How-to Play Ludicolo

Rain = Good

I love Ludicolo. But that doesn't mean that everybody does. I can accept that. I think that one of the reasons he is not well played is because people don't understand his strengths.

Both of his abilities only work in rain.

If you are serious about playing the character you will need to keep this in mind.

Swift Swim allows him to be a Rain sweeper while Rain Dish gives him a a free second Leftovers.

But he can work without it.

Albeit not as well.

I find it hard to really give a comprehensive example of this, in so far as far as strategies for winning go, but I will say that it is possible. You can win, I mean, not amazingly well, but he can do it.

Probably the best bet would be a special wall, as Grass / Water is a pretty interesting typing. Unfortunately not very many resists, but his weaknesses (except for Flying) aren't exactly super common.

You can use either Synthesis or Giga Drain as the Insta-heal. Synthesis is good because it's a set amount, but Giga Drain is also good because it deals damage.

It's up to personal preference.

Surf is there because dealing damage is good, and Water is a pretty good attacking type.

Also to make sure Ludicolo doesn't just get Taunted and be unable to do anything, especially if you choose Synthesis.

If you run Giga Drain, though, it might be useful to use Rain Dance to guarantee the Rain Dish extra HP.

Just don't use Rain Dance and Synthesis, because rain makes Synthesis preform worse.

Maybe you won't use him in you main group. But he is worth playing. And if you are like me, and don't mind making a fun group, you may make one focused around him.

This Fluff Packs A Punch

The real main difference between Bewear and Furfrou is that Bewear hits a LOT harder and is more physically bulky due to much higher HP. I don't think anyone thinks Fluffy is better than Fur Coat. It's obvious Fur Coat is better.

Furfrou is, however, a competitively useless character.

After doing calculations, the only thing Furfrou can take better than Bewear are fire type moves and special moves, and even then, not that much better due to Bewear's much higher HP.

Furfrou and Bewear are both bulky pokemon with no good recovery options. The difference is that Bewear can actually threaten things while Furfrou has to rest stall.

  • 1/16 of Furfrou's 354 max HP: 22 HP
  • 1/16 of Bewear's 444 max HP: 27 HP

Where Toxapex is a Wall.

Bewear is a bulldozer.

Bewear's HP outweighs the difference in Special Defense so much that Furfrou can only take special hits only a couple of decimal places better than Bewear. And due to how Pokémon rounds decimals they will generally be taking the same amount of damage specially.

Furfrou only takes physical fire type moves about 5-ish percent better than Bewear usually. If the only thing Furfrou can take better physically is fire type moves, while Bewear takes EVERY other non-super effective type move MUCH better, and they take about the same from special moves, there's really no comparison on who has the better survivability.

Bewear hits like a bulldozer while Furfrou has no real strength when it comes to actual play. Bewear packs Hammer Arm, Superpower, Return, Ice Punch, Earthquake, Thunder Punch, Payback and more. Furfrou gets considerably less attacks to work with that are weaker and provide less coverage.

Bewear can beat:

  • Skarmory
  • Ferrothorn
  • Scizor
  • Tyranitar
  • Bisharp

and many other OU Steel and Rock types that think it may even have the possibility of staying in safely. Bewear also cannot get walled by stalling Pokémon like Toxapex and Celesteela because it packs Taunt. Furfrou cannot learn Taunt.

There is absolutely nothing superior about Furfrou to Bewear.

For every benefit that Fur Coat has over Fluffy, it is negated by Furfrou's terrible stats and terrible movepool. Bewear will always be selected more because it doesn't have the same weaknesses other Pokémon like Furfrou. Also, while I mentioned Toxapex this mon is not a synonym for Bewear, they are not interchangeable.

Pokemon: Alola

The average speed of all the Pokemon in Alola isn't actually lower than other generations by much, the issue is the most popular/commonly used Pokemon are slow.

The faster ones are mostly rare and/or late or post game which is a deterrent for many players. Some of these include:

  • Raichu
  • M-Metagross
  • Tapus
  • UBs
  • Flygon
  • Dugtrio
  • Salazzle
  • Dragonite
  • Lucario
  • Porygon-Z
  • Ninetales
  • Salamence
  • Garchomp

But then you have fast moving options like:

  • Crobat
  • Sharpedo
  • Alakazam
  • Talonflame

A lot of people would rather try out new Alolan Pokemon than use one they likely had before. This can also be countered if done properly, for example: whenever I battle a Bewear with Fluffy, I one shot it with my Salazzle using Flamethrower. If they placed A-Vulpix, A-Diglett and Minior on Melemele Island they'd get a lot less complaints about slow Pokemon. And you would have a more balanced hand. But many people ignore that.

Yet, with with proper balancing, for example, A-Forms like A-Raichu. There are plenty of Special Pokémon as well.

But you will notice that you mostly encounter Physical ones, whether it's because of Trainer representation, encounter rates or whatever else. They include stuff you can get like Abra. Or Magnemite. A lot of purely new Alolan Pokemon seem to be physical. Still, physical isn't the problem it's having moves that make direct contact that is the problem. Though to be fair finding a physical non-contact move that is SE on Bewear isn't easy but mons like Pelliper and other special guys are still available. It makes contact moves deal ineffective damage, and all fire moves are then super effective.

One example of how I play this is for me to use a 3/3 during my play through: Sylveon, Raichu, Rimbombee as specials and Decidueye, Golisopod, Bewear for physicals.

Clever Little Trainers

Pokemon Names

And even more amazing, Girafarig backwards is girafarig. And everybody knows and has at least one girafarig at home. I actually have two, but the first one that I got doesn't get much use any more and just sits in the corner. I do, however, have a giraffe-patterned rug that I call my Girafarug.

I bet you were always wondering why I am so pleased with myself all the time. 😛

Silliness aside, this works on another level in the original Japanese.

Girafarig's Japanese name is Kirinriki (here is how it is spelled in kanji: キリンリキ). Not only is this also a palindrome in Japanese, but "kirin" (キリン) is Japanese for "giraffe," and "riki" (リキ) is Psychic.

So, Kirinriki is a psychic giraffe whose name is Psychic Giraffe, spelled backwards and forwards, and it has a face on its tail so that it also is a psychic giraffe backwards and forwards.

It Comes Down to the Numbers

I'm pretty sure the AI in Pokemon actually cheats. I came to that conclusion when Whitney's Miltank smashed me with the Stomp attack eight times in a row.

I'm not the only one though

Cheat is a harsh word for it though, I guess you could call it a home field advantage. Something that makes the gym leaders seem tougher.

I did the math to see how this would pan out, you know, in case anyone is wondering, which you probably aren't. But the chance of being fully paralyzed 6 times in a row (25% chance each time) is a chance of 100(.25^6) = 0,024% while hitting 6 times in a row is a 100(.75^6) = 17.8% chance.

I recently replayed SoulSilver and it was my Ampharos vs Lt. Surge's Electrode

And yup, it wasn't long before both of us were paralyzed. (yeah Gen 4 rules, electric types getting paralyzed)

It got to attack me six times in a row, while I was unable to move all six times.

I mean, yeah, I won because Ampharos can take a punch like a champ, but you get a bit frustrated when you keep getting paralyzed. Paralysis has a 25% chance of not attacking so you really loose any steam that you might have built up until that point. So while possible it would be like flipping two coins and having them both come up heads six times in a row while your opponent never has that happen to them.

For comparisons sake, the chance of encountering a shiny in SoulSilver was 1 in 8192 = 0.0122% without raising the probability by chaining or using the Masuda method. Looking at the odds I think that my point is clear, this is not a case of bad luck, but of AI that is programmed with too much favor being placed on it. Now I wouldn't call it a example of cheating AI, but having fair odds would look a lot different.

And may not be as fun.