Topic: Pokémon Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl

@X-Slayer thanks for all the trades and the Murkrow!

I just beat Cynthia while also being underleveled by 7 levels. I don't know how, I just got on the 'god run' as speedrunners would say. Every single one of my team pitched in to help: Lickilicky managed to take a beefy Sludge Bomb and Knock Off into Thrash on her Roserade, Honchkrow fended off her Spiritomb and Lucario before going down, Toxicroak managed to wear down her Milotic so that she'd waste her Full Restores, Floatzel did a bit of damage but was really the most pivotal sack I could asked for, Torterra managed to live an Aura Sphere from Lucario and KO it with Earthquake and most importantly of all, Glaceon was able to utterly eviscerate Gastrodon with Freeze-Dry, somehow live a Dragon Claw from Garchomp and freeze it into extinction with Hail-boosted Blizzard.

This is one of, if not the, best team I have ever used and that final moment where all to see was the ice flowing around the battlefield will live in my head forever. What. A. Game.

Well here goes the final draft for the pokemon I'll be using for the Elite Four... Empoleon, Drifblim, Drapion, Rhydon, Magmortar, and Clefable.

The runner ups, who will continue to be used after the credits, include my extended cast of pokemon:

Bastiodon, Dustox, Kriketune, Ambipom, Golduck, Staraptor, and Luxray

I keep forgetting that Gastrodon is a thing and that Cynthia has one. Guess I gotta give Grass Knot to either Clefable or Empoleon.

@Eel Great composition honestly, I wish Eviolite was still here so that Rhydon wouldn't be just a lesser Rhyperior but alas, the item to evolve it is in the postgame so what can you do. I also had a secondary a secondary team that I used mainly to shore up weaknesses and grind out trainers so I didn't overlevel, being:
Disco the Staraptor, Lynux the Luxray, Larry the Gyarados, Chad the Medicham, Junpei the Pachirisu and Soarus the Garchomp. You've just given me the idea to use that team against the E4 rematches so thank you! Battle Tower, here I come.

@Fizza I really do wish they had included the Eviolite too. Or a way to get the Protector eariler. But oh well. He likes using his Quick Claw a lot anyway.

In terms of nicknames... I went a bit random, they're: Cid the Drifblim, Romeo the Rhydon, Pluck the Empoleon, Daria the Drapion, Rojo the Magmortar, and Pollux the Clefable.

Good luck with the rematches!

@Eel Thanks! I've spent the last week and a half getting mons for the national dex. 400 seen with 340 registered isn't half bad if I do say so myself. I somehow managed to get a Hitmontop when evolving Tyrogue for the first time when I wasn't even trying to so that's nice. I was also able to get Heatran and Cresselia, all the Regis (apart from Regigigas who I'll nab later) and Legendary Beasts in Ramanas Park. Word of warning for the post game though: swarms and especially the Great Marsh can be BRUTAL. I've checked the marsh every day for the last week and the only nat dex mons I've found are Yanma and Shroomish. Just letting you know so you set yourself up for the pain to come.

So I'm nearly done with BDSP, and so far I just decided to go back to platinum. I already saw the bulk of the game, and I'm at victory road, but the story was severely underwhelming. I heard Galatic was one of the best evil teams, but the stuff at coronet just kinda feels like "Oh hey, here's the obligatory evil team fight and the obligatory legendary capture!" (I even caught Palkia without having to weaken it, without even having to use my masterball).

I heard Platinum makes the story way better, with more emphasis on Galatic, and a more climatic event at Coronet's summit. I also heard Platinum does a lot more in terms of lore for the Legendary pokemon and the Sinnoh region as a whole, so I thought of running through it quickly before Legends comes out, in the case that some of this lore ends up being necessary.

@Fizza Oh wow you've done a lot of progress there! Since I already have a living dex in Home, I don't think I'll be collecting every single thing in this one, but I do want to truly complete at least the Sinnoh dex.

@Savage_Joe heh yeah it becomes quite bulky. I actually prefer how Rhydon looks compared to Rhyperior so I've done that in a few games.

@VoidofLight That was definitely a lucky catch! Because it took me several fights to catch Palkia. The thing kept killing itself! Though to be fair I could only paralyze it, and I used Premier balls.

@VoidofLight My Dialga killed almost my entire team and then proceeded to kill itself with Struggle before I caught it ._.

So uh.... just had my first BDSP crash. Booted up the game, clicked A at the 'Press A Button' screen, the loading icons popped up and then BAM, an error has occurred. I didn't lose anything thankfully because it was perfect the second time but I am just surprised it took this long based on everything I've heard. Anyone else have this happen? I'm on 1.1.3 btw.

Well... not a Pokemon master by any rate, but the Champion has beaten me twice now. I need to go back and do some more leveling, I think.

@rallydefault What level are your pokemon right now?

@Snatcher
I think my starter is almost 80. Maybe not quite that high but definitely over 70. Most of my others are in the 60s.

I'm reading that fairy types are good against the final fights, but I don't have a single fairy. I made it to the champion's last pokemon, but my two remaining just got one shotted and didn't have many moves left.

@rallydefault What? dude thats more then enough levels, you just need to find a good strat to go with, whats your team of pokemon, I suggest a move that lowers attack, like charm.

@rallydefault if you're having too much of a hard time, I would recommend buying lots of potions and revives, you can stall your way to victory!

@Snatcher
My moves are very wrong, then. I usually focus on learning just attack moves and getting rid of the stat modifiers. I guess just breezing through Sword conditioned me to do that lol

@Eel
Do enemy Pokemon eventually run out of their moves? Because I could totally stall to victory lol

@rallydefault yup! Starting with Gold and Silver, enemy Pokemon gained the "ability" to run out of PP just like the player's.

I can admit I've used this tactic myself haha. (On Cynthia herself, too. In the original games.)

@rallydefault Ya, Sword makes it easy just to use attack moves and be done with it, state changing moves are a killer, and a life saver in this game, I used swords dance to one shot a lot of pokemon, and charm to keep pokemon from one shoting me.

My team has a few status and effect moves... Like Encore, Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock, Acupressure, Tailwind, Confuse Ray...

Pure brute force works most of the time, but setting up and making life hard for a strong computer opponent is pretty rewarding. Encore in particular is lots of fun when they try to set up their own strategy!

Thanks, guys! I'm gonna give it another shot today.

I need some ethers, too - I might have been able to defeat her the last time if I had a couple ethers to use before the fight.