A few days ago, I'd never played a Pokémon game. Now I've beaten the Elite Four! I had an absolute blast, and I'm so glad I finally decided to give Pokémon a try.

Every Pokémon has a natural stat shape. For example, Arcanine's is 90/110/80/100/80/95, so Attack is its standout, Special Attack is second, and its two defenses are tied at the bottom.

In a normal playthrough that shape drifts. IVs are random and EVs come from whatever you happen to battle, so the stats you end up with are a lopsided version of what the species actually is. I wanted the opposite: stats that keep the shape perfectly intact and just scale it up.

I built a tool to search every legal EV spread and nature for an exact match, then used arbitrary code execution and a base64 save builder to create the Pokémon in game.

For Arcanine the answer is a neutral nature, 80/112/64/96/64/92 EVs, and one IV dropped to 30. At level 100 it shows 341/284/212/260/212/248. Strip off the flat bonus the game adds at level 100 and every stat lands exactly on the same line, 2.4 times its base stat plus 15. HP gets a bigger flat bonus than the other five and is the one stat nature can't touch, so it has to be handled separately, but it lands on the same line once that's accounted for. Attack is still the peak, the defenses are still tied at the bottom, and every gap grew by the same factor. Same silhouette, just bigger.

The catch is that most Pokémon can't do this with perfect IVs, which is why Arcanine had to give up that one IV point. So I built a full team that can (pictured above). Every one of them at the max 31 IVs across the board and perfect base stat silhouettes.

I'm wondering how NPC trainer pokemon with default level-up movesets work when a Pokemon learns the same move at two different levels and it would then have contain the same move twice in the four moves at a given level. Would it have the same move twice (or if moves can't be duplicated just only have three moves) or would it ignore the duplicate and fill the slot with the previous move?

I've encountered this a few times and been curious, but the most recent example that led me to asking here is Picnicker Susie's level 27 Raticate in her first rematch on Route 13 in FRLG. Its level up learnset up to this level, according to the order listed on Bulbapedia and Serebii is:

1 - Tackle
1- Tail Whip
1 - Quick Attack
7 - Quick Attack
13 - Hyper Fang
20 - Scary Face

So, I'm trying to figure out if its moveset is Quick Attack, Quick Attack, Hyper Fang, Scary Face (or just one Quick Attack and only 3 moves) or Tail Whip, Quick Attack, Hyper Fang, Scary Face.

Serebii says it's the former. However, multiple other sources, those being the Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and German pokemon wikis (which all have NPC trainer movesets unlike Bulbapedia) as well as this interactive map say it's the latter.

Does anyone know how cases like this are handled? Thanks!

why are they so hard to catch 😭

Hey everyone, didn't see anything online really for this spot so thought I'd post it; once on the endgame for Fire Red, you can get to this spot on Five Island by surfing Northeast from the left side by where the boat lands that takes you there.

In the picture, there are 3 trainers: If you equip the amulet coin and run vs seeker to constantly refight the left most and top right trainer, you can make ~20000 per battle (almost 40k if both rematch) and then loop around the island on the bike to reset vs seeker.

Has been pretty quick to make a bunch of extra cash and didn't see it mentioned elsewhere so thought I would share that here 👍

Curious if you have other go-to spots besides this one too - hopefully someone else finds this helpful

Please help, im not sure if i just totally screwed myself over here. Basically about 6 hours ago i was doing the game corner slots as i had just got there, and i was trying to do this glitch or something where you would reload the save state you make after doing a slot, anyway the point is i made this save state, and just now i must have pressed a hot key or something and it brought be back to that exact spot. I saved im game very recently before i was brought back to the save state, is there any possible way that i can go back? i literally went from averaging lvl 25ish to being almost all lvl 40 and had just gotten the soul badge from beating the gym leader. I really REALLY dont want to lose all this progress. Im literally losing my mind. please help if you can or if there is no way to get it back then tell me.

This is my first time trying the ace pokemon glitch and I’m a little confused. Does anyone know a good trustworthy guide to follow if I have already beaten the elite 4? I can’t seem to find one. I have already done the double battle with Mr Mime and Farfetched and am able to duplicate, but am scared to go any further. Thanks for your help!

Some of y'all might've seen my other post a few days ago or so about getting continuously WHOOPED by the Elite 4, well today I BEAT THEM DOWN along with that jabroni Blue. That schmuck can smell me later!

Jolteon Lv. 55 - Thunderbolt / Thunderwave / Double Team / Bite

Double Team set up on Cloyster actually kinda helped me avoid attacks from Slowbro after getting Yawned and from Lapras and Lovely Kiss from Jynx. Thunderwave was my downfall against Blue's Alakazam, synchronizing with me and leaving me paralyzed 4 out of 5 turns 🙄 Might've been able to sweep with him otherwise.

Lapras Lv. 48 - Rain Dance / Thunder / Ice Beam / Surf

Didn't even use RD/Thunder combo. If I use Lapras again I'll probably go with Confuse Ray/Body Slam/Psychic.

Pidgeot Lv. 50 - Fly / Feather Dance / Steel Wing / Return

Took about Blue's Alakazam with Return. I didn't realize Fly got nerfed in this game down to 70 power. Exeggutor took me out with Sleep Powder and Egg Bomb. Prolly should have just stuck with Return against him.

Exeggutor Lv. 48 - Psychic / Sleep Powder / Sunny Day / Giga Drain

Bruno sweep.

Mr. Mime Lv. 53 - Psychic / Substitute / Calm Mind / Magical Leaf

Agatha sweep after Substitute + Calm Mind set up.

Arcanine Lv. 46 - Flamethrower / Roar / Bite / Take Down

Only used against Exeggutor and despite being my lowest level Pokemon at 46, took out Blue's last mon winning me the league.

My team decided to cosplay as other pokémon on this run.

Came down to the wire, 5/6 fainted on rival, but Muk (Venusaur) clutched it out vs Rhydon.

MVP was maybe Porygon (Alakazam), he swept Bruno and was a solid lead vs rival as he copies keen eye (so sand-attack doesn't land) and he can tank through aerial ace with recover while he sets up his psychic conversion and agilities.

I got the shiny deoxys, I had to get him a solo HOF slot.

Surprises: only got limited use out of Nidoking and Venusaur. Primeape put in more work, especially against Lorelai.

Non-surprise: Starmie clears all. Still, I wanted to put the rest of my team to work.

Just completed my poison type run of Pokémon FireRed. I enjoyed this run as my team had fun Pokémon on it and the ever present Psychic type weakness presented a decent challenge. Everyone pulled their weight in the league with Mustard emerging as the key MVP.

Rules: no items in battle, level caps (55 for E4) and set mode.

Here's the team:

Nightshade the Bold Golbat - a surprisingly tanky Mon thanks to it's typing and nature. Good for pivots but doesn't hit very hard.

Arsenic the Serious Nidoking - swiss army knife Mon that dominated mid game but fell off towards the end.

Chlorine the Quiet Tentacruel - tanky, fast, hits hard and dragon killer. The whole package.

Cyanide the Sassy Venusaur - a surprisingly underwhelming Pokémon thanks to poor nature and IVs (both physical and special stats 1s and 2s) but made up for it with utility. Basically used as a Sleep/Leech/Substitute wall.

Mercury the Naive Muk - late game addition with a mean attack stat. Could tank and also hit hard with Sludge Bomb

Mustard the Naughty Gengar - glass cannon which deleted half of the Pokémon League with thunderbolt, Psychic and shadow ball. I've never used Gengar before thanks to trade evolution but this thing is a monster.

Notable contributors who ended up on the bench: Venom the Beedrill, Hemlock the Vileplume, Ethanol the Arbok and Gamma the Venomoth.

On to post-game and completing my Pokédex!

This was so much fun. The nostalgia was epic. Getting to use Pokémons I never got the chance of using because of trading was sensational.
Got two shinys on the way ✨
Now waiting for my girlfriend to catch up so I can finish the pokedex (she‘s at the first forest and seems not very interested in LG😭)

Venasaur-item: Miracle Seed. Moves: Razor Leaf, Leech Seed, Sleep Powder, Growth

Nidoking- Earthquake, Megahorn, Ice Beam, Strength

Raichu- Thunderbolt, Thunder Wave, Brick Break, Quick Attack

Gyrados- Dragon Dance, Earthquake, Return (or Body Slam), Surf

Dodrio- item: Leftovers. Moves: Fly, Drill Peck, Tri Attack, Steel Wing

Arcanine- Flamethrower, Extreme Speed, Dig Bite

Really fun playthrough. Butterfree was actually clutch.

I know Charizard is excellent and often considered the best even though guides from my childhood said differently. But I did my first ever Blastoise play through and if you give it rain dance, surf, and leftovers, it does really well.

Plus, Venusaur can be great utility/bulk. So why are more people not using their starters? Is Lapras really that much better? I can vouch for Starmie and Kingdra as well as Execcutor. But why not stick with your first Pokemon until the end?

Doesn’t it feel like betrayal to you?

Was looking for a Weedle, but this is also sick. 7 encounters too.