How many Pokemon beat Falkner without Optional Battles? - Episode 5: Grass and Bugs

Minimum Battles is the ultimate challenge. But how many Pokemon can beat the first Gym of Gen 2 on Minimum Battles?
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:
Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume,
Paras, Parasect,
Venonat, Venomoth,
Natu, Zatu,
Mareep, Flaaffy, Ampharos,
Bellossom

[@shaunduggan8605]

You are very skilled at this, you're very* clearly enjoying it, and the positivity & joy that come across make for great watching. I've said it in another comment already, but you're also pretty good at talking through what's happening, enough so that it can just be listened to. I hope the channel blows up!

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Thank you so much 😊

[@JessicaS-xv8oe]

Something funny about your imposter syndrome is that I didn't know about your rby challenge, that I started with this and I already enjoy it. I'm gonna check up your other channel once I catch up on this.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Lol, hey, I'm glad you're here and enjoying!

[@ShadyScienceFeline]

Not at the latest video yet, but I wanted to make a note of this before I forget: I believe I’ve heard that Bird Keeper Abe (and possibly all bird keepers, I’m not sure) has “aggressive” AI, making him strongly prefer attacking moves over status moves. If this is true, that’d explain why he never goes for Growl or Leer. For the future of these runs in particular, it might be worthwhile to learn about the gen 2 AI modifiers in order to figure out when it’s possible to luck out with a bad move selection from the AI and when not.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

For sure, but a lot of the point of this is just learning as I go. It's pretty easy to see the tendencies of AI within a few runs/resets

[@mackowens7234]

Wow I can't believe Vileplume beat Falkner! That's crazy!

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Not easy, but we got the right luck to make it work.. In a lot of these, Abe keeps us honest but if we get past him there is a good chance!

[@DoctorNovakaine]

The benefits of Medium Slow are definitely on display here. It's kind of a contrast to the RBY videos, where I don't feel like it matters as much. Which I think makes sense considering the walls in play. Geodude is just too bulky to deal with for a lot of RBY mons, and at minimum battles levels one level probably isn't going to affect the damage numbers much, particularly if you're relying on Normal moves. But with the much frailer Spearow, an extra point or two of Attack/Special Attack can make the difference between needing one bit of luck or two. The Pokemon that get the privilege of an additional level before going in benefit pretty heavily. And considering that can add up to a difference of two levels going into Falkner...yeah, I think the level calculus is a bigger deal this early in Gen 2 versus Gen 1. It might not remain that way for too long, considering individual levels have less effect as the total level rises, but I guess it could still be a factor in the Bugsy fight.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Definitely this. Getting to level 8 and 10 also add damage rounding thresholds, which are far more important here since the opponents (usually) don't resist our attacks

[@stardf29]

SPOILER for quick recaps... ... ... Vileplume: Needs paralysis luck and luck to not hit itself after Petal Dance to push through (a crit helps). PASS Bellossom: Just when it seemed Spearow was a bit too much, Bitter Berry to the rescue! Needs more paralysis luck but gotta love the alternate item strats. PASS Gloom: Doesn't even get anything to facilitate cheese strats, so Spearow easily takes it out. FAIL Oddish: Auto-FAIL Parasect: 4x Flying weakness = insta-death. FAIL Paras: Auto-FAIL Venomoth: Wait, why are Peck and Gust super-effective against it? Isn't it a Psychic-Flying type? Jokes from other channels aside, Supersonic + Disable lets it cheese past the Spearow, and then it just needs good confusion luck against Pidgeotto. PASS Venonat: No Supersonic, and Disable doesn't last long enough for Venonat to take Spearow down. FAIL Ampharos: Not even some mud from Pidgeotto can stop Ampharos's electric assault. PASS Flaafy: AI shenanigans means Pidgeotto didn't use Mud Slap, but considering how strong Flaafy's Thundershock is, it wouldn't have mattered. PASS Mareep: Tackle, Growl, and a Flying resist are enough to get to Falkner, and thankfully it learns Thundershock right before fighting him, which makes him trivial even with some mudslinging. PASS Xatu: Shows Spearow that it's the superior pecker, and then pecks through the rest of the gym. PASS Natu: Needs one crit to get past Spearow, and needs multiple crits for Falkner, which is too inconsistent. FAIL Final Results: PASS: 7 FAIL: 6

[@raptors11111]

Loving this series man! Thanks for doing it. Been binging it the past few days to catch up

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Glad you like them! It will continue. There is just a little detour this week for 1k celebration! 🥳

[@raptors11111]

@@GSCPokemonChallenges cool, that sounds great!

[@AndyTheVandy]

That bellossom redemption was crazy... Bitter Berry strats are best strats

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, this was a case of my learning on the fly - as a Feb 1 player, I wouldn't have any options there normally, but berries make a massive difference in some fights.

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

Bitter Bery removes confusion. Lowering foe's evasion can ensure that powder moves hit.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

That is something I need to mess with more. Sweet Scent strats could be incredibly broken...

[@bentendo_]

just recent found RBY challenges and now i’m finding GSC too?! RSE Challenges when? lol

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Not quite yet, not enough time for all of them yet

[@ryanbenedetti-kp2yx]

My favorite generation is 3, but yeah it's always a slaug, it's just a longer game(s), would be awesome to see Ruby or Sapphire material though since everyone does Emerald, though I will say Emerald has all the additional content everyone loves, as goes with all the definitive editions of the games. But there's something about RS that always brought me in

[@myhandleiswhat]

I'm trying to do damage calcs, but, it seems like no damage calculator lets you input custom stats for each stat to calculate damage with. Smogon's damage calculator swears that Peck never OHKOs and then there's another calculation I tried that says it has an 8% chance of not KOing. Even if you somehow survived on 2 HP with Parasect, you'd have to have Spearow get fully paralyzed until you KO'd it, which Smogon says it should KO after 5 hits with Scratch. I might try to see if I could make a damage calculator that lets you ignore stat experience entirely and just input the stats and damage formula. It's pretty frustrating that gens 1 and 2 don't have proper damage calculators (or if there are any, I can't find them). I just know my coding is rusty and my math isn't the best usually. I'd have to start by being able to get the same damage range results as Smogon's and then see if my other numbers are accurate. I mean, I'm lead to believe the speed running community has to run damage calcs sometimes, I don't know why there wouldn't be at least some kind of web calculator.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

For sure. I never use damage calculators. I think Psypokes has a decent one, but I could be wrong...

[@Muzgrob]

50/80. Very good progress so far. It will be interesting to see how many make it through gym 1 but dont make it through Johto. The end of this series will be so interesting. Especially when we get to like 10/251 at Red.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Definitely. I think unlike Kanto, Johto will gradually pare down the challengers as we progress. I remember on my first playthrough Whitney and Jasmine being walls, granted I was a kid just playing for fun.

[@EllieHellBelle]

The reason for Chikorita being the default divan is actually move choice. Bayleef+ gets Razor Leaf, while Croconaw+ and Quilava+ only have water gun and ember for a long time, making them far weaker than they first appear. Feraligatr still has Water Gun when you fight it at Mount Moon!

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

I see. I was assuming that Rage would make Croconaw harder, but I see the point

[@philipmurphy2]

GSC Pokémon Challenges, This should be interesting.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Always interesting when Philip Murphy is here with me!

[@madselias6939]

Can't wait for minimum battles against red😵‍💫

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Will get there eventually

[@rennyjesus]

Hey Teo! A guy inside the house near the berry tree on route 30 gives you another berry, so you can have an extra berry for Falkner's gym

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yep, I added that in the most recent set of runs

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

4 crits is 1 in 65,536

[@nautgamingnautgaming9949]

Vileplume is really good id path rocket paras in bugsy gym rival for cut AND bugsy Bugsy doesn't have the greatest way to deal with grass poison either Ive used vileplume in gen 3 AND it did surprisingly WELL against Winona with AND the psychic gym with sun strats Wattson through Flannery was the WORST and a huge problem for EVERY grass type

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Yeah, I'm interested to see how it goes with Bugsy given Poison is not weak to Bug anymore.

[@PKMNwww411_MkII]

Do Pikachus dream of Electric Mareep?

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

They'd have to, right? 😂

[@SNWWRNNG]

What are your rules on delaying a run to gather berries repeatedly? Since Berry Trees grow new berries over time you could have unlimited berries (of various kinds) for the rest of the game.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

That is something that I will go back and mess with. In the fi at iteration, at least, I will generally avoid doing so

[@dragonslayerz2220]

I think of the next 13, Mankey and Growlithe will fail. Maybe also Marill and Diglett.

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

I have finished the runs... They are quite interesting! Should be out this weekend.

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Hey Teo you ever notice how in Faulkners gym the floor layout with the trainers is shaped like a US dollar sign $

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Right? Falkner is all about that paper 💰

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Iktr.. it would be a very interesting region difference if he changes his floor based on the region the game was released in (like ¥ for Japan and £ for the UK and € for the rest of Europe)

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

That would be awesome if they did that. Don't think it's the case though

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

Hi Teo

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Hi adventureoflinkmk2!

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

What up

[@Neo_Bones]

This comments thread takes me all the way back to 2010

[@GSCPokemonChallenges]

Seriously, but adventureoflinkmk2 follows on my main channel, so were already cool with each other 😂