Note: Romhack advertised itself as a Physical/Special split experience. Around halfway thru I find out that is not the case, so some of my sets may be suboptimal for that reason. Traded Over: 1)Jiraichi("Starman") Meteor Mash Ice Beam Thunder Mind Reader Very unique set for a 100% unique Pokemon, as this was my NeXt Gen Shadow Jiraichi. Meteor Mash STAB plus 10% chance for a power increase thanks to Serene Grace is it's bread and butter, however Ice Beam and Thunder make for fantastic coverage. Mind Reader gives it a unique ability to have perfect accuracy Thunders without rain. 2) Salamence Headbutt Rock Slide Aerial Ace Dragon Dance Standard issue DD set with Headbutt for flinchhax shenanigans. One of my most powerful Pokemon but it took until almost the very end for it to finally evolve. 3) Ludicolo Surf Ice Beam Thunder Punch Fire Punch Since HMs are back, I had this one with me pretty much the entire game. Perfect coverage and one of the few Pokemon who is helped by lack of Physical/Special split, as I intended it to be a mixed attacker. One of my three double-time Hall of Famers. 4) Slaking Slash Rock Tomb Focus Punch Swagger With a lack of any notable Double Battles, this one was usually a one-turner as it has little going for it without hit-and-run tactics. Very powerful attack mixed with high crit rate of Slash made that the move I usually ran with, Rock Tomb was for coverage and speed control, Swagger was for situational confusion and Focus Punch was for special occassions. 5) Rayquaza Extremespeed Fly Thunder Wave Dragon Claw Pretty much a cheat Pokemon I brought over at Lv100 for fun. I only used it towards the very end so I would have a reliable Fly user. As you would expect, it demolished everything when it was actually send out. 6) Swampert Waterfall Earthquake Protect Mud Slap A very special Lv99 Swampert I brought over for a similar reason as Rayquaza. I only ended up using it during the rematch with Elite Four at the very end since Quagsire was too weak. 7) Crobat("Dracula") Sludge Bomb Whirlwind Quick Attack Aerial Ace Egg transfered over to be hatched. I planned this to be one of my main Flying types, but it turns out one wasn't necessary, and the abundance of Psychic types only made it a liability. Lack of Physical/Special split did help it out with SB, but otherwise an unremarkable Pokemon. 8) Jumpluff("Pollen") Hidden Power(Electric 70) Sleep Powder Double Edge Swords Dance A very special Pokemon since it came from one of my original Fire Red playthrus, years ago. I planned to keep this one around for the entire game to catch all the rare and Legendary Pokemon, but I ended up keeping around aces that knew Thunder Wave so it wasn't really worth it. DB and SD are a nice combo but not made for Jumpluff. HP Electric is useful, but in hindsight, giving it an ordinary Giga Drain would have made it more helpful, maybe even given it a niche. 9) Jolteon Thunder Sand Attack Substitute Heal Bell Planned to keep around a Heal Bell user to save money on meds and an Electric user in one spot. Turns out I had the Electric coverage for the entire game and Heal Bell wasn't as useful for my team. 10) Raticate("Skeever") Hyper Fang Iron Tail Reversal Belly Drum Another hatched egg. Reversal-Belly Drum is a very powerful combo, however I used other Normal types. This one lasted on my team slightly shorter than Dracula. 11) Shedinja Toxic Leech Life Destiny Bond Confuse Ray One of my most used Pokemon. Very unique typing and fantastic ability, along with relatively little threats thanks to the lack of technical moves or strategies on the AI's part made it a very useful Pokemon. Shedinja is always an all or nothing Pokemon, but it was usually invincible during battles, in particular when I was battling some tough trainers or catching very powerful Legendary Pokemon like Kyogre. Destiny Bond also meant that even if I saw a KO coming I could trade it's life for the oppononent's, also very useful. Only downside is that Leech Life is a godawful, weak move and Shedinja deserved something better. ============== Obtained: 12) Charizard("Drakon") Smokescreen Fly Dynamic Punch Swords Dance As I already had a Fire type user in Ludicolo, I wanted to experiment and create a physical only set for Charizard. It worked out relatively well, altho even with Swords Dance it was sometimes not strong enough, the game really wanted me to just give it a Fire type move. Smokescreen was meant to give it time to aim Dynamic Punches, but it ended up being much more useful against Legendary encounters, giving us more time to throw balls at them while they were struggling and lowering their own HP with every attack, as this is how most of the Legendary encounters went. 13) Raichu("Ash") Thunderbolt Rain Dance Thunder Hidden Power(Bug 65) It wouldn't feel right to play (Fire) Red without a Charizard and a Pikachu. My main pure Electric type, altho towards the second half of the game abandoned in favor of Pokemon with Electric coverage. Rain Dance + Thunder was a fantastic combo that also benefitted my Water types like Ludicolo, altho Starman also had perfect accuracy Thunders and was used even in the late game. HP Bug was a very useful move that made it easier to KO Psychic types. 14) Gyarados("Hydra") Thunder Wave Waterfall Double Edge Dragon Dance Best 500 Yen spend as I raised this one the moment I bought it from the shady Magikarp salesman. It ended up being one of the kingpins of the entire playthru, and one of the three double-time Hall of Famers. Thunder Wave ended up replacing Pollen for the role of status inflicting, and it's DE and DD combo rolled thru pretty much everything. Coverage in form of Waterfall, while weak, was also welcome, as was Intimidate(double Intimidate later on with Salamence). 15) Quagsire("BluWarrior") Waterfall Earthquake Mud Shot Brick Break What looked to be one of my mainstays for the entire game had it's role taken over by Hydra towards the second half of the game. For the first half, however, it was nearly unstoppable thanks to it's great coverage, immunity to two types(Water and Electric) and overall good stats. This however changed later on when it's stats started to slow it down, and Gyarados took over it's spot completely. To rub salt in the wound, my Swampert filled in it's spot during the rematch with Elite Four, but it will still be remembered as an integral part of the first half of the playthru. 16) Aipom("Monke") Return Rock Smash Thunder Punch Swagger Very unexpected Normal type mainstay on the team and the third of the double-time Hall of Famers. I always wanted to use an Aipom on my team to see how it do. It was great for the first half of the game, however it's stats started to really slow it down even before the first half of the game was over. It has mediocre attack, paper thin defenses, lack of Physical/Special split means that it's coverage move in Thunder Punch was weaker and overall it ended up being mostly useless in serious battles towards the end. Still, it's decent STAB in Return, along with good Speed and ability to confuse and lower opponent's Defense made it an occasional sight during an important battle, as well as a regular in more casual battles. It's Pickup ability, however, is what earned it a permanent place on my team. I got over 10 extra PP Ups alone, not to mention Rare candies, rare TMs, Berries, Nuggets and other goodies for free. I can see potential in several Pickup Pokemon in a future playthru, however from a purely offensive standpoint Aipom fought exactly how it looked: A first stage Pokemon I kept around, but without an evolution. Now I am curious how an Ambipom run in future gens will look, as I similarly never ran one for long. 17) Mr. Mime("Mimien") Psychic Magical Leaf Hidden Power(Bug 60) Calm Mind My Psychic Pokemon for the playthru ended up being an in-game trade. Very decent at what it does, coverage in form of ML and ability to boost with CM made it one of the most powerful Pokemon on my team. There is relatively little threats for Psychic types in Gen 1, infamously, and that meant there was very little trouble gunning for it except for other Psychic types. HP Bug was actually a perfect fit for it for that reason, however due to lack of Physical/Special split it meant that it was running off it's pathetic Attack stat rather than Special Attack, as all Hidden Powers would regardless of type in the future. Only replaced due to lack of space on the team, otherwise would have kept it around for the entire game. 18) Rhydon("Rocky") Secret Power Rock Slide Earthquake Megahorn Despite an abundance of very rare Pokemon from Safari Zone in this Romhack, I chose the boring option of a Rhyhorn. I usually run with Geodudes for a Rock type, but I chose a Rhydon this time around for variety. Similar to Mimien, it was a kingpin of my team for quite a long time, however eventually I simply ran out of slots on my team and it had to go. Not much to say here, RS and EQ are standards and Megahorn is there for variety. I chose Secret Power for it's ability to inflict a random status or stat debuff depending on location. Body Slam is beter in competitive, but SP is more interesting in Single Player. 19) Arbok("BlackMamba") Glare Wrap Rock Slide Sludge Bomb Used it early on for Paralysis and Intimidate support, as well as for it's Rock type coverage. Replaced it very quickly once better users came around, however I have no complaints with my time with it, aside from the obligatory awful typing.