Soft Lock Picking: The Worst Bug Catcher Battle

What happens when you make the first Bug Catcher in Pokemon an impossible opponent?
Soft Lock Picking Playlist: • Soft Lock Picking
Twitch: / pikasprey
Gameplay Channel: / @pikaspreyblue
Twitter: / pikasprey

[@Eichro]

I really appreciate how Pikasprey is no longer satisfied with softlocking, instead coming up with escapable locks which require going through a Saw situation before escaping.

[@mikamo]

Well, this one’s easy, repeat the same steps, replace lvl 100 Weezing with lvl 2 Koffing (hatched from egg) who also only knows explosion (from move tutor).

[@shadowelza1923]

Pikasprey: You can leave when you solve this puzzle. And oh, you can’t restart the game from the beginning. You need to solve it

[@LunaAndPals]

Pikasprey I think: “I want to play a game.”

[@aydenmoorman720]

In Mario Maker, we call it an antisoftlock

[@anlev11]

Pseudo softlocks

[@stardf29]

There are a few ways to make this softlock even worse. First of all, you can obviously make the Weezing shiny. This just gives the shiny-lovers a bit of extra pain should they restart the file. Second, have the Weezing have both Explosion and Selfdestruct. One of the possible disobedience actions is the Pokemon using a move other than what you chose. With both exploding moves, even if Weezing's disobedience is to use a different move, it'd still explode anyway, which reduces the chance of a "successful" disobedience turn. You can also throw Memento on there, a move that makes the user faint while lowering the opponent's Attack and Special Attack by 2 stages each. That way, if that move gets chosen, you lose the battle and don't even get the satisfaction of knocking out the Weedle.

[@Elliasal]

That's some mustache twisting monocle adjusting evil right there! These would make good twitch streams just going till it can do it.

[@erich_ika]

Does the "use a different move" line of disobedience really pick a different move or does it pick any random move including the one selected by the player? Because if the latter is true, Self Destruct would not make a difference, as the disobedient Pokémon already had the option to pick Explosion. It's fair to assume that it always picks a different move, but I can't find information on that while trying to make my calculations.

[@erich_ika]

Also, the Memento idea is very funny, but it would increase the chances of escape significantly. Selecting Explosion and Self Destruct and then hitting yourself in confusion carries the effect of halving defense. If the player is selecting Memento, confusion damage would be a smaller factor in the escape

[@DJFracus]

You missed the obvious one which is not to use a Poison-immune Pokemon. If you use something that's not immune to Poison, you also have to get lucky with all 35 Poison Stings not inflicting Poison on you (even if the last Poison Sting does before Weedle starts using Struggle, the Poisoned Pokemon will faint before Weedle faint from Struggle). Bonus points for using a Ground Pokemon so you can't get it Paralyzed by a wild Pikachu first. You could also make it a lower level so that it's less likely to survive confusion damage.

[@CaelThunderwing]

r/foundsatan. that is a deliciously evil idea.

[@asteroidrules]

I love how this series has gone from "a softlock plausible enough that Nintendo directly addressed it" to "I put this ten year old kid in a saw trap."

[@splashmanej3]

lol

[@JoxyJoxyJoxyJoxy]

Softlock's kinda messed up when you think about it. A trainer is repeatedly telling the Weezing to kill itself, with the poor ball of fumes ignoring them

[@sirswagabadha4896]

Destruct yourself NOW

[@BlazingKhioneus]

LowTierTrainer moment

[@rickastley3033]

@@BlazingKhioneus YOU SHOULD USE SELF DESTRUCT NOW‼️

[@DeviousDingus]

​@@rickastley3033foul

[@bovinleephann6210]

And then it eventually gives into the voices

[@mariobrosaaproductions4332]

I wanted to find a probability to escape this softlock, so I've spent way too much effort looking into this. Here are the results of that effort. In the best case, we should have a Weezing with perfect HP and Defense EVs/IVs, 0 Attack EVs/IVs, and a Bold (+Def/-Atk) nature. To further sweeten the odds, we'll also assume the Weedle has 0-8 HP IVs. (Weedle's Attack IV and nature don't actually matter; the damage it deals is the same regardless.) In this case, Weezing has 334 HP, and Weedle has 26 HP. The damage values are as follows: - Weedle's Poison Sting deals 1 damage, with a 1/16 chance of dealing 2 damage. On a critical hit, it deals 3 damage, with a 1/16 chance of dealing 4 damage. - Weedle's Struggle deals 2 damage, with a 1/16 chance of dealing 3 damage. On a critical hit, it deals 5 damage, with a 1/16 chance of dealing 6 damage. Regardless, Weedle will always take 1 HP of recoil damage. - If Weezing hurts itself in confusion, it takes 26-31 damage (3/16 chance each of 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30, and 1/16 chance of 31). Here are the relevant probabilities when Weezing tries to attack: - It has a 37845/131072 (~28.9%) chance of going to sleep for 1-5 turns. - It has a 21547/65536 (~32.9%) chance of doing nothing. - It has a 37845/131072 (~28.9%) chance of hurting itself in confusion. - It has a 3/32 (~9.4%) chance of using Explosion successfully, immediately losing the battle. With these probabilities in mind, I ran 1,000,000 simulations of this battle in Python, and I won only 99 times, for a win rate of around 1 in 10,000. The average battle lasted ~17.576 turns, so if each turn takes ~10 seconds, then it takes, on average, ~20.3 days to escape this softlock.

[@CelticGuardian7]

Thank you for providing the answers to my internal questions. =D

[@selectivepontification8766]

Now do it with this specific Weezing (Brave nature, stats shown at 3:26)

[@Pyxis10]

You can do that in python? That's awesome, he should pin this comment

[@milsharkie]

What about the fact that Bug Catcher Sammy does not give enough money to buy a pokeball? To truly escape you would need to also defeat Brock or his Gym Trainer using the same method.

[@CelticGuardian7]

@@milsharkie Apparently there is a hidden Poké Ball that you can collect in Pewter City, according to some other comments.

[@thepoopenfarter]

One must imagine Pikasprey happy

[@calebjohnson9740]

Incredibly underrated comment

[@johnwhite5212]

Super Effective comment

[@austinlundahl5349]

One thing to note is that struggle in gen 3 only does 1/4 of damage dealt as recoil. So weedle would have to struggle whatever number it’s actual HP is because of how little dmg struggle would be doing

[@erich_ika]

That alone adds an extra 20 turns Weezing needs to not explode

[@Felix.Dragon.]

Actually, you don't even need to fight the Weedle. You can find a wild metapod that will start struggling in only 35 turns. Or a wild Pidgey that will start to struggle in 40 turns.

[@JacklynBurn]

@@Felix.Dragon. Sure, but that wouldn't get you out of the lock. The only way to progress is to beat the trainer without dying, because it's the only way you can get past and/or get money enough to buy a pokeball and get another pokemon (either to allow you to trade or just to use). Wild pokemon only give xp, and you can't level up because the weezing is level 100 (also making it so you can't learn another move).

[@yannikbuhler4980]

​@@JacklynBurnexactly! But I just thought of something helpful with a wild Pokémon. If you get paralyzed by a wild Pikachu you could skip 25% of turns entirely. I don't know how this works with the sleep from obedience issues tho...

[@Kalosianfire]

@@Felix.Dragon.but you’re still stuck after you defeat it, and you don’t get any money. What then?

[@mimminly]

God I love these videos about video game children needing to perform rigorous tasks to escape living their entire lives around people who will do absolutely nothing to help them get back home 💯💯💯

[@StirFryLP]

It's the funniest premise for a series and that's why I love it so much

[@fulltimeslackerii8229]

what does this even mean?

[@stephengleason3059]

​@fulltimeslackerii8229 I think they mean in the video game world as in the character is a child stuck in a hell of grinding because none of the other people (npcs) will help them out

[@jellywillreturn]

Undertale be like

[@elliot_rat]

just like real life school

[@pickles3128]

I remember, back in 4t h grade, my friend's little brother got himself into a very annoying state in Pokemon Yellow at Pewter City and I was asked to "fix" it. He made the game needlessly difficult (and wouldn't let me start a new save and catch a Mankey or Nidoran on route 22) by repeatedly challenging Brock with only Pikachu, saving after he fainted until he ran out of money, and hadn't caught any other Pokemon and (I assume) inadvertently tossed his Pokeballs. So he was stuck with a ridiculous amount of grinding until Pikachu could KO Geodude and Onix with just Quick Attack or Slam. Pretty sure he couldn't read yet, as his player name was AAAAAAAA.

[@SendoPLUS]

This is hilarious lmao

[@LSqre]

young pikasprey

[@woooooooooooooooooooooooo]

​@@LSqrepikasprey lore

[@Porygonal64]

I wouldve just started a new save and said that I didn't.

[@evillecaston]

"Hey, wait up! What's the hurry? Why the rush?" the bug catcher asked *calmly*

[@SerpiaXerma]

There's something so special about your specific type of videos. Every time you rock up with an obvious softlock, I think "oh, how unoriginal. An unwinnable battle." And then you point out a 1 in 686,251 chance you can progress through a ridiculous mechanic and I just can't help but admire how each and every way you pick softlocks is different and interesting.

[@jamesnagle7566]

Sammy: What’s the rush? Pikasprey: And I took that personally

[@birdbrain4445]

Something about this soft lock in particular feels especially brutal and insulting, lol. Excellent work as usual.

[@mikamo]

Well yeah, it’s a 10 year old screaming that a pile of tumors should kill itself, over and over and over again.

[@teriso1793]

Its even worse bc weezing here has a brave nature, making her attack higher so confusion does more damage to herself. If she had a lonely nature itd be even worse

[@velvetbutterfly]

Why would Lonely be worse?

[@furiouscorgi6614]

​@@velvetbutterflylowers Attack, buffs Defense.

[@teriso1793]

@furiouscorgi6614 buffs attack lowers defense, does even more confusion damage

[@velvetbutterfly]

@@furiouscorgi6614 that would make it better since you'd be more likely to survive the battle even if you hit yourself a few times

[@limerumpus3589]

@@velvetbutterflythe turn wasted is what’s important not the self damage. If confusion damage is too high weezing could knock itself out which is just another factor in which you can lose

[@mjc0961]

This is so close to being even more evil. There's a hidden Pokeball in Pewter City to pick up, you can catch something and escape. But if that wasn't there... Weedle kid only gives $108, so if the save was left with less than $92, beating the Weedle wouldn't have accomplished anything. You'd have had to do another perfect battle against the gym trainer or Brock to finally get more money, and they both have two Pokemon, so that's even more turns of no explosion required. Shame, really.

[@ICryOverSpiltMilk]

Like out of the frying pan into the fire, yes you might beat Sammy and just unlock pewter, but all you can do to help the situation after beating Sammy is battle pewters two trainers in the gym and they have two pokemon meaning you need more luck to beat one of them to have enough buy a poke ball. As asprey says, just start a new file, in 10 minutes you'll catch right up again

[@jimmyh2137]

After you beat that trainer you can find more items to sell without fighting.

[@wheedler]

This is what I was wondering; what are the steps after winning this fight?

[@ChanceMa]

Christian is the type of person that would break out of prison by punching the wall “Each time it punch this, it gets weaker so after a while I would be able to punch a hole in this wall”

[@stormbornapostle5188]

Technically not INaccurate!

[@crestofhonor2349]

Always love seeing you break these games in their attempts to try to prevent the player from softlocking themselves. There is always something they overlook because once you have people playing the game they will break it in ways they never could imagine.

[@MrTrombonebandgeek]

To be fair, a lot of the first few gens were fairly jank and ran on duct tape, and that’s why you see a lot of his vids be from that era of pokemon

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@MrTrombonebandgeek Gen 1 was especially glitchy. I still think that beats even Scarlet and violet because multiple functions in the original Red and Green just did not work properly

[@zigazav1]

@@crestofhonor2349 At least Scarlet and Violet's battle system functions entirely as intended. Gen 1's battle system is broken with glitches. I do not agree with those who hate-speaks Scarlet and Violet, and yet defend Gen 1 like it's some perfect masterpiece that has no flaws. When in truth, Gen 1 is so much more broken than any other mainline Pokemon game. Yes, even BDSP is less broken than Gen 1. This all is why I cannot stand Gen 1 and Charizard, Genwunners will defend them like they're perfect without flaws. When in truth, they are extremely flawed. Since I think Gen 4, Charizard's Typing combination is a terrible against Stealth Rocks, because it's the only stage hazard Move that takes the target Pokemon's typing into account for damage dealt to them via that stage hazard.

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@zigazav1 Not to mention that things like crits were tied directly to speed and other moves like focus energy doing the opposite of what they were supposed to do

[@MegaKBang]

This reminds me of a battle I recently had in Black2. I had the event lv100 Zekrom in my party and it almost lost to the first youngster on route 20. He used leer multiple times and Zekrom almost killed itself by disobedient confusion damage.

[@exantiuse497]

The funny thing here is that by making the Weezing level 100 you actually INCREASE the chance of getting out of this softlock. The pokemon's chance to disobey increases the higher level it is, and in this challenge a higher chance to disobey makes the battle easier A level 100 pokemon has around 91% chance to disobey a player with no badges. A level 17 Koffing (the lowest level to learn selfdestruct) has around 60%. So if you wanted to make the challenge even more impossible you'd make the pokemon lower level

[@ICryOverSpiltMilk]

You can level up a low level koffing against wild pokemon and maybe learn a move to get out of the softlock. Unless you level it to a point where it would take a long time before it learns its next move

[@goldenpig6453]

@@ICryOverSpiltMilk ...how would you level it up? it _only knows self-destruct_

[@PointsofData]

Explosion ends the battle, not using explosion drags it out and makes everything more painful. Obeying you means it uses explosion immedietely, which ends the battle...I'm not sure how a lower chance of disobeying is better here. I guess disobeying gives the weedle a chance to struggle to death but that has to happen as many times as it has PP uses for ALL it's moves and then some. It's kind of a moot point, when considering you're just trying to make something painful to experience, not impossible to go through with.

[@ossetepolv3099]

​@@ICryOverSpiltMilk How would you level it up? The fight against a wild Pokemon would be the same as against the Trainer

[@neighlles]

But then the koffing would have less hp. Weedle could probably kill it with its poison stings, no need to struggle

[@gdjolly4115]

since (as you said) it takes less time to restart the game, you should've made Weezing shiny so the player has to decide whether to keep trying to get a lv.100 shiny or lose it. Top notch content as always

[@abnormallynormal2491]

Give it pokerus, too. (Actually nvm since fan run servers exist lol)

[@dannyboots]

Make it shiny so that the player is forced to watch a pointless sparkle animation before every battle lol

[@vermora356]

Depending on how RNG is implemented in these games, this might be literally impossible without taking action to manipulate the RNG mid battle.

[@ffreeze9924]

If this were emerald it would be “relatively” easy to pass as that game always chooses the same rng seed upon opening up so you could just use a series of frame perfect inputs to win the battle. I believe in fr/lg you can use the static in the teachy tv to find out the rng seed and from there could rng manip through this fight, though there’s probably not good data out there on how the rng seeds determine Pokémon disobeying as it’s almost always used for shiny hunting. Still, I think this scenario should be very easily beatable with rng manipulation. Without it? Good fuckin luck

[@MichaelCoombes776]

I would like to see a "tool assisted" speedrun (where you can go frame-by-frame and view RNG states) which attempts to get past this soft lock - given a specific initial state, what is the minimum number of frames required to hit all the correct RNG states to allow Weedle to KO itself with Struggle?

[@KingofJ95]

In most Pokémon games, the RNG advances once every frame from boot.

[@AWanderingSwordsman]

If it does advance every frame then it's 100% escapable consistently as long as you can slow down the frame rate enough to make accurate button presses. All you'd need is a framecounter and a lot of patience. Wouldn't even need to figure out seeds if you just test each frame manually and record the results. You seem to have a greater than 50% chance of the pokemon disobeying so it really might not take all that long. A few hours and you'd be free. Playing this on an emulator that has save states obviously makes it trivial. Just save state each time you don't explode or hit yourself in confusion. You'll be out in under 200 turns most likely which you can use speedup on.

[@MichaelCoombes776]

@@AWanderingSwordsman this is what the "tool" in "tool assisted speedrun" is: an emulator which exposes the memory (so you can see RNG values at a frame) and the ability to step one frame forward.

[@Luigis_Menace]

Just what I needed after a long day. Another video about how to play Pokémon incorrectly.

[@itisfreak]

Wut happened?

[@AmberLB93]

this is how DSP plays every game

[@navi_6621]

I love watching these softlocking videos with my husband. Typically we don’t enjoy the same YT content but you are one of those creators that brings us together. ❤

[@Antifrost]

I find it mildly amusing that even if you made it through this softlock, the money you get from the Bug Catcher isn't enough to buy a Poke Ball. There's a hidden one near the museum though, so you wouldn't be completely out of luck. Even so, if I had to rely on that, it would be significantly easier to just start a new game, as you said. This did take me back to my days of Red/Blue where I had a level 100 Snorlax traded to me from another game. It didn't listen often, but Body Slam was enough to sweep past so much of the game that it only needed to listen a few times to be effective. With Explosion as the only move on this Weezing, it could only be used to take out one opponent per battle (more if you used Revives I suppose).

[@SemiHypercube]

the only time you'd want your Pokemon to disobey

[@DataDigi151]

Always love seeing what fresh new hell you’ve cooked up for this series.

[@DJThatPlush]

Would love to see you tackle the BW Tepig softlock in one of these episodes!

[@inkii-y]

whats that one?

[@DJThatPlush]

@@inkii-y I believe another youtuber made a video on how to set it up but the basics are: In Pokémon BW you get a Pansage in the dream yard right before the first gym. After the first gym you get cut which you need to cut down a tree shortly afterwards. Tepig is the only Starter that can’t learn cut, and although pansage can, if you throw away all possible options for items, money, and release your pansage BEFORE teaching it cut, then there’s nothing you can do but restart. Seeing as you can’t cut the tree, you can’t get the encounter with Bianca, Team Rocket, and the Munna which is required to progress the story. And seeing as you can’t catch any other Pokémon that CAN learn cut (and you’re too early for trading and the dream world, seeing as you unlock that right AFTER saving Munna) you’ve doomed yet another child.

[@inkii-y]

@@DJThatPlush oh thats intriguing! amd actually like completely possibly if you suck at playing pokemon (used up all your items, lost a bunch of pokemon battles, etr)

[@darkiusmc979]

@@DJThatPlush I'm going to point out you put Team Rocket instead of Team Plasma. There's only one Rocket grunt in bw, and he's only there for fanservice rather than anything substantial.

[@M50A1]

​@@darkiusmc979honestly who cares about the difference? They're the same villain archetypes with different skins. People will get what you mean regardless

[@sstteev]

"Pokemon is known for being incredibly easy" ok tell my 7-year-old self when I'm up against SS Anne Gary

[@schleepy6362]

This softlock in a nutshell: How long can weezing ignore his trainer telling him to unalive himself before caving to peer pressure?

[@HenryXLII]

A small optimization you could make to slightly boost your odds is to do a wild encounter before the battle until Weezing puts itself to sleep on the first turn. Then run, and save before the bug catcher. It wouldn't help much, but it's fun to imagine that with enough small tricks, you could wiggle your way out of something like this.

[@OceanPKMN]

Weezing *reaches level 100*: ‘I’m ready to solo the Pokémon League and go down in history!’ Pikasprey: ‘Well yes, but actually no.’

[@keepyourhornson5311]

Any time I see a Soft Lock Picking video I will immediately stop whatever I am doing and watch it with no exceptions

[@renakunisaki]

I hope you're not a surgeon!

[@keepyourhornson5311]

@@renakunisaki ha def not

[@Forever-GM-Dusty]

Would love to see more late game softlocks. I find them more compelling since it takes longer to replay to that point, with more variety and variables that can make them more difficult to get into and more options to make them more difficult to escape

[@trodelord]

Hell yeah! New Pikasprey softlockpicking! Love your content bro!

[@rossjohnstone4689]

Amen to that:3

[@whisperingwooper1763]

Me too!

[@Solereaper21]

“Pokémon is known for being incredibly easy.” Don’t let people who haven’t played since emerald when they were a kid hear you say that.

[@chalir4886]

So you just trapped yourself and a poor innocent child with a time bomb huh, Pikasprigsaw strikes again!

[@doodoopop8385]

I guess the Weezing must be the poor innocent child, huh? /j

[@ShadowOnTheWall666]

I legit just finished watching the rest of this series last night and was hoping for more! I freaking love it!

[@O97084]

i don't know what about finding so many ways to softlock games is so fascinating to me but i am glad you're still finding ways to do it

[@vanesslifeygo]

The Weezing is too proud of itself to obey a command to make itself be KO'd.

[@mitchscott]

Love this series so much! So hyped to see this on my feed after what feels like forever! Thanks for the awesome content!

[@geodude671]

You could make it truly inescapable by RNG manipulating the origin game of the Weezing to have the same TID and SID as the target game, making the Weezing always obey you. And also make it shiny for the extra kick in the groin.

[@Joel97_]

Or just trade a level 5 Pokemon that gets self destruct by tutor in FRLG

[@BloodDripss]

every time you come up with another one of these, my mind is blown even more. im sure youll run out of these at some point but ill be here watching every video!

[@kyle_daniels]

"it's way faster to just erase everything and start over" so make the weezing shiny so they won't do that :)

[@maiselph7456]

I feel like these videos teach us to learn how to let go, since sometimes it is faster, and healthier, and more efficient to just give up on something and start anew.

[@becausesakamoto5938]

It would take way less time to shiny hunt for a Koffing in gen 9 than to actually finish this challenge

[@chimerayoyo]

*Sobs* That poor Charmander, you monster... Other than that, great video! A very evil set up to give to someone~

[@bitcoinfandom]

Just yesterday I was thinking how awesome it would be to get another softlock video from you. Thanks!

[@timothygarvey5258]

Couldnt you encounter a pikachu, have it use thundershock until it paralyses? That could technically help escape odds.

[@erich_ika]

Maybe, but Weezing falling asleep is a really good thing and it cannot do that while paralyzed. It is really hard to know if it helps or hinders.

[@DJFracus]

I'm not sure why he used Weezing, because using a Poison-type or Steel-type is the most generous thing you can do. Something that can be Poisoned would be far unlikelier to escape (even though it's already astronomically unlikely) because you have to avoid being Poisoned by all 35 Poison Stings, or you will die before Weedle dies from Struggle recoil. So along with your Pikachu comment, the obvious best option is to use a Ground type, so that it can't be Paralyzed by Pikachu and it can be Poisoned.

[@xaropevic7918]

​@@DJFracusAnd ground makes that whenever you are hit by poison sting, the "not very effective" text appears, making it as long as against poison on that regard

[@JacklynBurn]

@@DJFracus My best guess is because he's already shown off a softlock/ not-quite-softlock using Graveler, and I believe it also had its method revolve around explosion/self-destruct. As-is, this situation is already pretty close to that one, so I imagine Pikasprey is trying to keep it a bit novel by switching up the pokemon, even if the repeat would be the more sadistic choice. Might be why he chose to not make the Weezing shiny, as I recall he's also done "early lock but you have a shiny so you have to choose between it and restarting", because as he mentions in this video, there's not a whole lot of reason to actually try to get out of the situation, as much as just restart the game.

[@DisplayThisOkay]

Falling asleep via disobedience overrides the other statuses. So being paralyzed doesn't help that much.

[@tristinhambrick4617]

Hey Pikasprey! Ever considered using the void glitch from Diamond and Pearl for a softlock? I'd even thought of an idea in which the player is trapped with a Lvl. 19 Bidoof in the Battle Tower, fighting for a Rare Candy to evolve and learn a needed HM...Sound interesting?

[@moon4236]

I love this videos because of how sadistic this situations can get and how they always go for that 0.000001 chance of escape after days even when it would be easy to simply make it impossible. Truly a masterpiece this is probably what hell looks like.

[@nicholas8237]

Out of all your softlocks, i think this is the most straightforward one. Big fan

[@Patashu]

I would love to see the odds of escaping the softlock calculated. Since it has multiple moving parts (confusion and sleep that last an unknown number of turns and can kill Weezing) I think you'd have to use simulation or a markov chain. Also, since confusion killing you ends the battle, you can make the softlock harder by ensuring Weezing has max Attack and min HP/Defense, right?

[@DaikoruArtwin]

TL;DR: You'll need an average of around 1.76 million battles to win. Looking at the disobedience formula on Bulbapedia, there seems to be 3 rolls done regarding disobedience: Does the Pokemon successfully obey, then does the Pokemon use a random other move, then what action the Pokemon actually does. Looking at the disassembly code, it looks like that succeeding the check for using a wrong move when there's actually no other usable move makes the Pokemon do nothing instead. Knowing that, these are the rounded odds of each outcome: 9%: Explosion 29%: Falling Asleep 29%: Hitting Self 33%: Do nothing Falling asleep puts you to sleep for 2 to 5 turns, each outcome having equal weight. Since you wake up on the last turn, that's an average of 2.5 turns lost each time you fall asleep. So in average, you get to play ~7 turns out of 10. Since Weedle needs to go through all 75 PP + ~27 Struggles, that's ~71 turns you need to survive. For Explosion alone, that's ~0.115% chance to happen. Then you have to not deal too much damage on yourself. With 35 Poison Stings + ~27 Struggles, Weedle will be dealing ~62 damage, leaving you with 272 HP. In the video, Weezing dealt 49 damage, so you can't have more than 5 self hits. Using binomial distribution, we calculate that the odds of not hitting self on the assumption that you never use Explosion are 4.93887752541E-7, or 0.0000494%. Multiplying the two odds together, we reach 0.0000000567%, or 1 out of ~1.76 million. Soooooo yeah. The math might not be 100% accurate due to sleep changing how many turns you need to survive, but you can expect to need at least 1 million battles to finally win against this bug catcher.

[@ProfBills]

I sure hope there's more not found locks out there. These videos are gold

[@bluedraxel2909]

I love your videos, man. They're so comforting. I love the megaman, castlevania and gem collecting series as well.

[@SurrealKeenan]

To make this worse, I would trade over a level 51 weezing instead. Since it's a lower level, it will be less likely to survive the hits and the only move it learns after 51 is memento which is effectively just as bad as explosion

[@Slenderquil]

Yeah I was thinking that too. Giving it 2 fail states with the chance of being ko'd makes things much worse

[@ladyriethegoldendelmo5441]

nah this is more suffering if u think about it. over 70 turns of weezing not able to use the move. u could probally find a couple of shinies at this point lol

[@DisplayThisOkay]

You could make fancier version if this using a level 51 Weezing that's only one fight away from leveling up, with it's only move as Explosion that has 0pp left.

[@sinfulbakaa]

Love that this series returns

[@TetrisLBlock]

Dude, I love these! Don’t stop making them please.

[@lindseybrown5648]

absolutely LOVE your lockpicking vids man!!

[@violator_]

I never knew that this game was this broken

[@jaybeans981]

I’m surprised you didn’t go with a shiny Weezing just to twist the knife further. Make the player contemplate whether they actually should go through with resetting. Also, why Weezing specifically if it’s going to be traded in anyway? Wouldn’t Electrode or Golem work as well too?

[@MsFmaFangirl]

Electrode and Graveler can be poisoned, which drastically lowers the number of turns you need to stall

[@DoubtedDecidueye]

Maybe because it's a Poison type. It's immune to being poisoned by Poison Sting.

[@uamdbro]

wouldn't that cause you to die faster, making the entire process take longer @@MsFmaFangirl

[@jaybeans981]

That makes sense@@DoubtedDecidueye

[@sstteev]

I love that in this one trading with others is blocked off too.

[@TheTechnician27]

I'm a bit surprised you didn't put Leftovers on the Weezing. The sell price is only 100, so while the victim could take them off once they notice the problem, they couldn't turn around and sell that for enough to buy a ball. It'd add a minor annoyance, at least.

[@jro.90]

you need to keep the weezing alive in this case, so the leftovers would help - compared to other softlocks where you need to faint.

[@KainYusanagi]

@@jro.90 At the same time, leftovers triggering constantly would cause such a large extra time drain that it would probably be worth it.

[@sstorms8]

Please keep making more soft lock picking

[@republicofbread1088]

I was waiting for another soft lock picking video for 7 months, good content man keep it up!

[@Foxfire-xq5ij]

Thanks for another great video! I’m always surprised you having reached a million subscribers yet. Such great work and great content.

[@kuroazrael2069]

I was having a bad day and Pikasprey releases a video, my day is saved

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

Not to mention even if you did get past Sammy you’re still out of luck. He only gives 108 Pokémon currency after the battle so you’d still need to win against another trainer to get enough money to buy a pokeball.

[@mello-by]

there are items to pick up in pewter city iirc

[@UltimateRareBingler]

​@@mello-byYeah, there is a pokeball you can pick up in Pewter City

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

@@mello-byI was basing my assumption off of Gen 1 where there really aren’t any hidden items. There’s literally a poke ball hidden in FR/LG.

[@thenoobygamer9000]

I always love seeing your challenge and lockpicking videos :)

[@xSimone92x]

Bro anytime you upload I lose my mind! These are some of my favorite videos on the internet! You're a LEGEND+

[@thequeenofstaplesmiles]

finally got to one of these early, I think 99.9% of you won’t see this comment though, which is sad

[@savathunsgoblin]

I saw it :)

[@thequeenofstaplesmiles]

@@savathunsgoblin sick

[@jessmoser9406]

Finally! I've been waiting for you to make another video for so long!

[@Iinneus]

I'm reminded of a comment I saw on the Graveler video, which was to do this softlock with a _shiny Pokémon._ Then, hand the game to someone and say that they can have the shiny and trade it to any game they like... ...if they can get it.

[@Deoxys_Used_Mimic]

Lesson learned: - why fight for a *chance* of success when you can just *end it all?*

[@thisismyaltaccount4195]

Great to see you uploading! Hope to see more from you soon.

[@Siinory]

I didn't know there were a potion in the vision line of the bug catcher, Mr. Yellow taught me something

[@DepPpiey-II]

I love this series, I've been watching for years now

[@samdabugg]

this is like my favorite series ever and it's finally back omg 😭

[@awow277]

I always love watching your videos! Ty for finding new creative methods (:

[@Juli_is_Online]

Holy shit how do you manage to impress me so much every single time, every time I think I can see coming what the trap entails, you blow my mind with sth I never even considered. So consistently having me humourously yell out as I slowly realize how horrific and sadistic this situation is "What is wrong with you?!?!?" I love this series

[@snupietherat6814]

Woohoo finally another soft lockpicking video. I remember spending every available hour watching the blue channel for almost 3 months following the ditto challenge video. I love your content pikasprey

[@willpawelko]

It's always a treat when you upload. Keep it up!

[@realtrollface101]

I'm unlucky enough. For the longest time, I actually thought it was just garunteed to not listen if you don't have enough badges.

[@philipmurphy2]

New Soft Lock Picking, Better viewing then live TV for sure.

[@conaluk7662]

Really nice transition between the trade canter and the Forest

[@navynew]

another softlock picking video omg!!! yayyyy ❤❤❤ excited cause i love these so much

[@WWASHD]

Yooooo I've been missing you!!! Happy to see another video!!!

[@michaelcalvin42]

Nicely done. This is one of the most evil softlocks you've implemented yet, in my opinion.

[@LRXC1]

Love the creativity in this!

[@troubledcactus2518]

Exactly the new vid I wanted to see today, keep up the good work you psychopath

[@MichaelCoombes776]

Yesterday we got Smallant's escape room video, and someone comments that Pikasprey would be an evil architect of escape rooms. Today we get this. Coincidence????? OK yes it probably is a coincidence, but I'd love to see various Poketubers try to escape something you constructed.

[@monkeyjoey98]

I just wanna say that with the recent uptick in pokemon escape rooms I'd love to see you throw one together.

[@louised6731]

I look forward to your videos thanks. I hope your channel keeps growing

[@sagacious03]

Neat run video! Thanks for uploading!

[@Purlypurlington]

“Wheezing kept exploding within the first few minutes” he just like me fr. But the high level traded mons falling asleep or hitting themselves is such a good mechanic. Never knew the extent

[@carriem2115]

your videos are a treat my guy

[@WagwanHappyPappyHapPap]

These videos are absolutely phenomenal and I always expect it to be the last. Yet here you are coming through with another incredible challenge. Thank you

[@iau]

Poor little Weezing keeps hearing that voice, telling him to kill himself. All he has to do is ignore that voice. Keep holding on little Weezing. You can do it.

[@tabris1135]

Imagine the Weezing being shiny. Suddenly it is worth it to do the Soft Lock Picking

[@RocketJo86]

Even if you can beat Sammy, you would be stuck, as he doesn't give you enough money to buy a PokeBall, so you would have to beat the light years trainer with this setup as well. So yeah, restarting would be a far better option

[@covereye5731]

There's a pokeball as a hidden item, left of the museum

[@RocketJo86]

@@covereye5731 oh, cool. Didn't know that one!