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Pokemon Crystal - Beating The Elite Four/Lance with Solo Sunkern

2,179 views · Published 19 October 2018 · 19:12 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Omega Tyrant · 2018 · Gaming

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I'm currently doing a solo Sunkern run of Pokemon Crystal, where I go through the entire game battling with only a solo Sunkern. I'm at the point of completing the Johto section, so like with the solo Weedle run I decided to record beating the Elite Four and Champion. I did a practice run without recording to make sure it was possible without relying on Swagger/Attract luck and then resetted after completion. So this is the first time beating the Elite Four/Lance on this file.

The strategy revolves all around getting strong enough against the lead pokemon to be able to OHKO all threats afterward. X Special only raises Special Attack in Gen 2 while X Special Defense didn't exist yet, and Sunkern learns no moves that raise Special Defense, so pokemon with super effective Special moves are extremely threatening and must be OHKO'd before they can hit you to win. Otherwise you will have to get lucky with Swagger, Double Team, and/or Attract. Moveset-wise you're restricted to Mega Drain/Giga Drain/Solar Beam for STAB/special moves, and Hidden Power/Return/Sludge Bomb for coverage/physical moves. I didn't try doing anything to get a specific Hidden Power type so I ended up with a Grass Hidden Power around Mega Drain's strength, making it useless in this run (though if you're going to manipulate/cheat for a specific HP, a Rock type would be most useful for solo Sunkern). When it comes to Return vs. Sludge Bomb, the former is superior, as Sludge Bomb getting a super effective hit against a few non-threatening Grass type pokemon isn't that useful, while Return allows you to hit anything for neutral that SB can on top of hitting many other pokemon that resist SB, you just trade the ability to hit Ghosts with the ability to hit Steels, while 3 of the 4 Ghosts 4X resist SB anyway. Plus Return has quite a bit more power and is stronger than STAB Giga Drain (Return's 102 vs. SB/STAB GD's 90), so overall Return is the easy choice despite being a more boring move. For utility moves you have Growth to boost your Special Attack without needing X Special, but otherwise Sunkern has nothing else besides the universal TMs, Sweet Scent, and Sunny Day, of which Sunny Day can be used for no-charge Solar Beams but has no other use, and Swagger/Attract/Double Team can be used to cheese with luck, but otherwise nothing really useful. I ended up going with Growth, Return for physical and type coverage, and Mega/Giga Drain for special.

I ended up doing this at level 70, which I reached by this point pretty naturally through exploring nearly everything and fighting about every trainer, despite also running away from many wild pokemon. I did it at pretty relative ease at 70, so this is probably doable at quite a bit of a lower level.

For commentary on the specific trainers, look at my pinned comment, as I can't fit it in the description.

As for Smash content, I should have my next planned Smash video up within a week, a special Boss Battles video I've been wanting to do for a while.

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