Leveling to level 80-ish in HG/SS

[cheyinka]

As X/Y draw near, I've started thinking about finally fighting Red in SoulSilver. The problem I face is that while I do have a team put together with which to fight him, it's in the low 60s, and his lowest-level Pokémon is level 82. (His highest-level 'mon is [highlight to read: (skip) a Pikachu who is level 88.])

Does anyone have any advice for how to level from the low 60s to the mid 80s? It was bad enough before Gen 5 spoiled me with Audino and Nimbasa Stadium, but the only ways I can think of to level that high in SoulSilver are a) repeatedly re-fight the Elite Four b) repeatedly re-fight the gym leaders in the dojo c) drag a high-level 'mon with Pickup through several hundred battles to get rare candies d) do the Pokéathlon enough to have enough points to buy rare candies. I don't think there's a fifth option I've missed, and none of those sound like all that much fun. (The Pokéathlon in particular makes me think favorably of sticking toothpicks under my fingernails.) Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make the process less ghastly, or commisseration about how ghastly it was for you and I can just suck it up and soldier on, or anything else of note?

Comments

[killua]

I personally fought re-fought Green a ton with a Lucky Egg! Green's my favorite gym leader so fighting him is always a lot of fun for me and I could usually level a level or two every round. Half my party is the same as Red's though, so when it came to leveling certain pokemon I'd just take them to the gym leader they're strong against (Pikachu against Falkner, for example) and level them that way.

In any case, good luck with your leveling!

[cheyinka]

I guess I just don't like re-fighting battles. I dunno! Getting them high enough level for the first run at the Elite Four wasn't bad (nothing compared to doing it in Yellow!), getting them higher-level for the second trip through was frustrating, and I have been in the low 60s since my son was born in January 2012. (I played a lot of Pokemon the last couple weeks of my pregnancy.)

[tyger]

Uh, this is way back in Silver the Original, but mainly I just ran around in the grass outside Mount Silver and levelled up there. Also, going back to places and catching pokémon I hadn't got on my first go through, and running around after the legendaries, but obviously that's even slower. Less boring, though. (I am a person who enjoys levelling, though, so maybe it wouldn't work for you.) [EDIT] Also Victory Road is usually pretty good, for pokémon who don't make faces at rock/ground/steel types, which mine usually do. ^^; [/EDIT]

Usually going through the Elite Four works pretty well, too. Maybe have some sort of arbitrary challenge to keep you interested? Seeing if you can beat them all without healing/with just one pokémon, etc. etc. (Or with an exp. share on something lower levelled you just want to evolve for your 'dex, but again, that's gonna be slower.)

Rare candies don't give you the EV points, which are super confusing to me, but basically you're not as strong when you level up with rare candies as opposed to normal levelling, so I wouldn't recommend it. (Also getting that many rare candies is probably gonna take as much or more time as just levelling, so, you know. =/)

[cheyinka]

At this point my team can't get any more EVs anyway, so that's not an issue. (Theoretically one could get all 510 EVs by level 20 or so, then feed the pokémon 80 rare candies, and the result would be the same as levelling to 100 through battles / the exp. share; once you've gotten all 510 you can't get any more unless you use EV-reducing berries, and then once you're back to 510 you can't get any more, unless... &c.) The fact that getting 120 rare candies (whether via Pickup or Pokéathlon) would probably take me as long (if not three to four times as long) as trudging back and forth in a little circle through Victory Road or Mt. Silver is why those are c) and d) on my list :D

I don't mind levelling when my team's close in level to the wild pokémon around, or when there are trainers I haven't fought before, but that's not the case anymore. I suppose I could try setting an arbitrary challenge for the Elite Four; that might work at least for my first two trips through!

[tyger]

Oh I see! I salute you, EV-figuring-out person!

*nodnod* I mean, obviously it depends on your brains, but arbitrary challenges work really well for me. Otherwise I guess it's just the slow grind, which it feels like you hate, so! XD;

[cheyinka]

With a thousand fiery suns, yes. On the other hand, I had totally forgotten that trainers in HGSS call for rematches, and I had six trainers and a Gym Leader waiting for me. So at least now my Typhlosion is l67!

(They were waiting since at least January 2012. I felt especially bad when one Trainer said she'd waited to eat until we'd battled...)

[tyger]

|D Ahh, the phone function, it is so awesome. So very awesome.

(Oh nooooo! Poor girl!)

[albatrosswing]

Use the exp share?