Pokemon to play through Platinum with?

[Nadian]

Let's say you want to play through Pokemon Platinum using only a single pokemon. You've got multiple games and DSes so what you're looking for is a way to play through the game while reducing frustrations. You'll choose a single pokemon, send an egg over, hatch it, send it back, level it up using the Elite Four and an EXP Share (most likely evolving it).

What pokemon would you want under these conditions? What other conditions must this pokemon meet?


I've been thinking about this and these are some of the things I'd want:

-I want it to use Special Attacks so that Intimidate isn't a problem
-Special Attacks also generally avoid abilities such as Poison Point and Static
-I want it to be fast and powerful, outrun all pokemon and kill them in one hit
-By extension, I want all four of its moves to be decent, if not powerful
-I want breeding to be simple ; the lowest evolved form should know the moves on hatching
-I want to use no items to evolve it


I came up with an idea while just looking around, but I decided to let my pokemon program help make a convincing case. It's a rather complicated question to ask, but this is a whole lot of the answer:

/Users/ekraft/pokemon > pokesearch ~legendary "size(evolution)==0" "{lickilicky,nidoqueen,nidoking,clefable,porygon-z,starmie,togekiss,slowking,rhyperior,wigglytuff,delcatty,weavile,kingdra,ambipom,ninetales}!=name" -c "good_moves:{x:moveset}{(value(x,&accuracy) == 0 || value(x,&accuracy) == 100) && (value(x,&power)>=60 || value(x,&name)==grass knot) && value(x,&category)==special && {solarbeam, dream eater} != value(x,&name) && value(lowest,&moveset)==x}" -f "more_powerful(move,set):{x:set}{value(x,&power) > value(move,&power)}" -f "by_type(typ,set):{x:set}{value(x,&type)==typ}" -c "filtered:{x:good_moves}{size(more_powerful(x,by_type(value(x,&type),good_moves))) == 0}" "size(filtered)>3" -c "first:preevolution" -c "second:value(preevolution,&preevolution)" -c "second_lowest:length(second)==0?first:second" -c "lowest:length(first)==0?name:second_lowest" "size(by_type(water,filtered))>0 || size(by_type(fire,filtered))>0 || size(by_type(ground,filtered))>0 || size(by_type(fight,filtered))>0" -c "avg:(sak+spd)/2" -d sak,spd,avg,filtered -s ~avg

id | name | sak | spd | avg | filtered
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
124 | Jynx | 115 | 95 | 105.0 | grass knot+ice beam+psychic+shadow ball+water pulse
229 | Houndoom | 110 | 95 | 102.5 | flamethrower+shadow ball+sludge bomb+dark pulse
289 | Slaking | 95 | 100 | 97.5 | thunderbolt+flamethrower+ice beam+shadow ball+water pulse
319 | Sharpedo | 95 | 95 | 95.0 | surf+ice beam+dark pulse+ancientpower
149 | Dragonite | 100 | 80 | 90.0 | dragon pulse+surf+thunderbolt+flamethrower+ice beam
53 | Persian | 65 | 115 | 90.0 | thunderbolt+shadow ball+water pulse+dark pulse
73 | Tentacruel | 80 | 100 | 90.0 | surf+giga drain+ice beam+sludge bomb
457 | Lumineon | 69 | 91 | 80.0 | surf+silver wind+ice beam+psybeam
295 | Exploud | 91 | 68 | 79.5 | flamethrower+shock wave+ice beam+hyper voice+shadow ball+water pulse+extrasensory
428 | Lopunny | 54 | 105 | 79.5 | thunderbolt+grass knot+ice beam+shadow ball+water pulse
435 | Skuntank | 71 | 84 | 77.5 | flamethrower+shadow ball+sludge bomb+dark pulse
460 | Abomasnow | 92 | 60 | 76.0 | energy ball+ice beam+shadow ball+water pulse
264 | Linoone | 50 | 100 | 75.0 | surf+thunderbolt+grass knot+ice beam+shadow ball
224 | Octillery | 105 | 45 | 75.0 | surf+flamethrower+ice beam+signal beam+psychic
344 | Claydol | 70 | 75 | 72.5 | earth power+grass knot+ice beam+psychic+shadow ball+ancientpower
342 | Crawdaunt | 90 | 55 | 72.5 | surf+ice beam+sludge bomb+ancientpower
141 | Kabutops | 65 | 80 | 72.5 | giga drain+surf+ice beam+ancientpower
110 | Weezing | 85 | 60 | 72.5 | thunderbolt+flamethrower+psybeam+shadow ball+sludge bomb+dark pulse
171 | Lanturn | 76 | 67 | 71.5 | surf+thunderbolt+ice beam+psybeam+signal beam
284 | Masquerain | 80 | 60 | 70.0 | giga drain+ice beam+psybeam+signal beam+bubblebeam+shadow ball
162 | Furret | 45 | 90 | 67.5 | surf+thunderbolt+flamethrower+grass knot+ice beam+hyper voice+shadow ball
242 | Blissey | 75 | 55 | 65.0 | flamethrower+shock wave+grass knot+psychic+shadow ball+water pulse
80 | Slowbro | 100 | 30 | 65.0 | surf+flamethrower+grass knot+ice beam+psychic+shadow ball
317 | Swalot | 73 | 55 | 64.0 | giga drain+shock wave+ice beam+shadow ball+sludge bomb+water pulse
409 | Rampardos | 65 | 58 | 61.5 | dragon pulse+thunderbolt+flamethrower+ice beam+ancientpower
89 | Muk | 65 | 50 | 57.5 | giga drain+thunderbolt+flamethrower+shadow ball+sludge bomb
210 | Granbull | 60 | 45 | 52.5 | thunderbolt+flamethrower+shadow ball+sludge bomb+water pulse
195 | Quagsire | 65 | 35 | 50.0 | surf+ice beam+sludge bomb+ancientpower
143 | Snorlax | 65 | 30 | 47.5 | surf+thunderbolt+flamethrower+ice beam+psychic+shadow ball
411 | Bastiodon | 47 | 30 | 38.5 | thunderbolt+flamethrower+ice beam+flash cannon+ancientpower

As you can see, Jynx comes out on top as best meeting all the criteria. It's an unusual (but interesting) choice. I'm going to give her a shot. 3nodding  

[Nadian]

As a potentially interesting follow-up, I'm going to break apart and explain the parameters of my program. Not sure if there's a point to this, but whatever. smile

/Users/ekraft/pokemon > pokesearch

This is the OSX command prompt and the command to run my program.

~legendary

Only show pokemon that are not legendary.

"size(evolution)==0"

Only show pokemon that can't evolve any further.

"{lickilicky,nidoqueen,nidoking,clefable,porygon-z,starmie,togekiss,slowking,rhyperior,wigglytuff,delcatty,weavile,kingdra,ambipom,ninetales}!=name"

Only show pokemon whose names aren't Lickilicky, Nidoqueen, Nidoking, Clefable... etc. Basically, pokemon that require an item to evolve or have to learn an attack to evolve (meaning they would have to forget one of the moves you bred it with.)

-c "good_moves:{x:moveset}{(value(x,&accuracy) == 0 || value(x,&accuracy) == 100) && (value(x,&power)>=60 || value(x,&name)==grass knot) && value(x,&category)==special && {solarbeam, dream eater} != value(x,&name) && value(lowest,&moveset)==x}"

Define the value "good_moves" ; it is all of a pokemon's attacks that meet these criteria:

-Accuracy is either 100 or the move never misses
-Power is 60 or the move is Grass Knot
-The attack is a special attack
-The attack is not Solarbeam nor Dream Eater
-The lowest evolved form of this pokemon can learn the attack

(Note that "lowest" is defined later.)

-f "more_powerful(move,set):{x:set}{value(x,&power) > value(move,&power)}"

Create a function called "more_powerful" ; you give it an attack and a set of attacks and it returns all of the attacks that are more powerful.

-f "by_type(typ,set):{x:set}{value(x,&type)==typ}"

Create a function called "by_type" ; you give it a type and a set of attacks and it returns all of the attacks of the same type.

-c "filtered:{x:good_moves}{size(more_powerful(x,by_type(value(x,&type),good_moves))) == 0}"

Define a value called "filtered" ; basically, we take "good_moves" and toss out an attack if there is a more powerful attack of the same type. For example, if Water Pulse and Surf are both "good_moves", then Water Pulse will be tossed because Surf is a more powerful water-type attack.

"size(filtered)>3"

Now that we've got a list of good moves, let's only list pokemon that have 4 or more good_moves that survived the filter.

-c "first:preevolution"
-c "second:value(preevolution,&preevolution)"
-c "second_lowest:length(second)==0?first:second"
-c "lowest:length(first)==0?name:second_lowest"

Define the value "lowest" that is the lowest evolved form of the pokemon.

"size(by_type(water,filtered))>0 || size(by_type(fire,filtered))>0 || size(by_type(ground,filtered))>0 || size(by_type(fight,filtered))>0"

At a minimum, we know the pokemon needs one of these types in order to hit Magnemite (and its evolved forms):

Water
Fire
Ground
Fight

A pokemon that doesn't have any of these types will not be able to hit all Sinnoh Dex pokemon for at least neutral damage.

-c "avg:(sak+spd)/2"

Define a value "avg" (short for average) that is the average of a pokemon's special attack and speed.

-d sak,spd,avg,filtered

Display a pokemon's Special Attack, Speed, "avg", and their filtered good moves.

-s ~avg

Sort by "avg", biggest to smallest.  

[wellwisher]

I wouldn't be doing the solo-ing.
I'd probably just breed the team of 6 that I'd be using. (train up to level 5) then trade them all over to the game and use just them. no TMs either. so, they come with what they come with.
That also means no HM slaves, and no changing my strategy to combat what my opponent would be coming with. (say: elite four or gym leaders)  

[never-had-a-life-]

i would never go solo. even if i had the right pokemon.its not right...i ve tried.very hard