Ohio, USAQuite honestly, this category is absolutely doable. We are currently working out a category like this for Blue Rescue Team, but Sky's recruitment mechanics are simply so much more friendly to this sort of run. We are also able to wonder mail in Pokemon joining our team, save for a couple of special exceptions such as Kecleon. The basic idea of the run would be to complete an any% run normally, and then use golden seeds to level a Pokemon in IQ group B or H such as Wigglytuff to level 100 and gradually boost over the course of the run using the IQ booster so that Fast Friend can be achieved. We would also wondermail in an Amber Tear to maximize recruitment efficiency.
Some roadblocks with this run are the legendary pokemon recruited via the Secret Slab, which can be quite annoying to recruit and typically have quite low recruit rates. And obviously, boosting the IQ of the pokemon we use will take quite a lot of time.
But yeah, moral of the story, this type of run is absolutely doable with a minimum amount of RNG. It will take quite a bit of time to complete and especially to route, however it is definitely possible. We will not, however, add the category to the leader board until an actual run has been completed.
If you want to talk more about this run, please, by all means, feel free to hit me up on Discord or Twitch! Thanks.
Hey there!
I would absolutely get Blue Rescue Team for the virtual console, it's pretty much what everyone uses to run PMD. Comparatively, Red Rescue Team is just much less optimized, so that's why you don't really see people running on it.
If you haven't already, please feel free to join the PMD discord! If you have any future questions, we would be glad to help and you would get a much faster response than on the forums!
https://discord.gg/010CVBJffLgZjVlBr
Have a good one!
If you are interested in doing a run of this type, feel free! I see no reason not to, and as you point out, it is far less of a commitment than all icons is while still encompassing the major story arc. As somebody who did a vast majority of the work for all icons, I would suggest that you go out of your way to recruit Articuno and use him to complete the post game dungeons, rather than tempt fate using Skitty, given how Articuno is not only in the low 50's when you recruit him, but he also has access to powder snow and agility, moves that allow you to deal with a wide range of situations, for instance the silver wind spam you may encounter while going through Pitfall Valley, large rooms full of enemies, etc. However if you find that it can be done just as easily with Skitty, go for it!
Thank you for your post! Glad you are interested in doing runs like this. :)
I also strongly suggest you join the PMD discord, it will make answering questions such as this much more streamlined!
