Nuzlocke part 4

[greg_r]

There's the fighting Dojo in Saffron as well, so a went through that to get some more XP for everyone which worked nicely.

Caught! Ulysses, level 30 Hitmonlee. Probably not going to be using him, but it's all good.
So Team Rocket. Let's do this. Go in with Olivia as front woman before swapping out to Frank or Liam depending on what they have (I really wish Olivia learned an electric move BEFORE thunder, ah well.) which worked really well!

Caught! Vicky, level 15 Lapras, if anything ever happens to Frank here's my back-up.
Speaking of Frank, he gained a couple of levels in the process as well and once Olivia learned Double Kick she was able to take down Ratattas and Raticates with ease. She pretty much soloed the Giovani battle, getting swapped for Frank only to deal with Ryhorn. I also managed to save the "nap" stop in Silph Co. for after I beat Giovani so I have a fully healed team going up against Sabrina which looked like:

I avoided the trainers in the gym because the risk:reward seemed a bit off and I only have one move with 20 PP that's effective against pyschic type pokemon (thanks again gen 1 for psychic being OP as balls). Managed to do pretty well in the battle with Pin missile doing a number on Abra and Kadabra. I had to swap Olivia out after a nasty psychic from Alakazam left her on very little HP but between Frank and Liam we finished her him off and won the day :D

I then made my way to the Cycle Road for some easier trainer battles to Train Simon.
Caught! Wesley, level 26 Duduo. I guess that makes up for the one I KOed previously.
Now to swim south to Seafoam Islands, levelling up Simon who's at level 32, while we go.
Caught! Xena, level 35 Tenacool. Awesome. Probably not coming out of the box. But if I have doubt about Frank soloing Blaine, I might bring her in.

Made it to Seafoam, Simon is at level 35, everyone else at 38 or 39.
Caught! Gabrielle the Second, level 36 Zubat. Shame Zubat is so rubbish in Gen 1, ah well. I doubt I'd use anything that I find here in the main team (short of using super-repels so the first pokemon I meet is Articuno, which seems like cheating :P)

Just got out of Seafoam Island, if I need more XP when I've defeated the 8 gyms then I'll come back and I'll do the power plant properly as well. Simon is up to level 37 and the rest of the team is 39 or 40. Frank is going to be getting a lot of XP over the course of my stay on Cinnabar Island I think :P

I'd forgotten how irritating the Pokemon Mansion was, rattatas everywhere... Anyway, while there I found the Solarbeam TM which was the only reason Hattie hadn't been given her leafstone, so Hattie is now a Vileplume :)

Going into the fight for Cinnabar Gym my team looked like:
Frank: Gyarados level 40. Bubblebeam, Dragon Rage, Bite, Strength
Liam: Nidoking level 40. Surf, Thunderbolt, Toxic, Earthquake
Simon: Growlithe level 40. Bite, Take Down, Ember, Leer
Olivia: Jolteon level 41. Double Kick, Take Down, Pin Missile, Quick Attack
Karl: Hypno level 41. Psychic, Hypnosis, Flash, Psywave
Hattie: Vileplume level 41. Solarbeam, Mega Drain, Cut, Sleep Powder.

Having completed the gym Frank gained 3 levels, learning Hydro Pump to replace Bite and Simon was taught Fire Blast in place of Leer. Next up, Giovanni (again). I've chosen to not use Cinnabar pokemon centre as I think I have enough water and grass moves left to beat Giovanni.

Having said that I went to speak to my mum in Pallet town and got healed up, didn't realise that happened, but I'm not complaining :P
Oh, also.
Caught! Yvonne, level 30 Omanyte and Zack, level 30 Aerodactyl.

Giovanni is faced with the same team as Blaine, but with Simon up front for XP swapping out to Hattie or Frank depending on how tough the thing is. This gym is a total cake-walk. I don't see why ground was the final gym. It has such huge elemental weaknesses. Not complaining too much though, just didn't consider that element of poor game design as a child. I did have to head back to Cinnabar to heal having done the gym though.

I then went around the Power Plant for XP and then did Victory road. beating teh stuffing out of John en-route.
Caught! Moira Jr. level 31 Geodude
Casualty! Unfortunately, a Graveller exploded while Hattie was powering up her Solarbeam :( That's a massive pita just before the elite 4, thankfully I've got Olivia to cover Water types and Frank for Ground and Rock.
RIP Hattie level 14 - 43.

I've brought Percival out of Storage as his immunity package is too nice to pass up. Other possible options would be ... not a lot really. Everything else is around the level 30 mark or lower. Not a good start.

So the team facing off against the Elite four looks like:

First up is Lorelei, lots of ice and water types here, which thunder makes short work of. The only two that aren't 1 hit KOed by Olivia are Jynx who takes a couple of Pin Missiles (as she is Ice/Psychic not Ice/Water) and Lapras who just has buckets of HP.

Next up is Bruno, Frank with Hydro pump sorts out the rock type pokemon while Karl blasts the rest with psychic. Simples.

Now Agatha. This is where it starts to get interesting... I'll be using Karl to destroy her ghost type pokemon (and Arbok) and Olivia's Thunder to take her Golbat out of the sky, but Agatha like to swap her pokemon in and out. We manage to take them all out in the end, but her Gengar with Substitute waste a LOT of Karl's uses of phychic, leaving him pretty much dead weight (yeah, hynosis-dream eater is a thing, but I've never been a fan of relying on it).

Ok, on to Lance, last of the elite four. His dragons are going to be tough, thankfully I've got enough Ice and Electric moves to show him why psychic and not dragon is the OP type in gen 1. Olivia makes short work of his Gyarados then Frank and Liam take his Dragonairs to school. I decide that Frank has the best chance against his Dragonite and...
Casualty: He has Thunder!? Frank!? FRANK!!!! 1 hit KO without the need for a critical. God speed you fabulous bastard. I raised you from a useless fish that I bought by mistake to the combat beast that you were. I'll miss you big guy.
RIP Frank, Gyarados level 5 - 46.
Liam takes our revenge, but it's a bitter sweet victory.

Wait, what do you mean there are 5 of you!? Fine, even though every time I've ever battled him I've beaten him soundly I'll beat John again. The arrogance of this guy to claim to be the best trainer ever when he's 0-4 in battles with me... I guess he has a 5-6 advantage against me going into this battle, but I'm sure I can still take him.

Now I know that his Sandslash can be horribly nasty so lets try to hypnosis-dream eater the little bastard.
Casualty! Hypnosis fails, earthquake hurts. Karl is someone else who's been huge to this play through, Found him wondering around outside Vermillion City before I even battled Lt. Surge and he really propped up the team after The Great Misty Disaster. I'll miss you buddy.
RIP Karl, Hypno. Level 19 - 44.

Liam gets our revenge again, but John now has a 5-4 advantage in this battle for the first time ever. Next up is his Alakazam, so Olivia can Pin Missile our way to victory 4-4.
Now for Exeggcutor, so Simon can finally shine with Fire Blast making short work of it. 4-3
Cloyster comes next and I'm wary of it and it's weird moveset, thankfully Olivia and Thunder send it packing no time. 4-2.
Magneton means Liam takes centre stage once more, and shows why type advantage is a thing, thundershock won't work here! Earthquake does.
Now for his Flareon, I don't have Frank left. Balls. Oh, wait. Liam has Surf. What a washout John has been. Again.

And that's that! Nuzlocke completed!

The real Heroes of this run and to my mind Hall of Fame-ers are as follows:
RIP Catherine, Rattata level 4 - level 4. I forgot what Metapod can do (more than harden)
RIP Erin, Spearow level 9 - level 10. Critical hits are a thing. I should have healed last turn.
RIP Sparks, Pikachu level 5 - level 19. The Misty Catastrophy, critical Bubblebeam from full health.
RIP Gabby, Zubat level 11 - level 11. The Misty Catastrophy, critical Water Gun from full health.
RIP Bert, Mankey level 3 - level 19. The Long March (to Vermillion), a team crippled by a bad boss fight can't take on that many trainers without casualties.
RIP Derek level 4 - level 16. The other casualty of the Long March (to Vermillion).
RIP Natalie, Kadabra level 15 - 31. John in Pokemon Tower. You did your best. Karl will miss you the most, but you're together again now. Also, multi-turn attack critical hits are a bitch in gen. 1.
RIP Moira, Geodude level 14 - 15. I'm a bad trainer. Your blood is on my hands. I'm sorry Moira.
RIP Alice, Pidgeotto level 4 - 33. You were the first pokemon I caught on this Nuzlocke run, you were about 15 minutes from retirement and I forgot that Cloyster is an Ice/Water pokemon rather than Water or Water/Ground. You deserved better.
RIP Hattie, Vileplume level 14 - 43. The fact that everything explodes is awful. The way you annihilated water and rock types while stealing their HP was beautiful. I missed you against the elite four.
RIP Frank, Gyarados level 5 - 46. The big man himself. I had no idea that smug prick Lance thought Dragon was such a powerful type that he's teach the ultimate lightning move to his Dragonite. You rocked.
RIP Karl, Hypno. Level 19 - 44. I over-used you and I shouldn't have. We could have (and did) take out John without pulling a load of risky stunts. At least you and Natalie can finally be together again.

Total fatalities for the run: 12.
Pokedex seen: 127, caught: 41
Highest level: (Olivia) 47
Time played (at about *3 speed most of the time): 27:55
Money (before battling the Elite 4): £652
Full Restore remaining: 14

MVP of the play through (entirely subjective) Frank. Had a great moveset and amazing stats to back them up with. He really was brilliant. Olivia was a close second, she was undoubtedly MVP of the Elite four, but she entered the team too late to be MVP of the playthrough.

So that was Nuzlocke. Would I do it again, certianly. Though I'd change up the rules a little. I thought that only using each pokemon centre once was going to be a really huge deal and it wasn't. Yes, you had to be a lot more careful, but once you hit mid-game you had enough money for healing items so it didn't really matter beyond running out of PP for your best moves (so nobody was taught Blizzard for example and Hydro pump really wasn't a staple move). It did make early game and notably made the Long March into a thing. I'm thinking how to do it differently. Maybe you can only use each pokemon centre twice and no healing items? That seems ultra brutal though.

Duplicate rules. I'd ditch them. Sure, sometimes it made things so so much nicer when you got a drowzee rather than another ratatta, but there were some areas where I was hunting around for ages to find something new (memorably routes 5 and 11-15) which didn't feel in the spirit of the Nuzlocke run at all. Getting rid of the duplicate rule would make it harder and add to that Nuzlocke feeling. ie. That what you find and end up working with is largely random, but you end up forming stronger attachments to those pokemon for that reason. I certainly cared a lot more for the individual pokemon in the Nuzlocke run than I think I have since playing a a child, which was really wonderful.

Eevee. I was on the fence about using Eevee and Olivia being my MVP of the elite four proves in my mind that it was wrong to use pokemon that I found rather than caught. Jolteon in particular is just so much stronger than Pikachu would have been or an Electrode. Definitely falling on the side of nothing I've not caught. I know there are people that catch the first thing they can and then box their starter. I'm not sure what I think about this. My starter had little influence on the run, but pikachu is the worst starter pokemon. I guess what I'm getting at is that it would be possible, but it would make the already difficult early game harder rather than do something to make the easier late game harder.

Any other thoughts or feedback on this if anyone has been reading along with me would be appreciate :)