challenge

Magikarp has traveled the entire Kanto region, defeating countless opponents and overcoming far more obstacles than most fish, not the least of which being his own stubborn refusal to obey his trainer. And now, finally, our hero’s journey is reaching its pinnacle. The best trainers in the league are waiting for his challenge in Indigo Plateau. But first we need to beat our rival one last time to gain access to Victory Road. Blue’s team is finally coming into its own, with a full team of six Pokemon and several that hit incredibly hard, especially the Alakazam and Blastoise (you… [Continue Reading]

Last time our heroes wrapped up their business in Saffron City and are now beginning their hike down the docks from Lavender Town. The fights here aren’t too difficult, especially due to most of the enemy trainers being Fisherman with not-very-effective water-type moves. The docks emerge into Route 13, where we navigate a maze-like series of fence posts funneling us into various fights more difficult than the sort we’ve faced up till now. This is the part of the game where we start encountering a lot more high-quality trainers, like Beauties, Cooltrainers and Bird Keepers. It’s also where we can… [Continue Reading]

Once again, we rejoin our heroes in Vermillion City after having beaten Lt. Surge. Magikarp and his flunkies will soon be heading for Route 11 to Diglett Cave, but we need to do some housekeeping before setting out. At the Pokemon Fan Club we listened to the chairman’s tale and received a Bike Voucher, then stopped by the Fishing Guru to collect an Old Rod. This is the only fishing pole we’re going to grab this run, since it spawns only toothless Magikarp and I wanted a reliable method for burning away my Splash PP in case I ever needed… [Continue Reading]

My journey with Magikarp began as most Pokemon adventures do; beating the pants off my rival. See, the best part of this run was always going to be the early game; since Magikarp’s only damage-dealing move, Dragon Rage, deals a fixed 40 damage, and nothing is going to have that much health for at least the first third of the game, I could sucker-punch anything I liked. Or at least I thought… The tutorial content went easily enough: visiting Viridian City, returning a parcel to Professor Oak, and reaching Viridian Forest. And while the poor Caterpie, Kakuna, and Metapod were… [Continue Reading]

Author’s note: Today’s article sets the stage for my University Magikarp run through Pokémon Red. The rest of this year’s articles will chronicle the run itself! The Magikarp-Only Run is a staple of high-level Pokémon challenges, along with Nuzlocke runs, speedruns and no-damage runs. As Magikarp is infamously terrible and widely considered the worst Pokémon of all time, you’re always going to find people who want to solo a Pokémon game with it (along with a team of non-combat HM slaves). And indeed, you can find successful Magikarp runs throughout the internet for every generation of Pokémon. Except one. Pokémon… [Continue Reading]