Nimran’s Pokémon Nuzlocke Thread

[Nimran]

Hello, everyone! Despite being a big Pokémon fan, I have never actually done a nuzlocke playthrough before. I have recently decided, however, that this should change, and now I have started my nuzlocke journey for the first time.

For those who don’t know what a nuzlocke is, it’s basically a Pokémon game with permadeath and no reloading allowed. The rules are as follows:

1. If one of your Pokémon faints, it is gone forever. It can never be used again.

2. You may only catch the first Pokémon you encounter on a route. If that Pokémon faints instead, you don’t get a Pokémon for that route. I believe there is a clause that only Pokémon you haven’t caught before count, and that will be part of my ruleset for the adventure.

3. Every Pokémon you catch must have a nickname, to give it some personality, and to make it more emotional if and when the Pokémon faints.

Everything will be random, even the choices that I make in the game. For example, my starter will be chosen using a dice roller, what fossils I pick up, etc. Even my character’s gender and name, as well as the names of my Pokémon, will be chosen at random. I will be starting out in Leaf Green, the old remake of the even older gen 1 games. Anyway, I’m excited, and let’s get started.

 

[Nimran]

Our journey begins in Pallet Town. I flipped a coin and started out as a girl randomly named Amanda. The rival’s name is Dillon. Honestly, I was expecting something a little less normal for the names, but the random name generator has spoken. Amanda went into the grass and got stopped by the professor who escorted her to the lab, where he told her and Dillon to pick a Pokémon. One roll of the dice later, and Amanda got her first Pokémon, a Charmander randomly named Portier. With Portier in her pocket, Amanda proceeded to stomp Dillon’s Squirtle into the floor with brutal efficiency. And with her first victory in hand, Amanda’s journey has begun.

Fast-forwarding a bit, Amanda picked up the parcel from the mart in Viridian City, then returned to Pallet Town and handed it to Oak, who gave the Pokédex, and some pokéballs. Now the catching game officially begins. After grabbing the town map from Dillon’s sister, Amanda left town once more, ready to catch some Pokémon. Alas, however, her first encounter was a level 2 Rattata that proved rather stubborn for a pokéball, and in the attempt to weaken, Portier’s level 6 power managed to KO the creature instead.

Route 1= No Catch

Back through Viridian City Amanda went, training Portier up as she goes, deciding ultimately to head west to route 22, where a new Pokémon friend awaits. That friend was a level 5 Mankey, and after weakening it, Amanda welcomed the aptly named Hulk into her team.

Route 22= Mankey Caught

Amanda continued north after training up Hulk a bit to find Dillon getting in her way again. He also has two Pokémon with him, a Pidgey and his Squirtle, both level 9. Portier, also level 9, fought past the Pidgey’s pocket sand and made some cooked Pidgey wings with ember. Level 8 Hulk went in against the Squirtle, but had to tag out with Portier after a fierce brawl, allowing Portier to finish that Squirtle off. Another win against the rude Dillon.

Amanda headed north from Viridian City to route 2, where she encountered a level 3 Pidgey. Portier got a little overzealous here, landing a critical hit that KO’d the Pidgey.

Route 2= No Catch

Another critical hit in the Viridian Forest took out a level 4 Caterpie, causing Amanda to have serious concerns about her Charmander, Portier.

Viridian Forest= No Catch

Having made her way through the forest with only two Pokémon, Amanda now had to enter Pewter City and take on the gym leader, Brock with Hulk and Portier. Thankfully, Hulk was all she needed, and a few fighting-type moves later, the boulderbadge was hers.

 

[Nimran]

After Brock, Amanda makes her way to Mt. Moon, battling trainers along the way. Having to sneak past several of them in order to reach the tall grass behind them, she finally finds her third Pokémon, a level 6 Pidgey named Deziree (I’ve already taken to calling her Dez).

Route 3= Pidgey

After catching Dez, Amanda returns to challenge the other trainers, eventually making her way to the Pokémon center on Route 4. Here is where I did another coin flip, to determine whether I would take the Magikarp being sold by the shady guy, or wait until I got to the grass on the other side of Mt. Moon (still Route 4). A coin flip later, and Amanda left without the Magikarp. On to Mt. Moon!

Taking a few steps into the cave, Amanda encounters and catches a level 7 Zubat named Jessie. Not quite the best Pokémon I could find, but I’ll take what I can get at this point.

Mt. Moon= Zubat

Amanda makes her way through the cave, battling trainers and wild Pokémon alike, trying to get Jessie and Dez to a good level. At the end of the tunnel, she battles a super nerd and beats him, and now another coin must be flipped to determine which fossil to take. The coin was flipped, and the helix fossil was obtained. As a side note, I did have to make a return to the Pokémon center on Route 4 most of the way through the tunnel.

Out the other side of the mountain at last, Amanda encounters a level 12 Sandshrew on Route 4, and due to her not taking the Magikarp sold in the Pokémon center, she was able to catch it. But a mistake was made here. When asked to nickname the Sandshrew, I accidentally chose no, and now No-Name Sandshrew is on the team. He will get an actual name if I reach Lavender Town and the name rater.

Route 4= Sandshrew

And so Amanda’s team is finally filling out. Current levels are:
Jessie (Zubat) level 15
Portier (Charmeleon) level 18
Hulk (Mankey) level 16
Sandshrew level 12
Deziree (Pidgey) level 16

We got some training to do before Misty. Thankfully, there’s a whole area north of Cerulean City to help get us to where we need to be. I’m hoping for a Bellsprout.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

That's cool, I didn't know there's a no-reload culture in Pokemon games too. Although I bet the randomization and catch restriction is an even bigger challenge, since you can't plan your teams at all. I suppose that only works if you know the game very well, or would you also dare to try that approach with a new game, if you're generally familiar enough with the mechanics?

Anyway, good luck to you and keep us updated!

 

[Nimran]

There are people who play a nuzlocke challenge for new games that just came out. A solid understanding of types and their relationships with each other is all they go into it with, and it works for them. I don’t do that. Like I said, this is my first time doing this challenge. I definitely prefer to play normally the first time I play one of these games.

 

[Nimran]

From Cerulean City, Amanda travels north to Route 24, but first she must pass Nugget Bridge. Her rival stops her once again with another challenge, but her well-trained Pokémon lead her to an easy victory. Dez, who had evolved into Pidgeotto during the training session with the Nameless One (Sandshrew), managed to outfight her own rival Pidgeotto in the opening bout. The Rattata was brought down by Hulk, and Dillon sent out an Abra to deal with him. The Abra was easy, as it had no attack moves, only Teleport. Finally, Squirtle was bitten repeatedly by Jessie until it fainted.

After the rival fight, the bridge awaited Amanda’s team. With Portier taking the lead, each of the five trainers lost handily, followed by the Team Rocket member at the end. Amanda got a nugget for her troubles.

Route 24 awaits! Taking a trip to the grass left of the bridge, she encounters a level 12 Abra! Now, Abra is a really good Pokémon to have, but for a nuzlocke it’s almost impossible to get because the only move it knows is Teleport, which causes it to flee from the battle. That meant that the only hope Amanda had in catching it was to throw a ball and pray that it stays in. Alas, this Abra is too rascally, and it broke out of the ball and teleported away.

Route 24= No Catch

Thankfully, Route 24 isn’t the only route north of Cerulean. Amanda went east to Route 25, and in the grass there she encountered a level 8 Weedle. Thankfully, Jessie isn’t that strong, and Amanda was able to weaken it and catch it. And so, Veneta joined the team!

Route 25= Weedle

The team was due for another training montage, this time featuring Veneta. After gaining two more levels, she evolved into Beedrill, but she still wasn’t strong to handle the trainers on the route. An attempt was made to train her by switching her out during trainer battles, but tragedy very nearly struck when Dez got switched in against a Machop, only to take a critical hit from a Low Kick. She survived with 4 hp, and the battle was won, but that close call led to even more training in the grass to get Veneta to a survivable level. It was hard, as Fury Attack was her best move and it is such a bad move, but eventually she got to an acceptable level before Amanda tried to battle trainers once again. The plan was successful, and not only did the team make it through the trainers, but Amanda also got her hands on the TM for Secret Power. Veneta got her first good attack move!

Amanda battled her way through the few remaining trainers to reach Bill’s cottage, where she saved him from a terrible fate of being one of the few talking Pokémon in the world. In exchange, he gave her a ticket to a cruise ship docked in Vermillion City, the S.S. Anne.

Now there’s not much left to do in the area, only Misty remains. The water gym leader will be hard with this current team, but with a bit more training it should be doable.

 

[Nimran]

After training all of her Pokémon to level 20, Amanda felt as though she was ready for the gym. There were two trainers before Misty, but they were no trouble at all for Veneta, who learned Twinneedle at level 20. Veneta was the best bet they had for emerging victorious, as both her Special Defense and speed were the highest on the team.

The time to battle Misty was now. Veneta opened for the battle, against a level 18 Staryu. The Staryu was faster, and a Water Pulse hit Veneta, but her Sp. Defense proved resilient. A Secret Power put Staryu in the red, which was actually perfect. Misty used her one super potion to heal it, and the battle against Staryu was all but done. The best part was that Secret Power had paralyzed the Staryu, which cut its speed and allowed Veneta to move first to KO it before it got another move in. The experience boosted Veneta to level 21, just in time for the scary part.

Misty’s second and final Pokémon, a level 21 Starmie, was sent out. Naturally, it moved first with a Water Pulse that put Veneta below half health, but Veneta’s Twinneedle brought it down to a third of its health, and then poisoned it. A risk had to be taken. Since Veneta was already damaged by the Staryu, I knew that a second Water Pulse from Starmie wouldn’t KO her… unless it was a critical hit. If she survived, however, the battle was won. The Starmie hit, and failed to KO Veneta, and another Twinneedle ended the fight in victory. The Cascadebadge was ours!

Seriously, though, this was pretty scary. Veneta was the only one on this team who could take a hit from Starmie. Portier and the Nameless One were both weak to water, and everyone else was a small fry that would probably get KO’d before they even got to move. But victory was had instead, thanks to the latest addition to the team.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

That sounded awfully close, but I suppose you have to take some calculated risks in this challenge, since you don't have any influence on the type of Pokémon in your team.
Forgive the dumb questions from someone who knows Pokémon games only from occasionally watching what their kids play, but in the game you're playing now, will you have options to heal during battle, like Misty with the potion, and how frequent/accessible are they?
I imagine it will get much harder the further you go in this challenge without a healing option.

 

[Nimran]

I prefer not to heal in battles myself, but there are players who allow it. I might allow the use of one healing item per battle, since pretty much all of the strongest opponents use at least one. All I had were normal potions during the Misty battle, which don’t heal for a lot at this point in the game, so it wouldn’t have made much difference.

 

[Nimran]

Time to go south! Battling her way through yet another Rocket member making trouble, Amanda made it to Route 5, where she encountered and caught a level 10 Meowth named Baron.

Route 5= Meowth

Baron would replace Veneta on the team, as the Beedrill’s power had peaked, and she would only get less useful from this point. Baron, on the other hand, still had some growing to do, but he wouldn’t be on the team for long. Proceeding through the tunnel to Route 6, where a level 15 Bellsprout named Bell would join the team, replacing poor Baron.

Route 6= Bellsprout

Making her way past the trainers on Route 6, Amanda reached Vermillion City, where she found the fishing guru and took his old rod. Taking advantage of this gift, and the fact that Vermillion City has no other Pokémon to catch, Amanda fished up a level 5 Magikarp named Channing within the city limits.

Vermillion City= Magikarp

Channing would replace Jessie on the team, but he will need a bit of training to become useful, as Magikarp has no moves.

Our new team:
Channing (level 5 Magikarp)
Sandshrew (level 20 Sandshrew)
Hulk (level 20 Mankey)
Deziree (level 21 Pidgeotto)
Portier (level 23 Charmeleon)
Bell (level 15 Bellsprout)

Bell will likely see some action in the Vermillion gym, along with Sandshrew, but first we have some training to do and a ship to explore, along with another new route to the east.

 

[Xzarloxara]

I will have to read this thread from time to time, but it may take me a while to get caught up. I am curious as to what kind of system you are playing LG on. Is it a console or are you using a rom? Would be pretty impressive if you still had a working cartridge for games that old. I still have some, but I can't imagine that many other people do...

 

[Nimran]

I still have a working Gameboy Advance and Leaf Green cartridge. I had two Gameboy Advances, but one doesn’t work anymore. My DS also doesn’t work anymore.

 

[Nimran]

On Route 11, east of Vermillion, Amanda found a Spearow named Celeste.

Route 11= Spearow

Now, if anything happens to Dez, she has a backup flying type. Battling through the trainers and some wild Pokémon, Bell and Channing gained quite a few levels, and the Nameless One evolved into Sandslash.

A solid team is coming together. Channing will need some special attention before he becomes a Gyarados, not that he’ll be all that useful against Surge, but Gyarados is a fantastic Pokémon for any team. In any case, I plan to grind some levels for Channing so that he’ll evolve, but once that’s over it’s time for a cruise.

 

[Nimran]

I did a bit of grinding to get Channing to a Gyarados, which also resulted in Bell evolving into Weepinbell. I also took the time to evolve Jessie into a Golbat and Celeste into a Fearow, just so I don’t have to worry about having to catch the evolutions later.

On the S.S. Anne, Amanda took advantage of the plethora of trainers on the ship to level up her Pokémon, eventually finding her way to the captain’s cabin, where she runs into Dillon again. None of his Pokémon stand a chance, as his strongest Pokémon is weaker than Misty’s Starmie. Dez once again proves herself the better bird, while Hulk smacks his Raticate across the ship’s hallway. Channing bites Kadabra, which KOs it on two hits, and Bell beats Wartortle with Vine Whip.

After that easy fight, which makes me think that maybe I overleveled a bit, Amanda finds the captain is seasick, so she rubs his back until he feels better. Showing his thanks, he gives her HM 01, which is Cut. Now I get to decide who gets stuck with this lame move that can’t be removed.

Team levels after getting through the ship:
Deziree (Pidgeotto) lvl 23
Bell (Weepinbell) lvl 24
Sandslash (Sandslash) lvl 24
Channing (Gyarados) lvl 23
Portier (Charmeleon) lvl 24
Hulk (Mankey) lvl 24

I honestly think we can just head straight to the gym now, no need for any further grinding.

 

[Nimran]

Amanda went into the Vermillion City gym, and just as expected, her team (primarily the Nameless One) completely demolished Lt. Surge’s Electric-type Pokémon. There were absolutely no problems here, despite Surge’s attempts to save his Pokémon by using Double Team.

Afterwards, Amanda took a trip to the Pokémon fan club, where she got a bike voucher from the club president, then went into Diglett Tunnel, where she caught, you guessed it, a Diglett named Trixi.

Diglett Tunnel= Diglett

Going through Diglett Tunnel with Dez leading the way, she encountered a lvl 29 Dugtrio. Dez was immune to most of its attacks, though, so she just KO’d it and got a lot of experience. It was at this point that I remembered that Channing was also part Flying-type, so I switched him in front for some of that sweet Diglett/Dugtrio experience. Out the other side of the cave, Amanda found herself in a blocked-off area on Route 2, and got HM 05 (Flash) from the scientist in one of the buildings. This could be useful for a later area .

Using Cut to get back to the main road, Amanda took a return trip to Pewter City. Using Cut once again, she got into a restricted area behind the museum, where another scientist gave her an Old Amber. This could also be useful later on .

After that, there was nothing else here, so back through Diglett Tunnel to Vermillion, then back to Cerulean City to head east, using Cut once more, to Route 9. Amanda battled through all of the trainers on Route 9, but very nearly had a tragedy, when a hiker’s Geodude used Magnitude (9) on Hulk. Hulk survived with 1 hp. He then proceeded to smack it down.

On Route 9, she finally caught a Rattata named Elmo.

Route 9= Rattata

Route 10 was right next to Route 9, and there Amanda caught a Voltorb named Flora.

Route 10= Voltorb

And now Rock Tunnel awaits! What awaits inside, I wonder?

 

[Nimran]

Amanda had no difficulty passing through Rock Tunnel, though she failed to catch a Geodude when Channing landed a critical Bite.

Rock Tunnel= No Catch

Oh well, crit happens…

With her powerful team, which has replaced Dez with Flora, Amanda successfully made it to Lavender Town with no worries. Here, we finally corrected the mistake that occurred so long ago in the journey: we gave Sandslash a name. He is now dubbed Garan.

Amanda didn’t stay long in Lavender Town, deciding to hold off on exploring the Pokémon Tower until later, but she did step in just a little to take on Dillon once again. Flora proved themself a worthy replacement for Dez by electrocuting Pidgeotto without any problems. The rest of that battle was just as uneventful as the last time. At least Portier has something to do during the rival battles now, since Dillon added Exeggcute to his team.

After that, Amanda immediately left the tower and headed west, to Route 8, where she caught a Vulpix name Yola.

Route 8= Vulpix

After battling more trainers, Amanda took a trip down the underground tunnel to Route 7. However, there are no Pokémon on this route, so it will have to be ignored.

Route 7= No Catch

And soon after, she entered Celadon City. Now we must roll the dice once again. See, Celadon City has a number of Pokémon that can be obtained within its limits, but only one can come with Amanda. I’m honestly hoping I roll a 1, so I can just grab the Eevee and not worry about the Game Corner, but if that doesn’t happen, I guess I’ve got some gambling to do.

 

[Urdnot_Wrex]

Ah, too bad. That's the 6th time with no catch! And that's not even taking into account that you restrict yourself to one per route, which is already quite the limitation (not that I can judge it, as I said before).

Was it long ago that you played this game, or can you compare how much harder it is with the restrictions now? From what I'm seeing, you're still very powerful, maybe because you expected this to be much harder and therefore overcompensated with planning and grinding?

 

[Nimran]

Meta knowledge is my greatest weapon right now, honestly. I’ve played this particular game so many times that I have a good idea of what to expect. That’s not to say that the game won’t be difficult later. In fact, I fully expect it to be. I’m already seeing some holes in my team’s composition that will make later battles a bit more challenging. The lack of any actual counter to Psychic-types has made battling them more of a ‘just hit them with my hardest move’ kind of ordeal. Sure, Gyarados has Bite, but it’s a special attack in this game, so it doesn’t use his huge Attack stat. Instead, it uses his poor Sp. Attack.

The thing to remember about nuzlockes is that losing one Pokémon can have a devastating effect on your team’s coverage, so being able to beat trainers without taking a single loss is preferable, especially this early in the game. And I’ve nearly lost a few of my team members already, but they survived by a hair’s breadth. Basically, I’ve been lucky, not overleveled.

 

[Nimran]

In Celadon, the dice have spoken, and Amanda spent some money (not doing the gambling thing) and got a Pinsir named Angeletta

Celadon City= Pinsir

I briefly considered putting her on the team, since I love Pinsir, but she’s basically a less powerful Hulk in this game, so I’ll just leave her as a backup in case something happens to Hulk.

Amanda then beat the Rocket member hanging out in the back of the Game Corner and pushed the button behind the poster to enter Team Rocket’s secret hideout. The Rocket members didn’t have anything particularly scary, until Amanda got to the boss, Giovanni. His Onix and Ryhorn were easy. Kangaskhan was a bit tougher. Hulk (now a Primeape) got switched out, just to get switched back in, as one hit from Kanga roughed him up bad. Garan had the highest Defense, so he tanked a hit and then dug his way to a victory. Kanga tried to flinch-lock him into submission, but he persevered, and victory was ours.

Every Pokémon on my team is level 29 now. Bell doesn’t learn anymore good moves through leveling, so I went ahead and bought a Leaf Stone to evolve her into Victreebel. And now there’s only the Celadon gym to deal with in this town.

 

[Nimran]

The Celadon gym was the easiest yet. Portier’s Ember made all of Erika’s Grass-types faint in one or two turns apiece. He also gained quite a bit of experience, which put him at level 33.

Amanda headed west to Route 16 afterwards and rolled the dice to determine whether to catch a wild Pokémon in the grass now, or wait until she gets the Poké Flute to attempt to catch Snorlax. The dice spoke to her once again, and she caught a Doduo named Lisa. She also got HM 02 (Fly) from the lady in the secret house.

Route 16= Doduo

Amanda then traveled back east to Lavender Town with the Silph Scope she got from Giovanni. The Silph Scope allows her to see the Ghost-types within the tower, allowing her to explore it fully. Feeling a bit like her team might be too powerful for the wild Ghost-types, with no good catching moves, she switched in Lisa to help her catch a Gastly named Avery.

Pokémon Tower= Gastly

Amanda then switched Bell out with Avery, adding him to the team.

I don’t have the means to trade-evolve any Pokémon anymore, since my other Gameboy Advance and DS are broken, but if Avery survives to become a Haunter, he’ll still be very good.