@mr.number9279]

That early game killed poor Gengar. Wow. Would DynamicPunch OHKO Umbreon? Or is that just not particularly worth it?

[@cuneyta.3371]

It´s amazing to see gengar run in gen 2. I am asking my self how would Alakazam perform?

[@shadowtitanx3962]

Beats everyone except for Karen and Red’s Snorlax easily. For Karen, Ice Punch and hope for freeze on Umbreon to prevent Sand Attack or 2 Hit KO. Snorlax, you have to use Dynamic Punch. Return from Alakazam isn’t cutting it. And, Snorlax usually goes for Amnesia on the 1st turn, giving you 2 chances for Dynamic Punch. If you land the 1st Dynamic Punch, you can follow it up with Psychic before it uses Amnesia. Otherwise, you have to roll Dynamic Punch for a 2nd time and pray for Confusion hax.