How many Pokemon beat Bugsy without Optional Battles? - Episode 4

Minimum Battles is the ultimate challenge. 165 Pokemon beat Falkner on Minimum Battles, but now it's time to find out how they do against Rival 2 and Bugsy!
On my main channel @RBYPokemonChallenges , I have already completed this challenge with all 151 Pokemon on Gen 1, but Gen 2 presents a massively different challenge - sleep and Wrap were nerfed, there's no Gen 1 miss (1/256 glitch), and all the trainers have better AI. But Minimum Battles might just be possible with some effort and ingenuity.
Today's challengers:
Golbat,
Vileplume,
Venomoth,
Dugtrio,
Persian,
Psyduck, Golduck,
Primeape,
Growlithe, Arcanine,
Crobat,
Mareep, Flaafy, Ampharos,
Bellossom,
Azumarill,
Sudowoodo,
Jumpluff,
Aipom,
Wooper, Quagsire

[@XxCarroteenxX]

Call it petty, as soon as I saw jumpluff have to struggle on rival 2, I knew I probably had to intervene. I membered up: Give my boy Confusion.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Got it! Jumpluff needs his chance!

[@stevepierce227]

I was legit thinking the same thing that Jumpluff needed confusion. Looking forward to seeing it.

[@browncow5210]

Honestly, I'd love to see Jumpluff going forward with his proper moves. I used it in a grass only Crystal Nuzlocke, and it's got such a uniquely trolly playstyle. Excellent speed with sleep powder/leech seed and headbutt to flinch on wake up cheeses so much of the game. I even used it in Scarlet, and his old tricks still work. If you're giving it confusion, that's going to solve the Morty problem.

[@SkadingleMadongle]

Your Mom naming the dogs Henry and Etta is just genius

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Agreed, it was an absolutely brilliant move

[@K-H-28]

On the Quilava using smokescreen it's first turn - Rival 2 has the "Setup" trainer routine, which encourages stat modifying or status moves the first turn a pokemon is in battle. Shout-out to pimanrules for his video going over trainer AI and their battle prowess in gen 2 kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2eoZ4KXjMdqgrMsi=nWbhLVfDdl0EBqXI

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, it seems that he uses that personality when he doesn't have the guaranteed KO, from what I can tell, but I need to watch the pimanrules video

[@kaseywalton]

Forcing in the Bayleef is a great call, so you don't have to explain why the Pokémon would have still made it

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, I will be doing so redos of earlier Pokemon that faced Croconaw but may have had more trouble with Bayleef, and use the fact that I can change the Rival team in future runs

[@TheAnalyticalEngine]

Conciliatory belly rubs for the 2nd goodest boi, Growlithe Victory belly rubs for the goodest of good bois, Arcanine

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yes and yes!

[@stardf29]

SPOILER for quick recaps... ... ... Crobat: Supersonic + Screech works against Bugsy and Rival 2 with some luck. PASS Golbat: See Crobat. PASS Jumpluff: Can get past Bugsy's Scyther with some paralysis luck and Synthesis for healing, but with nothing to hit Rival 2's Gastly, it has to use Struggle, which leaves it with no options against Quilava. FAIL Bellossom: Access to only Grass moves puts it at too much of a disadvantage against Bugsy and Rival 2. FAIL Vileplume: Immunity to Poison allows Vileplume to Absorb-stall Kakuna and then Struggle against Bugsy with some paralysis support. Even then, the luck required for Rival 2 with paralysis and avoiding confusion damage is too much. FAIL Venomoth: Supersonic luck can beat Bugsy. Foresight allows its Normal moves to beat Gastly, and then Supersonic luck and disabling Ember allows Swift to beat Quilava. PASS Dugtrio: Can beat Bugsy's Scyther with Tri Attack getting a burn, and likewise with the rival's Croconaw. Against a theoretical Bayleef, might have to fish for a freeze from Tri Attack but still very likely possible. PASS Persian: As long as it avoids a String Shot, it can flinch-hax its way past Scyther, and then deals with Rival 2 without much trouble. PASS Quagsire: A Fury Cutter miss allows Quagsire to beat Bugsy, but Rival 2's Bayleef outspeeds and completely demolishes it with Razor Leaf; would require immense accuracy luck to win. FAIL Azumarill: Defense Curl + Rollout rolls all over Bugsy and even Rival 2's Bayleef. PASS Golduck: Some Confusion luck plus disabling dangerous moves like Fury Cutter and Razor Leaf helps Golduck get the wins. PASS Primeape: Rage gets past Bugsy, and Mud-Slap is needed to get past Gastly, with Karate Chop doing good damage against Bayleef. PASS Sudowoodo: Bugsy is easy, of course. Against Rival 2, need to have Gastly miss a Hypnosis to mimic the sleep-inducing move, at which point Rival 2 is doable. PASS Aipom: Swift deals good damage to beat Bugsy and Rival 2. PASS Ampharos: Thundershock easily deals with Scyther, and good stats allow it to beat Rival 2 without additional moves. PASS Flaafy: Beats Bugsy easily enough; Rival 2's Bayleef needs both paralysis luck from Thundershock and a lucky Razor Leaf miss. PASS Mareep: Bugsy is still no issue, but it takes too many turns against Bayleef and gives it too many opportunities even with paralysis. FAIL Growlithe: Gets past Bugsy with a lucky burn. However, it speed-ties against Croconaw and that keeps it from being able to reliably Bite-flinch it and letting it do too much against it. FAIL Final Results: PASS: 12 FAIL: 6 Bonus: Wooper w/Ancientpower, Amnesia, Ice Punch: Ancientpower gets past Bugsy, but then Amnesia and an Ice Punch freeze are needed to get past Bayleef after many attempts. PASS Psyduck w/Ice Beam: Ice Beam takes care of Scyther and Bayleef with minimal issue. PASS Future Sight: Whitney Arcanine: Whitney requires some luck with a Rollout miss and a Flame Wheel critical hit. PASS Won't be able to do these recaps for a few months, but I'll catch up with stuff when I can.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Thank you as always for the amazing recaps! You put so much work into these, and it's just incredible! But there's no need to worry, you're under no obligation!

[@DoctorNovakaine]

"Crobat and Golbat, two Pokémon that didn't do well in Gen 1" I'll say, Crobat did so poorly that it stopped existing in Gen 1. Vileplume has one advantage over Bellossom in that it's also part Poison-type, which is why it worked better against Bugsy. Sadly, not much help against the Rival. You know, it's worth pointing out that while we made light of Misty blocking exactly zero Pokémon from moving on in Pokémon Yellow, Rival 2 in Yellow was even more feeble, as it wasn't even that often that he was a significant stumbling block. Crystal's Rival 2 is an absolute menace in comparison. Disable and Foresight. The moves that start to become relevant in these challenges. Persian getting flinches is definitely helpful no matter what Rival he goes against. Quagsire runs into a wall...made of leaves. A-ZOO-ma-RILL is how I always pronounced it, but I don't remember what the Pokémon Stadium 2 announcer said it as. Not very good in Gen 2, but it really gets helped out in later gens with its ability Huge Power, which just straight up doubles its attack power. So like your level 14 Azumarill going into Bugsy has 54 Attack rather than 27. Even with just Tackle, that's gonna hurt. (And then imagine pairing that with Defense Curl Rollout...) Teo: "Look, we are going to do whatever it takes to get a danged Wooper through this game, because it is FUNNY." Also, obligatory "how does it learn Ice Punch when it has no arms" Growlithe failing by the narrowest of margins is almost painful. Arcanine seems to have all the luck. Next time: Graveler and Golem wail in agony as they're pelted by leaves.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, RIP.... But suffice it to say if we did put Crobat into Gen 1, it still would be pretty bad

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

I agree about the typing for Vileplume helping on Bugsy a ton, but if it just had Sleep Powder at Level 5 (like it did in Gen 1) it would be incredible. Time for a trade-forth run?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Rival 2 is legit hard in Gen 2. Fwiw, the Red/ Blue Rival 2 is actually harder in most cases than the Rival 2 in Yellow, since he has type-effective moves with his starter, though still no smart AI. I would say that Rivals 2-3 are generally much better in Crystal

[@aaron3537]

You had crazy luck on the Growlithe attempt, and if you would've switched to Swift instead of Bite on the last attack, you would've knocked him out, since he has higher attack and also Zubat has lower Defense.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, I think that was the only time I saw Zubat though, every other attempt Croconaw wrecked

[@aaron3537]

@@GSCPokemonChallenges yeah the odds are so low that you'd ever get there, so it makes sense that it would still fail

[@stevepierce227]

Great stuff man, continuing to love this series! One suggestion would be to do KZbin chapters for each pokemon you are doing so it is easier for guys like me to find where you attempted a specific pokemon if I ever want to rewatch because I want to remember how it did in that section, or if I want to reference it if I were to do my own minimum battle run with it. Not sure how long that would take, but I think it would be helpful.

[@stevepierce227]

With gen 2 breeding mechanics you can't give Wooper both Body Slam and Ancient Power, because there is no father that could pass down both moves. It wasn't until Gen 6 (I believe) when mother's could pass down egg moves as well making any egg move combination possible.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Fair point. I forgot how limited breeding in the Gen was

[@wesleymcjunkin6643]

Super excited for this!

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Hope you like it! It's a very long episode after 2 weeks off of the series!

[@Hushyluv]

I remember thinking Azumarill was a water rock type at first, as it always used rollout against me. then again i was 8 😅

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah there were tons of Pokemon that I couldn't remember the types of as a kid, so I just judged based on their moves or names....

[@BloodfelX]

So I was going to try and check the chances for Quagsire to get through the Bayleef fight with a damage calculator - but it turns out all the damage calculators that I use assume max stat experience, so I had to manually recreate the stats of the Quagsire and Bayleef. Just something that tickled me which I thought I would share. EDIT: For the record, the chance of Quagsire winning against Bayleef if entering the fight with more than 52 health is about 1% Or if you want to emulate the odds, in succession: Roll a 2 or higher on a six-sided die Roll a 5 or higher on a six-sided die, twice in a row Then land heads on a coin flip thrice in a row

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

So basically not very good and likely not going to happen within enough resets to win

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Love the dice throwing example, that's nuts!

[@1krubby]

With surf and rollout, Azumarill is gonna crush this game. The only snag is chucks poliwrath

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, Chuck will be interesting. Still, hit best move Dynamic Punch is only 50% accuracy, so I imagine something could work out there

[@celticv]

i will say from been sooo used to fighting every trainer too doing minimum battles it feels weird and most certainly no expert at doing these sort runs. but from my experience its kinda alarming the amount trainers you can avoid to me feels crazy . thanks for video again |:) i do realize we got a long way to go until we reach Whitney but do feel like she going be on big wall .

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, surprisingly few trainers are required until the Rocket storylines in Crystal. We had 5 required trainers for Falkner and now 8 required trainers for Bugsy/Rival 2. But compared to Gen 1 there were only 3 required trainers for Brock, but then you can fight up to 27 required trainers in the Misty section (because you can do Nugget Bridge and the SS Anne before you have to fight Misty.). And since there are only 4 required battles in the Whitney section, she is going to be very tough!

[@TheLeviathan1293]

I think there could be a special section for Pokemon that can beat the game on minimum battles with a choice for rival.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Might be fair to assess later

[@richardbucher3130]

Arcanine is my favorite pokemon as well , I think it can go far in this challenge, looking forward to the next video 🎉

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Ah yeah! I am working on it now!

[@thekakeking9400]

I love this series. I am enjoyer of both Johto and long videos.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

That's awesome, thanks for watching, there's much more to come!

[@EllieHellBelle]

I always pronounced it as A-zoo-muh-rill

[@Maliktheslowking]

I really like this series thanks for the cool videos

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Cheers thanks for watching!

[@orangefiberdrinkgaming]

Roleplays as Koga: Yes I am Koga. LMAO, that had me laughing. Btw I hope Golduck gets through this!

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Basically, lol. Golduck is here to put in some work

[@thekakeking9400]

56:48 Jamesy Proton!

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Sounds like a Jimmy Neutron character lol

[@thekakeking9400]

@@GSCPokemonChallenges Exactly

[@philipmurphy2]

Grass types is definitely the hard mode of Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Oh yeah, when we get to Erika I'll start doing grass solo runs, I expect pain...

[@17Master]

GameFreak looked at RBY and said "Bulbasaur had it too easy."

[@edwardnowakowski5990]

Working nights and happy to see this

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

This one is really long since we took a couple weeks off of the series. Hope you enjoy!

[@waterierStone]

Did you try testing using stun spore with bellossom while struggle strats? Like you can give 1pp of petal dance and stun spore to use it on the quilava. Cut plus stun spore might be able to get you past bugsy. I guess if too much luck is a fail then both of the oddish line fail. I think they could definitely both pass with only good para luck, and no bad confusion luck, but that's just as unlikely as 2 crits.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

I tried a lot of combinations of Petal Dance and Stun Spore. I could not get it to go with a bunch of attempts on Rival and Bugsy....

[@ILeikNormalTypes]

Looks like Spearow snuck into the Pass column after the solo challenge haha

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, I fixed after the fact

[@thereisahill3119]

I feel the Alaskam is going to have a hard time with feary cutter

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

It certainly could. It's likely one that needs to fight Rival 2 first, then go to Bugsy.

[@edwardnowakowski5990]

Was curious, and sorry if you’ve said this before, what’s your plan for the benchmarks for this series once the map opens up after you can surf? Will the segments be longer and have “can x Pokémon beat gyms 5-7?” Or do you have any midpoint benchmarks in mind?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

I am generally planning something along the lines of Jasmine Chuck and Pryce all in one go. I plan to keep things fairly even by having them all go to the Rocket Hideout in Mahogany and to fight the required battles in the Lighthouse and the trainers before Chuck, then take on the 3 Gym Leaders. The theory is that we should lose a decent number of Pokemon to Whitney, Morty and Rival 3, so the number of competitors should be much fewer. I also anticipate that most challengers by that point have no trouble with the Rocket Hideout, so that part will probably just be paid lip service in the video unless it's actually interesting for some reason

[@edwardnowakowski5990]

@@GSCPokemonChallenges nice, that’ll make for a fun video to watch. I’m kinda surprised you’re putting the lighthouse in that section and not Morty’s.

[@EllieHellBelle]

I can see it. From the aspect of running a lot of Pokémon, many of them will be able to get through without the side-track and backtracking. For Pokémon which need a little extra, they can do the Lighthouse early and take the time loss.

[@mathturtle37]

In your next section exploration: when you come back later for the rocket plotline the south entrance to the underground is blocked off so you must enter from the north. So the required fights are Donald and Teru, not the southern guys. The xp totals don't matter since there is no choice in who to fight. Edit for predictions: Kadabra/Alakazam - get through. May take some fury cutter luck but should be fine. Machop line - Machoke and Machamp get through. Rival 2's special attacks may be too much for Machop Poliwag line - Poliwrath gets through (starts with Body Slam IIRC). Politoed and Poliwhirl maybe depending on starting moves. Poliwag... what level does it get Hypnosis? If it has that then maybe. Victreebel - pretty sure it has Sleep Powder and Razor Leaf. Let us know how it feels to be the one using the high-crit grass move. Tentacool line - Tentacruel gets through. IIRC tentacool's starting set sucks (bubble/constrict?) so I think it fails. Graveller/Golem - 4x weak to Razor Leaf so they fail Rapidash - Might struggle with Rival 2 but probably has the raw stats to power through for now Murkrow - Gets through (decent offenses and fast level up rate with no major weaknesses in this section)

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Ah, fair point about the underground!

[@Auron3991]

Before watching, I'm going with Quagsire-line getting wrecked by Rival 2. 4x weakness to Razor Leaf is a heck of a wall. Jumpluff may manage due to grass-type shenanigans, but it will not be pretty. I'm also dropping Mareep in the fail prediction on the back of low stats and Bayleef matchup. Other than those three, I think the rest can make it.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

All fair arguments. Let's find out!

[@ericwolf9664]

In addition to being a better mascot for koga, crobat helps develop an other underwhelming bst for golbat, and be good narrative tool for the conclusion with the rival, presuming you ever do the optional rival fight in Mt. Moon.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

That's fair. But, who fights optional battles?

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Drat, this isn't RBY Pokémon Challenges!!!

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Zounds!

[@135forte]

Wooper/Quagsire are amphibians, aquatic and land creatures. Specifically, they are something like a mudpuppy, so being water/ground makes as much sense as some of the other typings they gave us. Why is the cryptid based Dunsparce Normal?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

I guess I can understand that. Still, it's a rough typing to have in this spot. Dunsparce is an enigma built purely on Rage...

[@bitterzombie]

Dunsparse is one of those pokemon like chansey that should have been made fairy type, but just wasnt for some reason

[@bitterzombie]

I would have it be fairy/ground tbh. Pokedex says its a groundsnake pokemon, but its not a ground type either

[@135forte]

@@bitterzombie en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuchinoko

[@135forte]

@@bitterzombie Chansey is better for not being Fairy.

[@Spudmay]

YEEEEEESAASSSSS now I have something to do for a few days lol

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Glad to provide something interesting to watch!

[@Spudmay]

​@@GSCPokemonChallengesyo, you said you live in Japan right? I moved here a few months ago, and I feel like the aesthetic choices in gen2 resonate with me so much more now that I'm seeing it. I'm in the Aomori prefecture, and I'm liking it

[@felicityc]

jumpluff supremacy

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Jumpluff is going to be pretty tough with an egg move

[@belodie]

Re Mareep, I assume the extra Swift damage from the Pink Bow doesn't offset the Berry's HP recovery? Also where do you first get access to the PSNCUREBERRY?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, the additional damage is just insufficient. I haven't really found any cases where the Pink Bow made the difference so far. We get the PSNCUREBERRY from the tree next to Mr. Pokemon's House

[@belodie]

@@GSCPokemonChallenges In that case, could you use it in the Rival 2 Bayleaf battle? Or would it just use Poison Powder twice in a row? (2 turns of poison seems to do >10HP damage, while Berry restores 10, so 2 turns without poison seems like it would be better HP-wise)

[@jackruby6696]

What’s the name of the song at the ending credits?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Golden Goose

[@brolsroyceyt2362]

Sudowoodo 🎉🎉

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

He got this!

[@birdbrain7485]

Dumb question but, does poison powder not work on Gastly ?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, it's poison type so can't be poisoned.

[@Salnax]

Why do you always take the long route for Fartetch’eld?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Force of habit. What's the better route?

[@Salnax]

@@GSCPokemonChallenges You push Farfetch'd normally until it is near the ledge so that you can approach it from the right. It saves maybe 5 or 10 seconds, so it's not that big a deal.

[@SkyBot-vv9ug]

Jonesing for another video

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Working on it!

[@SkyBot-vv9ug]

Can’t wait. Best content out there right now

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

@@SkyBot-vv9ug Thank you! I am recording now and will likely have the edit done next week, after the Hoothoot run!

[@Trinthegay]

You're pronouncing Azumarill as Azu and Marril, and I get why you would seeing as Marril is its pre-evolution, but it's actually pronounced Azuma-rill. With the 'ri' making the same sound as the double e's in 'eel'

[@bitterzombie]

Pronunciation of pokemon names is pretty variable. Literally everyone pronounces "Gyarados" wrong, they just say it like the "y" is silent, but its technically pronounced "Gi-yar-ah-dos", not "Gair-ah-dos". People comment on pronunciation all the time, but I feel like as long as everyone knows what pokemon youre talking about, its not that big of a deal

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, I think there needs to be an official pronunciation guide somewhere

[@BossKaio]

Um GSCPC, there is one question to ask,where are you getting a surf user because I'm not sure where a scripted surfer is found at. Beyond that, love the series

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

RIP, was thinking that I usually pick up a sentret so I'm fine 😂

[@BossKaio]

@@falsnamae3511 So here's the next question, how are you getting the water stone in pokemon Crystal because besides mystery gift and bill's grandfather, you have to fight an optional trainer to get his number to eventually acquire it