Gyms, and What they Want

Very interesting. Liked the part bout the demands of the games.

Thanks, people and cats. Anyway, let's do this again.

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There are certain things which may cause problems for the arrangement of R/B, however. For instance, their introduction of patterns is left quite isolated, or at its first tier, and hence can be used. One merely has to make the primary challenge of the games into patterns, and then there will be little to get in your way, in the respective area.

For instance, one could use a given pattern of Pokémon usage on the first four Gyms, between the members of your team. For example, Bulbasaur might take the first Gym, and Pikachu the second, but while Bulbasaur could take on Vermillion, Pikachu might be less certain going up against the next Gym - though it could, if set up in a certain way. Hence, something like Bulbasaur and Gyarados might be more efficient - using a Bulbasaur for the first Gym, Gyarados for the next, Bulbasaur again, and then Gyarados' Ice moves and Flying type against Erika. Each has notable strengths in these Gyms, which allows for the pattern - Pokémon like Zubat are less useful for this, because they can pretty much be used against any of the Gyms or none of them, they don't have many specific preferences here until they take on Erika. Pokémon like Butterfree for the first Gym could be impractical, as they would have problems with Vermillion - where you must go for Cut in the usual game progression. That is, in this specific context, not generically. If these are to be used, then training must be directed towards this, and this will generally lead things into such a direction as to make these battles and preparation for them quite straightforward - usually.

Gold and Silver are slightly more obscure, because they don't have as obvious a vulnerability. As such, you have Gym leaders like the early ones, who can pose a challenge based on moves and so on rather than necessarily being dealt with by getting enough preparation for the Gym. Even an 'unprepared' team can often easily get past opposition, while a 'prepared' team might have issues with this particular Gym's approach. Hence, other things must be turned to in order to take advantage of it. In general, the set-up of G/S/C is misleading, with Falkner requiring the opponent to attack, while the next few Gym leaders are primarily about how well they can defend against certain attacks. People can hence often set up in a certain direction, and then have issues with the rest of the Gyms. Cyndaquil causes further problems with this, because they will in all likelihood start this kind of approach with Sprout Tower - unless a Pokémon like Gastly or Rattata is used there, at which point things might be more adapted to future Gyms. Obviously, a Gastly is a nice thing to have generally - if you can take advantage of the delay to prevent Miltank from moving straightforwardly, then Gastly will make them incapable of doing anything whatsoever, effectively, in most cases. Hence, Gastly is especially useful for a team involving creatures like Mareep, Yanma or Hoppip.

But how could this be expressed in terms of the traits of the Gym's leaders? In general, Gastly is associated with the first tier of defence, or preventing the opponent from attacking freely. Normal-type attacks, a standard, will not work against Gastly. Further, they early on learn moves directed at avoiding this. However, this by itself will not always be sufficient for the game. Nonetheless, the defensive tests of the game occur early, which means that they haven't been fully developed yet - the later tiers are displayed before earlier challenges have been introduced. This means that Gastly opens up the opportunity to completely shut these more threatening 'challenges' down. They can notice that the higher requirements have not yet been fully implemented, and hence do away with them, and hence the challenge of the Gym. The challenge of these Gyms can hence dissolve into something like an illusion, given adequate preparation. However, what is required for this is that the tiers which are lacking be expressed, as with paralysis and cramping attacks, and hence when these are displayed, Gastly can be brought in without the necessity of struggling for free attacks - they will in all likelihood be able to finish the battle quite casually, with the moves available to them at that point. Because the battle is then in your control, you could then just switch to the highest tier of attack, or persistent attack, with moves like Curse or poisoning moves, but this is details. In that sense, Gastly can function something like a mute button, where drama is apparently going on, but you needn't watch.

In general, the Pokémon most associated with the Gen. II approach of both holding back opposition attack and then taking them out with continual damage is probably the Ekans like, or Arbok, who hence display part of what is needed in the story-line. It will primarily have to try and make up for the earlier aspects, or fill in the rest. Moves like Dig and Earthquake can help with this, especially against things like Magnemite or Magneton. The Ekans line does little other than these aspects, however, which can lead to certain limits.

A fairly straightforward way to exploit the set-up of R/B is to not only Paralyse the opponent (which is the defensive requirement, but still leaves others), but also get Paralysed oneself. This in a sense means that you are targetting the defensive requirement against the offensive requirement, and hence focussing things around this far less developed or demanding requirement. After both opponents are Paralysed, you can generally just use moves which prevent opponents from attacking and weaken these significantly, or in brief continue to shut down attacks, and you should be able to prevail. They can increasingly not harm you, and once they are unable to hit with Physical attacks, will usually be incapable of doing much with lasting effect. In G/S/C, this is slightly altered, with notably placed moves like Curse, as well as additional effects, meaning that this no longer has as much application. It is generally best used by grass-types, who can Paralyse most opponents, or alternatively with something like a Zubat as back-up to confuse the opponent in the very rare cases where they can get anything out of the situation. They cannot get anything enduring, however, and once they are generally unable to attack can be taken out easily.

In general, all of the Gym leaders surrounding Sabrina involve increasing attack. As such, an alternative approach is just to deal damage with something like Charizard - but this is inefficient. Instead of allowing her to initiate a pattern, you just initiate a pattern with the Gyms around her and just keep this going, while ignoring her attempts.

As the Gym near the Old Man Glitch's destination centres around resisting types, and leads to highly levelled Pokémon, we can hence use this as appropriate. Firstly, of course, you would need Pokémon of various, preferably resistant, types. From there, it is only a question of firstly putting in a resistant type, and from there attacking insistently and in a uniform manner. The defensive aspects can precede the others. Hence, something like a Kakuna or Beedrill which uses Harden and then is able to attack, can be highly efficient in many battles. This would not be a support role, however. General analogues here should usually suffice, and likewise Normal-types tend to thrive when lots of other types are thrown together and a lack of weaknesses becomes useful, but otherwise can be shifted away due to their lack of type resistances. Hence, Pokémon that can so to speak manufacture security can be treated as higher levelled, or adjusting for level, to an extent that can be highly exaggerated. Hence, for instance, a Rattata with moves like Double Team, Bide, and possibly Mimic, can generally take out the main game in a highly efficient way, accompanied with other moves like Dig or Thunderbolt, or whatever. If it were Paralysed as well, and used Dig, it would be essentially untouchable in this game. However, due to the lack of explicit resistance or moves like Light Screen, this is still slightly limited, or requires some support. Nonetheless, this general approach can cause it to act highly over-levelled in the right situation.

In general, the opening to both games is fairly similar in terms of challenge. Hence, if Brock is converted from a question of dealing sufficient damage to simply attacking persistently regardless of type, or in brief you Paralyse them to inhibit moves like Bide, and also prevent them from moving normally - otherwise you're still relying on outdamaging them rather than their hardly applying damage - you already have a start of sorts. However, the problem here is the sudden onrush of offensive Gyms, and hence the easiest way of accommodating this would be to skip these and go to the closest thing to a defensive Gym akin to Whitney, such as Sabrine's. In this battle, try to gain clear attacks and continually gain free turns - things like Butterfree would be helpful here. From there, your game should take on slightly similar properties to G/S/C in terms of challenge. Of course, while you could skip Gyms, many other events would turn up along the way, and hence the game might start to take on a pacing more akin to G/S/C's, with continual intermissions, rather than otherwise.

In a sense, Gym leaders have a similar role and hence can in a way become interchangeable. As such, if a status like Poison is applied, fighting your way through to their main Pokémon until weakened, and then using Selfdestruct or such is a viable approach. Hence, things like Poison can be highly effective against Gym Leaders, and indeed Bulbasaur gets this benefit as well, if accompanied with creatures like Koffing. This team might come to seem slightly Team Rocket. Of course, earlier opportunities for this exist than Koffing, but Koffing does suit it if available. Finally, all that is needed is something that can set up as well, and things would be in a good position.

Likewise, the Safari Zone is also associated with many glitches. The relevant Gym involves attacking insistently or trying to fend off one's assailants, so if one instead stopped short of this, or merely focussed on accurate attacks, rather than going through the required test, one could easily modify this in appropriate ways. In general, an easy way of doing this is just to take a Pokémon like Abra that can learn Recover, get it to learn this as quickly as possible, and then possibly allow it to be Poisoned if there is any risk of Paralysis and so on - for instance by just returning to the annoying Weedle of Viridian and waiting around. This would generally mean that you could move freely between areas. This fairly small, slightly sequence-breaking focus, allowed for by things like the S. S. Anne, would let you take on most of the rest of the game with some impunity, with the use of Recover off-setting opponents' higher levels and making them a source of experience. Recover is self-targetting, and hence secure, and along with a source of continual damage would if used early become deadly. Alternatively, one may attempt accurate moves alternated with others, which shall generally have a similar effect to Poison while also allowing for healing or blocks. This allows one to exact what threats you are responding to, generally, and respond with things like Light Screen, but isn't as notable as the others.

However, what if you wished to just clear off the more difficult sections of each game? For instance, say that you found the later game of Red harder than that of G/S, and would rather it resembled G/S. G/S relies on certain patterns here - alternating defence and attack - and hence an easy way of doing this in R/B might just be to deal with Sabrina in a certain way and then go on from there. This would require an appropriate team before this, however. In general, one would have to try and on the one hand keep on using defensive moves until they were paralysed, and on the other hand keep on using whatever offensive moves are available, alternating these. If this is done, one can then go on to Erika and use super-effective moves, and then move on to the rest of the conventional later-game Gyms. In general, this might stream-line your challenge, but there might be some difficulty nearer the end - although in general Giovanni will not in the least resemble Clair, and is in many ways the opposite, being easily attacked at that time but difficult to impede, which is characteristic in some ways of the perceived difficulty of later R/B. In a sense, the difficulty of both games is in many ways perceived rather than a property of the Gyms, so adjustment is a question of getting your Pokémon ready and then taking a certain angle - otherwise, they are quite similar.

Finally, while attack and defence shift to a second level, the 'Special' function remains on its first level. Hence, if you focus on the area where accurate attacks and moves which shut down others intersect, you should be able to find a means where the 'Special' co-ordinate is nothing. For instance, if you used Swift, then used Thunder Wave, and alternate these kinds of moves, you have already taken some damage. You were hence unable to fulfill your goal of Paralysis. This stands at a certain distance, and is undermined by the other. Hence, the area where the 'Special' co-ordinate is nothing can be identified as that where you are taking damage continually, and unable to prevent this - where your health is being drained away and you can't alter this in-game. For example, when you are waiting on a move like Hyper Beam, and hoping that your Pokémon hangs in. However, this is not always or necessarily translated into something stable, or into a variant of the 'Special' role. This can then be used in multiple ways - on the one hand, for a run in which the Special element is eliminated or you focus instead on this zero value for it, hence eliminating Sabrina, or on the other hand as something which is positively used to underpin a style. From there, one might go on to try and use this to lead to 'nothing' values for the others as well, and hence to attack in general without specifically sticking to a given form. As such, by looking into the elements of a game in conjunction, the elements which are less clearly demarcated can come to stand out or become usable.

That's a realy evil rattata.

Nice article!