Gotta Train 'Em All Part 1 - Gym 1

For this new section, Wes and I are going through Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver as many times as it take to use every single Pokemon from the original 250 Pokedex. This is an effort to use the monsters we never would have considered using before. We'll both use the same 6 Pokemon and then compare what strategies we used and how they developed after we beat the Elite 4.

In our inaugural run, we're using Psyduck, Slugma, Shuckle, Drowzee, Hoppip and Ekans. We'll have a full written feature after we both finish the game, but you can read all out my run step-by-step exclusively here at the blog.

As a disclaimer, we are allowing ourselves to trade the Pokemon over from another version and allowing TM's to be taught to 3 Pokemon, 1 move each.

BEGINNING - GYM 1

I sent over a lv 1 Psyduck, lv 1 Slugma, lv 1 Shuckle (taught it Toxic), lv 9 Hoppip, lv 12 Drowzee. I'll pick up and Ekans later. I used the Hoppip and Drowzee to help grind the other 3 to lv 5. Shuckle's def and sp def grew +5 or +6 every level. His HP also grew by +2, but all other stat either did not grow at all or by just +1) Slugma and Psyduck grew very similarly, both gaining large boosts to Sp Atk (+2 or +3) every other level (or so), while in between gaining even stats (+1) all around. The toughest part to winning battles once they got strong enough to fight on their own was that they only knew weak moves: Psyduck only knew Scratch and did now have an impressive At stat, Slugma only knew the weak and inaccurate move Smog, but also knew Fire Blast as a result of breeding. That move helped out quite a bit in the Bellsprout Tower.

Slugma carried the party (of which I was only using Slugma, Shuckle and Psyduck because Hoppip and Drowsee were above lv 11 and unruly) through the Bellsprout Tower, learning Ember at lv 8. Psyduck helped out a bit with Hoothoots, learning Water Gun at lv 9. But the time I got to the top of the Tower, Slugma was nearly at lv 10. So to fight the Sage on top, I had to switch between Shuckle and Slugma to divide the experience to that Slugma would be obedient. Shuckle grew to lv 7.

My "Toxic" strategy with Shuckle paid off big when fighting the first gym. By badly poisoning his opponents and just sitting back raising my already impressive defense. I had to use Psyduck for a fight or two just to make sure Shuckle didn't get unruly. Using the "Toxic" strategy, Falkner was no problem.