I got it to work so played Heart Gold!
I picked Cyndaquil. Though Totodile is usually who I picked almost every other time I played Silver or Gold etc, my original choice back in 2002 or whatever was Cyndaquil. Probably piggybacking off my usual choice of Charmander. I like that line so was grand!
I got the Slugma egg off the dude early on, looked up the correct phrase to say. I hatched it alongside Togepi and considered switching out Cyndaquil for Slugma but it was so weak and levelled so slowly I will save that for a challenging future run
So this became a Greatest Hits run. Get all of my faves. Optimal as possible but not excessively so.
The other 5 party members
Got a Mareep-Flaafy-Ampharos early on as usual and used it for first time in ages. One of my all time faves. Thudner Punch came in very handy later.
I cycled through a bunch of mons early but decided to take Geodude-Graveller again. He levels quick and is solid enough. I will replace him later with Tyranitar (my beloved all time fave) but for now he will do.
Quagsire got back in as a good water type with a unique ground pairing. I 'discovered' Quagsire in the previous run of OG Silver a few weeks ago so decided to use him again.
I ran Bellsprout>Weepinbell as I usually do but my gods is he underperforming. Other than being used to Vine Whip Swimmers and Hikers into oblivion he was tough to use. Natures, meta moves like Safeguard... all made for a tougher time for my designated Grass mon.
Who else... got a Jynx later on as they were great in my recent OG playthrough so why not again. Ice Punch and Powder Snow etc, Psychic from Saffron... great stuff!
What else
I managed to clear the Elite 4 after grinding for a bit in Victory Road. The only other major grind was killing Tauros over by the new Safari Zone before taking on Clair. Kanto is way tougher than before, I've hit a few roadblocks, I don't have Fly and I don't have a Bike so feel a bit soft-locked. No, I think it's fine I'll just grind a bit more and beat Misty and everything should be fine.
I'll come back to it later; I'll try to beat Red and the revamped Elite 4 this time, but not looking forward to the grind. I caught Ho-Oh with a Dusk Ball so that was cool.
