For Grusha's gym challenge, I think it's safe enough to assume you'd have a Cyclizar if you didn't have Koraidon protagonist luck, or that one would be rented to you for the challenge. You have to assume all of the challenges are at least technically doable by randos.

While not possible in the base game, if the protagonist didn’t have Koraidon/Miraidon, Arven would have it. Plus, as shown in The Way Home, multiple people can fit on Koraidon/Miraidon. This would mean that, if not confined by the exact logic of the game, if the protagonist didn’t ever get Koraidon/Miraidon, Arven would still have it and therefore Arven and the protagonist could still reach the false dragon titan. I know it’s a cop out but this way Mabosstif survives.

Honestly, the fact that the only storyline that is impossible without Koraidon/Miraidon is the Path of Legends sort of makes sense because the main reward of defeating the titans is powering up the legendary.

You know, it makes sense that the _only_ time you're forced to use the ride mons for overworld travel is on the path of the game dedicated to upgrading said ride mons. Also I wouldn't count the Glaseado gym challenge as a loss since we _know_ Nemona's beaten it without the ride mons, she couldn't have taken the champion assessment if she didn't.

Glaceado’s gym challenge is certainly possible. You said that this challenge was to see if Pokémon SV was possible without protagonist’s luck. The gym would probably give you a pair of skis or something so that people other than the protagonist could beat the gym challenge.

I feel like this is a good place to say that when John does his Team Frog playthrough of Scarlet and Violet, he can’t use the legendary else he be called Team Bicycle Lizard, just like he called Team Sky Team Bearded Deer in the Legends playthrough.

Honestly, it makes sense the path of legends would require Koraidon/Miraidon, considering A, the path is for upgrading your ride, and B, it's Arven's path, and Arven is technically the one who gives you Koraidon and Miraidon.

One challenge I want to see/try is a Bear Gril's nuzlock where, after doing the tutorial, you cannot use any stores or pokemon centers and gotta rely on the land for recovery items and pokeballs.

I did an on-foot round trip of Paldea myself a while ago. Before I hit Zapapico I actually found a shiny Orthworm randomly. I circled it once because I wanted to find a good screenshot angle, and in the process incidentally added a round trip around the Orth to my Paldea trip.

Yes, yes you can. After finding out that there is a path to walk to where the psychic type gym is, I am convinced they designed the game in a way that you could get to anywhere you needed to before getting a single badge. Truly openworld.

I wonder if Bombirdier knows it just murdered a schoolchild

The ice gym counts, you can catch a cyclizar, which can be used for the challenge

NPCs use Cyclizar for riding, and I would assume it can swim like Miraidon and Koraidon. The alternate path to Alfornada was how I got to that gym with only two ride upgrades.

Love how Mikey is finding new fly points from doing this, I definitely don't have all of them either. It'd be pretty fun to do this I think.

Not technically on foot, but in a version of this game where you don't have the legends, I'd imagine you'd have a ridable Cyclizar, I'd imagine you'd use that for the Glacedia Mountain Gym

I think Glaseado Gym still counts as doable as a normal challenger would just use a Cyclizar. I think that's the way it's intended to be done. Not sure if normal Cyclizar would be able to swim or jump very high though Also: It's very funny seeing you discovering the roads as i used them to get from point A to B quite frequently :P I'm not the type to just go off-road because when the directest path to my destination is clearly the road

Mikey went from uploading gameplay videos and challenge videos to these kind of videos and I love it

I think for the ice gyms challenge, if you were a person in this world and not a protagonist you would be given a snowboard to complete it

It's so cool that you can do EVERYTHING except for the final Titan fight on foot in this game! I also like that you didn't count the fact that you have to glide down into Area Zero on your ride Pokemon the first time as making the game unbeatable, because I feel like without protagonist luck, that'd just mean that Arven would have still had Koraidon or Miraidon himself, making that part possible too. (And I definitely agree that the Grusha gym would have to be beatable by trainers who don't have legenderies so there would have been some way for you to beat it without one.)

It's so funny seeing Mikey get mind blown by Alfornada being reachable without the legendary bikes when I got there by accident just by following the coastal cliffs while exploring my first time

This feels like a very different kind of video from you, and i really, really like it! The background music, the chill explanations of what you're doing, there's something cozy about it. I'd love to see you do more of this type of content!

I'd say for the ice gym challenge, you could just as easily do it on a cyclizar instead of koraidon/miraidon

I like that the two story quests that normal students would be accessing (Victory Road for gym challengers and Starfall Street for Team Star members) is entirely doable on foot, or .... more likely on the back of a normal Cyclizar. It's actually plausible for them commuting to these places. Meanwhile Arven's quest line, which is all about roughing it in the wilds and empowering Korai/Mirai throughout, does actually need more specialized travel means, which is also pretty fitting. It also means that, level caps not withstanding, it is possible to complete all the story quests (aside from Tatsugiri) in any order you want.

I really love this like, super casual style video. Kinda just feels like a couple homies just hanging out, and this is definitely a "journey not the destination" type of thing.

“Is it BEANS?” -Grunty Boi 2023

My favorite moment in this video was definitely 8:13 because he played Bach's Prelude which is my favorite song on cello! (I play the cello BTW) I just kept watching the video for like two more minutes and then he played the "Blue Danube Waltz" this is my new favorite video Mikey has ever made!

It makes sense that the only one you cant do is the Path of Legends because that is kinda focused on the ride pokemon and the whole story leading up to it's mystery and the professor. A normal trainer in the region wouldnt really do that (although I guess a normal trainer in the region also wouldnt have to deal with Team Star but they are actively blocking the routes to some gyms so a trainer with enough guts could get them to move).

Fitting how the Path of Legends, the story focused on growing your Koraidon/Miraidon, is the only one that can’t be completed without them.

Grusha’s gym counts as a pass because there are several Pokemon you can use as ride Pokemon for that challenge. If you can ride it, you can probably use it.

If you consider that Nemona and Arven did a lot of these challenges without the ride legendary, then it’s possible. For Dondozo, you just need another surf Pokémon (Arven likely used his Cloister), and any ride Pokémon can help with Grusha or, as otherwise mentioned, you use an alternative (snowboard, skis, sled), then it’s all possible for an average trainer. Even Area Zero’s initial fly in could be done with a large enough flying Pokémon (I imagine it would be easy enough to have a Braviary fly you in, and, once in, the taxis will take you out if you beg enough, like Arven did).

During my first play through of Violet I forgot Mirodon was a thing until about 10 hours in (it took me 25 hours to beat the game), and by that point I had unlocked all but the mountain pokecenters, the one close to the 6th gym, and the ones around the fighting star base.

I mean even the normal npc's can ride cyclizar so it's safe to assume that if you don't have protagonist luck, you will be given a cyclizar at some point which, we don't need as a protagonist, or maybe they use their catched cyclizars idk lol. But loved the adventure, actually I wanted to do this for a long time in my own game but due to time couldn't, but you did so thank you lol.

Having actually bypassed Mesagoza, I actually figured out how to get to every town on foot. Hardest is the Psychic town, but then I discovered the coastal bridges.

When you see the game going through by just walking, you realize how truly massive Paldea is. Like seriously, the walk just from Cortondo to the Bombirdier's fight is so long despite looking short

I actually did the bombirdier thing on foot, bc I walked most of the time to not miss shinies and take the game slow to fully enjoy it >.< Did it first try actually and didnt know u would get set back that much

Sign: “You won’t make it on foot!” Michael: “That sign can’t stop me because I can’t read!”

I think Grusha's gym challenge is doable, because you don't *have* to use Koraidon/Miraidon, your playable character just chooses it without asking you, but you could do it with a Cyclizar or most other pokémon as well.

I think doing everything on foot would make everything seem more vast for exploration. Might make it more fun overall.

10:21 somebody on the subreddit pointed out that the Bramblin next to Mikey’s facecam is most likely shiny

Personally I would think the Path of Legends route is still doable with the right pokemon. Even though this game doesn't have Lapras, there are easily catchable living icebergs with flat, easily sittable bodies that have been confirmed to swim.

Very interesting video and idea. Sure I've only actually played the first 3 generations of Pokemon. So no consistent Ride Pokemon but still have Fly and Surf and Teleport. But this idea is vastly different. Anyway, we always love Grunty Boi and would love to see him do a playthrough of Pokemon Violet bringing Team Rocket to Paldea.

I was watching the first team sky video and an idea formed into my head: what if every region had more than one evil team?

I think Grusha's gym should count as doable, because if it wasn't, how did anyone else beat it? Plus, whether in universe or not, you don't need a Pokémon to slide down a mountain.

Realistically, you should be able to beat the gym challenge with the skiing without Koraidon, since not every trainer in that universe has a legendary Pokemon like that.

I would assume if you didn’t have a legendary lizard from times of old you’d use skis

I can’t wait to see more play throughs great vid mikey! :D

10:40 Funnily enough, I use Zapa Pico as my hatching location, specifically when I was shiny hunting Quaxly, but also just for hatching other eggs, as well as evolving Bramblin and Rellor. Zapa Pico may not have much significance other than where you evolve Charcadet, but I think it makes for an excellent hatching location. It has a round-about that, going around it once or maybe twice counts as 1000 steps, maybe three times, I don't remember exactly. What I do know, however, is that when having a Flame Body Pokémon on my egg team and using an Egg Power sandwich, I only had to go 1½ round, at full Koraidon speed about 20 seconds before a new egg hatched (Quaxly variant, of course). It does have a couple of wandering NPCs that you can sometimes bump into, but otherwise I think it's the best location for hatching eggs that you can easily fly to.

There's a town that does nothing in almost every region like Zapapico. Cherrygrove City in Johto, Verdanturf Town in Hoenn, Solaceon Town in Sinnoh, Lacunosa Town in Unova, and Camphrier Town in Kalos are some examples.

I'd say that Grusha is a chceckmark. Because you can get a Cyclizar or they give out snowboards for the challenge otherwise

This entire video is an accurate depiction of how our grandparents walked to school each day.

10:04 his fuecoco is named gatorch and that’s adorable

I think this could be a fun JM cup challenge. Like, put a bunch of locations on a wheel and spin it and race to the location completely on foot. It could also be a knowledge check with them not being able to place way points or use the big map. I kinda wanna see just how many shinies John finds and how many cliffs Mikey jumps off right after in a dramatic manner...

For my playthrough of Violet, I didn't realize that there was a straight path to Area Zero from Mesagoza (I discovered that after I finished the story) the way I got to Area Zero to start The Way Home was that I climbed the wall until I got to the top and jumped down through the clouds and got yeeted into the cutscene 😂😂😂

Technically you would get a Cyclizar if you didn’t have the legends and with it anything that needs climbing or gliding is impossible but the rest of the game is beatable Edit: except for fighting the professor. You need the legendary for that

Fun fact: "Tanks" are called that because Winston Churchill (the man who invented tanks) disguised it in development during WW1, calling it a "portable water tank" for the troops. The name stuck.

15:48 I can *guarantee* you Mi(c)key was gonna say: "Team SKY!" But caught himself (he had the accent tho)

I think in theory you could use base koridon or miridon. They probably are pretty comparable to a cyclizar like that.

For the 8th gym challenge, I believe the average Padean trainer would just ride on a Cyclizar or regular equipment, so it would be doable if the legendary wasn’t your only possible mount in the game.

The cliff jumping absolutely kills me 😂

That dead end out of the desert is actually how I got to Porto Marinada in my playthrough. I did a Raid there and saw that I could reach the port, so I just jumped off and saved the rest of the desert for when I went for Great Tusk.

Life feels so much better when mandjtv posts a video 😌✨️

Props to Mikey for doing this. He could’ve just use Koridon and walked and not jumped, but he walked through the entire game!

When I first played Violet, I didn’t know that the levels were set for a particular order, and so went to Alfornada on foot as my second gym. I was at least able to beat the first gym trainer because they only had psychic moves and I had a Mastiff.

Hey, Mikey, I hope you see this, and I want U to make a video in scarlet or violet as a rock type specialist because rock is the only type without a specialist. Thanks!

Damn I rely on Koraidon. Love your videos, been watching since 2019. Lots of love ❤

sponsor skip 2:29

I actually finished my Pokémon Violet doing just this, I was spending so much time exploring and finding small areas that I only started using Miraidon towards the end

The box art legendaries are past and future version of cyclizar. As long as it isn't using the power-ups, and strictly using the riding functions (like the ice gym challenge) they are recreatable for non-protagonists.

New video lets go can't wait to see your trainer get buff with all the walking

*Can we take a moment to appreciate how much work Mikey puts into the videos to entertain us keep up the good work Mikey * 👏 *And Katie is killing it with the edits*

I know I’m late but there is actually a secret cutscene during Kofu’s gym challenge. In between Porto Marianna and Cascarafa were he talks about something, but most people don’t ever see it because they mostly use Koraidon/Miraidon or flying shortcuts.

Note: You could actually do the glaesado gym challlenge because if you watch the cutscene right before you get koraidon/miraidon, it shows a student getting on cyclizar, so I'm assuming that it can do the same things that koraidon or miraidon could do, soooo you can technially do every main story point!

I laughed out loud at Grunty Boi thinking World of Tanks was a game about a world populated by storage containers. His segments are always genuinely funny. This is a really fun video, I'm excited to see what other stuff you do in SV

I think my tank just blew up😮😂❤

After completing the game I started exploring Paldea more thoroughly. I found watchtowers, landmarks, and _so many_ caves that are completely optional

I like how the legends path needs the ride Pokémon because it’s Arven’s path, and he needs to settle his dues with the Koridon/Miridon

The tanks are canonically bean-powered thanks to Grunty Boi

This would be post game if you wanted to keep kora/mira in battle form because they literally swap out of it every time you ride them

I know a lot of this is possible because after I finished Violet, I started a Scarlet version, and used the glitch where you get into battle with a pokemon across a gap to get away from Nemona and wander around the map catching pokemon and just laughing hysterically that Nemona's been waiting at the lighthouse for days ready to show me Mezagoza, a town I had already visited

One of my favourite bands had a tank added to World of Tanks that was named after one their songs: the Primo Victoria Tank, added for Sabaton. They then got given a real Strv K which they have used in a few of their videos

17:47 technically you could ride another Pokémon across, whether it’s a flying Pokémon or a swimming one, because you have access to Pokémon before that can evolve by now into bigger, rideable ones. Or you can maybe catch like, a dondozo on the shore

Is it weird that I immediately thought this wouldn't be possible purely because of Grusha's gym challenge... But 100% forgot about the Titan in the giant freaking lake until you mentioned it?

I can confirm that you are able to get to all the gyms on foot. On my second play through, I used the battle warp exploit to start exploring prior to the first Nemona Tera battle. The roads are all connected in a manageable fashion. You just have to get used to falling with style occasionally.

For personal amusement, I set myself a challenge to complete the three storylines individually, and so I took on the gym challenge without battling any Titans or Team Star bases. While I did have to use Miraidon to get around the Fire Crew's roadblock to reach Levincia, I did spend a majority of my time just walking to each location, and this video was partly the inspiration for that. Kind of a "what if the protagonist only cared about becoming champion". I then had the great amusement of taking on all five Team Star bases and all Titans with level 70+ pokemon and OHKO nearly everything. I planned and built a team specifically for the gyms, and had a fun time with the challenge. I even beat Turo!

I think it’s cool that you can technically complete all but 1 main quest location (2 if you count Grusha’s gym) without riding the legendary. Really helps the world building when you realize that protagonist isn’t the only one who could complete the quests. However, I would argue that, in universe, the whole game should be completable without the box legendary. First, for Grusha’s gym, an NPC could just use a Cyclizar (if they didn’t use something like a snowboard or sled); the challenge doesn’t require you to use any of the box legendary’s special abilities gained from any of the titans, which makes it seem like a Cyclizar could easily be substituted. For the Dragon Titan, while it’s true that the player character can’t swim for gameplay purposes, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say other characters could get over to the island. In fact, Arven gets over to the fight just fine. Arven doesn’t have a Cyclizar on his team, but it’s possible he may have rented one to get over to the island (I can’t remember his exact dialogue). The only water type he has is Cloyster, and I don’t think it’s guaranteed he has that by the dragon titan (even though you would probably never do Klawf after the dragon titan, the game still allows you to, which makes me think Arven either took a boat or literally just swam over to the island.

you can also use the main path up to Coronado, using Pokemon to walk to close to higher ledges, by throwing a Pokemon out to start a battle, teleporting you up to higher ground. I did it in one of my runs while I completely ignored Arven's route.

I did a video on this as well, except it was without beating the titans, I really liked your version and I hope it gets more recognition, it’s a lot of work!

Grusha probably has had someone battle at that gym before...Like Nemona... there's probably a way you can do it without Koraidon/Miraidon if needed. You can press B next to a ledge while running to do a stopping animation which can drag you down. You can do everything without Koraidon/Miraidon besides Tatsugiri. Technically you can complete everything in the order you want as the game tells you you can.

Oh man, when the Tandemaus event was going on, I spied a Ghost Tera type hanging behind Eri's base. Thing is for me, I've (still at the time of this post) yet to even take on Brassius. So traversing the water was not feasible for me to reach the tiny landmass. I even scaled the mountain and tried to find SOME way over, but no dice. A Ghost Tandemaus would have been dope

I got to Alfornada without climbing or high jumping too, using that same path. I wanted to get to each city as fast as possible since I like exploring and it was a brand-new game.

On my first playthrough I wanted to evolve my charcadet, but also didn’t realize I could go over levincia. I ended up traveling the OTHER WAY around MEDALI AND DALIZAPA PASSAGE to get over to zapapico. Best part is this was before getting the dash from klawf

When I was playing, I had already had all of Miraidon's upgrades before doing any of the gyms so I just straight up climbed Glaciado Mountain and never knew there was a path until way later 💀

When I did my first playthrough I KNEW I wanted Ceruledge on my team and I got lucky and just happened to find a Charcadet early on and I knew I needed to get Sinistea Chips to get the Malicious Armor and I wanted my Charcadet to evolve early so I actually spent a good chunk of time finding a way to Alfornada without any Miraidon buffs since that's where Sinistea is. I was looking forward to you finding the side path I used and it was definitely funny!

I don't think I've ever seen Mikey be so HAPPY to be WRONG in my entire time watching this channel haha. Also for Grusha's gym, I think it's safe to say that using Korai/Mirai there doesn't really count, because it forces you to use them, and that's the ONLY time you use them-to sled. You don't have to use them to GET to the actual gym which is what I would count for this challenge.

Getting to the Zero Gate is certainly possible, but descending into Area Zero itself is not. It's explicitly stated that the only way down at this point in the story is via your ride dragon's gliding capabilities.

i'd like to note that according to some NPC dialogue in Cascaraffa, Cyclizar can climb up ledges and cliffs, so most things which require climbing should be doable even without protagonist luck

When I first saw this video, I was confused why we wouldn't know that most of this is possible, and then I checked out your playthrough of Scarlet and realised that you just didn't ever take the path and just clambered over cliffs and things 😂😂 it's so reckless and hilarious and I love it

For posterity's sake, gym challenges have to be at least doable by ordinary trainers, they aren't allowed to have physically impossible challenges. So Glaseado's challenge has to be possible by default, whether it's through rental gear or ordinary ride pokemon like Cyclizar. For Tatsugiri and Dondozo, Arven was able to join you on the islands despite his lack of a legendary pokemon, and other trainers can be found on those islands, so it's possible for ordinary people to get to those islands, either by boat or by different ride pokemon or HMs. My concern is with physically entering Area Zero. While it is a cutscene, you have to ride Koraidon or Miraidon to enter Area Zero with your friends, and it's impossible to get a Flying Taxi into the crater. They'll get you out, but Taxis don't take people in. The warp panels also don't take you in the first time, and the elevator people would normally use doesn't function. It's possible there's a path somewhere that past explorers took to enter the crater, but it seems more likely to me that they repelled down with ropes and pitons, materials our characters don't have. So I actually think the final storyline is the one that can't be completed without protagonist powers, not the Titan storyline.

I feel like the Glaseado gym’s gym challenge would be safe to not disqualify it from being completable. The same way that in certain challenge runs like “Can you beat Pokemon blank with only ‘blank’ moves”, you are sometimes forced into using the other typed hm moves. Even in Mikey’s Solo-Castform run he was forced to use another Pokémon for double battles. So I do have to say that if the game forces you to ride Koraidon/Miraidon, you can still call it safe since you kinda have to.

Really fun video!! I think you can assume Glaceado gym would be doable without Koraidon/Miraidon because it is something everyone is supposed to be able to do, and you (as the protagonist) only go onto Koraidon/Miraidon because you have it.