No Guard might be one of the best solo challenge abilities...

Rules:
1. Only my starter in battle
2. No items in battle, except held items
3. No glitches, exploits, or save states
4. No movepool evasion-boosting moves before level 100*
Rule details:
-- I make no attempt to have the exact same rule details between generations.
-- I am allowed to manipulate my starter
-- I play the game at 4x game speed
-- For fair comparisons my Pokemon have perfect (or near perfect) DVs / IVs
-- I am allowed to catch HM users - I can use all field moves
-- Evasion boosting is allowed if the move is not obtained from the Pokemon’s movepool. For example, using Mimic or Mirror Move to boost evasion is allowed.
-- Surge's trash-can-puzzle is automatically solved
-- The bike is allowed in gen1 & 4, banned in gen2, and allowed only to bypass terrain in gen3
-- Saving between league members is allowed
-- I can pause the game and timer to take breaks
-- Items obtained with the ability Pickup can only be used if the starter obtained them
-- The footage is sped up & slowed down to match the pace of my narration
These Rule details apply only to generation 1:
-- All battle-mechanic glitches are allowed (glitches that occur outside of battle are banned)
-- In generation 1, I'm allowed to skip Marowak with the Poke Doll
If you didn’t read these rules and left a comment. Thanks for helping with the algorithm.
Patreon: / scottsthoughts
KZbin memberships:
/ @scottsthoughtspokemon
X: / psychicflying
Thumbnail art by BrianLS: / brianlsart
Illustrations by Sarina Vail: / sarinavail
Video Editing by Shawn McMullen
STAB: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
DVs / IVs: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Damage Calculation: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Stat and Catch Calculators: pycosites.com/pkmn/index.php
Gen1 Crit Rates: www.smogon.com/rb/articles/cr...
Growth Rates: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Learnsets: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...
Base Stats: bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wi...)
If you're new around here, Venomoth is a Psychic/Flying type, you can't change my mind.

[@JJSSBU]

"And Machop gets what feels like almost every Fighting type move" And yet they STILL can't learn Drain Punch to this day...

[@Buddy26420]

they can in Legends Arceus

[@Joker22593]

Pretty sure I move-tutored it in ORAS. Maybe I don't remember.

[@imogenvespertine2096]

You forgot Stone Edge which is in Victory Road. It would have guaranteed a one-shot on Togekiss and been another 100 base power move to hit things for at least neutral damage with when you couldn't Dynamic Punch. Not sure if Ice Punch is needed like you said in the E4, Rock Slide and later Stone Edge cover the flying types that are a problem as well as bug types, the only thing its more effective against than one of those moves is Garchomp, and even then, favorable confusion from Dynamic Punch might still be faster than having to go through all the time it takes to get shards and go to the move tutor.

[@ShiningJudgment666]

And Gliscor. Garchomp and Gliscor are quite bulky too so being able to trivialize them helps.

[@myggmastaren3365]

Machamp + no guard + dynamic punch = win

[@veghesther3204]

It is but MOVES may still miss IE using Normal/Fighting moves even on GHOST types may possibly still not work despite that No Guard = a 100% HIT rate.

[@Trinthegay]

​@@veghesther3204 Yeah, No guard isn't scrappy, no one claimed it to be.

[@alexrobinet7576]

I see you too are a dynamic punch enjoyer.

[@veghesther3204]

That's why its not totally Broken since while No Guard would make moves like Dynamic Punch never miss it would still NOT work on immune types like the Ghost types and theirs at least 1 Ghost gym.

[@minzekatze]

@@veghesther3204 pokemon if coverage wouldnt exist

[@domc55]

I just noticed in this playthrough that when you changed the colors of the stats for your pokemon, you didn't change the color of the opposing pokemon's stats to correspond so I was getting confused when trying to compare some of your stats to the opposing pokemon stats. I also think it'd be better to either move your pokemon's speed to be at the bottom of the second column or to move the opposing pokemon's speed to be above the spA and spD, because the speed being at the end of their stat block but in the middle of yours also led to some confusion when I was comparing machamp's speed to Lucian's team's. I know you take a lot of pride (rightfully so!) in your overlay, so just two suggestions that I think could enhance clarity a bit. Awesome video either way though, this one was a lot of fun! No guard is a super cool ability!

[@shirounshiroun7555]

Seconding the suggestion on having Scott's pokemon's speed as the last stat, even if it makes it so that Atk/SpA and Def/SpD aren't next to each other anymore!

[@TastyMeerkat]

Venomoth Fact #25: Even Venomoth went "Damn..." and needed to take a moment the first time they saw Cynthia. On that day, Venomoth learned that divine beings can come into existance without the aid of other divine beings, something Venomoth thought was exclusive to themself and Arceus.

[@vincentsterel6448]

Just to correct you on something, Scott - you get one of each coloured shard for each star piece you trade to Mr. Fuego in the Fuego Ironworks.

[@MFMegaZeroX7]

Scott continually forgets this run that fighting type super effective against dark. I keep flinching every time you use earthquake against a Houndoom instead of dynamic punch haha.

[@PureStealth]

Mm PP was a big factor on this one though, it's possible he went with eq since the extra power wasn't needed and he needed to conserve PP

[@Dolph1nRacer]

I love that Ace Trainer Dennis gives us another gen to acknowledge Denis in the chat. Thanks Denis. Also, the bit with the Bidoofs and Starlys flying across the screen was hilarious.

[@PillzmansFox]

6:08 thats exactly why you should have 100% catch rate, if you throw a ball first turn its not the pokemon's fault if the enemy breaks out but it lowers the pomemon's placement if your luck is bad

[@skeetermania3202]

It is something a player could be accountable for, though, as he could plan the run better by going in at a lower level so he could weaken the Pokémon without KOing it. This is one reason I find the stipulation of encounter manipulation to be questionable, as a player still has some sort of influence. It feels kinda robotic in a way.

[@funkydirk3797]

So fun fact(at least in earlier games) trade evos got their moves at the same level as their pre evo forms.

[@sopadumacacoumadelicia5]

Never had I thought that I'd hear Scott saying that Rock Tomb of all moves would be useful 😂

[@rooislangwtf]

Scott kept commenting Rock Tomb like it could miss lol (like in the Fantina fight)

[@ShiningJudgment666]

It's still very weak though.

[@KisiroKitsune]

I've been watching your videos for a few weeks now and I just wanted to say I really appreciate your editing. The whole shebang: the stats, movelists, all the artwork moving across the screen. It's really fantastic presentation.

[@Ladylover69420]

My favorite Pokemon of all time. I am very excited for this one!

[@lenlimbo]

Yay, you are finally using the move tutors!

[@FNJones88]

Great video, Scott!

[@ShadowKibago]

Been a while since I've passed by this channel Glad to see you're doing Pt runs now

[@-MelodyMoment-]

i like this mucch more then a "CAN YOU BEAT POKEMON WITH ONLY A LEVEL 2 MAGIKARP" type videos. its still a challenge but its fun to see one pokemon against the world instead of somebody yapping about leveling up to level 100 on their weedle

[@elifretty1018]

I can’t wait to see the eggceptional videos to come

[@sepg5084]

If Machamp had better IVs maybe it would have fared better.

[@PraefMace]

Didn't know No Guard had that secondary effect related to encounter rates! Interesting. Also.... you know. DROOOOPPED MY BALLSSSS

[@lz_paige]

It's really interesting seeing how you talk about Lucian in your solo runs. It goes to show how different enemies create different challenges because, while he is consistently the easiest Elite 4 member for you, he is considered one of the scariest run killers in Platinum nuzlockes. I think it comes down to the fact that your level advantage mitigates the impact of screens and makes his glass cannons less threatening since you have more Speed and SpDef.

[@spencerjohnson2462]

It didn't matter in the end, but in the champion fight, I think using dynamic punch to confuse the togekiss would give you a slightly better chance of winning than using rock slide to flinch, since rock slide has a 30% chance to flinch while the guaranteed confusion from dynamic punch has a 50% chance to cause the togekiss to hurt itself. And the two moves have the same effective power, since togekiss is still normal flying in this generation.

I totally feel you for the psyduck encounter. When I recently played White 2, I spent over a bloody hour looking for Joltik, the 39% encounter in chargestone cave (Floor 1). Found 3 Tynamo at 2% and even more Boledor at 5%. I was furious.

[@iskander0725]

So, this was in an era where I was in college and thus had my first real access to friends who I could trade Pokemon. Man, I had a curated No Guard Machoke just ready for that day. Machamp is an absolute unit in Gen. 4. Glad you used him today! Before I finished the video, I'm guessing top 4 time in the ranks. Hope I'm right.

[@ChrisZi.]

Good Job Scott

[@perkypenguin1663]

It's cool seeing a non-Gen 4 Pokemon appear in this tier list. I especially like that you got to use No Guard, which is indeed fun

[@Speedrunner0218]

If you want to allow traded pokemon to evolve the universal randomizer has a setting for that to where you can change it to where they only need a level up instead.

[@bluethemew9273]

Probably my fav things about these videos with shinies it feels like a special episode but also you can tell when using the shinies it helps gives a slight advantage for when you later play the real episode for the Pokémon but it very much feels like when you do get a shiny how the Pokémon might play if we randomly caught it on a playthrough team then a solo run and why it’s always a good/decent Pokémon to get

[@tobarf2940]

Will you do another machop line platinum run eventually? Since the shiny didnt have the best nature and IVs?

[@SuperCosmicSpaceMagnet]

The No Guard Fissure Machamp legend lives on.

[@browncow5210]

Reminds me of when Platinum first came out. My brother kept a Machamp on his team that had foresight in its moveset. He used it to make Spiritomb tangible and punch it in the face for super effective damage.

[@minzekatze]

i would love to see some runs or a run where you start with a pokemon that can be traded in game and play it till its tradeable and then continue with the traded pokemon

[@hYRo144]

Love the dusclops edit

[@mrinfinity5557]

Remember, this was with a sub-optimal machamp. It was shiny (longer animation) with sub optimal iv's, and a bad hidden power (even though i dont think hidden power would be useful). Id say theres at least 8 ish minutes that it lost due to these factors.

[@zaakutv862]

Gen 4 always brings the most fun challenges for me. I’m interested to foresight strats. Plus machop is one of my favorites so I’m glad the line gets some love(MACHOKE SHINY THO)

[@popcorngenerator1925]

Yes! Machamp! My favourite pokemon since I got the intro pokemon TCG set back,... got 25 years ago or something? It came with a holofoil Machamp card, and since then I've loved fighting pokemon.

[@dannykrise9721]

This seems like a perfect opportunity to run this again with a perfect iv machamp to compare time and measure the impact ivs have on a pokemon. For science.

[@branf1993]

My first shiny was geodude just through the building on the first route on heart gold. Didn't have any poke friends but god I loved that gravler

[@Ruesen]

I never used no guard since i always felt like it made my pokemon too easy to hit, but this was an interesting journey!

[@blakelonestar]

I haven’t been keeping up with Platinum. Think eventually there will be multiple playthroughs with multiple abilities? Or just picking which one would be best at the start like selecting a nature?

[@BubbaJoeSwag]

Is intimidate showing up properly on the overlay? I noticed while watching the crasher wake fight that the -1 appears but the stat itself doesn’t change.

[@shigeru6282]

I want to make those sorts of run in hgss would your overlay for gen 4 work in those games and if yes then is there a way to get access to it?

[@auraswan951]

Honestly, I believe as long as you are consistent with your rules for trade evo Pokemon, you are fine with however you decide..... I know this is far off, but I'm kinda excited to see a Kerrablast Vs Shelmet BW video.... (Especially since they need to be traded with each other, it'll be fun to watch how you problem solved with them!). As for your comment on Pokemon released in the current Gen you're playing, I think BW vs B2W2 will be interesting to hear about when you do decide to debut Gen 5 (which I'm guessing will probably be next year or the year after....)

[@alexblack300]

i freaking love this game

[@PojoLoneWolf]

At 26:32 you compliment the developers on the elemental punches as you walked through a flower field. You could’ve made an on the nose joke with your compliment and “given the developers their flowers” 😂😂😂

[@THEdeadlynightshade1646]

Would the shell bell help with th whole chip damage thing?

[@Dpmt]

For Gardenia, I wonder if the Machop being lighter would have offset the lower special defense to make Grass Knot weaker. Worth double checking for this.

[@KimFareseed]

I did not know that No Guard had an out of battle effect. 20:15 Always found it odd that Gligar became purple in Platinum, when it normaly is pink. Night time shading to try to link it with Gliscor?

[@thediminished98]

Machamp yes, but in gen 1 😁. It is good at the start and at the end you teach it ice punch thunder punch and a badge boost glitch move

[@green90s]

Does the shiny animation factor into the real time as well? Isn't there like a little glistening animation whenever a shiny enters combat?

[@ZerglingOne1]

Hey Scott, I don't know if you realize, but the stat colors on the opponent pokémon are the old colors. Loved the Machamp performance this go-around.

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Yeah I’ve fixed it in more recent recordings. There wasn’t a way to correct it in post without ungodly amounts of effort.

[@LughSamildanach]

So what's the reasoning behind the player mon and the enemy ones having different colours for their stat backgrounds?

[@Ceriva09]

how much time did the shiny sparkling add over the run for each battle do you know that ?😅

[@thiffio9134]

There’s also Butterfree with the Compound Eyes, which is basically similar to No Guard. Imagine a Compound Eyes Butterfree + Stun Powder, Supersonic and Attract = broken. Please don’t ban.

[@tsawy6]

That set is kinda ass bro. You can't paralyse and sleep at the same time and even confuse ray is rarely worth using. Plus you need attacks! Anyways, Scott plays butterfree first in every gen! There's a platinum playthrough from late last year.

[@sopadumacacoumadelicia5]

Sounds like a fun gimmick

[@celtyrysuje]

So how many minutes went into just playing the shiny animation and sound?

[@stevencamphuis4419]

i would like to see a race between a no guard machamp and a guts matchamp

[@legendx8365]

I wanna see you redo with guts might be fun

[@Shenaldrac]

Hold on. How did you OHKO Byron's Bastiodon? It has Sturdy doesn't it? Your overlay says it does. So you can't kill it in one hit. I've lost so many times to it hanging on with 1 HP and then knocking me out with Metal Burst. What's going on?

[@bobosmith101]

Please make sure to have something in the title so this playthrough can be looked up! Also, A Tier non-perfect Machamp is crazy, and there was tons of room for optimization!

[@Silvitewolf]

since you drew attention to 69... you are so close to 69k subs

[@jinxtheunluckypony]

Oh hey, you actually used Rock Tomb as a speed control move against Roserade. The Gen 3 AI would be proud.

[@crazyjessi89]

No Guard is my favorite ability. With Stone Edge and Dynamic Punch ❤

[@jackieboy8923]

Id be very curious to see how good nature and IVs, and a lack of lost time to shiny animations would improve Machamp. Already an incredibly solid run

[@Chronoflation]

Is scope lense in Platinum? Cause no guard + scope lense + cross chop = tons of critical. Focus energy would make it always crit, I believe, though that might be a wasted turn for some battles

[@oskararvidsson3709]

I thought dynamic punch had 100 base power. Maybe I am seeing it wrong but when he is attacking and have fist plate it has an effective power of 180. But thought it would be higher with same type attack bonus and the fist plate

[@rikaniebangbang]

I was hoping for a little bit of Machoke time. I prefer its design over Machamp for some reason. No Guard is so fun though, holyyyy

[@banditrests]

Weird revelation from bulbapedia, cross chop is fighting type stone edge. Or really, vice versa since cross chop was first.

[@Mrperson0]

Too bad it's impossible to get No Guard + Fissure on a Machamp.

[@blinkspot2667]

Well, you kind of can. You'd have to teach it Mimic as a Tutor move from gen 3

[@ostint912]

@@blinkspot2667that’s still just having mimic not anything else

[@Mrperson0]

@@blinkspot2667 Pretty sure NPCs don't have Fissure as a move in later gens, but I could be wrong and there is a one off NPC in Gen 4 through 8 with it.

[@bobosmith101]

Gen 1 FissureChamp. Too bad you can't preserve movesets anymore.

[@Mrperson0]

@@bobosmith101 Gen 1 Machamp can only transfer with its hidden ability, it can never have No Guard.

[@Spikkle]

Suprised you didn't know about No Guard until this challenge

[@TheMoogleKing93]

If you ever use another ability with a negative overworld effect you can mitigate them by having another pokemon fainted in the first slot, if that's compatible with your rules.

[@dudeist_priest]

Machop was my first (non-gyrados) shiny as a kid! I found it by Lake of Rage so I just thought it was a glitch forever

[@user-xc4ww4dy3k]

Great video Scott! Question, does the AI “know” you have No Guard? I wonder if the AI ever rolled a miss with one of their moves and chose not to use it, not knowing that it would have hit because of No Guard?

[@Smileyrat]

I wonder how much time was lost to the shiny animation?

[@danielearley8826]

Wow fantina would have been a nightmare without substitute

[@kayoh9364]

It might be easy to say in hindsight, but Shell Bell might make hard fights like the Sky Pillar Double, Cynthia, and Lucian more consistent. It might also save time going back for healing during routes?... Then again, you probably lose more time from going through the healing animation.

[@34autobot]

Is there any reason why you weren't using vital throw against Turtwig? It seems like that would have just knocked out Turtwig since it's stronger that Karate chop

[@pommyadam]

also think the "shiny" animation would have an impact to GameTime as well, would be curious to see how the non-shiny version would compare

[@SaintoftheHonest]

You can get Ice Punch for Machop before you face the second gym, I don't see why Torterra would be hard to face at all. Side note: Yes, Flint and Volkner are childhood friends and rivals. In the anime, Volkner even saves Flint from being attacked by another trainer while his Chimchar was weakened.

[@f0rm0r]

wow, it's me, Lexi. I totally destroyed that pokémon platinum playthrough

[@coolguy48457]

You should pause timer when hunting for hm pokemon so it doesnt skew results.

[@JustSpag]

>"Dusclops" Hey at least you got the right evolution line.

[@arcuscotangens]

D! E! L! E! G! A! T! O! R! Delegator!

[@765craven4]

At around 26:00 you talk about a limited supply of Shards. I don't know if you have a rule against using it (at least not in the description of the video) but the Underground, accessed with the Explorer Kit, does give access to unlimited Shards of all types. It would be potentially tedious to acquire them but if you need just one Shard to get a Tutored move it would be a good way to get them.

[@popcorngenerator1925]

Just my own experience, but it seems like shiny pokemon always have really odd nature's. I've caught 4. Only 2 were after gen 2. One was a +SP attack - defence geodude. The other was a - attack snubbull...

[@nassimfortas3057]

Great video! I don't know if it can be of any help but at 36:29 the espeon has a displayed speed stat of 142 and still outspeeds so maybe the stat table isn't completely right^^

[@ScottsThoughtsPokemon]

Wait, I’m confused. Machamp has 132, Espeon has 142 and it moves first… that is what the stat table suggests would happen… Also the stats are pulled from RAM in real-time, so they are the values the game is storing for each Pokémon, not collected / calculated data that I curated.

[@banditrests]

This evolution method is probably in the spirit of the games; I just wish they had kept the linking cord item from PLA. Now if only you had the forbidden no guard + fissure combo

[@foolish6520]

I forgot how much Scott hates bad accuracy 😂😂😂

[@DwunD016]

So, gible line when?

[@draykenly8418]

What is machamps IV? Also if it had Adamant or Jolly over Bold It would have gotten less resets

[@draykenly8418]

Also I would love to see same run but machoke

[@L4NkYb]

I wonder if the increasing counter rate could be considered machop getting overexcited and going and getting into fights

[@popcorngenerator1925]

Or just mindlessly blundering through the tall grass without a care in the world, disturbing all the pokemon

[@thedancingguy828]

Gen4 is fighting type revenge

[@RandalfElVikingo]

Gen 3 actually, Fighting is so broken there.

[@thedancingguy828]

@@RandalfElVikingo it's even more on gen5

[@britishpalmtree9268]

Scott, you're fantastic, seen me through some tough times, had a mild anxiety attack just before I got home and seeing this has made me feel so much comfortable. Thank you

[@somerandomgoblin2583]

hope you feel better!!

[@sopadumacacoumadelicia5]

I hope things get better KZbin user brithsh palm tree

[@cadencenavigator958]

What I'm wondering is why you didn't damage the Psyduck at all before throwing balls. That would've made catching it much easier.

[@sopadumacacoumadelicia5]

No Guard, if anything, reduces RNG greatly. I agree Scott, its very good so you can strategize without worrying about Rock Slide trolling you with its 90% accuracy

[@JacktheRah]

A green Machoke in Pokemon Diamond was my first and only shiny. It looked shit. I carried it with me anyways.😆

[@chapolinm_]

a small observation, confusion is a 50/50 chance to hit itself, so against Cynthia Dynamic Puncj is always better than Rock Slide for the much smaller flinch chance :)

[@MrEnte3000]

You can mine for Shards in the Underground.

[@JB-nj7nq]

Next year it'd be really funny if you played (or replay) the 69th Pokemon on june 9th 😂

[@michaelklos8089]

Also worth noting if you miss that date, most of the world uses the DD/MM/YY system so 6th Sep will also work there 😁🙃

[@theking5116]

I wonder how much better perfect IV machamp would've done