How Speedrunners Broke Pokemon Ultra Moon 

What are your thoughts on Pokemon Ultra Moon as a Pokemon game?

I love that friendship is a part of the speedrun Aggressively being nice to your Pokemon is vital for efficiency

For those who are curious, the zorua reached level 27 after beating ultra necrozma

Going to be honest, trainers should have ALWAYS had effort values. Especially major story battles like trial captains. It took way too long into the series for it to happen.

The Illusion ability is SUCH an AI breaker.... it's kinda funny how easily you can turn the AI into a total idiot simply by accounting for your team composition.

I did not think baby doll eyes would ever be used in a speedrun

Unironically did the Illusion trick by accident in my first playthrough because I picked up a Zoroark. Laughed my ass through that fight.

You are ultra necrozma. Your light consumes entire universes. A bird throws some pocket sand at you and then just stands there while you blast it with the radiance of the sun.

My guess to the Necrozma situation is that they never gave it a check for if the move failed or not, so Ultra Necrozma just ends up assuming the at the move "missed" or was blocked by something like protect and tries again to annihilate the fighting type it sees in front of it with a move that otherwise would be super effective

I can’t believe that a random viewer changed the speedrun Route forever.

The trick in the end reminds me of how one could completely lock gen 1's enemy pkmn into buffing themselves. They would always use a move of at type that is super effective against your pkmn, and they didn't check whether the move would inflict damage or not. So anything with "Amnesia", but no ground or psychic moves would keep spamming the move against poison types.

Might b a hot take but i really liked the Ultra Wormhole segment, i didnt mind the motion controls and it made it really fun to hunt for legendaries in the post game imo I can 100% see how it’s aggravating as sin in a speedrun tho 😬

This is how i accidentally beat it on my playthrough with no damage i had zoroark in front and vaporeon in the back, it kept using photon geyser

The fact that you don't cover the E4 or Hau here just tells me Hawlucha demolishes everyone easily lmao

That Zorua strat is actually insane, one of the coolest I've seen

Okay I have heard about the strategy of using a Zoroark in normal playthroughs but the fact that it's a level 6 Zorua is what makes it

I struggled through Ultra Necrozma because I thought it was far too late to raise a Zorua but I guess I could have just taught it Toxic lmao

My favorite thing about ultra necrozma is all the unique ways people cheese it. They way I beat it on my first playthrough was a quick claw on a Malamar to topsy-turvy it’s stats and make it useless.

Gosh, I knew that Zorua was going to be instrumental given its interactions with Ultra Necrozma but I was not ready for it to stay at level 6 and Toxic stall lmao

As a Hawlucha enthusiast I'm glad that my favorite bird pokemon could help you with this speed run.

Of all the crazy shit in this speedrun I still think the wildest part is that friendship grinding is part of the route

wonderful video, this game is a HILARIOUS speedrun lol and btw, the zorua/zoroark thing still works in Scarlet , been my favorite AI exploit since zorua's debut ;)

One thing I used in my "opposite of a speedrun" Ultra Sun playthrough (a Professor Oak challenge) I did last year to cut the Mimikyu knot involved Iron Head on a Rampardos, but I don't think the time spent on buying the Skull Fossil in Konikoni, reviving it, doing extra Mantine Surf to get the BP for the tutor on Ula'ula, and the Z-Move cutscene is enough to save significant time over the Hawlucha method outlined here.

It's nice to see Cha the Hawlucha again. I remember getting him and he stayed in the party the whole game.

Now we know why the alola protags are so emotionless. They just are suffering waiting through their cutscene, and are aware everything was scripted from the start.

I know this game gets a lot of flack, but the intense fight against Ultra Necrozma was really memorable for me. I lost multiple times, and was just barely able to win because of my Golisopod's signature move and ability saving the day.

>X items provide a +2 boost now And people said these games were "hard".

"Known for it's lack of differences" - 100 Pokemon added to the regional dex - Almost every boss fight is different - An entirely new segment of the story with new characters and a Super-Boss - Several new Pokemon-Exclusive Z-moves with full animations - The ability to catch every past Legendary in the post-game - A new post-game story arc where you fight every past gen's Evil Team Leaders - The return of a number of characters from past games who were not present in the OG SU/MO - Several fully brand-new Pokemon, excluding mythicals, which no 3rd version has ever added before, as they usually give the 3rd Legendary new forms but nothing brand new apart from that. We got that, plus new forms for both Solgaleo and Lunala, 4 new Ultra Beasts and what is essentially a new Mega in the form of Ultra Necrozma Why do people who never played this game just say it's bad? And by the way, I'd argue Volo dethroned U-Necrozma as the most difficult boss, considering he has 8 Pokemon including 2 Giratina in a game where most enemies will attack several times in a row, plus the rest of his team is Cynthia's team minus Milotic.

As a Hawlucha fan (it's my favorite pokemon) I'm really glad to see video like this

Videos like this are what make me sad that I somehow lost my copies of USUM during a period of apartment renovation. I have the box for the double pack back from when i pre-ordered, but the games inside disappeared somewhere. Never got to play them, I had been working on catching the ultra beasts in the Moon postgame at the time.

Could a fear strat be faster? It'll be faster in number of turns used against UN but not sure about the routing needed to accomplish it

Man I love the sun/moon games. My favourite games in the entire series. Didn't look like crap. Did things differently than the previous games (not having to do 8 gyms again). Banger music. No more HMs.

Hawlucha became my fave mon soon after catching a shiny one in X's Friend Safari. That little guy has been with me in end-game in pretty much every Pokemon game since. Man has so many ribbons at this point lol. So cool to see how good he preforms.

0:09 when the JRPG is being a JRPG

Give us another alola game but let us into the wormhole buildings. Some of the wormhole places were insane.

Great video! USUM are some of my favorite Pokémon games! Subbed!

Wouldn’t it have been quicker to let Zorua get knocked out by that last Dragon Pulse so you don’t have to watch all those level-ups?

me how I had both Zoroark and meta gross on my in game team for my first playthrough. I was so confused why everyone thought necrozma was so difficult, but now I know!

Does this make Cha the second most recognizable trade Pokemon of all time? (Behind Mindy’s Haunter, naturally.)

I never knew my exact Ultra Necrozma strategy would be used in speedruns

Ultra Necrozma is the peak example of the Pokemon Opponent AI script and I love it. If they see the kill and have a supereffective move, they will always try to use it. (Even if that move isn't a damaging move, for some reason) They also, conveniently, don't take abilities into account. So since Necrozma doesn't see the Dark type with illusion, it constantly tries to use a Psychic move on what it thinks is a Fighting type. My first time around, I used a Gastly, and got flattened by Earthquake I learned of the bracketed part of this quirk from an Emerald Kaizo video a bit ago where a Pelipper kept getting hit by Thunder Wave despite being in the red. Since it was an Electric move against something 4x weak to Electric, the opponent saw it as a valid option.

i wonder if having zorua hold a toxic orb on the necrozma fight helps the speedrun more to avoid the level up messages, great vid as always

I love your use of Gravity Rush's Pleasure District

If you had leveled up zorua to lvl 27, you could've one shot ultra necrozma with foul play 😂

I tried using the Illusion exploit on Ultra Necrozma the first time I ever played Ultra Moon, but I made the mistake of trying to use a Z-Move as Zoroark, dispelling the illusion. It did a lot, but not enough. Luckily, my Alolan Muk picked up the pace when my Zoroark fell. EDIT: Funnily enough, Zoroark was also disguised as my Hawlucha...

I remember joining a pokemon stream just after UltraMoon released and telling how I beat Ultra-Nekrozma with Zoroa and Ekans using that strat. But thats been years ago, so i doubt I was the random viewer xD

My favorite Ultra Necrozma strat is one used by Nuzlockers. Under the Dupes Clause rule you can guarantee an encounter with Endeavor and Focus Sash is easily acquirable so you just cheese it that way. Very funny considering people used to (and still have) "Necrozma Clause" saying the fight doesn't count for losses due to its insane difficulty done normally.

I LOVE THE MOUNT THUNDER PEAK SONG FROM MYST3RY DUNGEON ITS ONE OF MY FABORITE TRACKS EVER I CANT BELIEVE YOU USED IT

Tbh i only played usum once completely and Necrozma wasn't a problem at all. Since i only took it down with one team i don't know how so many people struggled with it. I didn't know what i got into. I don't remember it exactly, but i think i used topsy-turvy first turn and Foul Play next with my Malamar (though it would make sense to use swagger first. I might have done that too). Either ways, i took it down in two turns whilst my brother complained about having had to give up after 30min. My malamar wasn't even overleveld.

Oooh, that illusion trick looks like it would be good for Nuzlockes as well. For my first U Necrozma I used Topsy Turvey with a focus sashed Inkay to kind of cheese the fight.

Hold up, the portal to U-Necrozma is *random* ? I've only played US/UM once each, and in both occasions I got to the Ultra Metropolis, or whatever that place was called, on my first go. I guess I was incredibly lucky.

Would it make any sense to level the Zorua enough to learn Foul Play? Foul Play even from a low-level Zorua oneshots Ultra Necrozma.

I had a zoroark in my normal playthrough of ultra moon, disguised as an Arbok. 2 shot ultra necrozema with foul play.

What makes this video jump to an 11/10 is the usage of Gravity Rush ost in the background

Great video!

Reversed Spearow audio made me LOL 😂

Pretty sure that’s how I cheesed the Ultra Necrozma fight too (with illusion, not toxic stall)

The hawlucha focused run reminds me of how busted that traded emolga was in the original black and white games

IDK if "You'll get past your rival Hop twice" was on purpose or not but either way it was perfect

Not the first time I've seen the AI's "must use super effective type moves" strategy abused.

That Zoua cheese is amazing

Thats how i beat that Bossfight the first time i played the game when it originially came out lmao absolutely love Zoruas ability i bring one in every team if possible. Even went so far as to get a event Celebi on Pokemon Soul Silver, trade it over using some weird Mechanic to Pokemon White so i can use this Event Celebi to encounter a Zorua in Pokemon White early

is it possible to get a focus sash so Real Hawlucha will get more experience from Ultra Necrozma? and/or would switching Real Hawlucha into Zorua work to get more experience? is that experience significant enough to matter?

The Alohla games have to be my favorite Pokémon that will ever be made.

in my casual run of usum, I had zoroark and just spammed nasty plot before 1 tapping ultra necrozma.

that moon do be ultra after all

@PulseEffects idk if it is easy or convenient to get Foul Play on Zorua but I remember using zoroark in my casual playthrough and one-shotting ultra necrozma by pure happen stance. Since Fould play uses Necrozma's attack would you need to invest in zorua at all for the same effect? Can a level 6 zorua one shot Necrozma as well? Hope this helps :)

I’m going to share how I beat Ultra Necrozma, credit me if ever used or mentioned 🙏🏽 I think it’s pretty cool and unique. It may or may not be useful. Also, I think this strat may be the reason why you can’t use moves like Endeavor on bosses in newer games. I used Endeavor Hawlucha with a Focus Band (10% focus sash-had to soft reset quite a bunch of times), then used Accelrock Dawn-Event Lycanroc. I think this can be recreated using Focus Sash Endeavor Hawlucha or any other mon, then use a priority move on Hawlucha or another mon. What sucks is that Sash can only be obtained by defeating a whole route of trainers on Poni Island which would be a lot of time taken away. Toxic I think in itself is a long time though.

1:48 really Wish they continued that way Great Tusk or Dondozo with actual EVs in SV would have been cool

The fucking Yugio reference got me lol, subbed

Would this work on Ultra Sun? Just asking ^^

Using my favorite Pokémon to destroy my favorite Pokémon game? You've earned my subscription.

my over leveled golisopod (i was grinding my team since i heard how busted necrozma was and my decidueye was level 74 due to rotom exp boost and transferring a lucky egg several times from the copies of sun and moon and gave it to all of my pokemon and golisopod was level 70 and hawlucha was level 80 and all of my team had max friendship and trade boost after the lucky egg thing and yes i had a zoroark but didn't know this stratagy and had my level 99 lunala [from the copies of sun and moon from where i got the lucky eggs] and a level 70 mimiku just in case anything went wrong i could revive atleast 2 members due to disguise) got a crit and one shoted ultra necrozma so i never struggled against ultra necrozma (maybe overkill with the team chilling in the back)

the mimikyu fight was really cool to get around it's advantages over Hawlucha

Ultra sun is my absolute favourite Pokémon game

With my fangame, the major battles are going to have Pokémon with beneficial natures and optimized stats.

I watched so many challenge run recently I only realized 10 minutes in that the speedrunner don't use "only 1 pokemon" lol. I was like "wtf" when the poplio went in for the baby dolls eyes move lol.

I remember stumbling into a Zorua in the early game on my first playthrough of ultra sun, but I had NO IDEA how good it actually was until I entered the Ultra Necrozma fight and stumbled upon this cheese on complete accident. It had wiped half my team but my Zoarark, as Hariyama, did the same thing that occurred in this video.

Zorua Talk begins Pokemon Colosseum Music starts Dont hype me up like this man 😂

Ultra Necrozma: "This thing has the best AI given by the Pokemon Company." Zorua: *Cracks knuckles* "Come again?"

It is so weird that only gen 7 gets this flak for long cutscenes. I don't think any cutscenes in that game lasts for more than 5 mins. Imagine playing any other RPG and sitting through basically an anime episode length cutscenes at points.

Based on the thumbnail ALONE (I haven’t watched the video and don’t have the time to do it) I’m assuming it’s the classic Zoroark Switcharoo. Catch a Zorua in the field to the left of the Trainers School, evolve it, catch a fighting type. When you fight UN, disguise the Zoroark as the fighting type. The AI will try to use Photo Blaster or whatever it’s called, but it won’t work because it’s a psychic-type move. This’ll confuse the AI. Set up or use a Rotom Battle Boost or too, then sweep. This worked for me as a LAST RESORT when playing Ultra Sun (?), and my Zoroark in the game got close to level 100 from using it too much, it was like level 90, rest of the team was around level 60.

I'm amazed there hasn't been any clout chasers saying "IT WAS ME I SAID THAT!!!" I'm proud of you all for not being toxic.

The one thing that never changed in pokemon ai design. Always use super effective moves even if it doenst work. I did this type of cheese in pokemon black against the psychic elite 4 member. She is really weak to zoroark

I thought the illusion was widely known

lmao, i actually did the same strat on necrozma on my 1st ultra sun run, but i just used a zoroark on my team

Zorua learns Foul Play at level 29, it goes down by Foul Play after -1 defense as Zoroark at level 30.

"Hardest bossfight pokemon has ever created" My level one rat: 🗿 Legends Arceus Giratina: 🗿

I am not above the cheese. Going to go beat ultra necrozma right now

Ultra Necrozma: My Photon Geyser will kill anything, you are no match for me Illusion+Toxic strats: we’ll see about that.

Flying/Fighting is just the speedrun type

The way this guy calls things disgusting is so funny

Gat DAYM throwing on the marvel 2 music? Let's go

I love the Ultra games 🙏

I feel like the cutscenes kinda destroy Pokémon Sun and Moon, but I can't deny that they look great.

I attempted a nuzlocke of my first playthrough of US and coincidently pulled the zoarak straight with gengar in last slot

Zoroark is such a blessing, both as a Pokemon that exists and being in Ultra Sun and Moon.

Shit, that cheese strat with Ultra Necrozma is something I should probably actually do nyext time I replay Ultra Sun cause I always catch Zorua when I play USUM

the way i bear ultra necozma was through a traded level 60 drowsy who put necrozma to sleep, and a level 100 shiny mew who didnt listen to me

Who knew a level 6 pokemon could defeat the strongest legendary 10 times its own level let alone unscathed