#ghost run

Midnight: What are you four doing to this ship?

Hitoshi: Izuku and Denki asked Mei to do some upgrades

Midnight: What kind of upgrades?

Izuku: ION CANNONS!

Denki: ION CANNONS!!

Mei: ION CANNONS!!

Can I request an aesthetic for a Ghost run (super stealthy in normal words I guess?) Corvo Attano from Dishonored? Anything goes! But stuff to remind me of my daughter Emily and the Outsider would be nice (but not required)

Here you are!! I hope you like it!! This one was really fun to make. Ahh.

If you feel that anything needs to be changed, please don’t hesitate to let me know!!!

Update on my ghost run: I finally have six Pokémon. Here they are. I love them, but I gotta admit, some of them aren’t really pulling their weight (I love Tupence, but they have exactly 2 moves and neither really do much).

So I’ve been home sick with the flu the last couple days, so here’s what I have to show for it (instead of writing, which, with this headache and feeling of grossness, was a longshot anyway). I’m not an achievement hound, but I really wanted to get Ghost and Clean Hands. Shadow was a bonus.

As an additional bonus, have some Daud reading (as @pleasespellchimerical says) fanfic.

And goddamnit, this run was the first time I found this picture:

Finally, Muerta has had her day. This was a tough final leg, I think easily as difficult as the end of Arachne’s Bug Run. And just like the Bug Run, it held surprises till the very end. I’d already beaten the Elite Four before this, but subsequent runs proved to be more about weathering them better and better so as to use fewer healing resources. It held tough fights, especially against Incineroar and its powerful Dark-type Darkest Lariat, but I eventually pulled through, and with a Pokemon I hadn’t expected to be so very useful till now.

But enough of that, on to the hall of fame!

Dhelmise

At the front of the pack, Dhelmise is one of the more recent additions to the team, replacing Decidueye as the team’s Grass/Ghost type after a *long* time fishing for it. While Decidueye was definitely a powerful fighter, Dhelmise’s hard-hitting stats and Steel-type moves ended up winning out between the two. Plus, lets face it, Dhelmise just looks more ghostly. This one was particularly useful against Olivia late in the game, against Lusamine’s Clefable, and against Kukui’s Lycanroc especially.

Aegislash

Gained from the Island Scan fairly early on as a Honedge, I wasn’t too sure what to make of her until it evolved into Doublade and practically handed me victory at the trial of Acerola that i’d been dreading for some time. To be honest I wasn’t too sure about whether to even evolve it into Aegislash since the shifting stats seemed kind of weird to me, but even without King’s Shield she proved she was plenty strong enough to remain on the team. She proved very powerful against a myriad of opponents, her Steel type and powerful defenses usually shrugging off the first blow and laying the groundwork for a usually final counterattack.

Mimikyu

Well of course, how could I do a Ghost run without one of my favorite Alolan Pokemon? Took a while for Mimikyu to get on the team, but he proved instrumental in many ways. For one, getting through Po Town, where so many Dark type Pokemon dwelled, was made so much easier by having this thing around, later proving powerful against Nanu, one of the other major hurdles I foresaw on this run. Even later it cut through the Dragons of the final trial like wet tissue paper, and finally held the line against Kukui’s Snorlax, Charm-ing it down to near helplessness in order for some recovery to take place on the team. There’s a reason this thing made it on my team even when I *wasn’t* doing a type run.

Marowak

Behold, the final hero of this run. I will freely admit, I thought Chandelure was better as the Ghost/Fire type here, armed with things like Night Shade and status effect moves along with powerful Fire type Special moves. It worked fine that way up until the last leg at the Elite Four. For some reason, Chandelure just didn’t cut it, either not having enough staying power or stopping power depending on the fight. In a little desperation, I decided to finish leveling a Cubone I’d acquired a while back and evolve it into an Alolan Marowak to see if its higher Defense and different moveset would prove to be an asset.

In short, yes, yes it was. In fact, the Elite Four run I won on, I didn’t even intend to use her. I figured I’d get smacked down once again, but at least I could slap a few more levels on Marowak. Things turned out a little differently this time, however, with a few different moves and different strategies, and I was able to make some final headway into Kukui’s team. At the end, it came down to Marowak and Magnezone, and I figured I’d get in one or two hits on this thing before switching to one of my last Pokemon remaining that actually had the right level for the job.

Thing was, I’d forgotten/wasn’t even aware of Marowak’s ability: Lightning Rod. I think I’d seen it while looking through my team, but I completely messed up what it did. See I thought it just redirected Electric attacks, but it turns out it redirects them *and* nullifies them, buffing the Lightning Rod’s Special Attack in the process. Magnezone unleashed Thunderbolt and Thunder Wave to no avail while Marowak rained blows down on it, finally knocking it out with a Stomping Tantrum. Even afterwards, it held the line against Tapu Koko, absorbing its Electric attacks as easily as it had Magnezone’s, allowing me to capture it for the first time since I started playing this game. Marowak has more than earned her place on the team, and I’m seriously considering using it in the future when I delve into Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

Palossand

Ah Palossand, an interesting addition to the team, and one with some interesting benefits. Originally the main defense against Electric types, she ended up also being powerful against Flying types by being able to learn moves like Rock Slide or Rock Tomb. Defensively it often held the line against heavy hitters, and in fact was the one that finally did away with Kukui’s Incineroar. Holding on past Darkest Lariat, it landed the finishing blow on the big cat using its Ground-type Z-Move. Definitely a solid addition that’s stuck with the team for a good long while

Nebby (Lunala)

Look, its a Ghost type, it counts.

This was actually a very fascinating addition, pushing out Drifblim as my anti-Fighting artillery. I was kinda worried adding a legendary to the team would make things too easy, but a few failed runs definitely and thankfully dashed that idea. Lunala is certainly very powerful, but its not something that will carry a run all on its own. It did certainly do a good job against Hala and Kahili (the latter due to being taught Thunder), and was overall a strengthening addition to the team. It was actually kinda fun using and refining this one cause in past runs I’ve sidelined the legendaries in favor of other Pokemon, so being able to bring out Lunala was a treat.

Side note, does anyone else end up nicknaming Lunala/Solgaleo Nebby just out of respect for Lily?

With the team taken care of, lets do a quick Honorable Mentions

Decidueye is my starter, I couldn’t very well leave him out from this summary could I? Definitely a big help early on, especially with Hala’s Grand Trial and with Lana, but was eventually eclipsed with Dhelmise. Still a good addition to the team as long as he was on it.

Drifblim and Chandelure were both, as their levels imply, long time members of the team. Chandelure was obtained through the Island Scan and, for the longest time, was counted among my heavy artillery. Drifblim had its own perks, providing a powerful counter against Fighting and Bug types while serving as a tank in and of itself. Respectable fighters, the both of them.

Misdreavous, Haunter, and Sableye all served early on when my selection was a bit more limited. Of the three, Sableye was probably the most useful, being the only resistant fighter to the Dark type that normally does well against Ghosts and just in general only having the one weakness to Fairy types, easily covered by the rest of the team. Misdreavous and Haunter had their moments, but they were quickly eclipsed by others now on the team.

So yea, made an oopsie in assuming you could get a Dawn Stone before becoming Champion. Guess Froslass is going to have to wait a little bit.

I challenged the Elite Four and... I actually beat them! I took continual heavy losses, but I think a lot of that came down to trying to keep Pokemon on the field that didn’t quite match up in the stats department with their opponents. All the same I was able to get past them, but...

Well Kukui beat me. I got about halfway through his team before Incineroar made its appearance, and unfortunately my team wasn’t quite strong enough to resist it. The last of my crew were wiped out by Magnezone, but to be honest it was still a decent encounter I think. Dhelmise especially made an impressive opening by beating Kukui’s Lycanrock before it had a chance to use Stealth Rocks.

Alright, back to the ghostie goos. Thankfully, very thankfully, Hapu’s trial went *far* better than in other playthroughs. Having a Grass type there really makes a difference, and Dhelmise is proving to be a great one to have on hand. Compared to the others its kind of underleveled, but by stars it can hold its own most of the time.

Mimikyu is rapidly proving its usefulness, especially now that it knows Play Rough. As you might expect, it plowed through the Dragon trial (should be interesting for Lambton), and we were quickly off to Ultra Space to deal with Parent of the Year Lusamine.

The Aether President thankfully was a not too bad fight. Clefable couldn’t stand up to me having both Aegislash and Dhelmise, and the rest went down pretty quickly. The only one that caused me much trouble was Bewear, but honestly I think that’s the case in pretty much every run.

Well, this run is just chock full of surprises isn’t it? Muerta did the usual run through Po Town, but this was a little trickier than past runs, certainly compared to Arachne’s. Only now do I realize just how many of the Grunts are armed with Dark types, which unfortunately do very well against Ghost types. Even the ones that weren’t Dark types often came with Dark type moves like Bite or Knock Off. To be honest only a Mimikyu armed with Leech Life and the durability of a few of my other Ghosts prevented a TPKO on this little journey. Guzma, if anything, was a nice reprieve, easily laid low by Drifblim.

Then we come to Nanu. As if I didn’t get enough Dark type action from Po Town. Most of his team went down fine thanks to Mimikyu (side note for some reason I thought Play Rough came earlier in level), but Persian took some doing. That Dark Pulse of its really did a number on the team, only going down once half my Ghosts were out.

Going through Aether Paradise was also interesting. There wasn’t much that really gave me pause, but I did notice a lot of Dragons on the way up, which should be interesting for Lambton’s follow up. I didn’t have much that they were weak to, but I didn’t have much that they resisted either. Lusamine was, thankfully, *far* easier this time around. Its a wonder what having a Fire type and a Steel type on one’s team will do. Only real trouble was with Bewear, and that was only due to it using Baby-Doll Eyes so often that I had to just whittle it down.

To top things off, I was able to not only gain enough Dusk Stones to evolve Doublade and Lampent into Aegislash and Chandelure respectively, I was also able to fish up a Dhelmise to replace Decidueye as my Ghost/Grass representative. Nothing personal to Decidueye, but Dhelmise is kinda key to dealing with Kukui’s Stealth Rocks late game. Plus lets face it, Dhelmise just looks more Ghost-y.