"The Golem has Thunderpunch, but it also has low Special Attack," in the Gen where the physical/special split happened. Super appreciate the environmentalist message! Save the bees!
Scott you have the x factor of personality and voice that cannot be taught or practiced giving you a genuine charisma. Your success cannot only be attributed to the quality of your content but to the draw of yourself as an entertainer and it is a massive part of what distinguishes you in this niche
On the Byron fight, while you were mentioning the damage from Bastiodon's Stone Edge, I looked at the right side of the overlay, and noticed that in this case, the Bastiodon actually has 1 less Attack than the Magneton. Turns out (from a look at Bulbapedia) that Bastiodon's base Attack is only slightly better than *Onix*. With that bit of context, it's suddenly a lot less surprising that your buffed defenses were enough to make even a Stone Edge do very little damage.
I have a really large collection of pokemon plushes, and I like to bring them with me when I can to help with my anxiety. Today I was getting the bus and was deciding who to bring, so I grabbed Vespiquen after much deliberation. I was then really excited to see this video on my homepage.
For Gligar's color scheme, in Gens 3/4, I think they decided to go for something closer to Ken Sugimori's original art, which was a darker blueish-purple. For whatever reason, in Gen 2, they went with a pinker purple, in contrast to the original artwork. Then in HGSS, presumably because as a Gen 2 throwback they went with something closer to its Gen 2 color scheme, and then that stuck for future games.
Hey, just a random thing to take a look at (and I have no suggestions as to why it happened) but at 4:25 sweet scent changes to iron tail on the moves for a very brief period of time. Thanks as always for a great video!
I know they're not as useful, but silk moths are the cutest bugs. Way cuter that bees. ;P Looking forward to the Frosmoth playthrough in like 10 years.
I love Vespiqueen, Scott! Thank you so much for this opportunity to see it tearing through this game! It's been a long time since you last released a Platinum solo challenge, I confess I was missing them! Really, really you got the reason when you talk about its coverage, the steel type was brutal for it! You're an excellent Speedrunner Scott, I know I can expect always no less from you! Nice job with Vespiqueen!
Thank you for highlighting the magical little creatures that are bees' importance. They're a cornerstone species that needs all the help it can get. You're a gem Scott. Never change.
Idea for the repeat shiny: if you catch another machop, dont let it evolve to machamp, keep it as a machoke until the end of the challenge. Or use it on another game version, transfer it to emerald/crystal.
One of the things I like about your various series is the variety they provide in terms of where you're at with the games. With Yellow, you are obviously super optimised and have very deep knowledge. Whereas with Platinum you're still learning the game and improving significantly each time (and I feel like I'm learning with you!). And your other series all lying somewhere between those extremes.
As a kid I always wondered why male combee don’t evolve into a bumblebee like Pokémon or something but then I learned that male bees are essentially useless to a hive aside from breeding with the queen.
Vespiquen has one of the best designs in pokémon in my opinion. It's regal, intimidating, unique, and interesting. Still mourning the loss of Heal Order in gen 8.
So big misconception Honey Bees are currently not in danger its the Bumblebee that's at risk. They do help with pollination and take care of smaller insects, so they do help the environment. Learned this from my professional beekeeper friend
Funny thing about Vespiquen. A few years ago a few prominent competitive Pokemon youtubers were facing off each other with teams they created for each other. Each went out of their way to create what they thought was the most worthless team they could think off. The only overlapping Pokemon was... Vespiquen
I was impressed with the results considering the move set. Vespiquen is one of my favorites in gen 4. Super underrated. It's also one of the only mons that hasn't had it's exclusive moved sniped by another pokemon a couple gens later haha
For the repeat shiny question, I'd say do another run if it has a different ability. Eg: The last machop had no guard, so if the next shiny has guts, use it
Glad to see that Vespiquen got to have a very flavorful solo, especially with 3 signature moves. I think a future Combee solo would be pretty silly, with all of the shard hunting for the sake of move tutors.
As a Pokémon Bug Catcher, I'm always happy to come and support a bug type challenge run. Sadly, I've not experienced much of the Sinnoh bugs due to my favouritism towards Kricketune (my favourite Pokémon) so I look forward to seeing how Combee and Vespiquen do. 1:19 - To be fair, with exception to maybe Fairy, I don't think any other secondary typing would have been more befitting. Base Combee could have at least done with some more Special Attack though... also, why is there no Male only evolution (aside from split evolution Gallade). 3:19 - Awww, sweet wedding artwork. 4:47 - Well you evolved your previous shinies, so I would say in that circumstance to try the solo challenge with the stage you caught the shiny in. 7:37 - It's a subtle thing but I think it's the forward angling of her lower half which helps sell that effect. You can get a sense of depth to her back from it. 8:28 - So... is this Pachirisu problem a consistent thing? This and the loss suggests we may have a Sinnoh NPC candidate for an artwork. 11:44 - Which annoys me; why does Ghost resist Bug!? Bug always seems to draw the short straw (why does Fairy resist it, why doesn't Bug resist Psychic and/or Dark and also, why doesn't Bug do super effective damage to Ground types?) 16:05 - When you get the artwork for Ace Trainer Dennis done, you should alter the colour scheme, similar to how Gligar's colour scheme has been altered in these games. 17:58 - Lucky that Metal Claw only has a 10% chance to increase Attack. I was worried that would undo your Substitute-Shell Bell strategy but it thankfully worked out. Funny that fighting type gyms always over prepare specifically for Flying types with Rock moves. 21:04 - Yay; Vespiquen pulled through and didn't let all those buffs go to waste. Fun to see a playthrough with such prominent usage of Power Gem as well. 27:14 - Double Steelix Derek (cool name by the way) knew you had a thing against sand and rolled with it. Too bad he didn't realise that you found sand annoying, not that it was your weakness. 28:57 - Gosh, Vespiquen enduring these sort of attacks is making for so many cool moments. An with Heal Order, these cool moments can occur in the middle of the battles and still result in a win for you. 32:42 - Again, another cool Vespiquen enduring moment. Also, funny that you were just talking about Poison type attacks before this battle. 36:42 - Funny how all your Barry fights in this video have pretty much been showcased as a solo fight between his Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape, sometimes with a brief appearance of the Starly line. I think this was the first time the other Pokémon were seen against Vespiquen... and they all went down pretty quick. 38:35 - All the build up to Rhyperior and her Rock Wrecker... only for it forever remain a mystery.
To explain the switch out AI, if a pokemon is hit with a SE/Neutral move that a pokemon in the party resists, there's a 50% chance of a swap. This is only for trainers with smart AI though
It's cool how you defensively setup instead of offensively with this mon! Grindy battles but makes more emphasis on situations where it almost comes down to how much attacking PP you have left!
I just noticed an old habit re-emerge. You just said Fire Punch wasn't good on Golem because its special stat isn't that high... Gen 4 has the phys/spec split and you forgot the punches were all physical now.
I don't know if anyone else has commented on why you can't re order moves in battle this gen on, but I think since the games utilize the second touch screen the developers thought that people would use the stylus to select moves instead of using the buttons and D-Pad. I don't know whether what one would be faster, but it would probably in the Gamefreaks mind that the using the touch screen would be the way to go. Another awesome video Scott
Covering the Stunky line would easily cover both Poison and Dark. And defensively, Poison/Dark is amazing. Only weak to Ground unless a Psychic-type uses Miracle Eye. It would also encourage another version-exclusive race between Purugly and Skuntank. As for Rock-types... you do have the Sinnoh fossils. And Ice? Well, we do have Abomasnow.
Sandstorm doesn't cause corrosion, it doesn't affect Steel types. Rock is not very effective against Ground and Steel so maybe that's why they went for that one over Ground? Also Rock gets the SpDef boost so it kinda makes sense?
Honestly not nearly as bad as it's lack of coverage suggests! I slept on Defend Order because I usually don't like playing defensively, but that really saved the run.
I kept thinking that if you can manipulate your starter you should make sure you get a decent hidden power. Natural gift for a cool one time a battle attack of a certain type could have been good. Fun video though I love Vespiquen.
My all time favorite Pokémon Vespiquen always liked the design and even tried using her a bit back in the old days when I played Pokémon more seriously but that typing stuck out like a sore thumb, Bug/Flying tanks with Stealth Rocks existing never combined well but I'm glad to see it perform decent enough here
34:38 Yes bees are adorable, I love them. Unpopular opinion: I also love wasps, when they sneak in I just casually reach up and grab them and take them outside. Handling wasps bare-handed has gotten some amusing reactions, but I've never gotten a sting I didn't earn (which has only been once after I started handling them).
Sandstorm is rock because of gen 2 putting up steel types. They put rock so the types that resist damage are good against rock. Rock, steel, and ground. But as a ground type it would be effective against rock and steel. It is kind of funny though since gen3 onwards all sand-relates pokemon are ground type. Hippowdon, sandile, sandaconda, trapinch etc.
while quiver dance did contribute, i think the main reason bugs are better in gen 5 is because the new bugs are actually viable. almost of the early gen bugs are just awful between movepool and stats, and maybe get one trick to save them, or a good matchup somewhere. heracross, scizor, and forretress are the only ones i can think of that actually get somewhere, and even then, they have yet to reach their full potential in gens that actually give them proper movesets. gen 4 definitely added a wide range to their roster, and gen 7 buffing leech life also helps. others could be good, like pinsir, but suffer in early gens because no bug moves (not that bug is a great attacking type in the first place). but back to the original point, gen 5 gives us scolipede, leavanny, volcarona, escavalier, accelgor, and crustle. all of those do really well in singleplayer, leavanny being the worst of them (but still pretty viable). crustle shell smashes, accelgor is really fast, escavalier is a steel type, scolipede is a good sd sweeper, and volc is volc. beautifly wishes it was volcarona.
WEW, this time I arrive early. Already betting my money on 'Combee deals with rocks for a long time' considering the first gym is you know...hard. Rock hard. Also DROOOOPPED MY BALLS (even if it isn't Kanto).
I very much appreciated the shoutout to the poor honeybees! We definitely need better legislation protecting them from the current generation of pesticides
38:36 - "So we will never know" Decided to damage calc that (by just editing the Pokemon's stats and levels to line up with your Vespiquen's and Bertha's Rhyperior's). Rock Wrecker would have done 96-112 damage (41.3 - 48.2%)
On the required Defog route, I believe there's a way to traverse the area without running into a single Trainer... but then again it's been a hot minute since I've last played Gen 4. Kind of like navigating dark caves without Flash in a way I guess, but might be worth looking into if you don't need the EXP from this area.
26:00 YES! I have been saying this for years. Sandstorm is the only rock type sand anything in the game. Even most pokemon with sandstorm related abilities are ground type over rock type.
Regarding the Gligar, it was also purple in Generation 3 as well. It was pink in gen 2, became blue in gen 3 and 4 then gen 5 changed it back to pink. Weirdly, in gen 4 it was blue in Diamond and Pearl and Pink in HGSS, which is bizzare. I suppose DP used the gen 3 color scheme due to being the sequel while HGSS used the gen 4 colors due to being a remake of gen 2? And Gliscor is blue because it took upon the gen 3 colors? Really really odd.
I have a fun Story about Vespiqueen, i a Nuzlocke i was watching, the game had Glitched, and his Male Combee(Teika) ended up evolving to Vespiqueen and turning female(And that happened Live Stream so he dint get off screen), we dont know what happened, but i dint matter that Vespiqueen died in her first battle
2:52 Wow, Combee can learn Mud-Slap, but not Gligar. If it's a repeat shiny, I would say "You've already done a playthrough with that shiny, why do another?" 5:07 Yo, I love that Honeycomb design showing off Combee and Vespiquen's stats. 37:45 I don't think Golem's Special Attack is relevant when Thunder Punch is Physical here. 40:35 Nice Speed, Spiritomb. 42:30 You could do a Sneasel-Line run to cover Dark and Ice in one video.
If you do get a shiny Machop with the other ability, it would be interesting to see how big a difference that makes. No Guard is so broken but Guts is also incredible when used properly
Dreading the day you have to use male combee lol. I did a run with it in Gen 9 and on a team dubbed the “fail sons”, ie Pokemon where the male version is worse than the female version, and even to this day it’s move pool is garbage. Male Salandit is actually pretty ok.
For those who don’t know, if you want a female combee vespiquen, save right before you touch the shaking honey tree. If it’s a male combee, just reset. Until the honey on that tree runs out, it will always be a combee on that tree. So you just have to keep resetting until you get a female. I used a vespiquen on my first Sinnoh playthrough, & it didn’t pretty well! I still love it!
16:06 I've said it many times: Rhyperior looks more like a mega evolution than a regular one. 38:32 I did the calculations. At +6 defense, Rock Wrecker does approximately 33-41% to Vespiquen. That Attack Order crit, meanwhile, was a range with a 50/50 chance of success.
I'm just gonna say, most species of bees are actually invasive; having been introduced for the sake of their honey, but ultimately did far more harm "to" than good "for" the environment. They starved competing, native pollinators into near, and in some cases complete, extinction by hoarding nectar; the food source of the pushed out pollinators; to make said honey.
Not a bad run i like when Pokémon can use their signature moves through out a playthrough. I say repeat shinies don't really need another solo run. Maybe if you eventually get enough you could do a Nuzlocke with them. Repeats allowed.
For the first poison type challenge run of platinum, while Drapion and Skuntank have great typings, I actually recommend Toxicroak first. The frogs move coverage is actually kind of insane, has marginally better offensives and speed over Skuntank, and Drapion suffers from a level 40 evo.
