KirbyMar 17
Playing pokemon blue for Reasons. I had forgotten how horrendously limited original gen 1 movesets were. Over five hours of gameplay and I'm still grinding in viridian forest before challenging Brock bc bulbasaur doesn't learn a damaging grass type move until level 14 and the rock/ground combo resists or ignores normal, flying, bug, poison, and electric moves which are the rest of what's available in catchable 'mons by level 14. (My team is level 12)
Show threadKirbyMar 17

On the other hand, I have remembered that poison type was once super effective against bug types, not just grass. Why did we nerf them by removing that advantage?

(On an extremely related note, poison also didn't resist poison in this game. So my beedrill is kicking ass in viridian forest against all the bugs

Show threadKirby6d ago
Update: the immediate post-Brock-fight save was at 7 hours of play time on the dot. Now 9.5 hours in and grinding before/in the first region of mount moon because of team updates and getting the newbies up to par with the existing team.
Show threadKirby6d ago
Partner's opinion is that the $500 magikarp before mount moon is a good deal actually because it evolves at level 20 and is otherwise available way before any water type besides squirtle. I'm not convinced, but that's less than three pokeballs of gamemoney and I wasn't super attached to my existing team. I'll see if I can evolve it by the other side of mount moon then probably swap for abra
Show threadKirby6d ago

However in modern games where all teams have broad move-type coverage, I am firmly against having mons on my competitive team that have a double-weakness to any one type. Like gyarados (water flying) which will take 4x damage from electric. At least in original gen 1 I can just keep him away from lt surge's gym and it'll mostly be fine.

(yes I rejected meowscarada for the double-bug weakness even though I adore sprigatito and the dark type in general)

Show thread Emma!6d ago

@kirbyderg trying to remember if *any* npc has a strong electric move in gen 1 — Surge's Raichu knows Thunderbolt, I don't think you encounter anything that knows Thunder… maybe rival's Jolteon? no electrabuzz in blue

oh, bruno's hitmonchan should have Thunder Punch

other than that I think it's literally just Magnemite's Thundershock & that's probably less threatening than Sonic Boom, given Gyarados's (& water types in general) good special stat

Show threadKirby6d ago

@emerald in yellow, rival's eevee could become a jolteon, but serebii is telling me that in blue, rival's elite four team was pidgeot, alakazam, rhydon, and a fire/water/grass triple from among exeggutor, gyarados, arcanine, and their starter.

So really just avoid the electric gym and be careful with bruno's hitmonchan, but the physical/special split hadn't happened yet so H's elemental punches were all still nerfed bc they had shit special.

Show threadKirby

@emerald serebii also informs me that in yellow if rival doesn't have a jolteon he'll have a magneton instead. (Fire/water/electric triple from among cloyster, ninetales, magneton, and eeveelution, plus a guaranteed sandslash, alakazam, and exeggutor)

... but the only damaging electric move mageneton learned on level up in those days should be thundershock, which has power 40 (the same as ember or gust aka early game levels of weak)

Mar 18 at 5:22amWeb
Show thread Emma!6d ago

@kirbyderg ooh yeah. I remember bulbasaur having a huge weakness to Leech Life, and parasect had a x4 weakness to poison, flying, fire, and maybe ice? but forgot poison was weak to bug, which would be x4 weakness to bulbasaur as well

there's surprisingly few typed attacks to worry about in gen1, I think. like most common pokémon just don't learn STAB attacks stronger than Ember at the levels you fight them, outside of flying/poison/normal? you're just not getting hit with flamethrower, surf, thunder, psychic, etc. very often (drill peck, wing attack, hyper fang; psibeam at higher levels?) (Lance's gyarados might have known Hydro Pump, & I feel like Lorelei had access to Ice Beam/Punch?)

I think the only trainer I remember as "dangerous" is the second-to-last trainer in mt. moon's first area, with the Zubat that knows Supersonic (possible to get v unlucky, especially if you're relying on only 1-2 pokémon, which I usually was at that point), Misty if you started w/ charmander, & after that just being ridiculously overleveled (since I wasn't leveling anyone outside of my core team) -- oh right, and then Zapdos was a nasty shock.