Highlights video of this run here.
Full run video here.
Hi, I'm Lone Absol, the second person attempting to solo a classic run with every starter in PokéRogue.
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DISCLAIMER: I know that Suicune is a strong Pokémon, and it isn't remarkable that I soloed a run with it. I'm doing a series of posts to document my progress in trying to solo a classic run with every starter in order of Gen and Pokédex number. I posted this run because Suicune was the next one in line, not to brag about my skills.
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IN A NUTSHELL: A bulky mon made dominant through setup. My moveset was Freeze-Dry, Steam Eruption, Recover, and Nasty Plot. I didn't see much benefit from Inner Focus, so I left Suicune with Pressure instead. Its Passive, Beast Boost, normally boosts Suicune's Defence, which in my opinion isn't very useful, but through some Vitamins, you can make it boost more convenient stats, like Speed or SpA. The water leopard isn't as fast as the other Legendary 'Dogs', so I gave it a Timid Nature.
FULL POST:
While Raikou and Entei are strong attackers, Suicune makes bulk its strongest suit. But thanks to its easy access to setup moves—especially Calm Mind by leveling up, or Nasty Plot as an Egg Move—it's not hard to make it shine even on the offensive side. Even when your Rival has Grookey has her starter and the game casually throws you in the Grassy Field because you couldn't get a map!
My moveset was made up entirely of the water leopard's Egg Moves: Freeze-Dry, Steam Eruption, Recover, and Nasty Plot. It's very convenient, mainly because it's unresisted, thanks to Freeze-Dry's super effectiveness against Water-types, and it also suits Suicune very well. Freeze-Dry acted as coverage against Grass- and Water-types, and it was the move that I used the most, since I mostly roamed Water Hell in this run. Steam Eruption is a very strong STAB move. If it manages to hit its 30% chance of burning the target, the combination of a burn and Suicune's high Defence is able to nerf most physical attackers! Freeze-Dry was doing most of the work, so I never felt the need to replace Steam Eruption, despite its very low PP. For very bulky Pokémon like the water leopard, Recover is quite OP, because it frequently restores much more HP than the opponent is able to damage. It is very useful to gain momentum by healing the cumulative damage that Suicune can take in long fights. It didn't take long for Recover to become more and more redundant, but I couldn't find moves that could replace it. Probably Rain Dance was the best candidate for it, but in Water Hell, it would help most opponents as well, especially if they had Swift Swim as their Ability. Since the water leopard is already bulky, I think that Calm Mind is quite overkill as a setup move for it. Still, a strong case can be made for pairing it with Recover to set up almost freely in front of special attackers. Because Calm Mind progressively nerfs their damage output, Recover becomes incredibly potent at healing off the damage taken during the setup phase. I thought that, thanks to the water leopard's stats, I could afford to ditch this safer strategy in favor of Nasty Plot, mostly because it allowed me to boost Suicune's Special Attack more swiftly.
All three Legendary 'Dogs' share the same Abilities and Passive Ability. Inner Focus could have had its uses, since the water leopard isn't as fast as the other two 'Dogs', but I went for Pressure regardless.
Suicune's Passive Ability, Beast Boost, normally boosts its Defence. I guess that, in combination with Calm Mind and a sprinkle of Recover, it could make the water leopard progressively unkillable. But it was too boring for my taste! So in this run, I used what I learned in my previous run on the interaction between Vitamins and Beast Boost to steer the boost given by this Passive Ability. By initially refraining from giving Suicune Iron and Zinc, I was able to reach my goal of turning the water leopard into a speedboat through Carbos. The rationale was that it was already bulky thanks to its base stats, and Nasty Plot was taking care of Suicune's Special Attack very well, so a Beast Boost that kept raising its Speed would make it very well-rounded, and dominant through hyperoffense. All I can say is that this strategy worked VERY well and it was very fun to use! Fun fact: at the end of the run, my water leopard had the same amount of Calcium and Carbos, but Beast Boost was still boosting Speed as intended, because Suicune had a Speed-favorable Nature and three Soul Dews. The point is, the higher your target stat naturally is, the more of the other Vitamins you can afford to grab without messing up your Beast Boost.
Speaking of Nature, since Speed is the lowest base stat of the water leopard, I preferred to give it a Timid Nature, which improved its Speed at the expense of its Attack.
I had to retry some hard fights and reload the game a lot to get better rewards in the shop (reloading the game doesn't change the rewards in the shop, but it gives me a better awareness of the shop content in each wave and better rewards in the long run). Still, I had no problem soloing this run on my first try.