How FAST Can Swampert Beat Pokémon Emerald?

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Here are chapters if you want to jump around! What did you think about Swampert in Gen 3? Did it live up to the hype? 0:00 - Intro 0:25 - Stats and Moves 1:57 - First Gym: Roxanne’s Rock Types 3:09 - Second Gym: Brawly’s Fighting Team 5:27 - Rival #2 and Grass Damage 7:12 - Third Gym: Wattson’s Electric Squad 7:54 - Split Data: First Look 9:57 - Fourth Gym: Flannery’s Fire Types 11:25 - Fifth Gym: Norman’s Normal Types 13:16 - Surf Backtrack / Ice Beam 13:58 - Rival #3: More Grass Damage 17:07 - Sixth Gym: Winona’s Flying Team 20:23 - Seventh Gym: Tate and Liza’s Psychic Duo 21:34 - Snagging Rare Candies 23:35 - Eighth Gym: Juan’s Water Team 25:17 - Split Data: Final Review 26:01 - Elite 4 Start: Sydney and Beyond 28:18 - Champion Fight: Wallace’s Water Types 31:30 - End of Run: Final Ranking for Swampert

[@fabiof.8152]

4:29 "Now, first, it's the nature. We are *lonely* today-" Woah, man, I came here to relax, not get called out like that D:

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Gotta learn how to be alone before you deal with the grass.

[@Landood]

We believe in Swampert Supremacy in this household. I did a college project on the starters, yknow back in the day.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Lmao, I did one on tank controls in Resident Evil back in the day. Maybe I'll use something Pokemon related in my capstone project. Congrats on the baby! As a semi-new dad, I can definitely say that first month or two are something else. You reach depths of tired and being stretched thin that you didn't know existed but it gets better!

[@mukariz]

I like that you used Tropius. It is a fun Pokemon and didn't really alter the fight much. Banana chin for the win!

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

It was on my team every playthrough for the HM potential!

[@bananaspice1967]

Bananaramaslamma!

[@kevinsips3658]

Oh, wassup Matt, thanks for dropping a vid for us today. I’m gonna consolidate my comments into one comment today, rather than leaving like six. I think that’s just “the way” to pronounce Grovyle.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

It better be the way. I researched it so that I wouldn’t get blasted for pronouncing a 20 year old Pokémon name wrong lol.

[@kangaskdan]

Slugmaballs made me choke on my blackcurrant squash so thanks for that :D

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Lmao, such a frustrating fight to figure out that even an annoying little speed bump like Slugma got to me.

[@SoraDonaldGoofy99]

Swampert is my favorite Hoenn choice. Glad to see you using it!

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

I don’t even think it’s close who the best is in Gen 3. I emphatically don’t like the other final starters very much.

[@SableyeBoi]

Heck yeah bringing out another emerald beauty this will perfect for an after nap video can’t wait to watch

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Nice! Enjoy it!

[@SableyeBoi]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 nice video like always Matt and believe me I understand the mightyena frustration and protect frustration lol I know you were annoyed

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

It just makes me scared for any physical attackers in the future!

[@SableyeBoi]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 oh yeah for sure you’re gonna have to watch out for that best to have setups or special moves in case you do

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Probably just use a bulk up user. Haven’t used that or calm mind in a playthrough yet.

[@shadowfox8748]

Was thinking about you yesterday. Awesome to have a new video. Thanks Matt

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Thanks! Think about me again in two weeks when the next one drops lol.

[@peterchauvin1486]

Of all the guys that do these types of solo challenges, I think I like yours the best. Keep it up!

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

I appreciate that, brother. Glad you enjoy the content!

[@darlhiatt8136]

Good spotlight on Aqua Admin Shelly, I am so jealous of her hair

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

She should have been the leader!

[@Greymangamer]

Real one! You and swampy boi did a great run! Always glad to see an upload

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

It was pretty solid! You'll see another one in two weeks!

[@PraefMace]

Still catching up with your older videos but wanted to show support on the newer videos as well! Also I do appreciate the TCG soundtrack you have in the mix, and the TCG-esque intro you got going for the important fights.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Appreciate it, brother.

[@DwunD016]

Slugmaballs😂😂😂. I needed that laugh this morning. Swampert is a beat. Looking forward to Blaziken

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Lmao. Magcargo was crying with its awful typing.

[@simonludwig1270]

Love your content, just as entertaining as always. Thanks for your efforts :) warm greetings from Germany!

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Appreciate it! Greetings from a tired dad lol.

[@J3Puffin]

Swampert my boy. I didn’t evolve my Mudkip during my Emerald playthru but I’ve grown to appreciate this hyper-Quagsire

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Quagsire to Swampert is like that old drake meme. Me? I roll with the Whiscash.

[@flounder1527]

YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!! These Hoenn runs give me pure joy

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@sartrisbt]

great way to close out the weekend. thanks for the occasional drops in between dad duty

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

On that two week grind!

[@paddingtonbear-uk4wh]

Great video matt. Great channel

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Appreciate that a lot, brother.

[@LQVaughn]

I’m glad you decided to handle Tate and Liza that way for the emerald runs

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

What are your thoughts on it? My blanket thoughts are that if you only allow a single, low level, no move Pokemon into the fight, you are handicapped to the point to where this fight will demand all of your resources in some way, shape, or form. Whether it be extra training, candy usage, or forcing you to use HP dark/ghost in nearly every run. At least you have some slight variance under these rules to allow more flexibility. Doing Tate/Liza to me is almost as bad as allowing Double Team in a gen 1 run or Curse in a gen 2 run. It just funnels strategies and makes runs too same-y.

[@oEllery]

Rock Tomb is great when it hits and you get that extra attack. One of my favorite underrated gen 3 moves.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

For sure. That and mud slap really changed the face of several fights in the run.

[@montyeggman3075]

A nice showing of how powerful Swampert is in Hoenn. With no major battle with a Grass specialist, you only have to worry about the occasional Grass-type popping up. And even before the Physical/Special split, Swampert was quite effective at using its two types to give it an edge.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Thank god. I’m going to search for a physical Pokémon in the future and see if it’s as bad as it sounds with all the intimidate users.

[@montyeggman3075]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 I wish you good luck with that. 👍

[@Speedrunner0218]

Lol I was playing swampert earlier today In sapphire. He's A BEAST.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Yea, it’s pretty good!

[@BigTurboD11]

Great video! Swampert is Ol' Reliable. If only Swampy got Sludge Bomb, that could've been the silver bullet for Ludicolo. Oh well 😅

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

That thing is so bulky I could see it still surviving one, especially without STAB.

[@BigTurboD11]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 I can see it being a clean 2-shot though!

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Yea, I didn't put an addendum on the video like I do when I make mistakes but you can see an unused protein in my inventory before the elite 4 that I didn't catch and just this run was so tight that the missed vitamin messed up the ranges and likely screwed up a perfect finish.

[@TheRelinquished2]

Blessed with a video, yessss lets go

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Let’s go!

[@Buddy26420]

Hi Matt, got my sodie pop right here to watch a curbstompong

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Watch out for the grass!

[@Buddy26420]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 I dont touch Grass, I am a gamer lol

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Wish Swampert was that resilient!

[@loha2288]

Yo Matt. Great video. Been watching for years now. Just wanna ask why not get magikarp with splash for double battles?

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Man, i feel like I talk for 5+ minutes about it lol.

[@bateltheassistant]

Swampert is one Hoenn's finest Pokémon. It has a great typing, great stats (except for that mid 60 speed), which gives a very strong presence in early game, going with almost minimum battles run up until that point. Norman and Wallace were somewhat tricky to route out,and add in Rival 2 to the mix. But that's how powerful a 4 times weakness can go. Luckily, grass moves are not that much in use, which makes Swampert such a powerhouse.🤔 I'm glad that rock tomb got to be used in early game at least, because for slow Pokémon it kind of helps ,in certain battles. By the way,Swampert looks super cool in the thumbnail, especially with the background's colour scheme. About Tropius , I think that as long as it doesn't affect the battle by attacking, it's as good as Megikarp in the Tate and Liza battle. Saving time by letting the game showing less text is really a smart play. 😁

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Yea I was really impressed with how much the speed lowering moves nullified the lower base speed of Swampert. It really felt like an equation to get through those battles and I’m happy with the final product. It’s crazy how we had Quagsire and Wooper a generation earlier but no one took notice to the OP typing until Swampert added its offense to the table. The thumbnail is something I worked hard on. It’s a good pose, good coloring, good contrast. Glad you noticed!

[@bateltheassistant]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 Wooper and Quagsire has a lot of defensive capabilities, which are decent up until the late game,in which like you've been mentioning the low speed is becoming an issue . If you can't outspeed ,that means you'll usually need to scale that issue with extra levels. Swampert can take hits,and can hit hard. I think that it's one of the most broken starters in the series in general.🤔

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

They’ve gotten better at designing starters in general but back then they’d give us the badass unique fire/fighting chicken, the cool water/ground and then you’d wonder what grass was finally going to get…and it’s just a mono grass type lizard lol.

[@bateltheassistant]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 😂😂😂Yup,Game freak didn't really was a fan of the grass starters,ever since gen 2 (the peak of dislike was gen 5 or 6, in my opinion),but at least some of them got a second type and a good design.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Better than Pignite. The absolute worst Pokemon in existence and I say that as a fire type fan. I hate that Pokemon so much lol.

[@austindmunday]

im glad your doing more Gen 3 runs. I find gen 3 more interesting than 1 and gen two is especially boring,

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

I sort of agree about Gen 2. Love the games but they always feel a little grating to play and sift through the footage and route it out.

[@Elfman126]

Swampert will always be my favourite starter and Pokémon in general along with Zekrom. Funnily enough, they have the same base HP as each other.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Nice. I like Swampert a good bit. I just think it was a unique spin on a starter that holds up well today. Zekrom is cool too!

[@Hydrocannon]

Mudkip learns Protect & Hydro Pump, Swampert learns Earthquake. Teach it Foresight too and you've got yourself a solo machine.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

You had me until foresight.

[@Hydrocannon]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 I lost matches to double-teamers dude, do NOT scoff at foresight!

[@banditrests]

To be fair, the best minds of Pokémon speed running have been struggling with emerald rival 2 for like 20 years. The speed drop was pretty clever though. Swampert is such an interesting Pokémon, basically every competitive analysis for 5 generations had a note about HP grass just to deal with it and mega swampert is the best swift swimmer in history, other than maybe basculeigon. Also yeah, Gen 3 is really the high water mark for hidden power, it going all special in Gen 4 really limits it’s use cases, especially as a replacement STAB or coverage move for physical Pokémon. I do think there are cases where the worse hidden powers in Gen 2 are still useful even if it doesn’t feel good though.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Imagine my horror when I saw how they did it and it was just items and even crit manipulation in some spots. I couldn’t believe how oppressive Absorb was during my first playthrough lol. It made me start over immediately.

[@youtube-kit9450]

It's funny how the slateport devil is such a menace in speedrunning and is hailed as such a brutal, difficult rival and it's mostly just because Grovyle has absorb and for any challenge/speedrun, Mudkip is just so optimal and its one achilles heel is grass. Hence why no one who played the game normally knew that that rival is supposed to be difficult.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

At least it’s a competent Pokémon overcoming a double weakness and not something like Magcargo trying to get past ground or water lol.

[@banditrests]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 Reminds me of a smallant joke about how speed runners are item-type trainers lol. Absorb is deceptively strong here, grovyle doesn’t have great special attack and marshtomp has ok special defense but even a 20 bp move hits hard when it’s STAB and 4x super effective- that’s 120 effective power and 180 if you accidentally get it in overgrow range. Magcargo is just a mess. As to the double battle situation, you’re only playing against yourself and using a magikarp is a totally arbitrary rule, kind of like playing against the rival that’s strongest against your solo mon. It made sense for Jrose or MBD running terrible mons but I think we’re past the spirit of the game part of this. You found a slightly more efficient way to deal with one of the most annoying battles in emerald, more power to you. Even Scott has adopted the abra routing after complaining about it for like a year. You do you, brother.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Yea, I'm not the biggest fan of the Tate and Liza battle as is. A forced double battle that hogs all of your creativity for the run if you force yourself into a splashing Magikarp box lol. I think having 99.9% of runs burn a bunch candies, train, or pigeonhole them into using HP Ghost doesn't feel great and doing something that can give you an extra turn or two makes it feel more 'normal'. In a perfect world, I'd make a few edits like remove the double battles from the game and maybe put Steven Stone back as the champion but I have like a handful of changes to the base rom already and I never want to dive into it again.

[@raypetrisko7059]

This could also be an "HM only" run later on since mudkip line only starter to learn "Every needed" hm

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

That’s how the speedrun uses it lol. Gets by with x items and what not, offloads the final stretch onto Rayquaza.

[@unicorncat7644]

Oh heck yeah, axolotl boi. It's a good thing there's not a lot of grass pokemon. Imagine having to clear Erika with her razor leaf victreebell

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

It would definitely be a ‘wait until the 7th gym’ or get to the 100% one shot chance type of run. I’d like to get to the starters in Gen 1 eventually but there’s more starters than I even do runs in a year so I’ll just take it as it comes.

[@unicorncat7644]

@@GymLeaderMatt1987 I think you'd have to route around getting ice beam as quickly as possible, otherwise yeah you're skipping Erika until way later

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Even if not, blizzard after you EQ Koga and Surf Blaine is an option. I think it would be great!

[@braillynn]

Zesty

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Zesty and Fishy.

[@ΒαγγέληςΓκιοκας-β4β]

Imagine being so good 💯

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Swampert just knows what it brings to the table.

[@gutherford007]

Real one emerald content is baller.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@youtube-kit9450]

Honestly, imo gym leaders like Winona and Champs like Wallace show me that mono-type bosses aren't a problem. Just give them type variety or strategies to adapt to their weakness or something to show off they're the master of that type. Just don't do it like Volkner in Platinum where facerolling earthquake 4 times wins you the game.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

For sure. They figured out a good mix and knocked it out of the park with some of them. Then you have something like Tate/Liza from a solo running perspective. If this game’s code was wasn’t such a colossal pain to change and was more like Gen 1/2, I’d probably modify two things. I’d make Tate/Liza a single battle and I’d put Steven Stone back as champion and Wallace back as gym 8.

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Hmm. *JUAN, BROTHER!!!!* ?

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Whenever I’m working on the next one I’ll prob get a poll to see how much more the audience is creative than me lol

[@ronaldmaxwell6668]

Woah was that tcg sound track

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

The goat soundtrack!

[@SadderCatLin]

Swampert, my son

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Hopefully he’s old enough to sleep through the night.

[@SeanFerguson-w5o]

Swampert supremacy

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Yea, it's only downhill from here lol. Maybe Blaziken will surprise me.

[@AmoCran3]

Just a lil correction for the grovyle lvl 31, it's not razor leaf but leaf blade. it's even stronger than razor leaf!

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

I knew I’d make some mistake. I called a move a different move today too and didn’t edit it lol.

[@reddragonpress]

it's so sad that swampert died of slugma In all seriousness, Water/Ground is a really good typing both offensively and defensively! Having STAB access to both Surf and Earthquake can really go a long way under the right circumstances.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Yea it’s really solid all the way around. I love the one huge weakness in favor of being solid everywhere else. Skarmory reminds of a similar style but without the offensive power.

[@redreoicy6698]

I'm a fan of using Tropius.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Because it's a cool, underutilized Pokemon or because the ravings I did about it hyper focusing the Tate/Liza battle to force Hp types/rare candies, ultimately having too much sway on the entire landscape of gen 3 runs? Haha.

[@LinnieKing]

4:35 you’re lonely? That’s a shame; *man hugs* 🤗

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Wish I was lonely! I don’t have time to be lonely lol.

[@mattprice302]

SWAMPERT!!!!!!!!

[@steezuskryst7201]

Tombstoner brother!!!!!!!!!!!

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Appreciate it!

[@jamesomara8036]

Slugma ballz is wild 😂

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Lmao, get that thing outta here.

[@jamesomara8036]

@GymLeaderMatt1987 probably the worst type combo, maybe not the worst design ever, but i find slugma to be so mid. He was bad in gen 2 never got any life and such a trash typing he was doomed to slugma ballz from the beginning.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

I think Slugma is just mono fire but Magcargo and the rock/fire typing is awful for sure. Neutral to grass, double weak to water, double weak to ground. I guess it's alright against an all normal move user though lol.

[@jamesomara8036]

@GymLeaderMatt1987 Yeah, you always find the silver lining. Thats makes you a good runner. 👍 like oak said pokemon is about winning with your favorite, thats why i like this channel.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

For me, Magcargo looks so bad but it’s like that old Drake meme when I see Coalossal. Same type but I really love the design of that Pokémon.

[@CaravanOfSleep]

SLUGMABALLS

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Sluggem.

[@carl4889]

How do you think Mega Swampert would do?

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

I'm sure more stats would eliminate a ton of little things and push it to new heights! Unfortunately I'm not sure I'll ever custom gen 3 content. The amount of effort and custom addresses I had to hunt down just to get this base ROM to work was already a nightmare and I could only imagine the headache of getting a new Pokemon in. It's much easier to understand the code in gen 3 because it isn't a mnemonic riddled hellscape like the old assembly language games but it comes at a price of DMA. I'd like to do all the starters in general in gen 1 one day but given that there's more starters than I do videos in a year, it's hard to focus my efforts sometimes.

[@jackruby6696]

Real one

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Ayy.

[@nrgzam]

It's actually pronounced like "grovel" after what you did to the rival

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Good one, lol.

[@tamonowo247]

slugma balls

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Gottem! Sluggem!

[@bananaspice1967]

Fibsh