Is it Possible to Beat Pokemon Emerald with Just a Sunkern?

30 Base stats. In everything. Worst in the game. And that's the only Pokemon we're going to be using. Fun times.

[thisbox]

1:00:38
"We're gonna lead with Sunkern"
I'd be concerned if a solo run about Sunkern didn't include having Sunkern as the lead.

[meevs]

I feel like "gets one shot by a resisted giga drain from a sunken after just one growth" is a good reason to add slugma to the challenge run list lol

[EpixAura]

1:18:39
"does not match up well against Sunkern at all."
Almost definitely the first time in history that phrase has been used.

[cyphate]

I always like to think how the crobat feels in these situations, talking to the mightyena after the fight. "yeah I can't believe how hard this sunkern hit me with secret power, I can't see how that can happen. Wait YOU BOOSTED HIS ATTACK HOW MANY TIMES???"

[RobKni]

Sunkern leveled up against Drake, and I was like "oh no, the badge boost glitch reset!" And then I remembered...

[hhjan]

So in Gen2 I believe Mirror move will copy almost any move your opponent last used (Like in the Gen2 minimum battles run Blue's Pidgeot mirrors Kenya's curse and got a sweep)

This got changed in Gen3. The logic is that Mirror move's concept is actually to reflect (pun intended) whatever move you got hit last and use your opponent's moves to hit back.
In other words, Mirror move can only work on moves that you got targeted on.

Growth is a self-target move, you do not "Growth" your opponent, you growth yourself. Therefore it will not be Mirror Moved starting in Gen3.
Attract is a move that targets the opponent, so you can mirror move attract.

[EnteiFled]

imagine being one of these gym leaders
you're just completely obligated through your employment to deal with this schizo barging in hundreds of times with his singular sunkern until he eventually makes a joke of you and wins through a series of miraculous flukes

[BigRobertsons]

from bulbapedia: "Mirror Move will fail if no moves were targeted at the user"
so I guess because Growth wasn't being used at Swablu, Mirror Move failed

[rusticdebris]

I fondly remember a time watching my brother playing Pokemon showdown. He came across an opponent named "Sunkern Man". His team was a single level 100 Sunkern. I remember that national hero today.
You have embodied his spirit well.

[Eroil]

Hey jrose, there's actually a very quick way to level up in Emerald, while the vs seeker doesn't exist you can rebattle trainers using the pokenav. How it works is that for the trainers you have registered in your pokenav, each of them might want to rebattle you when you enter their route. If you just go in and out of their route very quickly, you can rebattle them a lot and level up very quickly. I recommend route 117, pretty sure that's the fastest

[SuperGamerNinja]

It's awesome to have a series like Jrose's which is, respectfully, anti-hardcore. The pokemon runs nowadays seem to be moving more and more towards hardcore rulesets and difficult romhacks, so runs like this where you're not doing calcs, showing yourself changing plans, and struggling a lot is nice and chill to have

[jackzuck]

Someone's probably already pointed this out, but you can get two TM's for Return. If you get the Meteorite after beating Maxie 1 and give it to the scientist in Fallarbor town, he'll give you a Return TM. The other more well known Return TM is the one you get from the old man in Pacifidlog town.

[jaci.terkel]

Nothing like a Jrose vid at 1am, loving the regular uploads lately!

[wereoctopus]

I know you're much more familiar with Gen 1 and this isn't meant to be some 'optimised' run, but Brawly's Meditite's only attacking move is Focus Punch (its other moves are Bulk Up and dual screens).

So yes, Bullet Seed is always safe, but you could have also used Brawly's potion turn to set up Ingrain or an additional Growth.

[scoobiusmaximus]

I'm sure the Steven battle would have been fun, since he starts off with a Skarmory that double resists Grass and has Toxic and STAB Aerial Ace.

[RsSooke]

Sunflora really deserved a mega evolution or a third evolution. It’s another one of those sad Pokémon where it sucks in the game but it’s so cute you want to use it. I remember watching that contest episode of the anime so many times on my VHS, and it was my moms favourite Pokémon. Funny childhood memories.

[JP]

Sunkern is the weakest pokemon... that have something that resembles a movepool. Sure, there are weaker mons, but they all have 1-2 damaging moves at best and that's it.
And that's why I believe Sunkern is more interesting to watch, because it has some level of variation in strats, while still being very weak.

[TrevCL]

Glad to see all these impossible challenges over the last couple of months! The Red/Blue Solo runs are great, but it’s nice to have some more unique ones to balance it out.

[Utsu-P_Enjoyer]

Sunkern is unironically one of my favorite grass pokemon, I wish it wasn't such a bad pokemon and that sunflora actually was stronger or at least was a grass/fire type or evolved into one. That would make that line so unique and cool

[Sheldon-senpai]

Winona's battle made me think about her Altaria.

In the OG games, Altaria has Dragon Dance at level 33 despite learning it at a much higher level, with Cotton Guard being the "correct" move if she really needed a boosting move.

However, in the remakes, Altaria not only gets stronger with some level-ups but she can also learn Dragon Dance at level 30, making the original movepool something "legal". What's her non-offensive move again? Oh, yeah, it's Cotton Guard.