#02 - The Run Begins
Albeit by accident
Because I'll be traveling a bit while this playthrough is expected to be going on, I downloaded the appropriate tools and software onto my laptop to set it up.
And now that it's ready, I'm presented not just with a functional product, but a start to my game. I named my character, chose my outfit, and entered the codes I'll be using for this run:
Out of the RR codes available, I'll be using the Infinite Rare Candies, 100% Catch Rate, Team Preview, and DexNav cheats enabled. All of which are for convenience and to reduce tedium. I have the spreadsheet with every enemy trainer's exact team sheet on me already, Team Preview just helps visually streamline my gameplay. I'm sure some people would think it makes things too easy, but my fun in these monotype runs isn't about a nuzlocke or level grinding or trying to find my mons. The challenge is my limited mon selection, and how I'll use each's strengths and weaknesses to create a diverse team that can adapt to situations, and sometimes how I puzzle out matchups that are overwhelmingly out of my favor. Some of my favorite accomplishments in my previous runs were against Gym Leaders whose type countered mine, and how I was able to puzzle out a team that conquered theirs.
Heading down, my mother asks me what region I'd like my starter from. Now, a savvy Pokemon fan might expect me to choose Mudkip as my starter for this run. Swampert is a Water/Ground type, which is not only one of the best type combos for Ground, but also one of the best type combos in the entire game. Mega Swampert is also in this game, which is useful since ground doesn't have that many Megas to use in this mod. However, I'm actually opting for Turtwig. This may seem like a throw, but hear me out:
Here are all the Water/Ground types available in Radical Red:
And here are all the Grass/Ground types in Radical Red:
Swampert is a fantastic mon, but Water/Ground types are easier to come by. It isn't until after the second gym that I get access to starter eggs that I can use to acquire whichever Ground starter I don't pick originally. So until then, I have only 1 option for a Grass/Ground mon: Toedscool/Toedscruel. Meanwhile, before the second gym, I have access to Wooper (Quagsire), Tympole (Palpitoad), and Barboach. Shellos is also available before gym 2, but doesn't evolve until past Misty's level cap. To top it all off, Toedscruel is leaned more into special offense and defense, while Torterra leans into physical offense and defense. Therefore, it's optimal for me to pick Turtwig as my starter so I have better availability from the start.
...
Until I remember to check the evo levels for them. Marshtomp is available at level 16 and is already Water/Ground, while Torterra is the only Grass/Ground of its line, and evolves at... 36.
...welcome aboard, Jimothy
By the way, I tend to reuse nicknames for specific mons between playthroughs. Some of them I named on a whim and aren't attached to, but a lot of them have names I'm very attached to, and you'll see them as the run progresses. Jimothy here is named after Jimothy Cool, which everyone knows is the funniest youtuber on the planet. I'm sorry, I don't make the rules, it's empirical stuff. I named it after him because he plays a lot of Gen 3 OU and Swampert seems to be his favorite pokemon from that meta. So everyone say hi to Jimothy.
And just a little note: part of what I hope to accomplish through blogging this is to communicate a sort of "in real-time" vibe of my thoughts. That whole thing I typed out about Turtwig being the superior choice- I really wasn't aiming for that twist at the end, I realized mid-typing that I should check the evo levels for Marshtomp and Torterra. That wasn't planned, even though it probably should have been if I wanted this to be a coherent post. But c'est la'vie.
Anyhow, we begin with the rival fight, I can't choose a starter that's Ground type from the beginning, so the Ground-only rule isn't in effect yet. Once I can catch another mon, I'll grab the closest Ground type I can find and we start from there. The first rival fight, they actually give you a really nice benefit in the form of having your starter hold an Oran Berry, which I guess is supposed to make sure you practically can't lose? It almost feels unfair, since you're at the stage in the game of spamming Tackle.
From there, I do the Time Changer puzzle, which I've done enough times now to just remember the answers. I think this is a good feature for this game, and I'm glad it's available so early.
I head through Route 1, trying to avoid encounters because I really don't need them.
Viridian City is where interesting things start to happen. I can grab my Rare Candies from the kid in the grass, it's 400 Rare Candies and 100 Pomeg berries, which are nice for friendship-based evos. I can also pick up the Wise Glasses from the student in the one building, and in the same one I can attempt the puzzle for the Poke-Vial.
The puzzle is pretty cool. The enemy has a team of six level 100 Shedinja, and you have to select 3 mons from the list below.
It's a fun puzzle if you want to try it for yourself, if not there are guides on how to do it. I showed you which mons I picked for my run, so if you want you can use that as your hint.
I then grab the Old Rod from the fishing guy over here.
And grab Professor Oak's parcel from the shop.
But before we go back, I just remembered! We have the infinite rare candies now, so we can evolve Jimothy into our very first Ground type pokemon on the team: Marshtomp!
And because the RR devs were Based, they made sure he had some good moves to start with. While these low levels tend to differentiate move strength more by base power than by actual stats behind them, Marshtomp's base attack is a decent 85, while its base special attack is only 60. So having so many physical options is very welcome at this stage.
Now we return down Route 1 to give the Professor his mail, and get our Pokedex. But more importantly, this is when we get our first pokeballs. And this is where our scheming starts. Now, we get to scavenge for all the Ground types (and mons that evolve into Ground types) we can find. But before we do that, I actually want to return to Viridian City. Specifically, to walk a couple steps out into Route 2 where this science dude gives me the DexNav, and some Ability Pills since I'm on Hardcore mode (which I kinda forgot about, that's pretty valuable this early on).
Altogether, this means I'm finally ready to begin accumulating Ground types.
We collect Quag the Wooper and Clod the Paldean Wooper from Route 21, and Erosion the Swinub from the grass in Viridian City. Route 1 doesn't have anything for us, but Route 22 has Shoal the Sandygast, and Route 2 gives us Donna the Phanpy for our first full team of six:
Now, I do need to be a bit careful with my levels here. You get access to the Move Relearner in Cerulean City, so until I reach there I don't get a second chance with my move choices. That said, options at this level are pretty slim, so it's not like I'm hard pressed to choose. My entire team is Ground type, I don't exactly need Mud Sport.
Anyhow, of our first batch, here are my thoughts before I go into our first major battle (the optional Rival battle in Route 22):
Jimothy (Marshtomp)
The highest BST of our current group, which isn't saying much but it counts for something. And with 70 in its HP and both defenses, it's by far our current tankiest mon. With a base attack stat of 85, it also happens to be our strongest hitter. Don't worry, we'll get some other cool dudes before Brock, but Jimothy isn't looking too bad right now.
Erosion (Swinub)
Tied for our highest base speed currently (at 50), but has priority Ice Shard. Right now it's not strong enough to mean much, but when it evolves and gets some more stats behind it, this thing will start to REALLY hit hard.
Clod and Quag (Paldean Wooper and Wooper)
Right now they have the same BST, which is... rough. It's very low. Paldean Wooper is kinda nice for its Poison/Ground typing, but these two will take a bit to see use. Check back in once they evolve. That said, currently both have Water Absorb, which is a good get for Ground teams. Eventually my dedicated Water-immune mon will change once we get my beloved Gastrodon's Storm Drain online, but for now, these funny little dudes will do the trick.
Shoal (Pallosand)
I didn't really use Pallosand or Sandygast much on my earlier run, but not because it didn't have anything to offer. 80 defense and an ability that halves incoming Water type damage is pretty good, Ghost typing is something you don't see every day on a Ground type, and a base 70 special attack is pretty high. Its moveset is also pretty good for this early in the game, Ominous Wind and Mud Shot STAB with Absorb for coverage, and Will-O-Wisp to bolster its defensive utility. It's probably going to fall off faster once we get more mons, but for now it's a pretty solid pick.
Donna (Phanpy)
I'm going to be honest with everybody: Donna probably won't see much play this run. Listen: visually, Donphan is one of my favorite Ground types of all, but it just doesn't have that much to offer. Rapid Spin and Ice Shard are super cool tools here, but singular Ground typing and very typical Ground type stats just don't make it stand out very much. Donphan does get its hidden ability changed to Technician in RR (on top of more moveset additions), which is very cool, but it's just not quite enough to keep up with others. Still, I'd be thrilled to see it find a place on my team.
This is our team moving into our first boss battle: the optional Route 22 Rival fight. I know it's optional, but I want to give this a whirl and see how it goes. But for now, I just spent a lot of time on this, and I have other stuff to attend to.
Next time: we face our Rival in the very first major battle of this run (according to the listed trainers in the documentation).