OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

[PandadudeSP]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Well I'm progressing steadily, have 5 badges and my pokemon are around lvl 40. Current team is infernape, umbreon (someone gave me an eevee and I wanted a wall), gyarados (fished for a magicarp + xp share), luxray and bibarel (HM slave). I WAS using a staraptor until now but I just made a stupid mistake - fighting a trainer, I switch out infernape because hes low ho and switch in staraptor instead after a trainer sends out giraffig (normal/psychic type). I forgot that fighting wouldnt be super effective when psychic resistance cancels out the normal weakness, and giraffig survives with like 20% hp and my birdy gets -2 SPD. This is followed up by a critical hit psychic and staraptor is grilled chicken. Shouldve just switched im umbreon..

I have no other bird pokemon and gyarados won't learn fly, the ****er, so I'll probably keep staraptor as a HM slave, although I just caught a roselia I might want to use to counter the water/ground types that luxray can't hurt and staraptor used to beat with ground immunity and super effective close combat.

Edit: Made it to giratina, but lost my gyarados to a fluke crit slash vs the commander of team spacesuits or w/e. Vs the leader I put up 6 double teams on umbreon and baton passed them to infernape who then set up swords dance unharmed, good fun when the opponent has no hazing moves. Wanted to try saving my masterball so I threw some dark balls, a dozen ultra balls and some time balls at giratina, and right when I was only left with great balls and regular pokeballs, giratina uses struggle and KOs itself from recoil....... I mean ****, since when does struggle do recoil damage?! Since gen IV apparently, but how the hell am I supposed to know that!? I ragequit without saving because I wouldve just used the master ball when I started, but now I kinda regret it since its against the spirit of the nuzlocke, and I couldve just leveled up some other pokemon that I have in storage: Lucario egg, swinub, meditate, quagsire.. So now I'm just annoyed because I'm back like 40 min playtime.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Five gyms down in Emerald (definitely overlevelled,) and just obtained Surf, so plenty of places to go now.

Using

Swampert, level 44
Linoone, level 36
Poochyena, level 17
Torkoal, level 14 <--- Definitely want to keep him as my fire type. Looks pretty neat.
Wynaut, level 5 <--- What the heck does this thing do? Counter isn't bad against Special attacks, and it's HP's are high, but other than that... I'm thinking I should use him for Destiny Bond and suicide him against one of the Elite 4. XD
Finally, I plan on using a Swablu for my Flying type.

I may possibly swap out Linoone and Poochyena, but they're okay for now. I missed an opportunity to get a couple I did want (Skarmony,) but that's Nuzlocke. Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to grab those.

 

[SunsetVista]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Trying to decide if I should do an Emerald run. I've been trying to decide this for a while. Maybe I should just start it?

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Well, my Emerald run came to a cataclysmic end. Maybe I should've picked an easier word to spell. (So I did spell it right.)

Went against the 5th or 6th gym, the one with the tree-houses - flying type gym. I messed that fight up badly. It came down to bad strategy, and wanting my lower levels to get a few kills in. My overpowered Swampert with Surf couldn't help out, as one of them used an attack that increased evasion against my weaker type, and then raised two of its stats to max, while my weaker one kept missing. He still could've won the fight, but with all the evasion and low accuracy... By the time Swampert came out, it was too late, and got KO'd quite easily.

I've continued on with no rules, and will be catching and using what I want to. Oh, and Torkoal got KO'd prior to the gym battle. On the plus side, Mightyena and Lindoone are both pretty weak. Mightyena is very slow, and both have fairly low stats and mediocre move sets.

Also, is anyone on an emulator, and has trouble with areas with fog? When I enter an area with fog or Diving, the fog completely blots out the terrain. It's impossible to see where to go. So far, for those areas, I've just found a YT run of the area, and followed those, but with too many areas to use Dive, I don't think I'll be able to use the videos. I'll probably have to resort to finding out which areas you HAVE to Dive to progress, and only go to them.

@Sunset - Are you tossing up between versions, or not sure if you want to give it another shot. If versions, list one not yet done, and I might set aside the Emerald defeated run.

 

[PandadudeSP]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

@Sunset Go for it!
@Drystan Yeah it's no joke when you let boss fights set up their pokemon.. I had no glitces at all in emerald using VBA. I've had one glitch in platinum with some weird graphics in one specific 6x4 plot of grass. You should probably try a google search and changing some settings in VBA if it persists.

I caught giratina with my master ball, killed all the pixies with bad attempts at catching them (have no status inflicters or false swipe users) and my gyarados actually survived that this time around. Last lightning gym was quite easy with giratina and m swords dance infernape who found a chance to set up vs the leader. Me and gyarados werent meant to be though, and he died to a stab super effective rock attack that I switched into figuiring I'd sweep with water moves myself. I caught a rhydon here that I've allowed to take his place for the league. STAB earthquake and stone edge serve to fill some gaps that gyarados left, mainly fire and flying types. I wish I could evolve him into rhyperior because special attacks will **** him in his current state, but I'll just have to be careful with switching him in.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

I still expected I'd be able to swap in an overlevelled Swampert, with Surf, and get off the kill, but with all the Stat raising the Gym Leader did while I was whittling his health away... Just too many boosts by then.

I retried the Gym straight up with Swampert, and it was simple, and easy.

This is the bug I'm getting:

Spoiler

 

[PandadudeSP]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Well I beat the sinnoh league.
My team was umbreon, luxary, rhydon, infernape and giratina, a fairly unbalanced team since I was missing a lot of typing, notably no water, grass, ice, or psychic attacks, and no flying or levitating pokemon to use defensively against ground.

Spoiler

Bug leader was fairly simple, started out with infernape squashing some bug with fire punch, when drapion switched in I switched to rhydon to 1hko with earthquake and then back to infernape for the rest to fire punch or rock slide into oblivion.

Ground leader was gonna be more risky with none in my team resisting or being immune, and 3/5 actually having weaknesses. On top of that there was gonna be a sandstorm raging all the time. The tactic I came up with was pretty lame: Start with umbreon, max double team while healing with pots when necessary and then baton passing to rhydon. With his 191 attack and good coverage in earthquake and stone edge he could 1 or 2 shoot everything, and he was actually faster than a few of the opponents. One hit came through but he lived and I just popped a potion. I was very jealous at enemy rhyperior though.

Next elite four was fire dude, and seeing as I have no water pokemon I figured I'd have to go with rhydon ground attacks again. His SPD is horrible and I knew he'd be too slow to outspeed anything, so I went with the double team baton pass strategy again: If it aint broke, dont fix it.

VS psychic dude I wanted to take advantage of giratinas STAB super effective shadow moves coupled with high SPD and neutrality to psychic moves. Sweeping was relatively simple, but I did have to switch into umbreon once to heal giratina and reset the -SPD some of the moves had caused.

Now there was just the champion left, with a mean combo of pokemon and a wide type coverage. Spiritomb has no weaknesses so I figure the best tactic is to set up swords dance on infernape. Spiritomb is carrying psychic though which is sure to **** infernape, so once again I start with umbreon and set up 6x double team, baton pass to infernape and start setting up swords dance to OHKO the entire team. First attack spiritomb misses, 2nd attack is a hit and infernape faints. ****. Now what? Luxray and Rhydon are both too weak definsively and umbreon can't do any damage so my hope lies with giratina. First I switch in umbreon again and abuse double team baton pass (that is all the ****er is good for tbh) and in comes giratina. Spiritomb is a pain for giratina since its carrying STAB attacks for two of giratinas weaknesses, dark and ghost. Nothing OHKO's it though so I manage to whittle him down. Giratina was carrying super effective fly for roserade and dragon claw for garchomp, but the rest took a bit longer. Lucario and milotic were carrying moves that were super effective against giratina, but there was little threat since neither of them had STAB.

I might check out the extra areas now, or maybe I'll just try black or white, maybe with a different rule set to not use medicine in battle and maybe having all my pokemon share a type but being allowed to catch what i want? Just something to introduce some new tactical elements.Like, whats the point of wasting skill slot on rest, recover, wish, etc when I can just pop a full heal, max potion or even full restore.

 

[Gripphon1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Honestly, I wont be using these rules anymore. All they did is take out fun of game, making it only slightly harder. Why? Because faint=dead rule made me play like a chicken and overlevel my pokemons to the point I 1 hit kill most pokemons of gym leaders. Since I'm spending time to play the game in the first place, I don't want to die and lost everything I worked for, so overleveling is only way to go or risk it all. So basically I don't bother with rules anymore, I find it more challenging to beat the game normal way cause I don't play so cautious and my pokemons are not so much overleveled. Still thinking about my own rules with some limitations on leveling definitely, but don't know what exactly.

 

[NagisaFurukawa]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

If it helps, you could just stick any "dead" things into a separate box instead of releasing. That should minimize most of the losses from a failed run. Of course, if you don't find it fun to begin with, there's no point...

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

It's the same debate with D2 HC vs SC. Some people don't enjoy that risk. I find that regardless of 'rules', I still wind up overlevelling, just because I want to reach that upcoming Move, or evolution. I like this ruleset, as it adds that HC aspect, and a penalty for death, as in D2 HC, but I do find that it doesn't give the intended challenge: you still find and catch most of a solid team (minus one or two,) which you'd catch in a normal game anyway (minus things like Garchomp, Milotic, and potentially a Legendary.) But you still wind up mostly with Pokemon you would normally catch. My Emerald team was fairly weak though. Mightyena is slow, Lanoone has a mediocre skill set, and even my starter, Swampert was somewhat weak - his main benefit is solid hitpoints, and a solid type (Ground/Water.) And I lost other ones that may have made stronger companions.

You could adopt some other rules - limiting Pokemon Centre visits however you feel (only one visit, and one after a Gym Battle?) or limit use of potions.
Also, as Nagisa said, put them in a dead box, and once you black/white out, consider the challenge lost, and begin playing without rules. That's what I'm doing, just because these are new generations for me, and I'd like to see the ending challenges, and see the Legendaries of the version. Or, if you black/white out, just store the set you had, and pick up another new set (if you don't mind re-levelling; maybe use the old set to get them to around the same level, and continue?)

It's about making a new challenge that you feel suits, and giving yourself that extra difficulty/challenge. I think we've all given this a shot because we want an additional challenge, so if you do work out some added challenges, themes or ideas, definitely post them.

 

[PandadudeSP]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Well I started up white with some new rules: I'm free to search for whatever pokemon I want but I can only use pokemon that have one of two predetermined typings (if a pokemon has two typings only one of them needs to be one of the chosen ones). Also no items in fights, but the rest is pretty nuzlocke with fainting=dead and blackout=game over.

I went with steel + flying and after the first gym a normal/flying bird became available so I ditched my starter and the ape I used to get past the first gym. Before the 2nd gym I also got a flying/psychic type. 2nd gym (normal typing) was going good with my evolved bird having roost to recover damage. I was just about to kill the last pokemon of the gym leader when it used a max potion or something, and then I miscalculated and attacked when I shouldve used roost again.. The psychic bird was pretty useless with low def. and hp stats. I'm gonna restart now with fighting/ghost

Update:

Spoiler

Well, my 2nd attempt is going much better, and I've already acquired 4 badges, and I've got a team of 4 fighting/ghost pokemon.
My starter was the fire dude whom I leveled up to 16 quickly after the 1st gym so he could evolve and get the fighting subtype and then I went and caught a Throh, a pure fighting type that doesn't evolve, which means he had comparatively good stats at low level. There was also another pure fighting type available in the same area, but the final evolution required trading so I couldn't be bothered with it. Having my 2 only pokemon share flying and psychic weaknesses was quite risky as these popped up quite commonly, but before the 3rd gym I caught a scraggy with a fighting/dark typing that gives it psychic immunity.

After the 3rd gym I also found my first ghost type, yamask. It's got a great defense stat and will-o-wisp which makes it a good physical wall, but it really lacks a recovery move and a secondary typing to hit normal types with STAB since it can't learn ground moves. Haze is another plus though to counter annoying double team spamming trainers etc. I can kinda use it as a switch in for the bird types that are causing the rest of my team some trouble, but many of them come with a secondary normal typing or carry dark moves which makes this less reliable. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to learning some solid rock moves on my fighting types to counter the birds even though they will probably still eat an attack due to low speed. At least their defenses are alright..

 

[jdkerr]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Still going on Emerald. I have killed quite a few pokemon, so that is fun. Currently, I am trying to stop two pokemon who are threatening to destroy the world and whatnot.

 

[PandadudeSP]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Yeah I'm on a killing spree aswell atm. Will-o-wisp misses twice in a row while gurdurr bulks up twice and then he rock slide OHKOs.. Forgot that fire was weak to rock, so then I went back to using my starter emboar.

Stupid me I then switch emboar into an escavalier because my jellicent kept missing with will-o-wisp (this skill is killing me), even though I knew he had aerial ace. Cut to critical hit aerial ace on a fighting type and my starter is officially dead. Then I was leveling up a golett with exp-share (ghost/ground) in dark grass and killed a bird with volt switch force switched to golett whom I then killed with surf from my jellicent… ****ing still havent gotten used to double battles. Got 7 badges down, 1 to go.

Edit: Reached pokemon league

Spoiler

Elite four started out exciting vs ghost trainer 2/4 went out easily with a single crunch, but then chandelure comes in and outspeeds my scrafty, and ofc fire blast causes a burn so it survives. I have to switch out scrafty and I have two pokemon that outspeed it, the legendaries cobalion and terrakion, but cobalion is weak to fire and akin to suicide so I switch in terrakion to a resisted fire blast and kill it with rock slide. Then I’ve got a jellicent left to kill, and because of a water weakness I switch into cobalion instead, volt turn to my own jellicent who finishes it off with a shadow ball after resisting surf.

Fighting trainer I started with my throh, bulked up twice but lost a lot of HP and a stage of speed due to enemy throh having storm throw with 100% crit chance ignoring my defense increases. Then I circle threw him away and did the same a few times taking 1 hit and healing a little with his item (1/8 dmg done to healing). Back to mienshao and I was afraid throh might faint so I switched jellicent into a fighting move that didn’t affect it, and then will-o-wisp after a rock slide to lower his attack, recover to heal and then start surfing. His ability disables rock slide and then he u-turns out since it’s the only other attack that can harm ghosts and I sweep everything with surf <3

Fuuuck then I think Im going into dark trainer and instead it’s the psychic trainer. How am I supposed to know?! Luckily I have scrafty with psychic immunity that I can switch in without taking dmg. Sigilyph luckily doesn’t 1hko scrafty despite moving first with STAB super effective air move. Gothitelle isn’t 1 shotted by crunch but scrafty barely survives a thunderbolt and I get to clean up with crunch.

Dark trainer turned out to be the easiest, with Terrakion outspeeding everything and 1-shotting them all with his signature fighting move. Well, everyone but krookodille who got a nasty STAB supereffective earthquake in that he luckily survived. I was worried that I wouldn’t 1-shoot bisharp, but I had nobody else to switch into without taking 2 attacks, so I had to give it a try and success!

Ill also mention that all my pokemon were lvl 48-50, same as the elite four (mine had held items though, while they liked to spam a few full restores).

Sorry for random grammar but adrenaline was rushing as silly as it sounds lol.

Seems I still have some stuff to do before fighting N for the last time though. This has been the most challenging elite four of the games I've played due to restricting myself from using any items in battle compared to previously where I'd just spam full restores.

Edit 2: Fought and killed zekrom, found out I HAD to catch him, did that, fought and beat N, mainly sweeping with a swords dance boosted terrakion (my rock/fighting legendary) but lost him and someone else I've forgotten because I hadnt prepared for N by looking at his pokemon or moves or anything. I mean, who cares, its the final boss right? Except then some ghetsis guy jumps out and fights me RIGHT AFTER. What was wrong with elite FOUR + 1 champion? Why'd they have to add a 5th guy out of nowhere?! Anyways, I kill two of his pokemon, a pure ghost and a pure electic type, but then he switches in a lvl 54 hydreigon (for players it doesnt evolve before lvl 64 but thanks anyway) who outsped all my pokemon and 1 or 2 shoots them with wide type coverage. Blackout.

 

[Jcakes1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

So round 3 is emerald?

I had one question regarding the rules,

3. You may only catch the first Pokemon encountered in each area.
3.b) Towns count as areas, and pokemon caught, given or traded are counted as your one wild encounter for that area.

Am I reading it correct to say that if we wanted to trade with someone in a town we would need to have found the pokemon they wanted as the "first encounter"?

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Hmm. Thought this thread had disappeared more than a month and a half ago.

I'd say it should be a first encounter, but I can see it requiring a fair amount of luck. Too much, so I imagine most people would agree that it doesn't really matter. Just find the one they want, catch it, and trade it over. It seems impractical otherwise.

Also, the rules are not set in stone for this challenge. They were my initial interpretation to give structure and challenge, and may be used, altered, or have a new set entirely to add a different challenge. The main thing was to have fun, and add a good challenge.

As to current version, I think most people were in Emerald, but I think most of us finished (*cough* whiting out for me) that version. Any version now is up for discussion if you have a preference to versions.

 

[Jcakes1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

It did, but I found an emulator for my phone and have been playing on the bus into work .

Although now that I am going to be driving (it ends up cheaper with two of us) I might not play as often.

As for a version, I'd be tempted for platinum.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Cakes. If you're still interested, I'll start a Platinum run with you. I won't have a lot of time, thus I'll be abusing emulator speed (it is a pretty large game, with some big counter moves,) but I'd be able to make some steady progress. Can update in this thread if you're interested.

 

[Cursed]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Im not taking the nuzlocke challenge but i have a question and thought this would be the best place to ask it. Im playing emerald and just beat wattson the electric gym leader i have a lvl 28 marshstomp and lvl 22 aron. Will these two pokemon get me far? and what pokemon should i be looking for to bolster my team?

;

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

I can't really recall - it was early in the year that I ran through Emerald, and haven't played any versions since. This was my first go in Emerald, so many of the evolutions were new to me. I loaded my file, and had Swampert, Altaria, Lindoone, and three legendaries. Look for ones you like, and have some diversity in your team. It's up to you what types you like most, so give those a try first.
I can't really say any more than that. Maybe someone else with more knowledge of Emerald can help. Good luck.

 

[pharphis]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Get an electric type. (Manectric or whatever it's called is east of electric gym in grass across from water) Teach ice beam/surf to swampert to crush entire game.