Scizor VS Heracross Solo Challenge - Pokémon FireRed 

Pinsir was still shockingly strong in his run. But I agree, he's often the first one forgotten when you think about strong early Bugs. His Mega feels so... Odd :p

​@Eggsceptional To be fair he has a face even a mother wants to forget.😅

@@reicherwallace6774 Poor Pinsir.. But his strength is undeniable :)

@Eggsceptional I remember him being a total unit despite bugs, especially him not having anything to work with hardly. Kinda like having a machamp with no fighting moves.

Welcome! I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying the videos so much! There are many things to thank the RU-vid algorithm for. I'm going to be expanding into SoulSilver soon(ish) too. As long as you keep watching, I'll keep making them :) Thanks!

Thank you! I appreciate you saying that :)

Thank you, I appreciate you saying that. One day at a time :)

Thank you!! I feel like the new timeline graphic has some tweaking that needs doing, but it's a step in the right direction. That Papa Roach cover flowed right out of me. I'm inspired! I think it's time to add more songs to my videos again.

@@Eggsceptional The seviper songs will write themselves. Ssssssssexy, everything about you so ssssssssexy :D As for your timeline tweaking, every video you've put out has been better than the one before it, so I don't doubt you'll make some great changes!

That VS video title alone gives me nightmares. I can't believe you actually went through with the run. Happy to give you a shoutout! Us Poképeople gotta stick together!

I feel my routing with Heracross in the second playthrough was a bit lacking as well, which could have led to a closer time between the two. Scizor with access to Reversal to carry through until Swords Dance was a force though. I feel like having our set up move stick as SD, with the Jolly nature allowed us to surpass that speed threshold enough times, with a little help from Candies now and then. Trading Speed set up for Atk I feel that we would be a lot more risk in the leagues as we would no longer be one shotting, taking more turns, and potentially more damage/status conditions. I can't know for sure without testing! Maybe there's an angle I'm not seeing.

Thank you!! I tried some new things in this video that definitely need some tweaks. I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

I'm sure it goes without saying, but I really enjoyed these runs! I hope you enjoy watching :)

Working on it! Gotta keep trying things, iterating, keeping what works, learning from what doesn't. Thank you :)

I feel like I let Heracross down in this video. Typically, Rock Slide vs HP Rock doesn't make a huge difference in completipn time as I need to add time to hunt TM10, and catch additional Meowths. The 100% accuracy would be way nicer though

I'm happy to have represented Heracross! Though, upset with my final results. I feel Heracross deserves more from me next time.

Aw man! Getting 7/10 is bad news bears! I'll have to try harder, I guess :)

@@Eggsceptional well you mentioned my question from the last video about damage rounding thresholds, maybe next time we'll have some bad news bears 😂

​@@NathanRhysGeorge I can guarantee nothing in the next one, but it will happen again of that I have no doubt!

These were such fun runs to play! I won't reveal the end but this was a really gopd race :)

Thank you for your support!! It means the world :) As long as you're all there for me - I'll be here busting my hump to bring you the best content I can!

I hope you enjoyed it! And dinner of course. I hope it included eggs.

@@Eggsceptional absolutely loved the run! and the eggs ( i had for breakfast at least lol)

@@adamrojas9235 Thank you! Eggs for breakfast - the perfect way to start the day :)

Clearly! It's in another league entirely as we proved a couple of weeks ago ;)

Thank you! I appreciate you saying that :)

Thank you! I was feeling way too much like the announcers from Dodgeball with all of the OHKOs. Swampert will be December my friend :) I have plans!

@@Eggsceptional haha dodgeball is such a great movie lol. Ben stiller funny as hell

@@mattprice302 Facts :)

You're welcome! I loved watching this type of content when I needed a break, and then I started making my own! Thanks for the comment :)

Thank you! Well, I need to find more awesome like you, of course :)

Thank you! I enjoyed running both of these Pokémon so much! That early access to SD changed the trajectory of Scizor's game. Not as much as Armaldo mind you... Yes, I have the version exclusive VS ideas on the list :) There are so many different ways to pit them against each other! Plus, in the next few months I do need to focus on solo runs a bit more than the VS style - I'll have a bunch upcoming in a few months but it's another mini-series.

Thank you! I agree with what you said particularly around Heracross. This was the first run that I've done where I felt my second playthrough routing almost hurt as much as it helped. Adamant was better for Heracross, no doubt. I'll break into Gen 4 eventually, but Gen 5+ may be waiting a bit longer :)

I appreciate that thank you! I'm learning more every day, and trying new things with the videos! I'm glad that you enjoyed it :)

I had to take a moment to figure that one out. I couldn't help myself!!

Thank you! I had a few errors in this video, including talking over a few intros. I'm glad you liked them! They were both such interesting Pokémon to run. So similar, yet so diverse in how they play. That Charizard was terrible! I half wonder how much things would change had I gone for say.. the Bulbasaur team instead :P Substitute is wicked strong! But I'm afraid to admit a video that I've been working on lately it let me down. There's a first for everything. The Caterpie line goes live in a little over an hour! I hope you enjoy when you get the chance :)

@@Eggsceptional We all have our ups and downs,so don't mind that all that much, because you can always improve in the next video.😁 Yeah, sometimes when I'm almost done with a video, sometimes I'm editing a lot of parts out of the video especially at the beginning,even once it's already done . So it happens to all of us,so don't be afraid to experiment with different editing styles .😊 And I bet that you got it right on your next video, I'll probably enjoy it quite a lot.😄

@@bateltheassistant Fair enough, thanks for the encouragement. Some days when multiple things are going wrong I need it, I'm sure you understand! What happens on and off screen are very different things. I'm always pushing to be better so of course I'll keep experimenting - even with the occasional flop :) I got it right alright!! I think? I guess I'll find out this Friday when everyone else gets to see it :)

@@EggsceptionalYup pretty much.😄 Yeah, getting into the mood of making these can be sometimes very challenging,on both ends. The best you can do is to keep on trying,and try to enjoy the process itself.😁 I'm sure that you're doing a great job at it.

@@bateltheassistant There may be some choice words along the way, but they at least get edited out :) I plan to start attempting to stream soon... we'll see how it goes then :P

You've been on a roll! Thank you I'm glad to hear that you've been enjoying them :) Hopefully they just keep getting better?

That was a d20! It's a chunkier hand-made one my sister found at Comic Con for me!! Thank you :)

There's something that's so oddly satisfying about it.

@@Eggsceptional there really is. One of life's little joys

There are definitely some tweaks to make to the time comparison graph - it didn't land quite the way I wanted. I'm glad you enjoyed it nonetheless! I was in an almost constant state of questioning with these two. I feel like Scizor I made the right choice, but Heracross I did not. Swords Dance is just so darn strong :)

I appreciate it thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the content :)

I'm glad! I talked over them a few times in this video, but I'll try not to let that happen again :)

Thank you! It seemed like a fitting one for him! Shiny hunting a Dratini, I wish you the best of luck with that. I have never had the patience to shiny hunt. In all of the Pokémon content I've made to this point I have yet to encounter a single one :)

@@Eggsceptional absolutely! I appreciate the bestowed luck bonus you have granted me lol. I’ve only ever shiny hunted one other Pokémon and that was hatching a shiny Grookey in shield. That took significant less time, I think it was around 130ish eggs with the shiny charm.

@@Aaron.Seabolt That's super cool! I have to admit I had to look up a couple things real quick - I'm not that familiar with mechanics in the newer generations. That's a cool colour shift for it to the yellow. It must have been rewarding to finally get it!

Thank you! I appreciate that :) After almost every one of these races I put out I want to go back and try again :P I'm sure with enough time I could tie them up. Cheers!

It's the artwork that Bulbapedia uses from Let's Go, so I'm pretty sure it is! I haven't played Let's Go myself. It's a cool piece, quite different from the rest.

That's essentially what it devolved to I think yeah! Slightly less so with Heracross, but accurate nonetheless :)

Good suggestion thank you! That graphic needs a bit of work :) Bide saved me from Brock and that's all I needed it to do!

@@Eggsceptional Posted yesterday by mistake. I was only half way through watching the video but I was going to bed and not thinking. I'm finishing it off now. Not sure about your Scizor's rare candy strategy. 5 before rival five (and then grind cycling road, fighting dojo koga etc). I reckon you could have picked another level or two up by reversing the order. I'm not sure if Jolly was the right decision for Heracross. Speed didn't hold Heracross up as much with base 85 speed. Similarily to Scizor I'm not sure that 4 rare candies before rival five and grinding was wise.

@@naraiceylobWith the Rare Candies I was more focused on defeating the Rival asap to clear Silph and not have to backtrack. That was the thought anyway. For Scizor I was mostly hunting EVs that gave decent XP. I 100% agree that the way I played Jolly Heracross did not land properly. I feel I should have stuck with Adamant and the strategy I used, or if going for Jolly leaned more heavily into Guts. My Heracross run left me.. unsatisfied.

In my VS runs I start with the Pokémon fully evolved (where applicable), with the option of 1 egg move. Scizor took Reversal while Hera took Flail maybe? I remember them all being awful for Heracross. I hope that clears it up :)

Thank you! I was rather proud of that one :)

Uh oh. I've been a Dome-head in a lot of videos 😅

It doesn't help that I messed up at Blaine too... Otherwise these two very well might have been tied. That Slow growth rate hurt a bunch but Heracross was a beast!

Thank you :) lots more to come!

They indicate Pokémon that ran using my VS rules, which mirror my normal rules, but also include starting fully evolved (where applicable) and with the option of a single egg move. In this video, Scizor used Reversal, and Heracross Bide as egg moves. Otherwise, that Brock split would have looked MUCH different :)

They were such a treat to run! Thanks :)

Thank you :) There's nothing like spouting off a bunch of references to see who picks up on them!

That is likely the interaction that I was remembering. Thanks for clearing that up for me :)

Never skipped legg day?

It's true, I'll admit it was an odd statement. It was in reference to Fire types - one shot before getting one shot. Scizor proved in many other fights it had more than enough bulk. Sorry that one went over my head! But I always loved the Fire Blast.. umm. starfish?

I've been limited by hardwate. My decade old computer can't handle the software for live updating stats/moveset, and adding it in post would increase my production time significantly. I have plans to implement this, but I need to upgrade my computer by like.. 9 generations I think on the processor alone?

Meowth has the Ability Pickup. It has a 10% chance to pick up a random item after a battle. In FireRed it's a static loot table, mostly berries, but with a 5% chance for things like Nuggets, Rare Candies, PP Ups, and TM10 Hidden Power. This is the only way to get Hidden Power in FireRed without help from another game. Hope that clears it up!

Not only is that one weakness a weakness. It's a CRITICAL WEAKNESS!!

Hmm I like the idea! The tough part with making more and more VS content is it takes SO much to produce. I enjoy producing it so much but the time requirement is a bit much to do them rapid fire after one another :)

I get that it's more work, but personally I'd consider it worth the wait if the video came out a bit later, since Arbok is always compared to Weezing because of the anime, and I'm quite curious as to how it compares to Sandslash

@@AlloAlloRocks This idea is absolutely on the list I have for videos to produce. I appreciate you being patient, I don't want to just pump out content for the sake of it. I want to give every Pokémon their fair time!

These runs were a TON of fun :) These Johto Bugs are so cool in design!

I loved being able to play Heracross. He was a run that I was looking forward to for a long time.

Guts might have made a more prevalent appearance on the second run using Jolly. This was my first run where I felt my second playthrough routing didn't work out well for the Pokémon. That second run just felt... off. Scizor did do beautifully, exactly like Scyther did, but with better typing despite the Fire weakeness. There are far less threatening Fire Pokemon than Rock in those games! I fully expected a mirror of Scyther Vs Pinsir but with better typing and it pretty much ended up being that. Lots of fun! Just those Gen 2 upgrades :)

@@Eggsceptional yeah that 2nd play through with Heracross was a shame, I am convinced Heracross could do better than Scizor, but finding a way to achieve that is a different matter, making more use of guts maybe, I would of kept Bulk Up instead of swords dance as well, the extra defense is always good on something weak to so many physical types, maybe HP of course, but as we saw with Scizor getting it in the 1st place is a challenge in its self. the comparison to the Gen 1 bugs is no surprise, I think the designers saw the Gen 1 bugs and thought, these are good, lets make them better and did just that. I admit I low key thought for many years that Heracross evolved from Pinsir, it would of fit considering the upgrades and similarities Heracross has to Pinsir. I am sure also Pinsir could do better in a run as it has a great moveset and arguably a better typing, mono bug has less weaknesses and no 4x weaknesses after all I'll tell you something cool, in my sandstorm team run right now, I just did an epic cubone hunt, I caught 24 hoping for good natures, IV's and Thick Club. I got 2 of each of all 3 of those and have an epic Marowak now. a thought occurred during this, would you feel about light ball surfing Pikachu vs thick club swords dance cubone?

@@jptheflipper3825 Yeah I feel like if I reverted to the Adamant Heracross with better grinding it would have gone better. Or leaned harder into Guts with he Jolly one. Either way, I'm not 100% satisfied with that Hera run. The Gen 2 Bugs really do feel like the evolution of the Gen 1 bipedal Bugs. I mean.. one literally is but you know what I mean. I love that they even ran very similarly to the originals, despite having new sticking points. Hmmm that would be an interesting one. Set up VS coverage. And LB vs Club. I'm writing that one on the list too that's a super cool idea. Thank you!

@@Eggsceptional maybe a special 3rd run with Heracross to try and give it a better run using what you learned from the 1st 2 runs. I've run several Pokemon many times and find them do slightly better each time, Butterfree for example, 1st run was standard, no HP, no EV training, nothing like that and needed 100 for R2, 2nd run, more EV's a HP that compliments its weaknesses and a touch of routing for good measure, 3rd run, same again, but better and some testing for other HP's and EV routing, 3rd times the charm and all that lol. the gen 2 big bugs are certainly improvements over the originals, although I can never resist the Gen 1's, a shame gen 3 only gave us the one new one and it was a fossil, but we know already how epic Armaldo is, but not because it is a bug. I find it interesting that of the 4 big bugs of Gen 1 and 2, only Pinsir doesn't have the 4x weakness, all the others do and each has a different 4x weakness, I wonder if that was by design to keep them in check. I had a feeling you'd like that, although I will say now Cubone will not be an easy start as its starting moveset is leer and tail whip and I think it needs level 7 for its 1st attacking move, Pikachu will do well in the early game, but cubone will catch up quickly it will be a fun run to see and to try

@@jptheflipper3825 Combining threads. That's a fair point with the army of Meowths. I'm wondering about my team builds about how big of teams I should make, concession for HM users or if I have to include them in my team. All kinds of things. Even skipping training a Pokémon until later to properly EV train it with the Macho Brace. Who knows!? Absolutely! In team builds I won't be dealing with Intimidates, Confusion, or a whole bunch of those extra nasty little things that always hold back a solo Pokémon. It will be wonderful.... As long as we have enough Speed Charizard CAN be an issue that is more easily mitigated. I do allow Hidden Power after all and even with a lower Atk stat 4x HP Rock is still a big deal. Absolutely with RSE. I think I like the Nuzlocke style of breaking in a new game as I can really take time to research items, nearby Pokémon, all of that. It really allows me to learn the game. I agree that getting in additional runs would be a fun thing to do. I'm struggling with managing my time enough doing two runs per Pokémon sometimes though! I'm hoping that my overall play is improving over time, so I'll have less instances like this where I feel like a third run would be in order. I can't guess at the design that GameFreak was going for but I do love to speculate and find weird little points like that. Pinsir, I tihnk , still felt like the most solid of the 4, despite being the slowest. Those 4x weaknesses can be nasty. I think so too! I do love the idea. It's now just a matter of figuring out when to run it, and my schedule is packed until at least the New Year. Let's just hope I can produce it all!

That's the one I was remembering! Typing interactions among the typings I never played as a kid still get the best of me sometimes. Thanks!

Lapras is going to be much more enjoyable than Magikarp. Even, yes, my dearest Gyarados. Lapras is a monster :) good luck on the run! I'll need to check out your Magikarp suffering this weekend!

@@Eggsceptional It will be airing next Friday today aired Taurus. And yes it was some suffering but honestly I found some pretty creative ways to get magikarp leveled up to 20. I am well aware of how fun Lapras will be even though it's kind of a slow pokémon it might be one of my faster playthroughs

@@jdsnerdverse I love finding little efficiencies like that in the early game. Anything to make that Brock split better right? I'm looking forward to watching it!

That's a level of pain I'm not interested in that's for sure!

Shedninja sounds interesting but wobbafett sounds like water boarding

@@jackruby6696 I can't imagine the pain. The struggle strats... Yugh!

I agree with you that Heracross run didn't sit with me. I feel like in going Jolly I should have leaned more into Guts, but the Adamant run was better suited to Heracross. I think this was the first time I felt my routing made no improvement, possibly hindering him slightly. Thank you for yhe feedback!

That's a fair point. Scott's Thoughts was the one that inspired me to finally pull the trigger on making my own content. I've been slowly finding my own lane, and recently upgraded my computer which opens my options significantly. I'd never want to feel like I'm competing with anyone for viewers!

I'm trying to figure it in without things getting.. weird and asymmetrical. Thanks for the suggestion!

There were a few errors throughout this video. In trying to get too much done at once I definitely lost some quality. A lesson learned. Thanks for pointing it out :)

​@Eggsceptional honestly, your quality has drastically improved over the past few months and I am always excited to see a new video of yours. Keep up the great work!

@@scipocelah6677 Thank you! I'm glad you're understanding of me trying new things :) I really enjoy making this content I hope I can keep doing it long term

Ahhh! A missed opportunity for sure.

Typically it does, but Guts prevents the typical stat loss. Quick Feet works similarly with Paralysis leaving your speed intact, but still with the 25% chance to not move.

After playing both of them I would agree. Heracross was definitely the much more solid Pokémon to play. I couldn't quite pull out the "W" in this one, but Heracross is boss.

So... without deep diving into a bunch of statistics math that I mostly forget... Meowth has a 10% chance to Pickup and item at the end of a battle. That item is rolled on a static table, on which TM10 has a 5% chance of appearing. So each individual Meowth has a 0.05% chance to pick it up every battle. Sometimes I roll with up to 4 Meowths, so a 0.2% chance per battle to find it, roughly speaking. I think I got that right!

@@Eggsceptional wow. Thank you for this information

@@jackruby6696 Give it more time. I'll become more and more unrecognizable to Poké-Google.

I was eating it up while recording it. Totally forgot to mention it in the script but I'm glad I wasn't the only one enjoying that irony.

Always!! Thank you :)

I forgot about Guts way too much with Heracross. I feel it was a mistake playing it so close after Machamp.

I agree, Heracross lost this race because I didn't play my best in that run. It felt dishonest to give it a third playthrough, but the temptation was there. Heracross was definitely the more solid Pokémon to play. Thanks :)

Heracross was SOLID. I really enjoyed playing these runs. Cheers :)

I may just have to now :)

The starters will be redone in December! Thank you :)

That sounds powerful, but risky for a solo Pokemon. Sub/Focus Punch could potentially open up Hera to a lot of additional damage over a battle.

100% agree. I've never had the pleasure of using a Mega Heracross, but it sounds monstrous :D Thanks!

@@Eggsceptional I would solo teams

Yeah the time comparison graphic didn't really land the way I wanted it to. There are definitely some tweaks to be made. Thanks for the input!

@@Eggsceptionalthe way you had it before was fine imo

@@BuRningUniique I'll tweak it until I feel it's failed completely, then revert. I'm stubborn sometimes, you know?

Even more so because in Gen 3 he doesn't even know Bide :P

I was pretty tickled by that one :)

That day it was! :)

I feel like I really let Heracross down in that one. I'll make it up him in a future video :)

Don't worry I'll be doing Lord Helix proud real soon :) It's a little rough being so close to Technician, yet so far.

I've added him to the list :) Thank you!

You could do him and Gengar as one@@Eggsceptional

@@onyxbinns8584 I absolutely will face those two off at some point. I have a lot of videos in the upcoming weeks already planned, so be patient with me :)

@@Eggsceptional I love all of em either way so when those two pop up just a regular day for me. I will wait patiently. No sweat waiting for Friday for the new one

@@onyxbinns8584 Thank you :) Though, I will let you know that I'm currently producing the Abra line video!

One day at a time ;)

​@@Eggsceptionalif we count all the days it would be more than forty

@@jhanAV I like sticking with the one day per video. It makes me feel like I'm not completely losing my footing on time :)

@@Eggsceptional One piece of advice I give you is that there is a game that has Pokémon from the 1st to the 9th generation and it is like Pokémon Fire Red, it is called Radical Red and it is palkia.

@@jhanAV I have played through Radical Red before but does it give you the option to choose your starter? None of the software I use understands romhacks :P

Hallow!

I don't ban any moves in my runs. I just don't like Double Team that's why I don't use it. I've used it in a single run, Politoed's first playthrough because I hamstrung myself earlier in the game. I've illustrated a few times that Substitute, though powerful, is not a cure all. In my recent Abra line video for instance Substitute was completely useless. I've also been using it only as a last resort in my first playthroughs because I do recognize how much I use it. Then, if it's still the better option after testing other theories I will 100% pick Sub strats for the second playthrough. The metric that I place the most weight on is real time completion. Why would I detract from what a Pokémon is capable of? These videos are more about what's theoretically possible than difficulty. The Round 2 league is plenty difficult alone. Getting perfect IVs via breeding is grindy, but possible. I feel that adding a ton of these restrictions would ruin everything I enjoy about doing these runs. I enjoy things that challenge my brain, not my patience. I'm not here for the nittiest grittiest challenges out there. I'm here to showcase my experience playing the game, and maybe make somebody's day better along the way. I created this channel out of love for Pokémon, and for the creative outlet it allows me. To me these games are all about fun. Adding arbitrary difficulty for the sake of difficulty is not how I've ever played them. If I'm not having fun then I feel it's no longer worth my time. Besides... Sub strats best strats :) I appreciate the feedback. Thank you!

I need that special water though.. with the Elixirites.

Thank you! There are days when I need all the reassurance I can get.

True! Though I don't think I said it was. Only that I like to keep it real and stay positive :) does that count? I get lost on semantics sometimes

It's true I'm not the more talented player out there, but I'm getting better each run! These runs, after all, are more about having fun, and comparing anecdotal evidence, than finding empirical truth :)

@@Eggsceptional nah it was my fault I didn't know you did the blind playthroughs first on the video, I thought you did them separately

@@mastatheif9909 Ahh gotcha! I enjoy the blind playthroughs. Plenty of opportunities to mess up and learn!