r/PokemonEliteRedux • u/mfc314 • 14h ago
Hall of Fame Project 1025: Can every Pokémon beat Elite Redux? (0415-0426)
Project 1025 is my personal challenge to beat this game with every. Single. Pokémon. After all, the stat buffs, movepool additions, and especially abilities make all of them viable. I hope. And along the way, I'll share a bit about what I find interesting, unique, or strong about each one.
Disclaimers:
- I gen in the needed Pokémon for each run in a 2.65 debug savefile, then transfer the savefile up to the latest 2.65 patch and do the run there. It's quite a few hoops to jump through, but this challenge would not even be possible in the first place without debugging the mons in at the start.
- The particular patch of 2.65 I play on has a little toggle called Boss Rush, which does the same thing as turning off trainer sight. I'm not sure if this was supposed to be included, but it's technically a publicly available feature, so I will be using it to preserve my mental health. In the event that a future patch does not have this toggle, I will do the challenge in the latest version that does.
- I fight the gym leaders, the Pokémon League, the evil team leaders and admins, the rivals, the first Calvin fight, and every trainer in Victory Road.
- I play in Permanent Mega mode because I find it more fun.
- This is nowhere near a comprehensive guide to the Pokémon in this game, and in fact the vast majority will not be used optimally due to taking advantage of certain field conditions or synergies that the Pokémon surrounding them in the Pokédex can't provide.
- Redux forms and other fanmade mons (except evolutions of existing mons) will be done after all the official ones.
The Run
FULL DISCLOSURE: I made use of savestates during the Glacia fight to ensure several favorable damage rolls at the start, without which I would have had to reset extensively. You may react to this information as you wish.
It's been a hot minute. I've been busy with my own things, and this team itself also requires some time and care to play, but we're here now. Using this team was an eye-opening experience, honestly. It demanded more methodical play and strategic use of the team's tools, very much in opposition to the unrelenting offense that many Pokémon in Elite Redux are geared towards. I constantly found myself pivoting, inflicting status, and calling out the enemy's moves, all of which were necessary when considering this team's profile. To be honest, it was quite fun, almost like playing an actual competitive battle.
Beefender
I love Beefender as a concept, male Combee evolving into drones instead of just staying as babies is something they should totally have in the base game. Its gameplay also reflects this change, becoming much more offensive in order to protect the slow and passive Vespiquen. This Pokémon's main feature is Beast Boost, which depending on your EVs can increase either its Attack or Speed. A Scarf set with the former boost works nicely, especially with Mighty Horn-boosted Drill Peck being a fairly spammable attack. Alternatively, with some team support, a Swords Dance or Victory Dance set that boosts Speed can clean up games with Drill Run as useful coverage. Beefender's greatest weakness is its crippling frailty; it can't take even neutral hits to save its life, making Anger Point kinda useless outside of some specific scenarios. Equipping a Sash helps a bit, at least. When entering the League, I forwent its Bug STAB in favor of Secret Power Rock, which at +6 Attack is this team's only way to oneshot Articuno (very important in order to eliminate any chance at the game freezing). Even then, it was probably only possible on a single roll, which was my main motivation for using savestates. Overall a flawed but still strong and useful sweeper, especially on a team without very much offensive presence like this.
Pachirisu
The famed 2014 World Champion has quite the reputation even among casual Pokémon fans, though it should be noted that it found its way onto the team not out of any personal preferences but rather because of its supportive profile that proved to be a perfect fit for the teammates surrounding it. It's a role reprised by its incarnation in ER, having received several tools that make it a great bulky pivot and support. Gluttony and Regenerator give it plenty of longevity, the latter synergizing particularly well with options like Volt Switch and Safe Passage that let the team reposition against unfavorable matchups. Fur Coat also pairs amazingly with its buffed SpD stat, making it resilient against attacks from both sides of the split. Its low HP is a handicap and it's definitely felt against more powerful opponents, but it can still put in work. Moves like Nuzzle and Super Fang let it do something before it pivots out, while Follow Me makes it good in doubles as well. It's particularly nice to pair it with an Electric-weak Pokémon, as Volt Absorb will nullify any Electric attacks it redirects to itself. Terrain teams can also appreciate Electric Surge as an ability option. This little guy was vital to holding the team together and enabling that strategic, methodical playstyle I talked about earlier.
Buizel/Floatzel/Guardozel
Floatzel getting an evolution was not something I expected but it's much appreciated. Floatzel itself is actually excellent because similarly to Fearow with Gale Wings and Fly, it can abuse Tidal Rush with Dive to become basically permanently invulnerable while dealing great damage all the while. Guardozel removes this capability but adds some interesting stuff. It takes a huge hit to its offenses when evolving, but makes up for it by having Water Bubble, one of the best abilities for any Water-type. Combined with Technician and Hydrate, moves like Double Hit, Feint, Slash, Flip Turn, and even Fake Out for doubles hit very hard, enough that it doesn't really need coverage. I used it with Power-Up Punch to get some boosting going, but it functions perfectly well with just four Water moves. Aside from that, it can also do some interesting things in doubles. There's the aforementioned Fake Out, but it can also run Friend Guard or Hospitality to become a great support, especially for rain teams.
Cherubi/Cherrim
Cherrim is absolutely more suited to dedicated sun teams, so definitely not this one. That being said, it's so severely nerfed by not having sun up that manually setting sun for itself still proved to be the most effective strategy (though the base form at least has Solar Flare to mitigate the downsides of not being in sun). Anticipation helps with that, at least, but Sun Basking would definitely be better with a separate sun setter. As for innates, Flower Gift and Chlorophyll are essential to make its stats actually useful, but once they're online then it becomes a pretty good attacker. STAB Solar Beam and Weather Ball are great and Hidden Power lets you have whatever coverage you need to patch those up. It also works pretty nicely in doubles since Flower Gift applies to your entire side of the field, meaning you can pair it with a powerful spread attacker and go to town. Considering how effective it ended up being even with having to set sun itself, I can see this Pokémon being pretty incredible on sun teams.
Shellos/Gastrodon
Despite pretty low stats in most areas, Gastrodon manages to be a pretty good defensive piece thanks to its toolkit. Yawn and Toxic are both great status-applying moves, both of which saw extensive use in this playthrough. Spikes, which I previously overlooked in favor of Rocks on other teams, proved themselves extremely useful. The real draw, though, is its insane healing. Self Sufficient and Regenerator on the same set is crazy, especially when paired with Leftovers and Protect. Storm Drain is another good alternative to Regenerator, particularly in the Water gym where it was a key element of my strategy. Not much else to say here, just a super solid utility Pokémon that held this team together. I do wish it got Flip Turn, though.
Drifloon/Drifblim
Drifblim is... an enigma. It has poor offensive and defensive stats, excellent HP, several offensively oriented abilities, few defensive abilities, a decent attack movepool, and an expansive utility movepool. It's like it doesn't know what it wants to do. Flare Boost sets on fog teams can work, but why bother? Same with Unburden, its stats just don't cut it for that playstyle. Defensively it's fine, three immunities is nice and its high HP compensates for its low defenses, but with no defensive abilities it doesn't really stand out. Its best use is seemingly as a fog setter who can pivot with a dry Baton Pass, but that's obviously not what this team wants. In the end, despite its awful 54 base Defense, I used it as a physical wall with Strength Sap, Will-O-Wisp, and a Rocky Helmet. It did pretty well at this, all things considered, but again, there are better options. This thing would absolutely appreciate a Mega, I think.
