NodeCraft
- 11 Dec 2022 16:34
#212990
I really hate to suggest this because it would decrease the effectiveness of my main strategy of taking down Drowned Lugia, but unfortunately sacrifices must be made and it has to be done...
The Lum Berry should be one of the possible items that Pokemon with Revenant can materialize at the beginning of their phases. Lum Berries are a one-use item that can remove poison, bad poison, burn, paralysis, sleep, freeze, and/or confusion when consumed by the holder. Right now, Drowned Lugia has no way of healing itself of status conditions.
This makes Toxic the best method of taking down Drowned Lugia that I know of, and frankly I can almost never beat Drowned Lugia without it. It's even better than healing moves. As long as you can get a Toxic on Drowned Lugia, preferably in the first phase, then you don't really need to attack very much or at all. You just have to avoid having your whole party faint and Toxic will do the work for you. This is often pretty easy to do by switching between a Pokemon weak to Ground and a Pokemon immune to Ground, since Lugia often carries a Ground-type move like Earthquake or Precipice Blades. Having a Pokemon with Intimidate in your party also helps, since you can continuously switch it in to keep dropping Lugia's Attack stat until it is minimized (though Lugia can materialize a White Herb to remove the Attack drops). When I've fought Drowned Lugia several times with a Poison-type team, I constantly switched between an Overqwil with Intimidate, a Galarian Weezing with Levitate, and a Toxapex with Regenerator while Lugia was badly poisoned so that I could minimize the amount of damage Lugia was doing, and by doing this I won more of the battles than I lost. Starting a new Revenant phase does not heal any status conditions on Drowned Lugia nor does it reset the Toxic counter. The bad poison remains and the damage keeps growing. Once you get to the second or third phase, the Toxic damage begins taking out each phase in only a couple turns. Toxic will be doing a lot more damage to Lugia than your attacks would be.
The only defense Lugia has so far to this strategy is being Steel-type or Poison-type since it then can't be poisoned, but the player can get around this by taking out the current phase, running away and rechallenging Lugia, or having a Salazzle with Corrosion be the Toxic setter. Plus, being Steel-type or Poison-type only prevents Lugia from becoming poisoned -- it doesn't cure the poison if Lugia gains one of the types later. Drowned Lugia also doesn't have any moves in its movepools or items in its held item pool that can remove the poison. Lugia has no defense to Toxic except managing to take out all your Pokemon first.
While I feel Toxic is the best choice due to how the damage increases each turn, other status conditions aren't bad to inflict on Drowned Lugia either and certainly help make things easier. Paralysis makes Lugia move second and can prevent it from attacking. Burn halves the damage of Lugia's physical attacks and does a little damage each turn which helps get around Multiscale. Sleep and freeze prevent Lugia from unleashing its powerful attacks for a while. Confusion can be good because Lugia would occasionally deal damage to itself rather than attack and it can be stacked with a non-volatile status condition. Except for sleep, freeze, and confusion though, all of these status conditions are permanent, which is why Lugia should be able to materialize a Lum Berry so it has a chance of curing them.
To be clear, I don't think the Toxic strategy would be completely shut down by Lugia having a 1 out of 21 chance to get a Lum Berry each time Revenant revives it, since Drowned Lugia would only have around a 25% chance of getting a Lum Berry at least once in its 5-7 phases. However, it would likely disrupt the momentum when it happens and result in the player having to stop switching into the Pokemon that takes the least damage and start trying to find a way to get Toxic back on Lugia again, which could be a problem if the only Toxic setters have fainted. It also would reset the Toxic counter, requiring the team to stay conscious for longer and allowing Lugia to use more attacks. A Lum Berry would also heal any other status condition on Lugia, which could be annoying if the player put the status condition on Lugia by using a move with only a chance to inflict a status condition, such as Scald.
The Lum Berry should be one of the possible items that Pokemon with Revenant can materialize at the beginning of their phases. Lum Berries are a one-use item that can remove poison, bad poison, burn, paralysis, sleep, freeze, and/or confusion when consumed by the holder. Right now, Drowned Lugia has no way of healing itself of status conditions.
This makes Toxic the best method of taking down Drowned Lugia that I know of, and frankly I can almost never beat Drowned Lugia without it. It's even better than healing moves. As long as you can get a Toxic on Drowned Lugia, preferably in the first phase, then you don't really need to attack very much or at all. You just have to avoid having your whole party faint and Toxic will do the work for you. This is often pretty easy to do by switching between a Pokemon weak to Ground and a Pokemon immune to Ground, since Lugia often carries a Ground-type move like Earthquake or Precipice Blades. Having a Pokemon with Intimidate in your party also helps, since you can continuously switch it in to keep dropping Lugia's Attack stat until it is minimized (though Lugia can materialize a White Herb to remove the Attack drops). When I've fought Drowned Lugia several times with a Poison-type team, I constantly switched between an Overqwil with Intimidate, a Galarian Weezing with Levitate, and a Toxapex with Regenerator while Lugia was badly poisoned so that I could minimize the amount of damage Lugia was doing, and by doing this I won more of the battles than I lost. Starting a new Revenant phase does not heal any status conditions on Drowned Lugia nor does it reset the Toxic counter. The bad poison remains and the damage keeps growing. Once you get to the second or third phase, the Toxic damage begins taking out each phase in only a couple turns. Toxic will be doing a lot more damage to Lugia than your attacks would be.
The only defense Lugia has so far to this strategy is being Steel-type or Poison-type since it then can't be poisoned, but the player can get around this by taking out the current phase, running away and rechallenging Lugia, or having a Salazzle with Corrosion be the Toxic setter. Plus, being Steel-type or Poison-type only prevents Lugia from becoming poisoned -- it doesn't cure the poison if Lugia gains one of the types later. Drowned Lugia also doesn't have any moves in its movepools or items in its held item pool that can remove the poison. Lugia has no defense to Toxic except managing to take out all your Pokemon first.
While I feel Toxic is the best choice due to how the damage increases each turn, other status conditions aren't bad to inflict on Drowned Lugia either and certainly help make things easier. Paralysis makes Lugia move second and can prevent it from attacking. Burn halves the damage of Lugia's physical attacks and does a little damage each turn which helps get around Multiscale. Sleep and freeze prevent Lugia from unleashing its powerful attacks for a while. Confusion can be good because Lugia would occasionally deal damage to itself rather than attack and it can be stacked with a non-volatile status condition. Except for sleep, freeze, and confusion though, all of these status conditions are permanent, which is why Lugia should be able to materialize a Lum Berry so it has a chance of curing them.
To be clear, I don't think the Toxic strategy would be completely shut down by Lugia having a 1 out of 21 chance to get a Lum Berry each time Revenant revives it, since Drowned Lugia would only have around a 25% chance of getting a Lum Berry at least once in its 5-7 phases. However, it would likely disrupt the momentum when it happens and result in the player having to stop switching into the Pokemon that takes the least damage and start trying to find a way to get Toxic back on Lugia again, which could be a problem if the only Toxic setters have fainted. It also would reset the Toxic counter, requiring the team to stay conscious for longer and allowing Lugia to use more attacks. A Lum Berry would also heal any other status condition on Lugia, which could be annoying if the player put the status condition on Lugia by using a move with only a chance to inflict a status condition, such as Scald.
