If you’ve played any sort of Pokemon game, you are probably familiar with the fact that Rattatas are everywhere, and they are on the lower end of the pocket monster totem pole when it comes to fighting. However, a German Pokemon FireRed player, PokemonChallenges, decided to attempt a solo run of the game using only a Rattata.
If the Rattata ever fainted during a battle, it would be game over. No revives were allowed to be used, and no other Pokemon could help it fight. This also meant that the lonely Rattata would have to take on the Elite Four all by its lonesome, and they would have to be defeated in one attempt. Every time the Rattata was defeated, PokemonChallenges would have to start all over again, from the very beginning.
Overall, this quest took the player over a month and a half to complete. Sometimes the Rattata couldn’t handle a fight. Other times, effective moves from opposing teams and ridiculous critical hits would cause the Rattata to lose. PokemonChallenges pieced together a video documenting every death, which you can view below.
“The farthest attempts that ended at the Elite Four (where I lost twice) took about 19 hours of in game time to complete. You can imagine my devastation after losing there…the second time I just felt like giving up.”
However, the gamer managed to finally get the job done in his seventh attempt. He took full advantage of the “substitute” move, which absorbs the damage inflicted by the opposing Pokemon.
“Both Bruno and Agatha of the Elite Four were incredibly difficult. Bruno’s Onix will spam Rock tomb, which will lower Rattata’s speed. This means that [Bruno’s] strong fighting types can go first and KO my Rattata with a lucky critical hit.
“Agathas Arbok has Screech which sharply lowers Rattatas defense causing it to die instantly to anything. I eventually overcame the difficulties of those battles by running the move substitute, which creates a token that takes hits for your Pokemon and also absorbs the stat lowering.”
You can watch the video below of his successful fun. Since his accomplishment in the game, PokemonChallenges is currently working on a solo run of Pokemon Platinum using only a Smeargle. Thanks, Kotaku.
