Charmander Solo Run

Run 1 - Charmander:

So for my first ever solo run I randomly picked one of the starters. Whilst I used to casually play Pokémon when I was younger I am not an expert and only really played the original Red and I remember playing Sapphire but I can remember that the other 2 starters are good against Brock so went with Charmander. 

Brock

There was nothing really of note until Brock who I just couldn't beat to start with. A lot of it was bad luck with Brock using Onix and Rock Tomb, which is Super Effective against Charmander. Brock is the Pewter City Gym Leader and specializes in Rock-type Pokémon. Here are the Pokémon he uses in battles:

1. Geodude: Geodude is a Rock/Ground-type Pokémon known for its rocky body and sturdy nature. It evolves into Graveler and then into Golem.

2. 
   

3. Onix: Onix is a Rock/Ground-type Pokémon with a serpentine appearance made of large boulders. It evolves into Steelix when traded while holding a Metal Coat.

In Pokémon FireRed, Brock's team have a slightly higher level and potentially a more diverse moveset compared to the original Pokémon Red. It was this diverse moveset compared to the original that was catching me out.

The key to my eventual win was a combination of luck and using Smokescreen. From here it was a simple case of breezing trough Mount Moon and then making the easy decision to go for the rival battle over Misty.

Rival Battle 2:

This battle took a few attempts but much like Brock relied on luck, few sand attacks from Pidgey and lots of Smokescreen on the Squirtle.

Misty was still too hard at this point so I went to SS Anne, taught my Charmander Dig and Brick Break, both TMs, and then easily took down Rival Battle 3 which I forgot to record! Doh!

At this point I got to level 31 and learnt Flamethrower and decided to go back and do Misty as without cut you can't progress much further in the game.

Misty:

This took a lot of training up but with a little luck I was able to complete this.

Surge:

After beating Misty Surge, Erica, Koga and Sabrina were all really easy, the only challenge at this point was rival 5 where I had to, shoch horror, use a potion to be able to beat the Blastoise.

Blaine

This was took a little more effort, the Arcanine kept taking me out. Again I just got lucky and went and got dig and this then went fine.

Giovanni:

For this I had to teach Fire Blast and using this I breezed through this battle really easily.

Final Rival Fight before Elite 4:

Took a little but of luck but went ok.

The elite 4, well I got stuck on the first Pokémon, there was nothing I could do to impart enough damage and it knew Surf and at best was 2 shotting my poor Charmander. At this point I was getting too frustrated, at level 75, so took a break from this run to give another Pokémon a go.