Champion Stadium – Johto Challenge Week 3
(11 January 2011 – 17 January 2021)
Strategy in nutshell:
Dena has finally done a great job implementing such fun and challenging game mode! I never felt so defeated in decades! This feeling further escalates when I was this “Almost F2P Friendly” run. Before proceeding further, would like to clarify that my definition of F2P friendly means whoever has played the game long enough (i.e. I reckon at least 4 months) that he/she is able to get almost every 3* and 4* units in the game including fee 5* legendary units. Hence I try not to include any 5* gacha units because not everyone has certain units in the game (with the exception of 1 5* gacha unit – Dawn and Torterra that I included to beat Bruno, hence the title “Almost F2P Friendly”, however I will also include other available options that you can use to replace Torterra).
After experimenting with Master Mode, I came to realise that in almost every circumstance, you can only get a full 1500 points per battle if you either (a) beat it with decent 5* gacha units; or (b) cheese it with status conditions like poison, trap, burn and sleep. It is quite tough to get a full 1500 points by brute forcing using f2p friendly units without any status conditions.
Out of the 5 battles, I took advantage of status conditions to cheese through everyone before Lance, with each 1 of them scoring 1500 points; while the last battle with Lance I could only brute forced without status condition using f2p friendly units, scoring only 1000 points. Thanks to Lance’s Aerodactyl, I learnt that someone’s Giga Impact can actually hit MUCH HARDER beyond Sawyer’s Bewear lol.
Without further a do, here’s the detailed strategy for each battle:
1) Against Will with Weezing-Probopass-Masquerain team
Probopass as main tank, as I don’t want to waste creamy cookie to get vigilance on it, I gave grass guard to it since I have too much chewy cookie lol. As opponents are mainly physical strikers, Probopass main job is to provide the defense and speed buffs to carry the team. Weezing is pretty much self explanatory to poison everyone on field, while ensuring it survives through the battle; while Masquerain’s job is to trap everyone, meanwhile decreasing every opponent’s sp attack. Cheeze through until opponents faint from poison and trap.
2) Against Koga with Pikachu-Rapidash-Torkoal team
If u have SS Red, u can pretty much swap Torkoal to Charizard and end the game much quicker, however make sure to switch around the options used for the challenge as it is an entirely different game style. For this specific team, basically u want the opponents to slowly die from burn and trap. Torkoal actually has decent bulk as a tech unit, hence Torkoal acts as main tank, while Pikachu abuses potions to keep it survives lol. Rapidash also provides sunny day for the extra damage output for Torkoal’s Ember.
In this match up, basically you want to soft reset whenever opponent poisons u. I was unlucky to get poison towards the end, however I was also extremely lucky with the potion RNG, hence mitigating it. By right you should oy require around 2~3 potion MPRs to beat the stage provided you didn’t get poisoned.
3) Against Bruno with Crobat-Tech_Nidoqueen-Torterra team
OK here’s the part where I cheated abit by using a 5* gacha units. Basically you want to pick a tank that provides defense buff to the team because Bruno’s team are mainly physical strikers. Swanna was my top choice as a f2p option however I needed her against Lance later on hence picking Torterra. Other options you can pick such as Steelix, Blastoise and Eevee. For this match up, u only have Crobat causing the status condition, hence Nidoqueen is there to keep sprinkle Venom Drench, ensuring opponents do not cause too much damage in such long battle.
4) Against Karen with Ariados-Serviper-Starmie team
For this team I need to give full credit to Jed Gernil for showcasing this team in the Pkm Master International FB Group. This team basically works like a charm, ie Serviper can cause both poison and trap status conditions, While Ariados keeps sprinkle Venom Drench. Starmie is there to tank through the whole battle. This team works even better if Opponents are special strikers!
5) Against Lance with Solgaleo-Swanna-Medicham
For the 1st time I finally encountered Giga Impact which hits SIGNIFICANTLY HARDER than Sawyer’s Bewear, basically it can 1 hit KO my 5* Swanna with vigilance and +6 defense! Initially I aimed to score 1500 points, however I gave up after dying to that Giga Impacts few attempts later lol, so decided to stick to 1000 points. Its a shame that could have reached 1500 points if it was not that Godlike Giga Impact, damn!
So if you want to get max 1500 points against Lance, I suggest to use your best gacha team against him, enjoy!
00:00 Against Will
04:41 Against Koga
11:05 Against Bruno
18:30 Against Karen
24:59 Against Lance