Since I have no original ideas and very little in terms of screencap setups, we'll start with an 'underdogs' run of Pokemon Fire Red to get my eye in. What is an underdogs run, you ask? Simple: it's a run where we skip by some of the more powerful 'mons and go straight to some of the less commonly used ones. Since I assume most people are familiar with the older Pokeymans (they're basically the same as the newer ones, except not), I'll be getting straight into the meat of things. Also, it may take me a little while to tweak the images to be optimal in the thread. I'm doing this LP mainly because I just enjoy talking that damn much, but hopefully some folks will enjoy it.
Let's begin, shall we?
#Beginning-Viridian City exit
First, in the great tradition of people playing Pokemon on the interwebz, I feel it requisite to poke fun at Professor Oak's gender confusion.
^Don't worry, Prof; my parents have wondered the same thing from day one.
Because we folk of the internet eschew traditional gender roles, I'll be going with the female character this time around, mainly because Red is such a badass he would demolish the entire game before even catching his first pokemon. Wrestling dragonites with his bare hands, that's ol' Red. The name I'll be using is, of course, Hero. And as for our rival?
^ The very assiest of hats. (In three months, no-one will get this.)
Looking around our room, we still have a SNES hooked up to our tv. Either we have a great taste in retro games consoles, or we're pretty dang poor. There's a potion in our PC, which we probably downloaded illegally in a bit torrent or something, but who cares. As we dash downstairs to say goodbye to the world's most laissez-faire mother, try not to be overcome by suicidal urges following the lack of concern she shows us as we leave home. Certainly, don't try running into the tall grass to be killed and eaten by rats and pigeons.
Just kidding, do it like a boss. They should begin a pokemon game with a scene where you just step out into the path of an oncoming truck. Probably less dangerous than going out into the world in search of fire-breathing dragons and psychic genetic mutations to bend to our capricious whims. Dear old Professor (J)Oak comes rushing out to save our ten-year-old rear, and brings us into the same room as Yanama to pick our first pokeymanz.
^Oh noes! My starter pokemon has no jump animation!
Unfortunately, though, we won't be using him. As chill as our little Kood is, he's hardly an underdog. As soon as we can, we're getting rid of him. In terms of balance, all three starters have their plus and minus factors; Squirtle starts off slowly and doesn't do well until he gets Surf, but rocks late game due to Ice Beam being pretty hax in the Elite Four. Charmander (newly updated with Metal Claw to help him level the first gym) is pretty good and has cool points, but evolving to Charizard gives him a 4x weakness to Rock, which will make even weak rock users 1HKO his lizardy butt. Bulbasaur gets screwed here; grass attacks tend to be less reliable in terms of straight damage compared to fire/water ones, and he's not as versatile as the others, either. He has sleep powder and leech seed to help him 'strategy' his way through fights, and that *can* work, but other Pokemon can do his job better. He gets an advantage in the first two gyms, but I don't generally pick him. Having said that, Yanama's Bulbasaur is a pushover, so wipe it and get some sweet, sweet exp.
So, without further ado, we'll head to Route 1, talking to everybody to land another illegal potion and running from every battle we encounter. Once we hit Viridian City, we swing by the Pokemart to get exploited by a lazy shop clerk, then high tail it back to Oak's lab to blackmail the old duffer for his package. In return for our illicit dealings, we get five pokeballs, a pokedex, and a profound dislike of Yanama. We'll skip getting Daisy's map (it's pretty useless anyway, even if it no longer takes up a precious bag slot like it did in the original Red/Blue/Yellow trilogy), and get started in our underdog run.
Route 1 only has two potential candidates for our party: Rattata, and Pidgey. Pidgey is actually fairly worthless. It's hard to train, doesn't have very special abilities or movepools, and is the commonest mon in the world, so I'll be skipping it. However, I will grab myself the OTHER most common mon in the world: Rattata. Believe it or not, I thought long and hard about this, simply because Rattata might be too powerful for an underdog run. He doesn't look like it, but he's a complete beast in the early game, and we'll be using him to oneshot vast swathes of our opposition until around the 3rd Gym. Hyper Fang is the move that'll allow that: an 80 power Normal type attack that, with Rattata's type bonus, becomes as powerful as Double-Edge from a non-normal type with the same attack. Rattata learns it at level 13, where everyone else is still piddling along with 40 power attacks. When he learns it, he'll be a nigh-unstoppable force; for now, at level 3, he's pretty fragile, so I'll baby him a little.
^With a Jamaican roar, he will split the heavens and cast fear into the gods.
There's one other candidate for our team before we leave the Viridian city area; swing left at the Pokemon center and you'll find yourself in Route 22, where Spearow roam. Whether Fearow is better or worse than Pidgeot is a question for ages; Pidgeot can take a hit, but Fearow can dish 'em out, and actually has access to decent 1-turn flying type moves in this generation. However, Fearow is worse than Dodrio in pretty much every way, so he can fit into an underdog team if you wish. I'll be catching a Spearow to trade for the TRUE underdog of the Pokemon world later, but I won't be using it, despite the fact that Viridian Forest is competely trivialised by it.
With that, it's time for us to grind Rastamouse to a decent level (Quick Attack at level 7 is a nice benchmark), deposit everything else into the PC, and get ready for Viridian Forest, where we'll meet an ugly electric rodent, a killer bee, and the reason I always skip Bulbasaur. See you next time, folks.
^Don't worry, Prof; my parents have wondered the same thing from day one.
Because we folk of the internet eschew traditional gender roles, I'll be going with the female character this time around, mainly because Red is such a badass he would demolish the entire game before even catching his first pokemon. Wrestling dragonites with his bare hands, that's ol' Red. The name I'll be using is, of course, Hero. And as for our rival?
^ The very assiest of hats. (In three months, no-one will get this.)
Looking around our room, we still have a SNES hooked up to our tv. Either we have a great taste in retro games consoles, or we're pretty dang poor. There's a potion in our PC, which we probably downloaded illegally in a bit torrent or something, but who cares. As we dash downstairs to say goodbye to the world's most laissez-faire mother, try not to be overcome by suicidal urges following the lack of concern she shows us as we leave home. Certainly, don't try running into the tall grass to be killed and eaten by rats and pigeons.
Just kidding, do it like a boss. They should begin a pokemon game with a scene where you just step out into the path of an oncoming truck. Probably less dangerous than going out into the world in search of fire-breathing dragons and psychic genetic mutations to bend to our capricious whims. Dear old Professor (J)Oak comes rushing out to save our ten-year-old rear, and brings us into the same room as Yanama to pick our first pokeymanz.
^Oh noes! My starter pokemon has no jump animation!
Unfortunately, though, we won't be using him. As chill as our little Kood is, he's hardly an underdog. As soon as we can, we're getting rid of him. In terms of balance, all three starters have their plus and minus factors; Squirtle starts off slowly and doesn't do well until he gets Surf, but rocks late game due to Ice Beam being pretty hax in the Elite Four. Charmander (newly updated with Metal Claw to help him level the first gym) is pretty good and has cool points, but evolving to Charizard gives him a 4x weakness to Rock, which will make even weak rock users 1HKO his lizardy butt. Bulbasaur gets screwed here; grass attacks tend to be less reliable in terms of straight damage compared to fire/water ones, and he's not as versatile as the others, either. He has sleep powder and leech seed to help him 'strategy' his way through fights, and that *can* work, but other Pokemon can do his job better. He gets an advantage in the first two gyms, but I don't generally pick him. Having said that, Yanama's Bulbasaur is a pushover, so wipe it and get some sweet, sweet exp.
So, without further ado, we'll head to Route 1, talking to everybody to land another illegal potion and running from every battle we encounter. Once we hit Viridian City, we swing by the Pokemart to get exploited by a lazy shop clerk, then high tail it back to Oak's lab to blackmail the old duffer for his package. In return for our illicit dealings, we get five pokeballs, a pokedex, and a profound dislike of Yanama. We'll skip getting Daisy's map (it's pretty useless anyway, even if it no longer takes up a precious bag slot like it did in the original Red/Blue/Yellow trilogy), and get started in our underdog run.
Route 1 only has two potential candidates for our party: Rattata, and Pidgey. Pidgey is actually fairly worthless. It's hard to train, doesn't have very special abilities or movepools, and is the commonest mon in the world, so I'll be skipping it. However, I will grab myself the OTHER most common mon in the world: Rattata. Believe it or not, I thought long and hard about this, simply because Rattata might be too powerful for an underdog run. He doesn't look like it, but he's a complete beast in the early game, and we'll be using him to oneshot vast swathes of our opposition until around the 3rd Gym. Hyper Fang is the move that'll allow that: an 80 power Normal type attack that, with Rattata's type bonus, becomes as powerful as Double-Edge from a non-normal type with the same attack. Rattata learns it at level 13, where everyone else is still piddling along with 40 power attacks. When he learns it, he'll be a nigh-unstoppable force; for now, at level 3, he's pretty fragile, so I'll baby him a little.
^With a Jamaican roar, he will split the heavens and cast fear into the gods.
There's one other candidate for our team before we leave the Viridian city area; swing left at the Pokemon center and you'll find yourself in Route 22, where Spearow roam. Whether Fearow is better or worse than Pidgeot is a question for ages; Pidgeot can take a hit, but Fearow can dish 'em out, and actually has access to decent 1-turn flying type moves in this generation. However, Fearow is worse than Dodrio in pretty much every way, so he can fit into an underdog team if you wish. I'll be catching a Spearow to trade for the TRUE underdog of the Pokemon world later, but I won't be using it, despite the fact that Viridian Forest is competely trivialised by it.
With that, it's time for us to grind Rastamouse to a decent level (Quick Attack at level 7 is a nice benchmark), deposit everything else into the PC, and get ready for Viridian Forest, where we'll meet an ugly electric rodent, a killer bee, and the reason I always skip Bulbasaur. See you next time, folks.
Ignoring everything our parents told us about wandering into deep, foreboding forests and casually enslaving the inhabitants, we head north. Viridian Forest is a treasure trove of rubbish pokemon with a single gem inside. Plus some idiot Bug Catchers and some free items.
^The first of many poor, foolish dreamers to whom we will peddle the reality of PokeWar.
Weedle, and its evolutions, are sad, sad examples of what Pokemon should not be. Circa the original incarnations of Pokemon R/B/Y, it was actually quite an interesting 'mon; Beedrill learned two of only four attacks which were super effective against the then-broken Psychic type, and had STAB with them, too. Sadly, Twin Needle is a less powerful version of Double Kick to begin with, and Pin Missile is a Bug-flavoured Fury Attack; Beedrill just doesn't have the stats to make up for the lack of power those moves have. It also has type weaknesses to Psychic type attacks, so it'll get wiped in a single shot, and isn't fast enough to outspeed them either. Posion, as a status ailment and a type, is hilariously ineffectual, so it gets no relief there. This is, in fact, made WORSE in Fire Red, where even in its native turf, a Weedle will only ever poison the rare Pikachu (Caterpie has the Shield Dust ability, which means no chance of poisoning for Poison Sting, and Metapod can use Shed Skin to quickly get rid of any poison it contracts.) So, difficult to train, useless, and not even that pretty. I think I'll pass on Beedrill, but if you'd like to add it to your underdogs, I suggest catching a Weedle now and then training it up in some other locale, since it suffers here.
Pikachu is also pretty bad; it suffers from being a type that is (exclusively in 3rd gen and mostly by Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) based on Special Attack, whilst having most of its points in just normal Attack stat. It's useful to clear Cerulean Gym, but the game is nice enough to hand us a Pokemon right outside it that can quite easily solo the whole dang place, so that's another nope from yours truly. Plus, it's arguably too popular to be an underdog. If you catch one with a light ball, however, you might get some valid use out of it.
The true treasure of Viridian Forest is, and always has been, Butterfree. A lot of 1st gen pokemon benefitted from the inclusion of abilities, but few more than Butterfree, which has gained the Compound Eyes ability, raising its accuracy. This means that it can use Sleep Powder at about 87.5 or 97.5% accuracy, depending on your sources (Smogon says the latter), and is fast enough to get the first move in for most of the early game; Sleep Powder then a couple of Confusions will spell the death of many a 'mon. Highly accurate status effect moves combined with very rare 1HKO's also make it very valuable when you're catching stuff, and, for an added bonus, Compound Eyes raises the chance of wild pokemon holding an item, so you get even more benefit. Though godawful base stats and typing make it vulnerable late game, Butterfree is a valuable utility team member, and with our setup, basically mandatory to make it past Brock, so grab yourself a Caterpie and start training.
^Sadly, our own Wriggle Nightbug cannot learn Mega Kick.
Even with Butterfree to back us up, though, Brock isn't going to be easy. If you aren't totally overleveled you'll find him 1HKO'ing your butterfly companion more often than not, so I personally refuse to walk in there without a level 14 Rattata and a level 14 Butterfree under my belt. It's still a very vulnerable party, since we basically rely on Butterfree surviving long enough to use Poison Powder and begin a barrage of Confusions, but it's all we've got. In Yellow, there used to be Mankeys and Nidorans in Route 22 for us to use, but in Fire Red they've been moved to just after Pewter City. This is probably the biggest and most boring grind session you'll ever have to do in this challenge, so you might want to just use your starter to beat Brock and get it over with if you're not into the difficulty factor. I suggest letting Caterpie/Metapod have most of the trainer kills to lessen the tedium.
When you're ready, it's time for...
^The first of many poor, foolish dreamers to whom we will peddle the reality of PokeWar.
Weedle, and its evolutions, are sad, sad examples of what Pokemon should not be. Circa the original incarnations of Pokemon R/B/Y, it was actually quite an interesting 'mon; Beedrill learned two of only four attacks which were super effective against the then-broken Psychic type, and had STAB with them, too. Sadly, Twin Needle is a less powerful version of Double Kick to begin with, and Pin Missile is a Bug-flavoured Fury Attack; Beedrill just doesn't have the stats to make up for the lack of power those moves have. It also has type weaknesses to Psychic type attacks, so it'll get wiped in a single shot, and isn't fast enough to outspeed them either. Posion, as a status ailment and a type, is hilariously ineffectual, so it gets no relief there. This is, in fact, made WORSE in Fire Red, where even in its native turf, a Weedle will only ever poison the rare Pikachu (Caterpie has the Shield Dust ability, which means no chance of poisoning for Poison Sting, and Metapod can use Shed Skin to quickly get rid of any poison it contracts.) So, difficult to train, useless, and not even that pretty. I think I'll pass on Beedrill, but if you'd like to add it to your underdogs, I suggest catching a Weedle now and then training it up in some other locale, since it suffers here.
Pikachu is also pretty bad; it suffers from being a type that is (exclusively in 3rd gen and mostly by Diamond/Pearl/Platinum) based on Special Attack, whilst having most of its points in just normal Attack stat. It's useful to clear Cerulean Gym, but the game is nice enough to hand us a Pokemon right outside it that can quite easily solo the whole dang place, so that's another nope from yours truly. Plus, it's arguably too popular to be an underdog. If you catch one with a light ball, however, you might get some valid use out of it.
The true treasure of Viridian Forest is, and always has been, Butterfree. A lot of 1st gen pokemon benefitted from the inclusion of abilities, but few more than Butterfree, which has gained the Compound Eyes ability, raising its accuracy. This means that it can use Sleep Powder at about 87.5 or 97.5% accuracy, depending on your sources (Smogon says the latter), and is fast enough to get the first move in for most of the early game; Sleep Powder then a couple of Confusions will spell the death of many a 'mon. Highly accurate status effect moves combined with very rare 1HKO's also make it very valuable when you're catching stuff, and, for an added bonus, Compound Eyes raises the chance of wild pokemon holding an item, so you get even more benefit. Though godawful base stats and typing make it vulnerable late game, Butterfree is a valuable utility team member, and with our setup, basically mandatory to make it past Brock, so grab yourself a Caterpie and start training.
^Sadly, our own Wriggle Nightbug cannot learn Mega Kick.
Even with Butterfree to back us up, though, Brock isn't going to be easy. If you aren't totally overleveled you'll find him 1HKO'ing your butterfly companion more often than not, so I personally refuse to walk in there without a level 14 Rattata and a level 14 Butterfree under my belt. It's still a very vulnerable party, since we basically rely on Butterfree surviving long enough to use Poison Powder and begin a barrage of Confusions, but it's all we've got. In Yellow, there used to be Mankeys and Nidorans in Route 22 for us to use, but in Fire Red they've been moved to just after Pewter City. This is probably the biggest and most boring grind session you'll ever have to do in this challenge, so you might want to just use your starter to beat Brock and get it over with if you're not into the difficulty factor. I suggest letting Caterpie/Metapod have most of the trainer kills to lessen the tedium.
When you're ready, it's time for...
Ah, Pewter City Gym. Ordinarily a mere speed bump on the road to success, it presents a good challenge in an underdog run. In future gens, the first gym is easy regardless of if you have a starter pokemon or not, but in 1st gen and the remakes, starters were there for a reason.
The first Camper you fight (he of light years and distance) is a walkover if you have that Butterfree with you. He leads with a Geodude and compliments it with a Sandshrew. Geodude will go down in 2 confusions and you'll be faster, so all you have to do is avoid being 1HKO'd on the first turn. Sandshrew can tank hits and has great defense for this early on, but Confusion will end it easily.
^That ain't all that's rock hard. Ho ho ho.
Brock, however, is a different story. Like his junior, he leads with a Geodude, and like his junior, it isn't especially threatening to a well-levelled Butterfree. But hold the presses, because...
^ With a well-placed Rock Tomb, Brock's enormous trouser snake claims another teenage victim.
...Onix's Rock Tomb can 1HKO a Butterfree at any time, and it's fast enough to go first and use it immediately. If that happens, your only real hope is to switch to Rattata and try to flinch-lock it with Hyper Fang. Really, though, you're just hoping Brock's AI picks Tackle and Bind three or four times in a row, because that'll give a clever Butterfree enough of an opening to wipe it. I usually go in with lvl 14s and poison him (since Hyper Fang won't do much if not critical'd), but Stun Spore is also a decent option. If you're really desperate/cruel, bring in an untrained Pikachu and send it upfront on the off-chance that its Static gives you a free paralysis.
After that dangerous battle, we have the Boulderbadge! This will give all Pokemon you've caught/will catch a small boost in attack power, which is nifty. We also got TM39 Rock Tomb, which is an awful move if you use it as an attack. It does fairly low damage and only hits every 4/5 times; however, it is guarenteed to lower the opponent's speed if it hits. It might have some niche uses, but it's generally too unreliable to be a star move in your arsenal. An interesting note is that no FR/LG pokemon learns it naturally, so giving it to something that can pass it on via breeding might be a decent move.
The first Camper you fight (he of light years and distance) is a walkover if you have that Butterfree with you. He leads with a Geodude and compliments it with a Sandshrew. Geodude will go down in 2 confusions and you'll be faster, so all you have to do is avoid being 1HKO'd on the first turn. Sandshrew can tank hits and has great defense for this early on, but Confusion will end it easily.
^That ain't all that's rock hard. Ho ho ho.
Brock, however, is a different story. Like his junior, he leads with a Geodude, and like his junior, it isn't especially threatening to a well-levelled Butterfree. But hold the presses, because...
^ With a well-placed Rock Tomb, Brock's enormous trouser snake claims another teenage victim.
...Onix's Rock Tomb can 1HKO a Butterfree at any time, and it's fast enough to go first and use it immediately. If that happens, your only real hope is to switch to Rattata and try to flinch-lock it with Hyper Fang. Really, though, you're just hoping Brock's AI picks Tackle and Bind three or four times in a row, because that'll give a clever Butterfree enough of an opening to wipe it. I usually go in with lvl 14s and poison him (since Hyper Fang won't do much if not critical'd), but Stun Spore is also a decent option. If you're really desperate/cruel, bring in an untrained Pikachu and send it upfront on the off-chance that its Static gives you a free paralysis.
After that dangerous battle, we have the Boulderbadge! This will give all Pokemon you've caught/will catch a small boost in attack power, which is nifty. We also got TM39 Rock Tomb, which is an awful move if you use it as an attack. It does fairly low damage and only hits every 4/5 times; however, it is guarenteed to lower the opponent's speed if it hits. It might have some niche uses, but it's generally too unreliable to be a star move in your arsenal. An interesting note is that no FR/LG pokemon learns it naturally, so giving it to something that can pass it on via breeding might be a decent move.
