PP is, theoretically, a way to balance better moves by giving them less uses. In practice, though, most moves have too much PP for it to matter much. Even moves with 5 PP often only require a modicum of restraint to maintain. This applies especially to individual battles, where PP is usually a complete non-factor unless dealing with a dedicated stall team. And in the campaign, there's none of those to be found. PP just doesn't work that well. I find this unfortunate, since I enjoy these kinds of resource systems where each technique has its own limit instead of a global resource pool. So I wanted to try a run that made PP a more effectively limited resource. Not just in the long run, which I've done before, but limited for each and every battle, and what better way to do that than by restricting PP to the smallest usable amount – 1!
To formally lay out the rules:
Getting Started
First choice is the starter. Offense is the name of the game here, and Infernape is the obvious choice for that. While the high mixed offenses and strong STABs people associate with Infernape are definitely very nice, some of its best aspects aren't quite what you'd expect. One is that it's the only starter that learns Leer. There's very few damaging moves early on, so having a non-damaging move that effectively contributes extra damage is very helpful.
The first rival battle demonstrates the problem of having so few damaging moves. In fact, this battle is completely impossible! Even if I have the absolute strongest Chimchar, a Leer into a crit Scratch can never OHKO his Piplup. I don't even have PokeBalls yet to emulate struggling... So after my Leer+Scratch fails to OHKO, I have to use Leer until I faint. Thankfully winning this battle is optional so this challenge can go somewhere. After leaving Rowan's lab for the second time, I get the Return TM. While it's only 28 BP, any damaging move is crucial right now. With Leer, Scratch, and Return, Chimchar is able to consistently KO Level 2 Pokemon to grind some exp, getting up to Level 7 to learn Ember. With 3 damaging moves, one of which is STAB, I feel comfortable to progress.
Route 202
First I fight a Lass with a Level 5 Starly, which I only need Leer/Scratch/Return to KO because the Return crits, though I still had Ember to use so it didn't matter. I'm reduced to 12/24 HP, which gets me close to triggering Blaze. The next trainer has a Bidoof, which I Leer then Scratch. It uses two Tackles that get me into Blaze range, so my Ember afterwards incinerates it. The last trainer on this route has a Burmy, which is simply OHKOd by my Blaze Ember. While Burmy would normally have Protect at this level (which is, to say the least, a problematic move), this trainer actually has a custom set with only Hidden Power. Handy!
After defeating Burmy, Chimchar gets to Level 9 and gets its other crucial earlygame advantage over the other starters – Taunt. This lets it prevent dangerous time-wasting moves like Growl. I make the difficult choice to get rid of Scratch for it. Return is inferior for now but will quickly surpass Scratch, Ember is obviously too good to get rid of, and Leer will only get more useful as Chimchar learns more physical moves. It's unfortunate to lose a damaging-move for a move that's not always helpful, but Taunt is very important for some fights.
Route 204
I take a quick stroll through Jubilife City, skipping the Pokemon Center because Blaze is such an important source of extra damage. Instead I head north to Route 204 and catch my second Pokemon, the mighty Kricketot at Level 4. Its only attacking move right now is Bide, and that's what it's going to be used for. Bide can deal incredible damage for 1 PP, so even though Kricketot has nothing else it's still useful when used right. I also get “lucky” and catch mine with a Metronome, which if you think about it for a second is just some sort of cosmic joke.
Now to fight more trainers. It's actually not in my interest to train Kricketot for now due to how Bide works, but Chimchar is more than happy to take the reigns with Blaze active. Return and Ember are enough to KO one trainer's Shinx and another's Budew. There's also a trainer with Magikarp, but its relatively high defense and Fire-resistance means that Chimchar can't actually beat this fearsome beast. I head back to Jubilife and go to the school, where Return+Ember downs the Bidoof there while Ember alone defeats a Starly. With all possible trainers defeated for now, it's time for a rematch with Barry.
Barry (Route 203)
(Full playlist)
Barry leads with a Level 7 Starly. Due to its Naive nature lowering its special defense, Blaze Ember OHKOs, but not before it almost KOs Chimchar with Quick Attack, taking it from 5 to 1 HP. This is perfect though, since it lets Chimchar faint the turn it uses Taunt on Piplup. Piplup would normally be a huge issue for this run, since it's high-leveled, decently bulky, has Growl, and resists my STAB. But with this well-timed Taunt, it's forced to attack for at least 2 more turns when Kricketot is out, which lets it Bide on two guaranteed Pounds. These do 7 damage each, which reflect into a 28 HP Bide, a perfect OHKO.
To Oreburgh City
Now that Kricketot has gotten its perfect KO on Piplup, it can get exp since pretty much anything going forwards is going to be stronger than Piplup Pounds and you need to actually, you know, survive to use Bide. Training it is kind of annoying though, since most trainers' random AI is very uncooperative without Taunt to goad them into using attacking moves for Bide. So it's basically impossible for Kricketot to beat Pokemon by itsef. And due to team matching, I can't use Chimchar to help it unless the opponent also has 2 or more Pokemon.
The first trainer I fight on Route 203 is a bit tricky. They start with Kricketot, and I lead with my own for exp then go to Chimchar and OHKO with Ember. But now that I've used my strongest move, Zubat is an issue. I start with Leer, then Taunt before switching back to Kricketot to use Bide. Taunt will last for at least 1 of the Bide turns, and while I unfortunately get the quickest Taunt Zubat uses Leech Life on the second Bide turn regardless. 2 Leech Lifes don't actually deal a ton of damage reflected back though, so now I go back to Chimchar and barely KO with Return on its -1 defense. This attack was delayed until now so that it didn't heal the damage slightly from Leech Lifes.
The next two trainers only have one Pokemon, and while this means Kricketot won't get exp it does make them much simpler. Both Shinx and Machop faint to Leer+Return+Ember. The other two trainers on this route will need to wait, though. One has a Psyduck which is too bulky to go down right now, and the other has 4 Pokemon which is flat-out more Pokemon than my 3 damaging moves can handle. I also run into a wild Abra, which I realize I can easily catch due to Taunt. Teleport is a nice little timesaver before you can Fly.
Building Up My Team
Clearly, I need another Pokemon. My initial plan was to catch a Level 9 or 10 Psyduck in the Oreburgh Gate underground, but I made a dumb mistake and didn't realize this area required Rock Smash to access (the levels should have been a giveaway). Psyduck can be caught at a lower level in the main area, but then they don't start with Water Gun which makes them very difficult to train. I thought about the best alternative to my foiled plan, and decided the best Pokemon would be a Machop ahead in Route 207. While these can theoretically be obtained up to Level 8, I honestly couldn't find one at this level so I settled for Level 7. It comes with Low Kick and Leer to assist with damage, and I can teach it Rock Smash too, obtained at the start of Oreburgh Gate. Chimchar can also learn this and it would be pretty helpful right now, but sadly its status as an HM will screw Chimchar up a lot after the earlygame. So it's not worth it.
With a second Pokemon that can proactively attack, I go back to Route 203 and fight the 4 Pokemon trainer. Kricketot weaves in and out for every Pokemon to get exp, but it doesn't contribute anything. Machop OHKOs Bidoof with Low Kick, Chimchar OHKOs Abra with Return and Budew with Ember, then Leers followed by Taunt against Starly. This lets me go to Machop and OHKO with Rock Smash while facing no risk of Growl. I then return to Oreburgh Gate and fight the trainers there. The first one has two Pokemon so Kricketot can get some exp. They start with Starly, and I use Bide. It has 2/3 attacking moves and I only need to see one, so that's pretty consistent. Bide doesn't OHKO, so I go back to Chimchar and finish with Ember. Shinx comes out, and Kricketot makes a quick cameo for exp while Chimchar OHKOs with Leer into Return. I was surprised that could OHKO, but Return is getting stronger and Chimchar is pretty high level now at 13. Chimchar also got weirdly unlucky and took a ton of damage in this battle, since Starly went for Quick Attack on the turn it would faint, and Shinx crit twice. This is actually beneficial though, since Blaze is active again. It uses this to first KO the single Bidoof trainer with Ember and Return, and then to finally deal with the Psyduck. I start with Ember (used first so Water Sport doesn't dampen it), then Leer+Return to finish it off.
Oreburgh Mine and Gym
Unfortunately, my Blaze quickly burns out this time since it's Rock city for a while now. I heal up and enter the mine. Machop deals with a Level 6 Geodude with Leer+Rock Smash+Low Kick. That might seem excessive, but Geodude can be really annoying with Defense Curl. Chimchar then uses Ember and Return to deal with their Machop. This gets it to Level 14 where it gets a huge boost by evolving into Monferno and learning Mach Punch over Return. The other trainer only has a Level 9 Geodude, which Machop deals with the same way as the last. It gets to Level 10 and learns Karate Chop over Focus Energy, bringing it up to 3 STAB moves.
Now for the gym. The first trainer just has a single Geodude which Machop has no issue with, but the second has two Pokemon and Kricketot really needs to evolve. Machop uses Rock Smash and Karate Chop for the first Geodude (Defense Curl doesn't matter). Now Onix is out, and Kricketot needs to switch in to get exp to evolve from this. Unfortunately it's not necessarily as easy to switch in and out as it's been before, since Onix likes to use Harden. It does just that as I switch out, so I go for Bide. Unless Onix uses 2 Rock Throws, Kricketot survives. I actually don't see any Rock Throws, which is somewhat unfortunate since 1 Rock Throw means Bide OHKOs, but oh well. I get 1 Tackle and 2 Hardens (including an attack from the turn Bide unleashes), which does some damage. I go back to Machop and Leer again, and fortunately don't see any more Hardens as Low Kick KOs the somewhat-weakened +2 behemoth. Low Kick also has an incredible 120 BP versus Onix, so that helps. With this exp, Machop gets to Level 12 and Kricketot gets to Level 10 and evolves into Kricketune. It learns Fury Cutter and I teach it Rock Smash too, though neither really matter.
Roark
Kricketune leads versus his Geodude and naturally goes for Bide. While I'm 2HKOd by Rock Throw, Geodude is highly likely to use its first turn setting up Stealth Rock. It does just that, and Kricketune opens a can of dededeleeewhoopass on Geodude with Bide after it Rock Throws once. Roark sends out his Onix, and I switch in Machop. Unlike the one in the gym it doesn't have Harden, so Machop can easily Leer+Low Kick to OHKO it. Last is his Cranidos, and I swap to Monferno. With Stealth Rock damage, Monferno can only survive 2 Headbutts, so it uses those turns to use Leer then Mach Punch. I get the OHKO, though this is a damage range. But it's also not a big deal if I miss it. Monferno would faint, then Machop would KO with Karate Chop as Roark uses his Potion.
And so, my team has conquered the very rough earlygame for this run!. When most moves are 2-3HKOs in the earlygame, it's very difficult to play with 1 PP. While normal trainers won't be as meticulous in the future (especially since I'm not babying Kricketot anymore), boss fights definitely don't get easier, especially some you might not expect.
Team Status:
Monferno Level 14
Mach Punch/Leer/Ember/Taunt
Kricketune Level 11
Bide/Growl/Fury Cutter/Rock Smash
Machop Level 13
Low Kick/Leer/Rock Smash/Karate Chop
To formally lay out the rules:
- What is “1 PP”?: The obvious answer would be to hack the game so that all moves have 1 PP, but this is very undesirable for two reasons. The main one is because doing this also applies this restriction to my opponents. This degenerates games to stalling out my opponent's PP (mainly with switching), which I don't find interesting at all. The other reason is because it makes route-crawling incredibly tedious. Before I could grow Leppa Berries it would just involve a ton of trips to the Pokemon Center, and that's not something that adds anything to the run. So, for how I'll be implementing this rule: in any given battle, I can only use each of my moves 1 time. If I've used all my moves once, then all I can do is switch out or futilely throw balls (“struggle balls”).
- Team size matching: I can never use more Pokemon than my opponent. For Multi Battles with an AI partner, I can match the opponent with the most Pokemon. If it's just me versus two opponents, then I can match the sum of their team sizes. Also, when I've used this restriction in the past, my general response to maintaining it for normal trainers/wild Pokemon has frankly been “who cares”, but for this run I'm going to strictly enforce it for everything. I think the primary restriction of this run loses a lot of its point if I can effectively gain a lot of extra PP by outnumbering my opponent.
- No items in battle (except struggle balls) and Set mode: Standard stuff.
Getting Started
First choice is the starter. Offense is the name of the game here, and Infernape is the obvious choice for that. While the high mixed offenses and strong STABs people associate with Infernape are definitely very nice, some of its best aspects aren't quite what you'd expect. One is that it's the only starter that learns Leer. There's very few damaging moves early on, so having a non-damaging move that effectively contributes extra damage is very helpful.
The first rival battle demonstrates the problem of having so few damaging moves. In fact, this battle is completely impossible! Even if I have the absolute strongest Chimchar, a Leer into a crit Scratch can never OHKO his Piplup. I don't even have PokeBalls yet to emulate struggling... So after my Leer+Scratch fails to OHKO, I have to use Leer until I faint. Thankfully winning this battle is optional so this challenge can go somewhere. After leaving Rowan's lab for the second time, I get the Return TM. While it's only 28 BP, any damaging move is crucial right now. With Leer, Scratch, and Return, Chimchar is able to consistently KO Level 2 Pokemon to grind some exp, getting up to Level 7 to learn Ember. With 3 damaging moves, one of which is STAB, I feel comfortable to progress.
Route 202
First I fight a Lass with a Level 5 Starly, which I only need Leer/Scratch/Return to KO because the Return crits, though I still had Ember to use so it didn't matter. I'm reduced to 12/24 HP, which gets me close to triggering Blaze. The next trainer has a Bidoof, which I Leer then Scratch. It uses two Tackles that get me into Blaze range, so my Ember afterwards incinerates it. The last trainer on this route has a Burmy, which is simply OHKOd by my Blaze Ember. While Burmy would normally have Protect at this level (which is, to say the least, a problematic move), this trainer actually has a custom set with only Hidden Power. Handy!
After defeating Burmy, Chimchar gets to Level 9 and gets its other crucial earlygame advantage over the other starters – Taunt. This lets it prevent dangerous time-wasting moves like Growl. I make the difficult choice to get rid of Scratch for it. Return is inferior for now but will quickly surpass Scratch, Ember is obviously too good to get rid of, and Leer will only get more useful as Chimchar learns more physical moves. It's unfortunate to lose a damaging-move for a move that's not always helpful, but Taunt is very important for some fights.
Route 204
I take a quick stroll through Jubilife City, skipping the Pokemon Center because Blaze is such an important source of extra damage. Instead I head north to Route 204 and catch my second Pokemon, the mighty Kricketot at Level 4. Its only attacking move right now is Bide, and that's what it's going to be used for. Bide can deal incredible damage for 1 PP, so even though Kricketot has nothing else it's still useful when used right. I also get “lucky” and catch mine with a Metronome, which if you think about it for a second is just some sort of cosmic joke.
Now to fight more trainers. It's actually not in my interest to train Kricketot for now due to how Bide works, but Chimchar is more than happy to take the reigns with Blaze active. Return and Ember are enough to KO one trainer's Shinx and another's Budew. There's also a trainer with Magikarp, but its relatively high defense and Fire-resistance means that Chimchar can't actually beat this fearsome beast. I head back to Jubilife and go to the school, where Return+Ember downs the Bidoof there while Ember alone defeats a Starly. With all possible trainers defeated for now, it's time for a rematch with Barry.
Barry (Route 203)
Barry leads with a Level 7 Starly. Due to its Naive nature lowering its special defense, Blaze Ember OHKOs, but not before it almost KOs Chimchar with Quick Attack, taking it from 5 to 1 HP. This is perfect though, since it lets Chimchar faint the turn it uses Taunt on Piplup. Piplup would normally be a huge issue for this run, since it's high-leveled, decently bulky, has Growl, and resists my STAB. But with this well-timed Taunt, it's forced to attack for at least 2 more turns when Kricketot is out, which lets it Bide on two guaranteed Pounds. These do 7 damage each, which reflect into a 28 HP Bide, a perfect OHKO.
To Oreburgh City
Now that Kricketot has gotten its perfect KO on Piplup, it can get exp since pretty much anything going forwards is going to be stronger than Piplup Pounds and you need to actually, you know, survive to use Bide. Training it is kind of annoying though, since most trainers' random AI is very uncooperative without Taunt to goad them into using attacking moves for Bide. So it's basically impossible for Kricketot to beat Pokemon by itsef. And due to team matching, I can't use Chimchar to help it unless the opponent also has 2 or more Pokemon.
The first trainer I fight on Route 203 is a bit tricky. They start with Kricketot, and I lead with my own for exp then go to Chimchar and OHKO with Ember. But now that I've used my strongest move, Zubat is an issue. I start with Leer, then Taunt before switching back to Kricketot to use Bide. Taunt will last for at least 1 of the Bide turns, and while I unfortunately get the quickest Taunt Zubat uses Leech Life on the second Bide turn regardless. 2 Leech Lifes don't actually deal a ton of damage reflected back though, so now I go back to Chimchar and barely KO with Return on its -1 defense. This attack was delayed until now so that it didn't heal the damage slightly from Leech Lifes.
The next two trainers only have one Pokemon, and while this means Kricketot won't get exp it does make them much simpler. Both Shinx and Machop faint to Leer+Return+Ember. The other two trainers on this route will need to wait, though. One has a Psyduck which is too bulky to go down right now, and the other has 4 Pokemon which is flat-out more Pokemon than my 3 damaging moves can handle. I also run into a wild Abra, which I realize I can easily catch due to Taunt. Teleport is a nice little timesaver before you can Fly.
Building Up My Team
Clearly, I need another Pokemon. My initial plan was to catch a Level 9 or 10 Psyduck in the Oreburgh Gate underground, but I made a dumb mistake and didn't realize this area required Rock Smash to access (the levels should have been a giveaway). Psyduck can be caught at a lower level in the main area, but then they don't start with Water Gun which makes them very difficult to train. I thought about the best alternative to my foiled plan, and decided the best Pokemon would be a Machop ahead in Route 207. While these can theoretically be obtained up to Level 8, I honestly couldn't find one at this level so I settled for Level 7. It comes with Low Kick and Leer to assist with damage, and I can teach it Rock Smash too, obtained at the start of Oreburgh Gate. Chimchar can also learn this and it would be pretty helpful right now, but sadly its status as an HM will screw Chimchar up a lot after the earlygame. So it's not worth it.
With a second Pokemon that can proactively attack, I go back to Route 203 and fight the 4 Pokemon trainer. Kricketot weaves in and out for every Pokemon to get exp, but it doesn't contribute anything. Machop OHKOs Bidoof with Low Kick, Chimchar OHKOs Abra with Return and Budew with Ember, then Leers followed by Taunt against Starly. This lets me go to Machop and OHKO with Rock Smash while facing no risk of Growl. I then return to Oreburgh Gate and fight the trainers there. The first one has two Pokemon so Kricketot can get some exp. They start with Starly, and I use Bide. It has 2/3 attacking moves and I only need to see one, so that's pretty consistent. Bide doesn't OHKO, so I go back to Chimchar and finish with Ember. Shinx comes out, and Kricketot makes a quick cameo for exp while Chimchar OHKOs with Leer into Return. I was surprised that could OHKO, but Return is getting stronger and Chimchar is pretty high level now at 13. Chimchar also got weirdly unlucky and took a ton of damage in this battle, since Starly went for Quick Attack on the turn it would faint, and Shinx crit twice. This is actually beneficial though, since Blaze is active again. It uses this to first KO the single Bidoof trainer with Ember and Return, and then to finally deal with the Psyduck. I start with Ember (used first so Water Sport doesn't dampen it), then Leer+Return to finish it off.
Oreburgh Mine and Gym
Unfortunately, my Blaze quickly burns out this time since it's Rock city for a while now. I heal up and enter the mine. Machop deals with a Level 6 Geodude with Leer+Rock Smash+Low Kick. That might seem excessive, but Geodude can be really annoying with Defense Curl. Chimchar then uses Ember and Return to deal with their Machop. This gets it to Level 14 where it gets a huge boost by evolving into Monferno and learning Mach Punch over Return. The other trainer only has a Level 9 Geodude, which Machop deals with the same way as the last. It gets to Level 10 and learns Karate Chop over Focus Energy, bringing it up to 3 STAB moves.
Now for the gym. The first trainer just has a single Geodude which Machop has no issue with, but the second has two Pokemon and Kricketot really needs to evolve. Machop uses Rock Smash and Karate Chop for the first Geodude (Defense Curl doesn't matter). Now Onix is out, and Kricketot needs to switch in to get exp to evolve from this. Unfortunately it's not necessarily as easy to switch in and out as it's been before, since Onix likes to use Harden. It does just that as I switch out, so I go for Bide. Unless Onix uses 2 Rock Throws, Kricketot survives. I actually don't see any Rock Throws, which is somewhat unfortunate since 1 Rock Throw means Bide OHKOs, but oh well. I get 1 Tackle and 2 Hardens (including an attack from the turn Bide unleashes), which does some damage. I go back to Machop and Leer again, and fortunately don't see any more Hardens as Low Kick KOs the somewhat-weakened +2 behemoth. Low Kick also has an incredible 120 BP versus Onix, so that helps. With this exp, Machop gets to Level 12 and Kricketot gets to Level 10 and evolves into Kricketune. It learns Fury Cutter and I teach it Rock Smash too, though neither really matter.
Roark
Kricketune leads versus his Geodude and naturally goes for Bide. While I'm 2HKOd by Rock Throw, Geodude is highly likely to use its first turn setting up Stealth Rock. It does just that, and Kricketune opens a can of dededeleeewhoopass on Geodude with Bide after it Rock Throws once. Roark sends out his Onix, and I switch in Machop. Unlike the one in the gym it doesn't have Harden, so Machop can easily Leer+Low Kick to OHKO it. Last is his Cranidos, and I swap to Monferno. With Stealth Rock damage, Monferno can only survive 2 Headbutts, so it uses those turns to use Leer then Mach Punch. I get the OHKO, though this is a damage range. But it's also not a big deal if I miss it. Monferno would faint, then Machop would KO with Karate Chop as Roark uses his Potion.
And so, my team has conquered the very rough earlygame for this run!. When most moves are 2-3HKOs in the earlygame, it's very difficult to play with 1 PP. While normal trainers won't be as meticulous in the future (especially since I'm not babying Kricketot anymore), boss fights definitely don't get easier, especially some you might not expect.
Team Status:
Monferno Level 14
Mach Punch/Leer/Ember/Taunt
Kricketune Level 11
Bide/Growl/Fury Cutter/Rock Smash
Machop Level 13
Low Kick/Leer/Rock Smash/Karate Chop
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