Game Chapter 15: Champion Strategy (Patreon)

Meanwhile, far away in Hoenn—Rustboro City.

In front of a building, a girl in a black short skirt and dark red tights, hair in a bun, sat on a chair.

She held a Geodude in her arms; it squinted in contentment.

The girl was carefully wiping dust from Geodude’s body with a dry cloth.

She carried an air of confidence; deep-red pupils shone with poise and resolve.

Anyone passing by would recognize her at a glance: the Rustboro Gym Leader, nicknamed the “rock prodigy”—Roxanne!

Roxanne finished polishing Geodude, set it on the chair beside her, and stretched lazily.

“Whew—days without challengers are the best. So relaxing.”

For the past year, challenges at Rustboro Gym had dwindled. Maybe because the League had been approving more Gyms around Hoenn; naturally, the relatively tougher Rustboro Gym wasn’t the first choice for many Trainers.

Roxanne didn’t mind. On one hand, it felt like recognition of her strength.

On the other, she liked a quiet life… or, well, liked slack­ing off.

—If there’s fish to slack off with but you still grind every day, aren’t you crazy?

“Pika pika~”

Just as she reclined, her phone at her waist rang.

“Hm?”

Surprised, she picked it up—an unknown number on the screen.

She answered without thinking.

“Hello, this is Roxanne. Who’s calling?”

A girl’s voice came through.

“Hi, my name is Iono…”

Roxanne blinked. The name sounded familiar…

“Ah, hello. What can I do for you?”

There was a pause; when the voice returned, it carried a sniffly, on-the-verge-of-tears tone.

“Um… may I ask, do you have an Archeops and a Lileep on your team?”

“If so… could you tell me what those two are afraid of? I really can’t beat them!”

Roxanne: ??????

What now??

Right then and there, the Rustboro Gym Leader, the “rock prodigy” Roxanne, was completely baffled.

…

While Iono, broken by Archeops’ world-ending Rock Slide backed by 112 base Attack, was calling Roxanne in desperation, Cynthia was also deep in thought at her screen.

To be fair, Iono’s approach made sense:

—If a control effect procs by chance, and you have infinite retries, then enough attempts eventually succeed.

But Cynthia didn’t want to copy that wholesale. Two reasons.

First, pure RNG fishing is torture.

Second, at this difficulty, the developer probably didn’t intend players to spam luck.

She already saw the point: the developer wants players to build complete teams that patch their weaknesses.

And that first Gym’s Lileep is the first test.

In the real world, assembling a balanced team is a required course for Elites and Champions.

Frankly, two Elite-level Trainers often differ less in individual Pokémon and more in team composition.

Even at Champion level, the principle still holds—only slightly blurred by overwhelming individual power.

No doubt: a Champion who ignores synergy and only powers up individuals will lose to a Champion who considered team building—even a little.

Which is why, seeing this design, she was even more certain: the developer isn’t just a professional researcher—he’s also an exceptionally strong Trainer.

Otherwise he couldn’t have this grasp of competitive nuance.

Before, Cynthia’s curiosity was mostly about Rayquaza on the cover; now she was simply interested in the developer himself…

Back to the game.

Lileep is Rock/Grass; its weaknesses are Bug, Steel, Ice, and Fighting.

Cynthia reviewed what she’d met so far: mostly Normal, Bug, Flying, and Grass.

Only Bug hits Cradily hard…

But Bug-types have a problem: pre-evolution, they’re generally weak.

Iono’s Joltik was the example—despite type advantage into Cradily, Bug Bite barely shaved a third of its HP…

If there were a Bug that reached final evolution before level 15, that’d be nice.

But Cynthia couldn’t be sure which Bugs evolved that early. There’s no “level” concept in the real world.

She hadn’t handled Bug-types much herself…

So—try anyway?

Standing in Petalburg Woods, crawling with Bugs, Cynthia hesitated.

Then a different idea popped into her head!

She steered past the woods, battled a few Trainers on bridges and nearby, and reached Rustboro.

By now, both of her Pokémon were at the cap: level 15.

As her character neared the Gym, chat bubbled with excitement.

[Here we go!]

[hahahahaha I’m already laughing]

[Go, Nana! Show this Hoenn Leader what a Champion looks like!]

[Posting in advance: “Sinnoh’s Champion got chased around by some no-name Hoenn Gym Leader—what kind of dream is this?”]

Clearly, anyone who’d seen the game’s difficulty—or watched Iono banging her head against the Gym—didn’t think Cynthia would win.

But then—something unexpected.

Cynthia’s character walked past the Gym entrance instead of entering, heading north out of Rustboro!

Chat burst into laughter:

[???]

[Cynthia, why are you running?!]

[Not good! Our forces are routed—retreat!]

Facing the wall of jokes, Cynthia said:

“I just realized—if every area has its own native species, there should be something near Rustboro too.

“Given the dev’s design, he probably placed a Pokémon nearby that can deal with Lileep.”

As she spoke, a new route and grass patch came into view.

She smiled. “So… it should be here.”

…

She started cycling encounters in the grass; even chat was surprised.

[Champion instincts. She even guessed the dev’s placement!]

[Those earlier routes had NPCs blocking them, so I assumed you had to clear the Gym first. Guess not.]

[This dev really thinks of everything…]

[So what do you think—does the solution to Lileep live here?]

[I doubt it. That thing’s busted. Who beats it?]

…

The screen flashed—wild encounter!

When the transition peeled away, a pink, teddy-bear-like Pokémon appeared.

Cynthia froze for a beat.

—Him?

Of course she knew it: Stufful, the base form of Bewear from Alola.

Don’t be fooled by the cute plush look—Bewear’s physical attack and bulk are terrifying. It’s quite well-known in Alola.

Not rare—pretty common, actually. Its fame comes from raw power and a love of hugs; one careless squeeze and a Trainer’s ribs might crack…

If not for that drawback, there’d be ten times as many Trainers raising Bewear…

She shook her head.

Stufful is Normal/Fighting.

Fighting is exactly the type she needed to hit Cradily!

Unlike Bugs, Fighters tend to push physical offense and skimp on bulk.

Fighting’s hallmark is a brutal, spear-like offense—and that’s precisely what you use to crack a shield like Lileep’s.

Or, with that Lileep, call it a siege engine vs. a city wall…

She sent in Treecko, used Pound twice to redline the Stufful, then threw a Poké Ball.

This capture wasn’t easy; the first few balls failed.

Meanwhile, Treecko took a beating and fell into the red.

She had one ball left.

At that hair’s-breadth moment—something hilarious happened.

On screen, Treecko turned, shooting Cynthia a look dripping with resentment.

Those eyes screamed silent accusation.

Before she could react, prompts popped up:

[Treecko seems to be losing its patience.]

[Treecko snatched the last Poké Ball from your hand!]

[Treecko threw the Poké Ball!]

The red-white ball arced perfectly and struck Stufful, turning it into white light.

One shake, two, three… click. Triumphant jingle. Prompts:

[Congratulations, Stufful was caught!]

[New Pokédex data recorded!]

Cynthia: …?

Chat lost it:

[Hahahahaha Treecko couldn’t take it and did it itself]

[Nana, your ball-throwing needs work. Treecko does it better.]

[Even your own Pokémon couldn’t watch anymore and helped you catch it. I’m crying 2333]

…

Cynthia glanced at Treecko—who rolled its eyes at her and zipped back into its ball to rest—then at the ball holding Stufful in her avatar’s hand, a complicated look on her face…

Well… the result’s what matters, right?

…

Stufful’s base level was 11, four below the cap.

She immediately took it into the grass to grind, and to scout the local encounters.

Fifteen minutes later, Stufful hit level 15.

She opened the party menu:

[Stufful】?

[Level: 15 (at cap)]

[Nature: Adamant]

[Type: Normal/Fighting]

[Moves: Brutal Swing (Dark) / Force Palm (Fighting) / Leer (Normal) / Payback (Dark)]

[Sp. Atk 16 | Atk 38 | Def 21 | Sp. Def 21 | Speed 21]

Seeing the moves, Cynthia smiled.

An Attack stat of 38 at this stage was excellent—more than ten points higher than Treecko’s best stat, Special Attack.

And it knew Force Palm!

A Fighting move with solid power and a 30% paralysis chance.

Perfect into Cradily—big damage plus control, interrupting Recover!

That should do it.

Just as she was about to head for the Gym, she remembered something:

Right—because Stufful and Bewear can be dangerous to handle up close…

Their abilities also haven’t been nailed down by researchers yet.

So what does the game give them?

She opened the Ability screen and read:

[Ability: Fluffy]

[Halves damage from direct contact moves, but doubles damage taken from Fire-type moves!]