OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Wow, jd - I didn't even know you were that far ahead. Were there any surprises/challenges I should watch out for? Congrats.

I don't know anything about battle towers. Unless someone else knows, you may have to google it. I'm sure there's someone else who's wondered the same. :/
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

^I'm one of those people who wonders which game they are harder in!

IIRC Crystal has a division for every set of 10 levels, making it the easiest imo (just EV train like crazy with minimum exp and do lvl 10 or 20 or 30). Last time I played that was like 13 years ago, though.
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

There are more buildings or facilities in future generations so it's not easy to compare. But I personally don't like idea of battle tower opponents improving themselves with every win. I mean, I read about people with average team having 30+ consecutive fights win because opponents are getting harder. I like idea of having powerful opponent right away. There are facilities like that too, but it's hard to find some info on comparisons between Crystal and future generations, not from players who actually did have strategy to beat tower, only from random players whose goal was to get there to fight.

Yes, in Crystal every 10 levels there is new set of pokemons with new abilities. And yes, IMO that is made bad because some levels are easy, and rare are challenging. Biggest flaw is level 100 with only 1 or 2 decent pokemons. General skillset is rather bad, so is AI. Exception is level 60 which I find challenging enough. Compared to other levels, here are dozens of strong pokemons (Zapdos, Tyranitar, Snorlax, Machamp, Kingdra, Dragonite etc.) and their skillset is surprisingly fine. Not quite like players, but compared to other levels here is great. Huge bonus to that annoying Zapdos with Rest and Blissey with Toxic just like Skarmory. Also level 80 is fine cause pokemons use Rest fairly often, something you don't usually see from AI. Level 70 has decent pokemons, but average skillsets. 90-100 are sad, really, no real challenge there. Levels from 30-50 I didn't try and don't want to from what I see on info. Level 20 is nothing special, and 10 is good for start, but nothing special if you evolve pokemons with stones and with decent late-game moves.

Yes, you can train pokemons to increase their stats, however stats of pokemons you are facing in tower are also increased like they are trained. It wasn't that straightforward to find Heracross to have faster speed than that one in battle tower you face as opponent for example, even with full trained stats. Fortunately or unfortunately, stats of those pokemons in tower are just a little above average. Well not all, Zapdos speed on lvl 60 is in higher end for example. So even if you have Zapdos, it's unlikey he will be faster than battle tower Zapdos without some boost.

But I'm not planning to abuse my stat knowledge to breed or capture pokemon to have better stats than his companion in battle tower, that lowers challenge a bit so my goal is simply find my own pokemon and train it until I'm satisfied. Also some restrictions should be made, I'll have them for myself like: no Lugia, no Curselax (man that thing won me towers challenge all by himself), no Mewtwo, no Zapdos etc. I even don't have pokemons from generation 1 so it's not problem at all.
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

I have not had any particularly difficult or surprising circumstances so far. I consider my gameplay pretty cautious, in the following respects. First, I use a restricted number of pokemon (now that I am pretty far along, I am up to four, which is more than I would really like), so they end up getting a lot of experience and are therefore typically higher in levels. (The other advantage to a small party is that I can have utility pokemon. E.g., I evolved a magikarp and taught it strength, surf, whirlpool, and waterfall. In the olden days, I used to Gameshark a Mew on red/blue and teach it the four HMs as I obtained them, saving the annoying hassle.) Second, I tend to play all trainers and pause to level up against wild pokemon, because I am after experience. Third, I heal frequently -- lots of leaving areas part way through to go back to town. The last thing I want is a surprise rival battle that catches me flatfooted. Beyond the cautious play, I try to pay a lot of attention to movesets. Ideally, I want to be able to 1HKO any pokemon that appears -- I figure that to be the best way to stay healthy -- so I try to have some variety and play to my strengths. One of the primary reasons I started using Nidoking, for example, is that he can learn the three elemental punches that are sold in Goldenrod. Likewise, my young Dratini couldn't 1HKO but abused headbut/twister (both with 30% chance to "flinch") to no end. So that's all. Be over-leveled, stay healthy, don't get hit -- that's my strategy. :p

Just busy collecting badges, as you might imagine. I caught a Snorlax, though, and I think I rather like him. That makes my current team consist of Lugia, Nidoking, Dragonite, and Snorlax. I may still end up using Meganium...
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

As expected of the great JDK. Maybe even Red won't be enough to stop you. Well, that's probably a stretch. A pretty OP team by Nuzlocke standards though. Wasn't the whole idea to use things you normally wouldn't? :badteeth:

No idea about the battle facilities. Those were always a bit too boring to tackle, although they seem to have been revamped slightly in later generations.
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

As expected of the great JDK. Maybe even Red won't be enough to stop you. Well, that's probably a stretch. A pretty OP team by Nuzlocke standards though. Wasn't the whole idea to use things you normally wouldn't? :badteeth:
Err... I guess I forgot about that part. Although I guess since I had never played anything other than red/blue/yellow, I was fulfilling that goal in principle? :p

I got all the badges and decided to grind the Elite Four a bit before tackling Mt. Silver. Then it happened: my first death! Nulio (Snorlax) died a terrible, gory death.

...do not go gently into that great night;
rage, rage against the dying of the light.


I am not sure what awaits me at Mt. Silver, or what Red entails. ::goes off to look it up::

EDIT: Ah. I see.
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Looking it up is no fun. :p That game is terrible for grinding. Well, better than D2, but horribad by pokemon standards. Good luck ~
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Nulio always die. Everywhere. Luckily you didn't name your trainer as Nulio, you would die before pokemons do.

Also, can I post my adventures in this thread even if I play different kind of challenge?
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

@Drystan - Thanks for naming your rival after me. =) Make sure you give him a good thrashing. True Champions win with their favorites.
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

@Gripphon - Sure, but since it's a different challenge, and possibly different version, please give a spoilered summary of your challenge rules, and add a clear title to your updates. If there are too many versions/challenges, it could become confusing as to who's updating about what.

@SunsetV - Hopefully I will. His water-type starter seems pretty strong from our second rival battle. He did make me restart though when I wasn't prepared. :) That won't happen again.

And, that said, I just ran into SunsetV accidently. And beat his team of four with my two strongest.

Drystan and his Zuko went to compete in a garden challenge, hoping to come across a Scyther. Unfortunately, the first encounter was a Venonat.

Unfortunately, Momo (Zubat,) got one-hit KO'd while training, but have progressed past Goldenrod City, into Ecruteak City.

Current Team
Zuko, level 24 Quilava
Kyoshi, level 30 Ratticate
Katara, level 20 Eevee (to become Vaporeon)
BlueSpirit, level 16 Meowth (not sure if I want to try out a Persian, but we'll see what choices I have later.)
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

My LeafGreen can't save the game, so can't play it. Anyway I'm not born for this kind of challenge, my playing style is too defensive with it. I level up my pokemon up to 15 in the first grass out there to be sure not to die, I would probably level all my pokemons to near 100 before facing final opponent :P

About my challenge:
Version: Crystal
I played this version before and really liked it. Reason to it is because you must win in both Johto and Kanto, have hundreds of pokemons to catch, more moves for pokemons to learn, you can breed your pokemons and, my favorite, battle tower challenge - only real challenge in whole pokemons I played including both Crystal and one generation 1 game. You can't outlevel opponent by 10 levels and win, no no, there is no cheap tactic like that.

My whole challenge is based on that one small part of pokemon world - battle tower. My goal is to build teams that are able to win in higher ratio in battle tower. There are 10 different levels in battle tower, but I will focus on 3: 60-70-80, cause other levels I don't consider to be a challenge. But also I have a rules to manage all this to make things more challenging.
Right now I'm pokemon breeder. Adventures I might post here are both breeding success and battle tower success. What about game? I already defeated it except final opponent Red, nothing else to say there. So if someone wants to read about breeding and towering, go ahead. If not, well then my posts probably wont be interesting to read.

Version: Crystal
Goal: Defeat Battle Tower on various levels, building a team which is able to do that.
Rules: Dogs are only allowed legendaries for me to use, no Curselax, without watching stats online of pokemons in Battle Tower to take advantage of it.

Don't know how many of you know what Curselax is, that is Snorlax with Curse. General idea is Curse, Rest, Return, Earthquake and variations like that. He is overpowered for AI to handle cause AI doesn't know how to haze or whirlwind Snorlax out to reset his stats. Any other cursing pokemon is allowed cause Snorlax has both amazing HP and defensive stats, so it's easy to set up Curse with him, unlike many many other pokemons. Once you use Curse 6 times, he simply OHKO anything that comes at his way and is nearly impenetrable wall to kill. Not fun.

My adventures:
Well I'm at breading now. First thing when I caught Snorlax was to breed him with Ditto to have more Snorlaxes ofc. However I was seeking for only one - female Snorlax. Chance to get it is 12.5%. Well that was annoying to get, got like 20+ Snorlaxes before female hatched. Why female? It has to do with breeding, so if I want to pass some move to Snorlax, I must breed male pokemon (males are only pokemons to pass moves via breeding) and female Snorlax (baby pokemon will be the same type as female is, so if I want baby Snorlax, I must breed mother Snorlax with something).
I bred Slowpoke and Snorlax to pass Curse move to Snorlax baby. Yes, I will make Curselax, however I wont use it in battle tower, I want to make it just to pass his moves via breeding to something else. I could also use TM Curse, but I don't want to use TM's except the ones that can be bought in shops.

Next, I want to find wild Pupitar female, so I can breed Snorlax male with Curse and Rest with Pupitar/Tyranitar female to pass both Curse and Rest to Larvitar baby - male. That baby I will raise to learn Earthquake and Rock Slide, then I will breed it with female Rhyhorn/Rhydon to have baby Rhyhorn with Rest, Curse, Earthquake and Rock Slide. And that is exactly what I want to have on Rhydon to try it in Battle Tower. Problem is, Rhydon is very fragile and is usefull only against certain pokemons, otherwise he dies in 1 blow to everything else. I'm thinking to use him as major Zapdos counter, but will see when and what team he'll be in. Probably not the first one.

Next, my goal is to get female Eevee either from Bill, or through breeding with Ditto, that female I will breed with male Snubbul/Granbull with Charm move to pass that Charm to Eevee.

Okay, I might say what pokemons do I have now to make this more interesting maybe.

Magmar (bred it with Ditto to have a baby for further breeding) - got it from mysterious egg. Level 84, Flamethrower, Sunny Day, Confuse Ray, Thunderpunch. He is my main destroyer for anything that comes his way, namely elite four for farming money.

Meganium, my best starting pokemon of all, level 65, Razor Leaf, Light Screen, Reflect, Synthesis. Fantastic supporter, fantastic breeding material, simply the best. Typlosion has more destructive power and is faster in general, but is **** as breeding material and probably not as good for Battle Tower anyway.

Poliwrath, level 70, Surf, Whirlpool, Strength, Icepunch, he is main Lancekiller from elite four with his dragons. Also, he is my traveling machine through water.

Tentacruel, level 60, Surf, Screech, Supersonic, Barrier. Bad moves, no strategy here, except he is main physical tank and nothing that uses physical can't break through his defences. Surf is considerably strong from him.

Pidgeot, level 61, my flying machine. Wing Attack, Agility, Mirror Move, Fly, again bad moves and no strategy here at all.

There is Farfetch'd with near level 50 and False Swipe move, he is my catching machine cause False Swipe doesn't kill pokemon, but reduce it to 1 hp, perfectly fit for pokeball.

Nothing else to mention here about my team. Caught 3 Chanseys in grass, got Aerodactyl, have red Gyarados from lake, Miltank, Togepi, 20 Snorlaxes :P, Ditto, Rhyhorns, few Skarmorys...

Oh, catching that first Snorlax was funny actually. He was annoying with his Rest, but caught him with only 3 Great Balls on his 30-40% HP. I usually spent more than 30 balls on him just to catch him before, this was great.
 
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Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Platinum > Diamond. Well, in terms of difficulty anyway. :badteeth:

Failed another White 2 run, losing 5x level 40's in a single morning. Well played, self. It's actually surprisingly difficult to maintain a balanced team of 5-6 pokemon that can continue to function well without grinding. That, or I'm just an idiot. Probably door #2.
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Lol - I'm the same, Nagisa. It's hard keeping them all well-levelled, and if you try to, you get walked over.

jdkerr said:
I got all the badges and decided to grind the Elite Four a bit before tackling Mt. Silver. Then it happened: my first death! Nulio (Snorlax) died a terrible, gory death.
Wow, Snorlax is a tank! How did it fall?

I'd agree with the others. It's better to go in mostly blind against the final battles. I like having some idea, but not exactly what they have, especially the final Red battle. That should be completely blind.

Well, quite a lot has happened. A lot of deaths, a lot of levels, a lot of gyms. I went on a questing spree, walked over the random trainers, went against a lot of gym leaders and overall progression.
Unfortunately, that means a lot occured. Firstly, let's go over some deaths:

[highlight]Deaths[/highlight]

Haru - Level 4 Geodude
- Assumed death
Momo - Level 17 Zubat
- In training; I wanted to evolve into Crobat
M. Pasang - Level 26 Fearow
- In training; intended as my Fly'er
Zuko - Level 31 Quilava
- My starter, primary Fire type and wanted to keep the whole way through! Stupid Super Effective Crits.
A. Korra - Level 45 Shiny Gyarados (Red Lake)
- Died against the Elite 4! More on Avatar Korra shortly. Also, HM Surfer
L BoltZolt - Level 27 Flaffy
- Evolved from Mareep, and intended to be kept from early on as my main Lightning fighter. Also, intended to use Thunder Wave for easier captures.
FLord Ozai - Level 23 Electabuzz
- Replacement for Flaffy.

On to A. Korra. Upon completing the questing phase, and obtaining eight Gym Badges, Drystan made his way up to the Elite 4 with an overlevelled Ratticate (Kyoshi,) Red Gyarados (A. Korra,) and an overlevelled Lugia (AvatarAang.) Kyoshi did amazing using Hyper Fang and Headbutt against the Elite 4, while A. Korra and AvatarAang came out for the odd battles and counters.

But then they came up against Lance, the Dragon trainer, and Drystan had no counter against Lance's Gyarados, Dragonites or Aerodactyl. So, I sent out A. Korra and AvatarAang out against them, and both copped a Super-Effective Lightning and got KO'd.
Out comes Kyoshi again, to use more Hyper Fangs, and she actually finished off the Elite 4!

Out comes a bug, and the game didn't save properly upon completion, so when I reloaded the game, it sent me to just before the Elite 4. What to do? I feel somewhat wrong about this, however, I just re-ran them as if it hadn't occured. Same as if I found a Zod and got a power out/crash, losing it. If it's an unintentional crash/bug, just pretend it didn't happen. In this case though, it gained a benefit, but was unintentional/unexpected.
I re-ran the Elite 4, being a little more cautious this time, but against Lance, still sent out A. Korra against his Dragons. And again got one-hit-KO'd against Lightning. Oh well. This time I sent out Kyoshi, and became Champion with Hyper Fang. A. Korra is gone, but AvatarAang survived this time.

In regards to the Gym Battles, and general questing, the final battles were fairly standard. I began by attempting to level up some good counters (Fearow, Flaffy etc,) but they got killed in training, so didn't even get much action. As such, I ran around with Kyoshi and Zuko (and later A. Korra,) and they became overlevelled. Eventually, Zuko was KO'd by a Super Effective Critical, and I was left with an overlevelled Kyoshi. Her Hyper Fang and Headbutt did amazing damage, and basically could take on anything.
When I could use Whirlpool, with the Silver Fang, I used Super Repels and went for Lugia (Flying/Psychic - AvatarAang.) Got him to lowish health without KO'ing or random Crits, and Kyoshi and A. Korra (still alive at this time) could still tank the damage with a couple of healing potions. Bunch of Ultra Balls later, and Lugia was caught. I didn't even need Flaffy(/Ampharos) for Thunder Wave.

Available Choices (No spoiler here, as the forums keep adding an extra, unwanted spoiler tab)

Moth Wasp - Venonat
Tho - Oddish
??? - Unown
Shuckie - Shuckle (given)
Katara - Eevee
BlueSpirit - Meowth
Jinju - Togepi
Sangok - Goldeen
Afiko (fandom evil airbender) - Murkrow
Smellerbee - Grimer
Pr (??? - I couldn't think of a name, and accidently hit OK before naming it) - Ekans
The Gopher - Diglett
Gyatso - Hoothoot
Azula - Pikachu
Huu - Tangela
Haru - Kangaskhan


Final Team
Coming after obtaining the final eight Gym Badges, and defeating Red
 
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Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

So, my home internet wasn't functioning properly to play d3 yesterday so I started up the blue challenge with the rules given. The nostalgia and addiction overwhelmed me and I proceeded to play till 4:30 in the morning >_<

My starter was charmander so brock was a pita and I leveled my charmander up to 16 before the fight to make sure he didn't faint (ratata, sparrow and metapod weren't much help). I didn't meet very many interesting pokemon for the next two badges (another sparrow, zubat) and after catching a belzesprout it was super effective critted by dugtrio, and a meow (eveolved to persian) was killed by crit selfdestruct vs a trainer in flash cave.
Still i fished for a magicarp in town 3 and caught a snorlax aswell, and then upgraded evee to jolteon, and I found another belzesprout that is evolved once and works well with paralysis spore and wrap spam. These 4 + charizard and fearrow are my current group (in the psychic/fighter town atm), not a very original build but it gets the job done and I only have a few alternatives in storage (exeggecutor having the most potential).

Update:
Well played some more today. The remaining gyms were quite easy, i got myself some max repels and caught articuno with a master ball and went to the elite 4. I have a pretty good team with a variety of typing so I pretty much just used a straight up counter for the first two bosses, spread some paralysis with jolteon on the ghost/psychic boss and then sweeped with him and charizard (switching to avoid confusion) although it took a few hits to bring down ghengar etc.


Lance was doable with jolteon again and then stacking amnesia on snorlax and sweeping the dragons with ice beam. Gary was easy as usual with straight up counters, although blastoise did kill jolteon with crit hydro pzump. Think I'll move on to gold/silver/crystal now :)
zzz
My team:
54 jolteon --> ded
Lvl 48 gyarados
44 victreebell
48 charizard
46 snorlax
52 articuno
 
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Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

After seeing that there was nothing left in the game other than the final battle, I figured I was not interested in grinding levels, so I should just give it a try -- die or not, would be interesting. I used the three rare candies I had collected and bought a bunch of Stat boosting drugs. Here goes.

Hrus, lvl68 Nidoking
Jdkerr, lvl62 Dratini
Frozzzen, lvl62 Lugia

Trainer Red wants to battle!
Trainer Red sent out Pikachu.
Go! Hrus!
Enemy Pikachu used quick attack.
Hrus used earthquake. It is super effective!
Enemy Pikachu fainted.
Trainer Red sent out Espeon.
Hrus, enough! Come back. Go! Frozzzen!
Frozzzen used shadow ball. It is super effective!
Enemy Espeon used reflect.
Frozzzen used shadow ball. It is super effective!
Enemy Espeon fainted.
Trainer Red sent out Blastoise.
Frozzzen, enough! Come back. Go! Jdkerr!
Jdkerr used outrage.
Enemy Blastoise used blizzard. It is super effective!
Jdkerr fainted. Go! Frozzzen!
Frozzzen used psychic.
Enemy Blastoise used rainy day. A downpour started.
Frozzzen used psychic.
Enemy Blastoise used blizzard. It is super effective!
Frozzzen used psychic.
Enemy Blastoise fainted.
Trainer Red sent out Snorlax.
Frozzzen, enough! Come back. Go! Hrus!
Hrus used double kick. It is super effective!
Enemy Snorlax used amnesia.
Hrus used double kick. It is super effective!
Enemy Snorlax used body slam. Hrus is paralyzed!
Hrus used double kick. It is super effective!
Enemy Snorlax used body slam.
Joanna used full restore on Hrus.
Enemy Snorlax used body slam.
Hrus used double kick. It is super effective!
Enemy Snorlax fainted!
Trainer Red sent out Venasaur.
Hrus, enough! Come back. Go! Frozzzen!
Frozzzen used aeroblast. It is super effective!
Enemy Venasaur used sunny day. It got bright.
Frozzzen used aeroblast. It is super effective!
Enemy Venasaur fainted.
Trainer Red sent out Charizard.
Frozzzen, enough! Come back. Go! Hrus!
Enemy Charizard used flamethrower.
Hrus used thunderpunch. It is super effective! Enemy Charizard is paralyzed!
Joanna used max potion on Hrus.
Enemy Charizard is fully paralyzed.
Hrus used thunderpunch. It is super effective!
Enemy Charizard is fully paralyzed.
Hrus used thunderpunch. It is super effective!
Enemy Charizard fainted.
Trainer Red was defeated.

Had I known Blastoise had blizzard, I could have avoided a stupid death. Good times.
 
Re: OT: The Nuzlocke Challenge (Pokemon)

Congrats! I didn't know he had blizzard either :p Good call on every other choice though :)
 
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