Houndoom Solo - Pokemon Crystal - The best gen2 dark-type?

Playthrough Rules:
1. Only my starter in battle
2. No items in battle (except held items)*
3. No glitches or exploits
4. No Double-Team TM before level 100
Other rules:
-- *Pokeballs are allowed in battle
-- I play the game at 4x game speed (238 frames per second)
-- My Pokemon has near perfect DVs
-- I manipulate my Pokemon's DVs to choose the typing of Hiddenpower
-- The bike is allowed
-- Saving between league members is allowed
-- If the solo Pokemon faints and I choose to blackout it counts towards my reset counter
*Double-Team:
-- Almost every Pokemon can learn Double-Team through TM
-- The TM can be purchased in Celadon
-- Using it would centralize the meta
-- Every Pokemon would use it to overcome tough battles at lower levels
-- It raises evasion
-- Banning the TM allows Pokemon who learn it through level up to use it
-- I believe evasion is part of Pokemon and shouldn't be banned entirely
-- I don't want the videos to all be double-team spam though, that's not fun or entertaining
Crystal Version changes from Gold/Silver:
-- The Rival in Burned Tower is mandatory - he must be completed before Morty
-- In the overworld, many trainers are repositioned
Terms:
-- STAB
-- Same-Type-Attack-Bonus - a 1.5x damage multiplier
-- Stat Experience
-- The Gen1&2 equivalent of effort values. You can invest in all stats until they max
out at 65535
-- DVs or Determinate Values
-- The Gen1&2 equivalent of IVs (individual values), these range from 0-15
Resources:
-- Gen 2 Stat Calculator: pycosites.com/pkmn/stat_gen2.php
-- Trainer IVs (DVs): bit.ly/3tDU0Bx
-- All Trainer Pokemon have EVs of 0 (stat experience)
-- Gen 2 Crits occur 6.25% of the time
Illustrations
Sarina Vail: / sarinavail
Support me on Patreon
/ scottsthoughts
~~Connect with me~~
Twitter
/ psychicflying
Email
[e-mail]

[@philipg6432]

Faint Attack is a guaranteed hit in Gen 2 right? Would that not have been better against Muk after mininize?

[@billyreynoldsjr2229]

I'm surprised more people aren't pointing this out.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Yes

[@Medabee8]

I feel like Scott rushes too much without thinking sometimes 😅

[@philipg6432]

@@ScottsThoughtsPokemon I was honestly thinking I had that wrong lol. I commented something similar regarding Skull Bash on a Gen 1 run thinking it buffed defense for the badge boost, but that defense buff didn't start until Gen 2 (learn something new everyday). I'm def not the expert on early gen games, so I confuse a lot of those things with later incarnations. Edit: I guess I should add it didn't matter at all on the 2nd higher level playthrough. Food for though for other Feint Attack users (maybe Sneasel???). Though I think Sneasel will STRUGGLE, poor thing.

[@kylelundgren5133]

I feel like Scott like speed running to the detriment of actually making good plays.

[@titouanrobin874]

In gen 2, the only mons that resist both fire and dark are Poliwrath, the Houndoom line, and Tyranitar. So yeah, quite the small pool of worthy opponents.

[@kamikiku]

And Venomoth in its Fighting/Water Forme

[@nick56677]

Houndour can learn Solarbeam, so Poliwrath is in for a bad time if it doesn't one shot Houndour.

[@shantiranjansamal2535]

@@nick56677 But venomoth is the strongest pokemon it can one shot a level 💯 houndoom with a resisted move even if it is level 1 So don't count it

[@sepg5084]

​@@nick56677 no need for one shot, Solarbeam takes 2 turns. Just need to outspeed.

[@sepg5084]

​@@nick56677 no need for one shot, Solarbeam takes 2 turns. Just need to outspeed.

[@grundgutigertv6170]

23:25 How could I forget? Venomoth not only evolves from venonat by level up, but also from Tyrogue via water stone

[@OrangeHazza19]

bro u forgot how it evolve from pikablu from link cable

[@handanyldzhan9232]

Every time Venomoth is [insert typing current pokemon is weak to]. Conversion3 here we come.

[@qorv4973]

How can you forget that as an ice type it required the ice stone?

[@dalanwanbdiska6542]

Legendary dragon Venomoth you mean.

[@midnighteagle8907]

The steel dragon venomoth reigns supreme

[@zarthus2623]

THANK YOU SCOTT!! DOOMHOUND HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY #1 FAV POKEMON EVER! THANKS FOR GIVING HIM LOVE AND PATIENCE!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

You’re welcome!

[@tjepic5256]

Such a beast 💪🏾 😍

[@jonathanpryzby4029]

Eyyyyyy same 👉😎👉

[@sticklebackworld7369]

dark-fire has to be one of the coolest rare type combinations. The only roadblock I can think of is maybe Chuck because of Houndoom's low defense + super-effective fighting attacks

[@TheGamingCamel22]

Houndoom is absolutely my favorite Pokémon, and I was fortunate to use it when I played Silver back in 2002, mainly for Red's Espeon. And at that time I also had a Rottweiler called Rocky and she was a female, so now in any game Houndoom is available, I always catch a female Houndoom, name her Rocky and add her to my team ❤️ thanks for doing this video of a very special Pokémon to me! (Since Obviously Rocky passed away a while ago)

[@BackPalSA]

My lady houndooms shall be Rocky forever more now. Your pupper will be immortalized in so many more runs, because Houndoom is also one of my favorite pokemon.

[@chaoticneutralartdemon]

Oh my gosh, same here. Whenever I can catch Houndour/Houndoom I get a female one and name her Leila, after my (now passed) german shepherd lady Leila

[@TheGamingCamel22]

@@BackPalSA Oh my, thank you so much!!

[@TheGamingCamel22]

@@chaoticneutralartdemon our pups will never be forgotten ❤️

[@chibilutionaudios]

Hey i do the same! Except my dog was male and a german shepherd-rottweiler mix

[@jacoblefthand6232]

Thankyou Scott for making such long and detailed videos. I just basically did cardio for an hour just watching this. Helps alot cause there's too many pokemon videos that are super short so flicking through videos that interest me is taxing and distracting.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Yeah, flicking through short videos is something I personally hate. I want something at least 30 minutes that is engaging. Glad my content is functioning this way for you! Thanks for the comment Jacob.

[@jacoblefthand6232]

@@ScottsThoughtsPokemon yeah no problem, I think this is my first comment here so glad to be part of the community now haha

[@discgolfwes]

I love that you get into the really technical information while most people just gloss over it

[@wereoctopus]

Yeah, I knew various stat calculations involved taking the floor, but was unaware of how that created optimal levels for damage rounding, or that it was due to performance issues doing floating-point math on the Gane Boy. Or that Gen 2 *also* has a (less abusable) badge-boost glitch. I appreciate Scott's little peeks under the hood. For all the janky bugs and poor design decisions in Gens 1 & 2, I really admire what they did with the limited hardware. Even sexist decisions like using the Attack DV to determine a pokemon's gender¹ were creative ways to allow pokemon to be traded to RBY and back again, without flipping gender or changing Hidden Power type. ¹rather than mapping an Attack DV of 00-07 to female, 08-15 to male (for a pokemon with 1:1 gender ratio), they could have used the four DVs' least significant bits, similar to how Hidden Power is calculated.

[@Volti666]

This is going to be interesting. I know G / S / C aren't as hard to play through as Gen1. But a run with our demon doggo is just great. just a shame it was gated off till post league. Go for it Scott!

[@SporkyMcFly]

Red is a lot more difficult than Blue as a final boss, so I do not know what you mean it is easier. The league is easier to outlevel but also more difficult for its level so that is not even a good metric. How did you make this assessment?

[@lmaolol7702]

@@SporkyMcFly people parroting poketuber opinions without actually playing the games themselves

[@wereoctopus]

Sure, Gen 2 has a more challenging Elite 4 & final boss. But Gen 1 solo runs usually run into more early/mid-game hurdles: * Brock with no special attacks or ways to dodge Bide * Misty/Rival 2 (did you train enough before jumping the ledge outside Mt Moon?) * Rock Tunnel's trainer gauntlet * Easy lategame locked behind Rival 5 and Koga. If the game was coded such that Koga couldn't "win" by self-destructing his final Weezing, he'd be less of a wall. And if you're solo-running a "lategame" mon like Ponyta, Tangela or the fossils, have fun with your limited moveset! Gen 2's biggest solo-run wall (besides Red) seems to be Rival 2. Sometimes Whitney's Miltank, Morty's lead Gastly, or Jasmine's Steelix. But it's not like Falkner forces you to overlevel if you lack a special move. Nor does he stock 10 full heals.

[@SporkyMcFly]

@@wereoctopus Good points. The early and mid games are definitely a bit harder in Gen I. To me the buggy code invalidates the difficulty because you can pretty much jump any hurdle with a little bit of luck.

[@stevekirkby6994]

Hope to see more of these types of play throughs where you actually evolve the pokemon. It feels more organic this way, being realistic people at home trying to do something similar would absolutely evolve the pokemon as they always want the bigger more badass version of the starter they use.

[@dislexyc]

Tyranitar run is gonna be rough like this

[@stevekirkby6994]

@@dislexyc fair point, I suppose that's the nature of certain Pokemon in these games, this evolution line is literally right at the end of the game in mount silver hidden would a low encounter rate. You're probably only supposed to get one and grind it up it's levels for competitive Pokemon as it's such a powerful Pokemon. Mind you Scott normally makes special videos with pokemon like this just because we wouldn't see it evolve till the end of the Kanto section. I would expect a gen 1 v gen 2 pysdo race between tyranitar and Dragonite in this case. I do prefer watching the pokemon actually evolve in these runs but yeah I'll agree that for better content wise not all pokemon will work that way.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

I have a solution for mons like Tyranitar. I’ll be doing runs both ways. Mostly including evolution in gen 2

[@TheGhostFart]

Ghost, Dark, and Psychic aren't really a triangle, it's more like a weird square involving Ghost, Psychic, Dark, and Fighting.

[@davidthorn5554]

You say”if you’ve made it this far you’re incredible” but let’s be honest look how far YOU’VE made it. YOU are incredible I’ve watched almost since you’ve started and it’s so nice to see you grow so much. I’ve heard you talk more than most family members. Love your videos and like how you do your own thing. Keep up the incredible content.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Thanks you so much David. I remember seeing your comments for quite some time. It’s great to have had along for the ride! Some more big improvements coming soon! Hopefully the growth just keeps continuing!

[@chrisdaignault9845]

To be fair, Dark/Ghost/Psychic also interact with Fighting type and (largely) Bug type. Edit: No single type does, but there are 8 type pairings that resist both Dark and Fire. Fighting Rock Fighting Fire Fighting Water Fighting Dragon Rock Dark Fire Dark Water Dark Dragon Dark In Gen 2 the only pokemon with any of these pairings are Poliwrath, Tyranitar, and the Houndoom line itself.

[@iwanabana]

Man, a fighting dragon type must be terrifying in real life.

[@SilvarusLupus]

@@iwanabana Jangmo-o line mostly dances and jingles their scales so maybe not lol

[@KnightFerrocous]

I'm really glad that in the remakes of Gen 2 they made the Safari Zone mid game and between the new route to it and the zone itself you can get Pokemon that were otherwise post-game like Houndour and Misdreavus after you get surf instead of after you have done 95% of the game.

[@allanturmaine5496]

Awwwww, yeah! Last day in hospital, and Scott pulls out a banger with one of my all time favourites!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

It's going to be fun! Glad it's your last day in the hospital Allan!

[@garrettwalsh1094]

Love the subtle dig at Bruno's upgrade to gym leader - keep up the great work!

[@Muhammadalimuh]

Wow dude seems like you've really been putting out videos lately good job! Thank you for your content. Ive been watching for a while now and it's a joy to look forward too your next videos!

[@Chefvonbreezy]

YES! Always loved this doggo I’m so glad to see you finally do this. I hope you do golduck soon too since they’re the same base stats with opposite types. Awesome work sir Scott

[@Speedrunner0218]

I'm also loving the variety of games in the past month. I hope you keep it up

[@LordRazzia]

I immediately fell in love with both Houndour and Houndoom. Houndoom was my #1 favorite pokemon until gen 5 (Hydreigon). I was always annoyed with how prohibitive they made Dark Types in gen 2 (other than Umbreon). You pretty much summed up all my frustrations with what they did lol. I always wondered what it would be like to have a houndour/houndoom early on. EDIT: Obligatory Faint Attack on Muk, but all good. ***SPOILER*** I love how you did an attempt with my favorite moveset for houndoom in gen 2. Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Sunny Day, Solar Beam, and Crunch

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Yeah, this moveset is awesome! I absolutely love it!

[@JanderStrahd]

I really like the new overlay; very sleek, very colorful. Most of my memory from Generation 2 was failing the Bug Catching Contest every time, catching dozens of shiny Slugmas because they just kept showing, and always being able to get a Houndour within a couple of minutes in that tiny patch of grass. Odd times, but still one of my favorite generations.

[@guy_golf]

Hey Scott! My favorite is also Venomoth, the fighting-water type. Thanks for the video!

[@moriss2604]

I"m haopy to see you still come up with nice twists on the venemoth meme, keep up the great work

[@megashuckleyt8098]

I dont' get to show up to live premiers really at all but I just wanted to say that over the last couple months you have become my favorite channel on youtube. The content is really high quality and keep up the good work

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Glad you’re enjoying the content!

[@Brando1444]

This was fun one to watch, I feel you on the lack of dark type before the post game I always hated that. Even when I trained for Umbreon by the time it evolved I always was past it learning bite and found it useless.

[@ArchonZach]

always happy to see one of my favorite mons in your videos!

[@Colin1Moriarty]

Aw yes Doomhound! How does you fiancé cope 😂😂 I've always loved those two and Crystal was the first Pokémon game I owned myself (my brother got yellow and never let me play it) and I liked this cause it always reminded me of my own dog! You've unlocked a core memory of me begging my mum to turn on the computer so she could "AskJeeves" to find out where to find it 😂 I'm also very impressed with how well it completed the game! A definite goat combo dark and fire is. Loving these consistent uploads Scott! Make sure you look after yourself and don't end up burned out at anytime too 👍

[@Nik-ei9st]

I remember houndour. Boy do I. Houndour was the first shiny I ever found. I remember seeing the blue and the sparkle and the shimmer, I was mesmerized-I had to have it! I remember switching my overleveled pokemon around trying to weaken it… And that little snot used roar on me!!!! Roar?!??! How was I supposed to know it had roar?!!? That was the first houndour I’d ever seen in the wild!!! I was soooo mad!!!

[@foxbird123]

KZbin decided that when I was done with this video I should rewatch your celebi run. In 9 months you went from making a 20k celebration video to 45.7k. Congratulations, I'm excited for your growth.

[@zerraticz]

Hello Scott and Denis! I've always thought this was a super cool looking doggo, so I hope it does awesome!

[@philiphamel8504]

It's so funny you released this today. I'm doing a Fire Red Randomizer playthrough and I have a Houndoom on my team.

[@juanchirino4900]

I remember using this line of Pokemon a lot in Pokemon Stadium 2. Very helpful for coverage on a team.

[@BenjaminJeziorowski]

poliwrath naturally resists both dark and fire, but chuck's poliwrath doesnt end up being much of a threat at your level and it spamming dynamic punch.

[@MattDRT0358]

Yet another great and entertaining video Scott! Thanks mate

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

You’re welcome!

[@boze7180]

My favorite gen 2 Pokémon along with sneasel. Super excited to see how this run goes

[@themook1811]

OMG MY FAVORITE POKEMON AAAAAAAAAA thank you Scott!!! I can't wait to see how he goes 😎

[@AbsoluteZero1313]

YES, my favorite Pokémon! I’m so excited to watch this!

[@jamesgriffin7962]

First off it’s awesome to see you finally use my favourite Pokemon line in one of these runs, second Houndoom is always a must have for me on my team as him and Ampharos make an awesome tag team both are definitely going to be on one of my teams in Scarlet and Violet, third Doomhound is an awesome nickname and finally hope you and your fiancé have a great October

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Thanks for the comment James!

[@MakoDemiHuman]

I'm so glad to see this. Houndoom is my favorite pokemon yet we never see any content on him since he's pretty fragile.

[@harveylane6744]

Super hyped for this. Always loved the dark hounds, still haunted to this day they weren’t available until kanto 😢

[@scottprice1330]

This was awesome to watch. It’s nice when it’s not just - doomhound used bite, doomhound used flamethrower, doomhound used bite. Thanks for putting feeling into it. Always a pleasure seeing your stuff. P.S. still waiting for Mewtwo 😂

[@grundgutigertv6170]

What!? Scott, I did not expect that. Gonna watch that right now. Thanks! Ill comment on the go. Hope theres some Venomoth shenanigans

[@ThibsyCube]

This line was my favorite in Gen 2 when it came out, when I was young! I was so bumped that I couldn’t get one in my playthrough back then.

[@ScubaLuigi]

It's the hound, boys, the hound is here at last

[@crownedshyness9656]

Release the hounds!

[@wilhelmisaac]

Houndoom is just goth arcanine, and I’m all for it. On another note, adding a column in your live feed of move stats for accuracy (at least on your readout, no need to put it in the final video) would have made that faint attack against muk thing stick out like a sore thumb when you’re kind of on autopilot. The accuracy of all your other moves would have gone down, but it would have stayed at 100% (or nil depending on how you have it presented). On the other hand, I like the little “oh I caught that!” moments. They add a feeling of humanity to the ones and zeros that make up these adorable little pocket monsters on top of being great for getting people to comment. Good run. Can’t wait for the Raiku, Suicune, and Entei versus video one day (and maybe that Aerodactyl video)

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Filming Aerodactyl this morning. In October, I promise!

[@wilhelmisaac]

@@ScottsThoughtsPokemon it finally gets a rock move! Woohoo!

[@taiwanisacountry]

I did not even finish the absol video before I saw this. But then it was no longer live xD I found it, because I searched everywhere all the time. Aw man Gen 2, my childhood. I am 28 today, so when it was released I was barely started in primary. But I was hooked since Gen 1. I had friends help me get past the first city, the ice puzzle, and of course the powerplant.

[@codymays9943]

Growing up my grandparents had a Doberman so therefore I always had a special affection for Houndoom :)

[@johnnyrankin]

Great run! Happy spooky season!

[@YozoraHeart]

Great watch! Gen 2 is my favorite, but Houndour is available SO late in the game that I've never used one. I finally got a Larvitar early enough with HGSS's Safari Zone, but Houndour remains.

[@garrettblaylock8297]

great video enjoyed it houndoom is a great Pokemon I've always loved using it

[@misterschifano]

Appreciate the layout change that shows the elemental type for the attacks. Some of them have changed since and I get them wrong.

[@gamer19191]

Just finished watching the first run. Just a few things: Against the trainers in Chucks gym, It's probably better to use headbutt over ember. Ember is stab, but its pretty weak, and the hitmons have good SpDef. There are a couple Pokemon that do resist dark and fire. Tyranitar and Poliwrath resist both. (But you never really fight Tyranitar so I dont think it counts) When you kept missing agains the minimized Muk, you could have probably taken it out with feint attack (or faint attack) If you catch any of these before the video ends, then please remember i'm making this comment before the second run. Good video as always so far! I'm going to continue watching the optimized runs now.

[@timothybroomell5013]

Thank you Scott for using my favorite Pokemon of all time!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

You’re welcome!

[@shimauta1941]

Really interested in seeing a vs video by you between Arcanine and Houndoom or maybe even strictly between Growlithe and Houndour to switch things up race wise since mostly you race fully evolved mons or one stage only mons.

[@miqvPL]

(Scott just finishing fighting Chuck's Poliwrath) "actually, are there any types resisting both fire and dark? I don't think so." Wow you got me so confused there :D Also don't forget about Venomoth, the only Dark/Dragon pokemon in gen 2.

[@milkdud8993]

Heck; burned tower would be a great place to find houndoor lol. Best bad dog ever! Thanks for another Gen2 run!

[@youtube-kit9450]

Burned tower in general would be great for the Kanto-only Johto pokémon. The doom hound, the everburning magma slug and the mischievous curse ghost would be a dead fit for that instead of the same old.

[@hhjan594]

It's pretty interesting to see that Gen2 got 4 new E4 members. I wonder where all the Gen1 E4 members went (except Lance who became the champion) Like, I get that the lost hiker possibly went back to the Rock Tunnel or somewhere, but it's interesting to see that Lorelei and Agatha were totally absent in Gen2.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Hiker definitely went back to rock tunnel

[@tjepic5256]

I like that you use random Gen 2 or 3 pokemon it's refreshing. I also like how you post the pokemon moves and have strategies on how you plan to use them

[@MK-yg2np]

The jumping primeape in the gym presentation is awesome 😍

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

;) he’s so angry!!

[@johnathanflannagan2407]

I like that you do extra testing on those lucky crits to debunk them.

[@ivankelava9191]

I watched your content! Its amazing ! Hope you do Johto Trio Run soon !!!

[@michaelabrown7226]

The fact you do a dynamic counter on the power level of your moves is amazing i remember when you could barely remember the math

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Now I programmed the math into my overlay!

[@kalebrhea5822]

Johto Video! I have always thought that Houndoom looks so cool! It stinks that Gamefreak hid this wicked doggo in the Kanto part

[@philipmurphy2]

Thanks for the Houndoor video was enjoyable

[@piratebear3126]

I used my first Houndoom in BDSP and he was my ringer on my team of unevolved Pokemon against Cynthia, taking down her first 5 Pokemon by abusing her AI. Picked Houndour as my starter in my current Crystal Clear run and named him Dogmeat after the Fallout companion. Karen is also one of my favorite key trainers in the series due to her speech about winning with your favorites.

[@wereoctopus]

Cool! I managed to beat Cynthia with level-appropriare unevolved 'mons in Pokemon Diamond (iirc using a Bronzor with Reflect to Toxic-stall Garchomp). Too scared to try the same in BDSP where her team has optimised IVs and EVs, and Garchomp has Swords Dance instead of Giga Impact 😓

[@wereoctopus]

though i guess you could PP-stall (e.g. Grudge) her out of one move, then switch to something immune to the remaining two moves. (unless it's possible to get an Air Balloon in BDSP, I think Bronzor's the only "little cup" candidate?)

[@piratebear3126]

@@wereoctopus my strat was to PP stall Spiritomb who really wanted to use Sucker Punch since Houndoom was faster. 5 Nasty Plots later it could one-shot her entire team with Flamethrower and Dark Pulse, although I also had to get lucky on Lucario’s move choice due to Houndoom’s weakness to Fighting. As for beating Garchomp, I had to get a miss and 2 friendship endures with Jirachi to pull out a victory I never should have gotten.

[@iantaakalla8180]

I love how the Cynthia battle in BDSP is basically “do you have a Nuzlocke strat” simply because she has the best Pokémon, optimized EVs and good movesets from the start. I exploited a moveset weakness on her Spiritomb by debuffing Spirtomb with Chatot’s Parting Shot to Gengar or Gardevoir, then double switching to Chatot until Spiritomb was so weak I could set up Calm Minds on Spiritomb, and swept until Garchomp. Then, I frantically selected advantageous moves like Dynamic Punch until Garchomp missed on my Drapion (which was my last Pokémon alive) and then I took it out with either an X-Scissor, Knock Off, or Cross Poison. It was insanely lucky.

[@wiseguise5960]

YES!! My favorite doggo Pokemon! Absolutely love Houndooms design, and its mega form looks so awesome. Do you play PokeMMO by chance?

[@Silvitewolf]

My Houndoom Memory - playing through either colosseum or XD with a friend we could not agree whether to add Arcanine or Houndoom to the team, and after too many rounds of rock paper scissors tied , we added both... the type diversity was not great but given that both are fairly fast and quite strong we often ended up using them as our lead team and just burning away all who apposed the puppy pair - we also named them after our dogs at the time. Dusty and Major kicked major butt! :P

[@Randroth]

Houndoom happens to be one of my favorite Pokemon of all time, so I am really hoping he will do well. He is quite strong and has a great typing, and his Gen II moveset is not absolute garbage, which is rare in that gen. I think the main two things which will hold it back is the Slow level up group and the fact that he learns Flamethrower quite late. He might struggle with Chuck and Bruno (weirdly enough), unless you give him Hidden Power coverage for them. Whitney does have Rollout which is super-effective, but I think that outspeeding and two shotting her with Bite should be enough. Clair's Kingdra could pose some issues, to be honest I think it will highly depend on Houndoom's level. The Slow level-up group might hold it back too much. I am undecided on Lance, who could seemingly go either way. With Red, there might be an issue with Snorlax building up Amnesia (since Houndoom is fully special), and Blastoise being bulky enough to survive and KO. This is where I think that Houndoom's Slow level up group will catch up with it and give it issues. Still, I am rooting for the Demon Doggo! No matter what happens, he will always be one of my favorites!

[@pikapuffin368]

The Rain on the Plain is a Drain on the Sane Brain, but the Insane Remain without Pain and Sustain their Lane. Brought to you by the bloopers

[@wideright7567]

I’ll always be biases toward gen 2 videos, shoutout to my boy Denis, but I think you’re really showing high level routing and execution (well, ya know) and it makes a 52 minute video really easy to watch. looking forward to what is definitely not Absol

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Definitely not Absol next….

[@Chronoflation]

Misses over and over with Flamethrower ignoring Faint Attack always hitting and still having roughly 2/3 the power of Flamethrower. Bold call

[@rc4780]

I always call my Houndooms Bellatrix. Houndoom is my favourite Dark Type, Bellatrix is my favourite Death Eater, if Bellatrix was a Pokémon she’d be a Dark Type, Houndoom’s fire leaves permanent damage and pain to all that it touches and Bellatrix is infamous for causing permanent damage to Neville’s parents due to the pain she inflicted on them.

[@Skipatronic]

Houndoom is surprisingly really good. Don't know why they were so hard to get.

[@zenitfan4life]

When I was a small boy and didn't have internet or anyone to play (and trade) Pokémon Gold with, I used to think that Pokemon like Steelix and Houndoom were exclusive to trainers like Jasmin and Karen, and not obtainable for a regular player.

[@gamer19191]

I have a video idea. There are exactly 3 Pokemon lines that have been in every regional dex since their introduction. the Psyduck line, the Magnemite line, and the Zubat line. It might be interesting to do a VS style video where you do one run where you pick two of these lines, and do one run each in gen 1 then 2 then 3, and whoever wins bets 2/3 wins. Might be a silly idea because you can just modify whatever Pokemon you want as a starter so dexes don't really matter. Also its a lot of work to do 6 runs..

[@ru213]

Zubat is one of them, right?

[@gamer19191]

@@ru213 yes

[@bvd_vlvd]

Soundoom sounds like a regional variant in a fan game with sound type

[@dragonknight1560]

Houndoom is such a cool dog mon and giving it a Mega was even better. I wish I could have enjoyed using this mon in Crystal but by the time you reach Kanto, what's the point? Unless you want to have a strong team for Red but by then meh, it's not the same. It sucks for Game Freak to do that. Not a great way to promote Johto Pokemon. Great video Scott!

[@doubledownproductions9791]

Another story time. I remember being awake until midnight on a trip in Canada trying to catch this illusive dog as I thought it was so cool.

[@ninolifegawd4826]

Yessirrrrrrr I’m in the studio and needed some motivation right on time my Ghoul

[@ninolifegawd4826]

I hope u got the black sunglasses

[@ninolifegawd4826]

Nope I see u forgot em 😹😹😹😹

[@TripleShizzle]

Great run! Dark/Fire is a great typing

[@Brain-washed2]

thanks for giving the best song in the ga... pokemon (gen 2 Kanto gym leader) a showcase on the final battle. idk if you've played crystal clear but it lets you start with houndour and it's great.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Haven't played crystal clear yet, but I really want to! Also, the Kanto gym leader theme is amazing! That's why I chose it for the music to score the Red battle in my videos.

[@Brain-washed2]

@@ScottsThoughtsPokemon the last time it was updated was in january of this year so maybe consider waiting a bit since there might be another one coming. you really do read every comment huh

[@jptheflipper3825]

very nice, I've never used a Houndoom before, I think I'm going to start to, that doggy is awesome. since you going dark and spooky for October, i had a thought, I've heard on your previous vids that you may be doing the Eeveelutions in Yellow as a VS and thats gonna be awesome, but how about Espeon vs Umbreon for Crystal, the Dark vs the light Halloween, something along those lines. maybe a 5 way VS for Gen 3?

[@NegaNekojin]

B tier for Best boy, makes sense ^^ Houndoom doing well is something I expected due to it having enough firepower to fully take advantage in both of its STABs, but I didn't even imagine it could finish before the 2 hour mark... So consider me surprised here. .P.S.: I'll never undertand how a pokémon introduced in Gen 2 and belonging to the Johtodex can't be found anywhere on Johto and is a native species from Kanto... It still baffles me... o_O

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Best boy indeed

[@misterhoundoomer]

Yes! Finally some representation for one of my favorite Pokémon!!!

[@jameshope3652]

A disappointing outcome, but these videos always seem to surprise me. Pokemon I expect to do exceptionally well often don't, and pokemon that I expect to struggle end up S tier. These videos are so interesting. Of course, I love Houndoom, but it's always been a middle of the road pokemon. I love Tyranitar, too, but the x4 weakness to fighting hurts it, a lot.

[@jander1291]

You are my go-to youtuber when i watch videos on my tv in bed. Ty for all your very interesting videos. i would like to ask, how you edit the text of your overlay on the fly?

[@parttimesaint3165]

Those new stat blocks look great!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Thanks! I spent so much time on them trying to optimize that area for smaller mobile screens. Glad you like it.

[@valor1omega]

edit: after watching the video completely I am shocked how Scott was able to squeeze out such a performance with that thing. bravo Scott! I like all of his videos but I always found this Pokemon as a joke but then again I came across it in g3 where there are far better Pokemon. Scott made the Pokemon cooler than it really is.

[@Salnax]

Houndoom in Johto? I've never seen such a thing before! Houndoom should do pretty well in Johto. There's relatively few dangerous Water, Rock, or Ground types to worry about, and their stat distribution is great for a solo run. Not to mention that evolving by Level 24 is pretty fast considering their final base stats. And the combo of Fire and Dark STAB should be enough for everything in the game that isn't Poliwrath or another Houndoom. And in response to the thumbnail: Umbreon is probably the best Dark type for playing through Johto when codes to change starters are not available. Murkrow, Larvitar, and Houndour don't show up until Kanto, and Sneasel is cursed with low stats that don't match its typing very well. Umbreon isn't amazing, but you can pick up a level 20 Eevee in the midgame, evolve it via friendship within a few levels if you give it a haircut and some walkies, and end up with a solid defensive mon that can switch into an enemy attack and fire back Normal or Dark moves. Faint Attack in particular is a good Swift clone that gets STAB. Is especially useful against Morty and Will, and is only really vulnerable to Chuck and Bruno by the time you get it. Anyway, just wanted to make a comment in case I forgot. Because algorithms. I'll be watching this later.

[@georgiosvavliaras1066]

I just got recommended an Absol Gen 3 video of you, what's up with that? 🤔 Anyways, love your content my dude, keep up the great work!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Accidentally released it. My bad. It’s for next week. I’m sick and messed up on my end :(

[@magicalgirllaurie]

Idk why I hadn't watched this yet, but omg I love Voyager too I wish I'd watched this way sooner now

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Yay! Another Voyager fan!

[@MonkeymanExperiment]

Looking forward to this one 😁😁

[@naraiceylob]

Nice job Scott. One thing I wonder about is if you could have saved early game time and gotten by Rival 2 quicker by training less and beating the rival with swift at level 18 or 19. Ember may have one shot Gastly at that point and maybe swift would have muscled through Croconaw early. I'm not sure it would have worked (and of course you would need more grinding later) but grinding later is easier than grinding early. Also I'm not sure you needed Houndoom for Whitney. The final thing that confused me is the Hidden Power TM. You took a 2 minute journey to pick it up on both playthroughts before fighting Morty and didn't use it till at least the end of the Rocket Plotline (when you had already had to return to the Lake of Rage).

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Nice points! Probably a minute or two of savings there.

[@skeetermania3202]

@@ScottsThoughtsPokemon Should keep Leer for fighting the Azalea rival just to boost Swift’s damage. Andrew Davis did the same thing in his Houndour video.

[@nustacular]

In the beginning you talked about how only flying was paired with fire in Gen 1. There was an oversight in Gen 1 (well several) but one of the oversights came later with magnemite. Gen 1 consists of (RBY and Stadium) once you save with magnemite in Stadium 2 and then trading back to stadium 1 it “becomes” a Fire/electric type

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Whoa, that’s cool!

[@shadowbubbles7877]

That rival name is no joke what I named him in my first playthrough as a kid also I used pokedex and spent hours in that grass to get the DoomHound in kid era days as well :)

[@bigbro2many]

After the first blooper, I'm convinced there needs to be a romhack in an alternate universe where the Pokemon are the trainers and they battle using wild humans they captured

[@EmmyDragom57]

It's such a shame 4/6 of the dark types of Johto and locked behind the E4, and I would never want to switch my team out for a new Poke at that point. At least you were able to do Houndoom justice (minus the obligatory Scott's Thought Moment against Koga).

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Rip me. Hopefully I can remember Faint attack in the future!

[@lamiaprincess6371]

Houndoom is such a good Pokemon in pretty much every generation its in, it's really impressive. Even in Gen 4, Dark Pulse is definitely an upgrade over Crunch and I think it gets Nasty Plot too by level-up too, just in time for exactly Red XD. I'm not super surprised Snorlax was a struggle, I regularly joke with friends that Snorlax is probably the best Pokemon in Generation II period, simply because Curse + its titanic special bulk make it really difficult for basically everything to deal with. It's probably more deserving of being a legendary than the legends introduced in this game XD Speaking of Gen II Dark-types, Tyranitar is really good both for Rock and Dark-type moves, but I think that its going to feel weird having to use Larvitar and Pupitar for so long. The difference is typings make it feel different from Dratini and Dragonair where they still feel pretty similar to Dragonite. That might be a Pokemon where as its own fun thing it would be cool to start off with it!

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Yeah, Snorlax is such a beast. Definitely Red’s strongest Pokémon and certainly a beast in competitive. I wonder how it will perform in a solo playthrough? I’m a bit worried just because I think it’s speed stat might hold it back… but maybe it’s strong enough to overcome it.

[@ashclaw2306]

this dogo's run is on fire!

[@joemclenigan6026]

Houndoom nd T.Tar are my fav gen 2 mons...nd they happen to be Dark types...imagine if gen 2 got dark pulse...don't worry sneasel I got love for u to!!