Hi there! I'm Smogon member khlaylav. You may remember me from such hits as "Why is he running through Pokemon Y with only Burmy" and "Oh he failed at that Nuzlocke that one time." Well, I'm back! Way back when in the early stages of the pandemic, I noted that I'd had my friends vote on 2 challenge runs of Pokemon Y: only Burmy, and only elemental monkeys. I completed said Burmy run and now, just 3 short years later, I'm ready for the other run. So here we go!
General strategy and musings on elemental monkeys
You know them. Youlove like tolerate acknowledge their existence. They're Pansage, Pansear and Panpour! First introduced in Unova, what could've been a fairly clever way to teach about type advantage got run into the ground when seemingly every other trainer had all 3 monkeys in their arsenal. The monkeys are aggressively similar, and aggressively mediocre: They all have 75 HP, 98 Attack and Special Attack, 63 Defense and Special Defense, and 101 Speed for a somewhat decent 498 total. They all have Gluttony as their ability and the elemental boosting ability of their type as a hidden ability. They all start with Scratch (and Play Nice in Gen 6) and learn various moves at the exact same level. They all get an elemental move every 12 levels. Of the 3, Simipour is probably the best, considering it learns Ice Beam, Blizzard and Surf, but the other 2 can (sort of) handle themselves.
Thanks to their inherent Fire/Water/Grass core, the 3 monkeys aren't too terrible to build around. Of note, they learn Acrobatics at level 31 if I'm patient enough to let them stay unevolved until then, which is a very nice coverage move. Their variety is sort of weak but not bad, either: Dig, Rock Tomb/Slide, Power Up Punch, Shadow Claw and Hone Claws all have their uses. Crunch would be nice, but that's all the way at level 43, and I am WAY too impatient for that. Really, the most unfortunate thing is the monkeys get decent physical set up moves but their best moves are special.
So, how is this going to go? Well, Viola will be kinda tricky, because of Surskit, and also that Pansear is aggressively weak. Grant will be fine with Pansage/Pour. If I'm patient enough for Acrobatics Korrina will be easy along with Ramos. Only Simisage resists Clemont but with Dig and Flame Burst I should be fine. Simisear will help against Valerie; my best option might be to set up on Mawile then go to town with coverage moves because annoyingly, the monkeys don't learn Steel or Poison moves. Olympia will be annoying but doable, and Wulfric... Wulfric uses Fire types. I should have Flamethrower at this point. I trust you see where this is going.
Update 1: Cool name to be thought of later
I choose Froakie because it lets me destroy Chesnaught with Acrobatics. My name is Tarzan because... well, I know apes aren't monkeys but they're still primates and it's close enough. The first of the monkeys to join the team is Pansage, who I name Grookey. Because I can. Perhaps as a rebellion against its name, it has a Quiet nature, reducing its speed and increasing special attack. then catch a Panpour, and my sarcastic nickname theme falls apart immediately because there's not really another water monkey Pokemon. So I just call it Urshifu. Don't worry, Panpour, you're legendary in my heart. Unfortunately, Urshifu has an Adamant nature, reducing the power of the eventual Scalds, Surfs and Hydro Pumps. While I could hunt for another Panpour (and actually run into one shortly after catching Urshifu), I decide not to. Finally, there's Pansear, who it takes a few more encounters to find and catch. Chimchar has plus defense, minus speed for its nature, which is terrible, but oh well.
Team roster:
Grookey, level 6, Scratch/Leer/Play Nice
Urshifu, level 5, same
Chimchar, level 4, same
Froakie, here for HMs and moral support
General strategy and musings on elemental monkeys
You know them. You
Thanks to their inherent Fire/Water/Grass core, the 3 monkeys aren't too terrible to build around. Of note, they learn Acrobatics at level 31 if I'm patient enough to let them stay unevolved until then, which is a very nice coverage move. Their variety is sort of weak but not bad, either: Dig, Rock Tomb/Slide, Power Up Punch, Shadow Claw and Hone Claws all have their uses. Crunch would be nice, but that's all the way at level 43, and I am WAY too impatient for that. Really, the most unfortunate thing is the monkeys get decent physical set up moves but their best moves are special.
So, how is this going to go? Well, Viola will be kinda tricky, because of Surskit, and also that Pansear is aggressively weak. Grant will be fine with Pansage/Pour. If I'm patient enough for Acrobatics Korrina will be easy along with Ramos. Only Simisage resists Clemont but with Dig and Flame Burst I should be fine. Simisear will help against Valerie; my best option might be to set up on Mawile then go to town with coverage moves because annoyingly, the monkeys don't learn Steel or Poison moves. Olympia will be annoying but doable, and Wulfric... Wulfric uses Fire types. I should have Flamethrower at this point. I trust you see where this is going.
Update 1: Cool name to be thought of later
I choose Froakie because it lets me destroy Chesnaught with Acrobatics. My name is Tarzan because... well, I know apes aren't monkeys but they're still primates and it's close enough. The first of the monkeys to join the team is Pansage, who I name Grookey. Because I can. Perhaps as a rebellion against its name, it has a Quiet nature, reducing its speed and increasing special attack. then catch a Panpour, and my sarcastic nickname theme falls apart immediately because there's not really another water monkey Pokemon. So I just call it Urshifu. Don't worry, Panpour, you're legendary in my heart. Unfortunately, Urshifu has an Adamant nature, reducing the power of the eventual Scalds, Surfs and Hydro Pumps. While I could hunt for another Panpour (and actually run into one shortly after catching Urshifu), I decide not to. Finally, there's Pansear, who it takes a few more encounters to find and catch. Chimchar has plus defense, minus speed for its nature, which is terrible, but oh well.
Team roster:
Grookey, level 6, Scratch/Leer/Play Nice
Urshifu, level 5, same
Chimchar, level 4, same
Froakie, here for HMs and moral support