OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

[NagisaFurukawa]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

*drags you into it anyway*

Captures:
Route 42: Spearow (Yuiko)
Route 44: Heracross (Masato)

Active:
Lennon: Feraligatr (35)
Kud: Raticate (34)
Hitler: Togetic (32)
Fabre: Eevee (21)
Masato: Heracross (21)

Deceased:
Saya: Jumpluff (33)

Morty's gym went down to Bite/Surf from Lennon, and Chuck's gym keeled over easily to Saya. Her moveset was missing Toxic: Poisonpowder/Leech Seed/Headbutt (flinch!)/Synthesis, but it worked plenty well. A lot of failed attempts at getting a Tentacool/Tentacruel for Whirlpool along the way.

Moved east to Mahogany. Knocked out a Mareep with a critical hit, then watched as the Gyarados in the lake killed itself in its confusion. Fail. Went to pick up EXP Share immediately, giving it to Hitler to evolve to learn Fly. Electrode under the shop used Selfdestruct for its opener, almost killing Lennon. +1 heart attack. +1 failed capture. Pryce was fine with Lennon, who landed a critical hit Surf to one shot Piloswine for the victory.

Jasmine was troublesome. Critical hits happen way too often in this game. Saya and Kud both almost died in one hit to critical hit Thunderbolt from her pair of Magnemite, but the usual Saya tactics eventually prevailed against both of them. Lennon got in a critical hit Surf to kill Steelix, who missed a pair of Iron Tail in the process. I'll take it.

Route 44 provided Masato, surprisingly. Took only 3 "wasted" areas to get him. EXP Share shifted immediately, as Hitler had just evolved. Went back to Goldenrod, mowed down a bit of Team Rocket, then took on the rival. Lennon two shot Golbat with Ice Punch, then out came Meganium. A quick swap to Saya proved regrettable, as a critical hit Body Slam spree ensued, paralysis included. She landed her Poisonpowder, but Synthesis couldn't keep her alive. Rage. Tossed in Lennon randomly, and watched as he barely survived a critical hit Razor Leaf. How pleasant. Ice Punch before and after the Razor Leaf finally knocked out the beast. The rest of the rival's team fell shortly thereafter.

Getting attached to a Jumpluff and its horrifying attacking moves/stats seems so surreal. Memories of a similar Crobat (Toxic/Double Team), but even that had good stats and a decent STAB move (Wing Attack). All that aside, Kud isn't going to last, and Hitler just can't deal damage. The team needs an offensive fix. Lugia's a decent attacker, but even then it's more of a tank. Hopefully things don't get too hairy while Masato/Fabre develop.

Hello wall of text.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Hey jdkerr! I rushed ahead at a fast pace because there was only one other person on LeafGreen, and Nagisa was making good progress as well, and I wanted to catch Sunset on the Silver run. Unfortunately, Sunset set a fast pace as well.

I've still got a couple mini-quests to complete in LeafGreen, and then I'll be starting Silver, at a slower place, as I'll be grinding levels. I don't know Silver either, so it'll be a blind run for me. Maybe try to start that around the same time?

Charizard as a solo run was reasonable. Unfortunately, a bit of bad luck and bad move choices, and the Rival Battle approaching Victory Road ended the Solo/Nuzlocke run. I would not've been able to beat Lorelei's water types first go anyway, as she delivered three Critical Hit Surfs out of four attacks.

 

[djmbbandie]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

This made me pick up my Gameboy Color again today.

So many memories from Gold...

I'm not in the challenge though, because I want to play through it again before I do the challenge.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

It's a game (and an anime) that I think I will always enjoy now and again.

Almost finished with my run on LeafGreen. The island areas were all cleared, mini quests were completed, Mewtwo was then cleared, and I heard something about Suicine being capturable. Looked it up, and check.

Caught with a Masterball, and now only two things remaining:

FireDancer is level 98, and should be able to get 100 in the final Elite 4 battles. We'll see how she goes.

I did teach FireDancer some new moves too!

FireDancer, level 98 Charizard:

FlameThrower: PP 24
Slash: PP 20
Aerial Ace: PP 20
Earthquake: PP 14

Methinks FireDancer will need some Ethers this time around.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

@Twibz - You've abandoned us?!

A rundown of the second Elite 4 Champions

Lorelei - Water (Actually, she's Ice, but most of hers are Water types) - Wasn't too bad this time round, as she now has two Ice types. Her Cloister and Lapras took a couple hits though, and got out some Surfs.

Bruno - Ground/Fighting - Actually easier this time! He evolved two Onyx's into Steelix's; now they're weak to fire. His fighting types were all KO'd easily with Aerial Ace.

Agatha - Ghost/Poison - Flamethrower and FireDancer's high special attack wins out here. Again, pretty straight forward, with all one-hit-KO's.

Lance - Dragon - Yeah... Not a chance in hell. We'll see about that. Up until now, FireDancer is the only one that has been doing the real battles. I might've used a couple after my first defeat for capturing random encounters, but FD was the only real fighter.


Somehow, a couple attempts later, FireDancer reached level 100, and Drystan and FireDancer got quite lucky and beat Lance. His Aerodactyl kept using Ancient Power, which brought FireDancer down to half health, but FD couldn't kill the Aerodactyl in two hits. Some Full Healings later, and Aerodactyl used Hyper Beam, which didn't do anything.

Time for Twibz!

Heracross, level 72: Flamethrower for a one-hit-KO.
Blastoise, level 75: Earthquake 50% health, countered with a Rain Dance, and eatting a berry. Meh... Another Earthquake, followed by a Super Effective Hydro Pump. GG.

I might attempt it a couple more times, with something else and an EXP Share, just because I don't think she will be able to take on Aerodactyls, Gyarados', and Blastoises with great efficiency.

If you're interested, these are Charizards stats at level 100. They don't mean a lot to me, nor do I know how to optimise them.

HP: 304
Attack: 225
Defense: 203
Special Attack: 257
Special Defense 197
Speed: 255

Also, are there any TM's I should try to grab for FireDancer? I would like to beat the new Elite 4 solo, and finish how it started, but at the moment, it'll be somewhat by luck.
Alternatively, what should I train up a bit? I've got a few fun options, and I'm not sure. I half want to train up Suicine, Aerodactyl (although it's weak against water, so that doesn't really help,) Vaporeon, or Raichu (Super Effective against what's given me trouble.)


Edit: I just got lucky on my next run. Aerial Ace Critical Hit Blastoise for 99% damage. Blastoise again used Rain Dance, but it means that I get two free hits - enough to KO Blastoise.

Twibz:
Tyranitar, level 72: Just a couple of Earthquakes, and this guys down without any danger.
Alakazam, level 73: Flamethrower again, although I think anything would work.
Exeggcutor, level 73: Flamethrower for a one-hit-KO
Arcanine, level 73: Healing, just for safety. Tyranitar's Sandstorm is still doing damage. But I think one Earthquake should do it anyway. Two Earthquakes actually. Four - Twibz used two healing potions.

And that wraps it up.

 

[Twibz]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Congrats Drystan, nice to know you pwnd me

I got fed up of playing to be honest, i thought it would be fun but then i super regretted deleting my 6 Lvl 100's game that also had 2 shineys on it. So my depression of starting this in place of my pro team on my actual GB just made me sad.

My team was this:

(All lvl100)
Mewtwo
Charizard
Raichu
Moltres
Articuno
Dragonite

Also i had 2 shineys:

A tentacool found outside mewtwo's cave in the water you have to swim down past nugget bridge.
A nidoran (female) found i cant remember where.

So yeah my depression slowed me to a stop after i realised what i had done

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Six 100's? And two shinies? I've only seen one shiny, and I had no idea that they even existed. And then I randomly came across Pokerus too. I do like how rare those events actually are, and that it's just like a mini-prize.

Do you train them for the EV/IV stuff? To make them as perfect as they can be? Sorry to hear about the er. Lost 100's. Here's to making a few more?
I know GB's are convenient, but get an emulator for Challenges. At least you can save/back up files. Do the newer releases allow you to save more than one file nowadays, or a backup device?

 

[Twibz]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Six 100's? And two shinies? I've only seen one shiny, and I had no idea that they even existed. And then I randomly came across Pokerus too. I do like how rare those events actually are, and that it's just like a mini-prize.

Do you train them for the EV/IV stuff? To make them as perfect as they can be? Sorry to hear about the er. Lost 100's. Here's to making a few more?
I know GB's are convenient, but get an emulator for Challenges. At least you can save/back up files. Do the newer releases allow you to save more than one file nowadays, or a backup device?

What is pokerus???

And yeah i do love the randomness of shinies, such a lovely surprise, i was planning on getting a lvl 100 shiny actually.

It was just a challenge i wanted for myself, put my favourite pokemon in a 6 and just grind out elite 4 using xp shares til they all got there.

I really should have just gotten an emulator, i will definately do that in future.

 

[jdkerr]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Ok, ok. I started Silver. Rolled the "leaf" pokemon, whatever it is, and the first place I could catch a pokemon (first new area in which I had pokeballs) was a dark cave, so I have a geodude. Finished the "Sprout Tower," so still at the very beginning. I am planning on stumbling through without consulting guides, so hopefully that goes well. I will use a database for pokemon stats and movelists, though. As far as I can tell, my Bayleef is a rather sorry specimen, so I hope to replace it soon. If there are any critical places that I should be warned about, let me know! (For example, in Gen I it is good to know about that city in which you can get Eevee/Dratini/etc. -- definitely worthwhile to plan ahead, given this ruleset.)

Trainer: Joanna
Rival: Nagisa
Active Pokemon:
(1) OMG (Bayleef)
(2) Paradigm (Geodude)

Other Pokemon:
(1) Rattata (Flash)

 

[djmbbandie]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

There's a person in Violet City that will trade you an Onix for a Bellsprout. You also may want to train your Geodude for this gym and the next gym because this gym is bird (super effective against leaf) and the next gym is all bug (leaf does not work well against bug)

 

[NagisaFurukawa]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Nice job, Drystan! Charizard has a lot lower stats than expected, although that moveset is pretty nasty.

JDK: I think you should be fine going mostly blind. My only real recommendation is to explore the area around Mahogany before taking on Olivine/Cianwood gym leaders, since that makes the leveling flow a bit more smoothly. Mahogany gym is arguably easier than Olivine as well, depending on your typing.

---------

Captures:
Ecruteak City: Magikarp (Komari)
Dragon's Den: Dratini (Kengo)
Whirl Islands: Lugia (Rin)
Route 26: Ponyta (Tezuka)

Active:
Rin: Lugia (42)
Komari: Gyarados (21)
Kengo: Dratini (10)
Fabre: Eevee (33)
Masato: Heracross (37)
Tezuka: Ponyta (32)

Deceased:
Saya: Jumpluff (33)
Hitler: Togetic (32)
Lennon: Feraligatr (38)
Kud: Raticate (35)
Yuiko: Spearow (10)
Mio: Sudowoodo (27)
Sasami: Drowzee (10)

...so, that was bad. lol.

Hitler kicked the bucket to a severely underleveled Geodude which used Selfdestruct. Togetic actually has pretty good defense, so that was a shocker. It was certainly a sign of things to come, if nothing else.

Clair ate through the majority of the rest of the team. Her first Dragonair died pretty fast to a trio of Ice Punch from Lennon, but her second one got in a pair of critical hit (shocker) Thunderbolt, killing him off. I assumed the second one wouldn't come, so I chose to give Lennon an X Special instead of a Hyper Potion. Figures. Kud finished off the remaining pair of Dragonair, avenging Lennon to an extent. Kingdra came out, and critical hit Kud with a Surf. Figures. [2] At that point, I was pretty sure it was game over, to be honest. Masato in his level 33 (?) glory was more or less all that remained. He managed to apply a pair of Leer, while Kingdra was strangely spamming Smokescreen. A timely swap to Yuiko ended with her eating a Hyper Beam. That sacrifice proved worthy, however, as Masato finished off Kingdra with a trio of Horn Attack, tanking a Hyper Beam himself along the way.

Well, that sucked. No access to any HM, and nothing but a mid 30's Heracross to take on the Elite 4. Most of the capture zones were already burned, but fortunately Ecruteak had a small bit of water, leading to Komari. A bit of leveling got her to evolve, and Gyarados thankfully can learn every water-based HM. With that, acquired the final badge, and even found Kengo along the way. Moved east of New Bark Town to test out the trainers, but after Mio had to sacrifice herself just to keep Masato alive against the very first trainer, it was time to head back to Whirl Islands for Rin. Master Ball made that relatively easy, though I decided to sacrifice Sasami just to try to hit the lottery with an Ultra Ball. It failed, of course.

The path to Victory Road was simple with Rin in tow. Aeroblast supposedly has a super high critical hit ratio, but still hasn't managed to pull one off. Figures. [3] Surf provides coverage, and also made Victory Road a walk. The rival caught me a little by surprise, but he got swept pretty quickly. Her other attack is Fly, which I hope to swap out eventually for Psychic.

Not sure if taking on the Elite 4 with that team is wise, especially since I can't remember their typing or level. Might grind a bit to at least get Fabre to evolve into Espeon. Tezuka becoming Rapidash wouldn't hurt either, though I'm pretty sure he can't learn any dynamic fire type moves, and his special attack sucks compared to his regular attack anyway.

EDIT: Finished off the Elite 4 after attaining Espeon. It turns out I missed the level where he gets Psybeam by 1, so he ended up stuck with just Bite, which actually proved useful against the first of the Elite 4. Rin handled the majority of the work, but Masato and Fabre had to pull their weight just to conserve PP. After the fourth battle, Rin was out of PP entirely, so she had to sacrifice Aeroblast to learn Icy Wind. A sad day. Well, not really. That was absolutely needed for the final battle, and the team would've certainly died regardless of her PP situation had she not made the switch. Onwards to Kanto. Relevant team members for the E4 were Masato (38), Fabre (42), and Rin (45). Maybe should've leveled more, but no losses outside of Aeroblast (sigh), so I guess it's okay.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Congrats on completing the first area.

You said that Charizards stats were a bit lower than expected. Is there anything that reduces them? I know that whenever they're involved in a battle, they get X points to something, and when they get so many points, they geta bonus, but Charizard was the only one I used. Does throwing an EXP Share around, or battling pre-evolved forms hinder Stat Growth?
Also, when you get the Stat boosts - Calcium/Zinc/etc - should you use them immediately, or not, because I couldn't use them on Charizard. He was already over the stats you can use them on. Do they help, hinder, or remain neutral in Stat Growth?

Pokerus is a virus you can get by capturing random Pokemon. It basically lasts XY hours, but will spread to your Party Pokemon. Within the PC, it's time will not expire, so if you keep one with Pokerus in the PC, you can keep infecting your new captures.
I don't know exactly what it does, but it gives any infected Stat Boosts.

 

[NagisaFurukawa]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

I don't know much about EV/IV stuff, since it just seems like too much to put into a game. I think IV is like "natural talent", meaning a wild level 100 Pidgey could have any variety of stats due to IV, while EV would be like "hard work", aka battling will affect stats beyond EXP/leveling. Those stat boosting items affect EV, and EV can only be developed up to a certain point, which is probably why they stop working. Pokerus doubles EV growth rate. I think opposing pokemon have different EV, so you would battle Golbat ad nauseum for speed boost, or something. That's just my understanding. Could be wrong.

All that silly science aside, I just figured Charizard would have better stats than that. >_>

Finished off Kanto, avoiding all captures aside from a Snorlax (Doruji) in Vermillion City which eventually kicked the bucket to Hyper Beam spam from Lance in a grinding session. It probably would've been better to just stop after the first half, since the second half is just... meh.

Active:
Masato: Heracross (46)
Kengo: Dragonair (45)
Komari: Gyarados (21)
Fabre: Espeon (52)
Rin: Lugia (49)

Mindlessly grinding away during breaks to take on Red, but will probably get bored before that ever happens.

EDIT: I think I'll try White 2 on my own instead of this slugfest. If anyone else goes for later generations, will update here with them. Otherwise, good luck to you all ~

 

[pharphis]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

you're right about EVs. There's a cap (510?) and every 4 points adds 1 to a given stat. This is what pokemon comes down to if you reallly want to be top-notch

For example, I trained My Shuckle in Ruby Version for Sp. Def. and HP, and he had a Bold nature (high def, low att), giving him a total of 539 def, 540 sp def, and 217 att. Had I not trained those 2 stats, his HP would have been as low as about 150, which is awful

Ofc, w/o access to the entire map of the game it's tough and kinda pointless to grind one set of pokemon for a specific stat boost. Unless you want a bonus 63ish to your attack or something before the first gym which would be entertaining.

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

That's where I lose interest in trying to follow it. Having to battle only one pokemon, and run away from all others. To look into that much info of which you should battle, and which you should run from. Plus, it's only valuable if you're on an original gameboy, and have people to challenge. I don't believe you need that much for versing AI.

I started Silver, and lost half my pokemon at the second, unexpected Rival Battle. I was really wanting two that were lost, so I took it as a defeat. I rerolled, and grabbed a... Fire type named Zuko.
I have played this version before, but not seriously, and I didn't know what I was doing then - I have very little knowledge of it, or what to expect.

 

[Gripphon1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

I played Crystal before. Battle Tower is just awesome there. After Crystal played one game of generation 1, but that was nowhere fun as Crystal.
Now I started LeafGreen to see something new, using those rules there. As I didn't know what pokemon is in which ball, I simply choosed the middle one and got Squirtle as starter. As my pokemon must not die, I play safe here. Immediately leveled Squirtle all the way to 15 in the first grass
Brock was easy, so was second rival fight. I bought Magikarp from some guy. Misty was also easy opponent for my well leveled Wartortle over there. Got Rattata from grass. Third rival fight was challenging, but truth is only his Bulbasaur was challenge cause of my weakness to that type. Moved along and caught Bellsprout in the grass, but my Magikarp fainted there. Rattata evolved into Raticate. My plan is to level up both Raticate and Bellsprout, as well as evolving Blastoise, however that might take some time leveling. After facing rival third time I decided to keep my pokemons at good levels to avoid any surprises, cause it wasn't easy fight. I hope future battles will be challenging like that to keep things interesting. I hate when I 1 hit kill 99% opponents and then suddenly face tought challenge just like that.
I'm kind of sad I didn't choose Charmander, that could be interesting.

Pokemons:
Turles (Wartortle) lvl 30
Fangkiller (Raticate) lvl 21
Cvet (Bellsprout) lvl 10+ ? can't see now

Now I notice I have loading problems, don't have them with Crystal though. I'll see later what's wrong.

 

[jdkerr]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Ok, quite a bit has happened. I just beat the Olivine Gym. I went crazy for a dratini before learning that I could have gotten an eevee instead, which I would have preferred. Oh well. I also caught a nidoran, which I just decided that I will use. I still have my starting pokemon around, but I do not like it very much at the moment.

Trainer: Joanna
Rival: Nagisa
Active Pokemon
OMG (Meganium)
Jdkerr (Dragonair)
Hrus (Nidoran)

I caught a bunch of other critters, too, but do not plan on using them. My slow progress will continue!

 

[Drystan1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

I've made a little progress too. I had to restart a couple times, but have a good team now.

Let's see if anyone can recognise my theme:

Current team:
Zuko, level 19 Quilava
Kyoshi, level 18 Ratatta
Momo, level 10 Zubat
Due, level 11 Bellsprout (HM Flash, HM Cut)
???, level 5 What the hell is a Unown?
Egg, level 0 Egg.

PC:
Tho (Oddish)

Deceased:
Haru (Geodude - level 4) - Assumed death. I changed out accidently to Geodude verse Bellsprout, and it got one-hit-KO'd. Not sure if it was in this game or the last, so calling it gone.

Current location: Ilex Forest

Just running around, overlevelling, because my previous run was taken out by my rival (SunsetV). He actually has a decent team to start off with, and Silver seems somewhat difficult. Hard to have multiple overlevelled, as the EXP from wild encounters is fairly low at the moment.

 

[jdkerr]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

I am now a Pokemon Champion, having defeated the Final Four. They were a pushover, I suppose.

As for pokemon, I have caught a few that I have no intention of using. I added a legendary flying/psychic type named Frozzzen to the mix, though, which is nice. I still don't like Meganium. I caught a Ponyta, which I am considering using.

Trainer: Joanna
Rival: Nagisa
Active Pokemon
OMG (Meganium)
Jdkerr (Dragonair)
Hrus (Nidoran)
Frozzzen (Lugia)

 

[Gripphon1]

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Saving on my Leafgreen doesn't work, however I started new game Crystal version this time. I don't play by this rules and also have a question. In what game is hardest battle tower? I started Crystal just to play that challenge, but I do wonder how hard or easy are battle towers in other versions?