Pokémon Gold/Silver thread

That night, I was meant to stop playing, but I was too excited. The Route just before Goldenrod City contains a lot of cool things, like Abra and Ditto, and I just couldn't want to catch something there, especially since the route doesn't have anything time-specific running around. Even if I catch something lame, like a Drowzee, there's a kid in the Goldenrod Department Store who will trade his Machop for one, and that'll be very helpful against the next gym.

And hell, if I actually find an Abra, I have the PERFECT teammate to help me catch it: Blair. Not only is she a fast Hypnosis user to help ensure that I catch the thing, she also has Mean Look. With this move, she can actually stop Abra from Teleporting away, assuming she's able to outspeed the thing (and I'm sure she'll be able to). Man, I'm just loving Blair more and more by the day.

By the way: this Route, which happens to be Route 34, also contains the Daycare Center, which is the one area in the game where Pokémon are able to reproduce with each other. On Route 34. Let that sink in for a minute.

Too bad, though. I ended up finding another Rattata. What a shame. I named the bastard "Wotcher" and boxed it.

That actually made me a little salty, considering I had a 65% chance of getting something that's actually interesting, so I decided to take it out on all the trainers in this area. Notably, there's a Picnicker named Gina who has a Bulbasaur for some strange reason. I wonder where she got that from.

There's a police officer in this area as well, called Officer Keith. Police officers only battle you at night, and I happened to be playing after midnight, so I thought I may as well take him out.

He only had one Pokémon: A level 17 Growlithe.

This made me pause just for a little bit, considering that it out-levels my whole team by a factor of 1 to 2. I was leading with Bram, and the first thing I did was confuse it with Supersonic. Knowing Growlithe has a high Attack stat, it'll probably hurt a lot for it to hit itself. It didn't hit itself, though. It used Roar.

Now, I have baby Nicholas out. Bemused, I switch back to Bram, since he's the one who needs the experience points right now, and hoped it would hit itself this time. It didn't. It just used Roar again.

At this point, I'm thinking, is this all it's going to do? So, I try to game it by switching to Blair. If it doesn't hit itself this time, that'll be three times in a row that it did not hit itself, which is a 1 in 8 chance. If it does break through, though, it'll probably just use Roar and someone else on my team (possibly Bram) will be switched out. That was my thinking at the time.

For the third time, it didn't hit itself. And it didn't use Roar.

It used Bite.

Now, at this point, I realize how hard I fucked up, because this is something I probably should've anticipated. Growlithe is a police dog, so of course it would know Bite. And in this generation, Bite is a Dark-type move, making it super effective against my poor Gastly here. But Blair is at full health, so maybe she'll be able to tank the hit?...

She didn't. It was a one-hit KO, and it wasn't even a critical hit. Blair's dead. Completely my fault, too, since I have no idea what I was thinking sending her out in the first place. I thought for sure that Growlithe would hit itself, but if the idea that it would use Bite had entered my mind before, I'm sure I would've thought she'd be able to take the hit. But until I checked her stats, I never realized just how frail she actually is, defensively speaking.

She's an awful Pokémon to lose. I was just thinking about how glad I was to have her on the team, too. I guess that was my mistake. Nuzlockes prey on favoritists.

To avenge her, I sent out Quill and slaughtered that Growlithe with a Headbutt. Come to think of it, I suppose Blair was a Gastly. Technically, that means she was dead the whole time, or that's one way to look at it.

I arrived in Goldenrod City, and the cheerful-ass music that plays in this place did NOT match my mood at all.

At the PC, I sifted through my box of Pokémon, mulling over who to place in that now-empty sixth slot on my team. There's Rocky, who would probably perform excellently against Whitney, but he's at such a low level at this point, and I think Onix learns moves very slowly. He also has a pretty low Attack stat, and I'm not sure if I want to deal with that. Gnash, Balcombe, and Wotcher are out of the question, since I already have both Rattata and zubat in the squad. I don't wanna use an Exeggcute right now, and I don't think Alkali is going to help much right now.

I settled with December the Spearow and spent the rest of the night training him. There's so much to do in Goldenrod City, but after Blair's death, I wasn't really in the mood for any of it anymore.

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

There's quite a lot of stuff to do in Goldenrod, so naturally, I spent most of my time just fucking around the place.

To distract myself from the sadness of losing Blair, I knew I had to go gambling, but I had to go pick a Coin Case first, which is in a place called "the Underground." It's filled with a bunch of nerds, creepers, and shady merchants selling herbs. I always liked the atmosphere of this place. It's so weird and creepy, and feels like it doesn't belong in the game, but it's there.

I beat up the Super Nerds that were there, and something cool happened. Bram was fighting a Grimer. I used Bite four times and got three flinches in a row (1/1000) followed by a critical hit (1/16). The odds of that happening is a crazy 1/16,000 which makes it twice as unlikely as finding a shiny. Bram in general has been a lot more aggressive in battle lately. I guess he's upset that Blair's gone, too. They did have a lot of synergy.

I spent more time gambling than I'm willing to admit. The card-flipping game is pretty addicting and a pretty easy way to get coins, even if it's really slow. I could technically get my Goldenrod encounter here if I went tryhard enough, but the only things they offer here are Abra, Sandshrew, and Dratini. I don't really need or want any of these, especially when I'd rather get the Eevee that Bill gives you.

I checked Bill's house, but he wasn't there. Apparently, you have to meet him in Ecruteak first. I don't remember ever having to do that, but all right, I guess Eevee will have to wait. As for what I plan on using, I think I'll go for Umbreon. It's my second favorite, and I've already used Vaporeon in my Blue nuzlocke (Romeo, who lived to the end as a hall of famer).

I got my Radio Card, and now I can listen to that snazzy Lucky Channel theme wherever I want.

YouTube

I got my Bicycle, gave Nicholas a haircut, got my friendship levels with my team checked (which is important for Rattaboy, Nicholas, and Bram—Rattaboy needs a full-power Return later, which requires maximum friendship, and Nicholas and Bram will only evolve with high friendship), and didn't buy shit from the Department Store because I'm broke as hell.

It was also Tuesday, and there's an NPC who appears on an early route on Tuesdays to give you a Pink Bow, which is an item that powers up Normal-type moves. I went ahead and gave that to Rattaboy, even though I'm 99% sure he hates it.

Heading north, I spotted the gym, and suddenly I remembered how serious my situation really is.

I'm finding Whitney next. THE Whitney. The one with the Miltank that terrorized me as a kid. To be fair, she's not actually that difficult if you know what you're doing. The game gives you plenty of options to deal with her Miltank, like Geodude, Onix, and Machop. But this is a nuzlocke, and my options are severely limited. I do happen to have an Onix now, but he's only level 6, and I really didn't feel like training him up at the time.

As for the other members of my team:
- Quill gets destroyed by Rollout.
- Rattaboy is fast and can lay dents with Hyper Fang, but still can't take a hit himself.
- Patches has low speed and defense. All he can do is gamble with Sleep Powder.
- Bram gets destroyed by Rollout.
- Nicholas is kinda tanky, but he doesn't really have any useful attacks for this fight.
- My newest member, December, is a Spearow. Of course he gets fucked by Rollout.

Rollout is a notoriously evil move that locks the user into it, but gets twice as strong with each consecutive hit. It's also a Rock-type move, and Rock is one of the best offensive types in the game. It hits Fire, Flying, Bug, and Ice-types super effectively. Miltank is also very fast and tanky, so when it starts rolling, it's often game over for many players. Don't get me started on the fact that it knows Milk Drink and Attract, too. Every one of its moves is treacherous and game-ending. I could easily get destroyed by this thing with my current team, so I had to think really carefully about how I should handle her.

That's not even mentioning her Clefairy, which knows Metronome. That in itself is very scary.

There's a route just north of Goldenrod City where I can get another shot at catching a Nidoran. This route in itself leads both to National Park and Route 36, the route from way back that's being blocked by a Sudowoodo. I want to catch that Sudowoodo, but the only way to get it to attack me is to use the Squirt Bottle on it, which is an item you can only get after you defeat Whitney. So that route is out of commission for now.

As for National Park, I'm saving that for the Bug-Catching Contest that took place the day after this session. I'll probably just end up with something like a Kakuna or a Caterpie, but who knows? I might end up with something way cooler.

On the first route I mentioned, though, I found a male Nidoran, and I was overjoyed. I would've been happy with almost anything on this route, but this one in particular is absolutely perfect for fighting Whitney. It's a very strong and nimble Poison-type that has access to the Fighting-type move Double Kick, which that stupid Miltank is weak against. If I can train this thing up to a Nidorino, I'll be able to smash her whole team. Er, that came out wrong.

I named the Nidoran with just the letter "B," after the letter that Gunnermaniac3 (legendary speedrunner and curent world record holder for Pokémon Yellow) names his own Nidoran. Normally, speedrunners name all of their Pokémon "A," because that's considered the fastest and most optimal way to nickname each Pokémon, and it just saves a ton of frames to do that. But Gunnermaniac is such a Pokémon fan, he always wastes a single frame to name his Nidoran "B" instead, because he cares about his Nidoran enough to do such a thing. I think that's awesome, so I'm gonna do the same thing in his honor.

It was almost time for me to stop playing and wait the next day for the Bug-Catching Contest to begin, but not before I explored National Park a little bit to loot some items. I found a TM for Dig, which I immediately taught to Rattaboy (replacing Mud-Slap, against my better judgment). Bravo the Raticate knew Dig as well, and he used it to destroy Agatha at the Elite 4 in my Blue nuzlocke, so I felt that teaching him this move was another torch-passing moment for him.

I also got the Quick Claw and decided it would be a good fit for Nicholas. He's kind of slow, and he has a bunch of moves that would benefit highly from hitting first, like Sweet Kiss and Charm.

December the Spearow's training is coming along nicely, but he still seems kind of quiet, personality-wise. Not quiet like Patches is quiet. Patches is quiet in a creepy, almost sinister way. December is quiet in a more somber or shaken way. I guess I can't really blame him, but it made me feel like something awful was gonna happen.

I woke up early for the Bug-Catching Contest, and you'll NEVER believe what I managed to get for my first encounter:

A motherfucking Scyther.


I was fucking stoked about this. This is one of my favorite Bug-types, if not favorite Pokémon in general, and it's so rare that you end up getting exactly what you wanted from this Contest. Pinsir has the same chance of appearing, and I would've been less excited about that. This is the coolest thing I've caught in this run, by far. I'm not sure if it'll be topped.

It only took me 4 Park Balls to catch, too, and I probably have Patches to thank for that. I brought him along so that he could use Sleep Powder on it to raise its catch rate without lowering its HP, which, if I want to win the contest, is necessary. You get more points if the thing you catch has full health than if it's hurt, and I don't think status conditions are taken into account at all.

That said, she's not gonna help AT ALL against Whitney, so I kept her in the box for now. I named her Sheila, because CRIKEY THAT'S A BIG ONE.

Funnily enough, I didn't even win the contest. My full-health (but sleeping) Scyther scored 343 points, but some Camper named Barry caught a Pinsir that scored 366 points. What a fucking fag. Maybe the sleep mattered after all. Because of that, I won an Everstone, just like the one that I already have. Yay! I think you get a Sun Stone for winning first place.

But whatever, I still have a Scyther now. So cool. I won't be able to evolve her, since she requires a Metal Coat and a trade, but maybe when the run is over, I'll allow all the rules to be suspended. That'll be the reward.

I planned to train hard for Whitney during the next session. With B at my side, things should be absolutely fine. Lots of trainers in my phone book are starting to call me for rematches, too, so that should help with training (and getting some money in these pockets, too).

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

It would seem that I have fucked up.

So, I decided to fight Whitney early. By "early," I mean I trained everyone on my team up to level 18, and Quill was level 19. I had B, who was now a strapping Nidorino, and I thought about my current level limit—20—and thought to myself, you know, how much difference is one or two levels gonna make anyway? I should be able to take Whitney out at this point.

WRONG

NOPE

WRONG

I wish there was someone there to point out the fact that Onix isn't that difficult to train, especially since he's a traded Pokémon, which means he gains extra experience. I knew this, but for whatever reason, I was just too lazy to train him. Had I known just how hard I'd get fucked in the ass, I might've done something else. I also wish I would've trained everyone up to level 20, but that may not have been necessary. I wish I had done a lot of things differently, and I'll go over everything now.

Basically, if it's not obvious, I lost the fight. That means everyone's dead.

Quill, Rattaboy, Patches, Bram, Nicholas, and B—they're all gone now. I will admit that I probably entered the gym a little bit too early, but NEVER would I have expected that I'd end up whiting out because of my mistakes.

The fight begins, and I lead with B. She sends out her Clefairy. This matchup turned out to be a relative non-issue. Its Double Slaps were doing a little bit more damage than I was comfortable with, but it didn't use Metronome a single time, and that was great. It ate a couple Double Kicks and bit the dust rather quickly.

And then the Miltank comes out.

For some reason, the first move I make is to use Leer. This first move, ultimately, is probably what caused the disaster, because Miltank responded by immediately performing its most deadly move, Rollout, allowing it to wreak havoc as quickly as possible.

Actually, no. Back up. It didn't "respond" with Rollout. It moved first. The fucking thing was faster than my Nidorino, which, okay, B isn't the fastest creature on my team, but still. It's a fucking cow. Those things should be slow as fuck, right? Evidently not, in this case.

What I should've done was use Double Kick right away, and Double Kick a second time—because when I did use Double Kick, it did less damage than using it twice would have.

To my horror, it only did about 40%, and now Miltank's Rollouts are starting to hurt. The first hit was barely a scratch, but for some reason, the second hit did triple or maybe even quadruple damage. It's only supposed to do double, but I guess it was just a really lucky roll. It wasn't a crit. Either way, whatever happened, I was instantly tilted. At this point, Nidorino's health is so low, a turn-3 Rollout is going to send him to the canvas no matter what. I can waste a turn healing, but what good will that do? It's faster than me, so next turn, it's just gonna unleash an even stronger Rollout and kill B anyway. But I can't switch out, because whatever gets sent out is going to be sentenced to death, too.

It's only turn 3, and I'm already hopelessly fucked because of one bad move.

I have no choice. I have to heal B up and just prey that Rollout misses, because when that happens, it gets reset, and it has to start over from the weakest point again. Spoiler alert: Rollout didn't miss a single time, but the damage did reset on its own on two occasions, and I'll go over them when they happen.

I healed up B, and Miltank unleashed another Rollout. It hits. Not only does it hit, it hits critically. B dies.

Panicking, I send out Rattaboy, who is the fastest member of my team, not counting Quill, who's going to get one-shotted by a Rollout no matter what. I can try going for Quick Attack, but I already know it's going to do shit for damage, so I bank on the fact that he might be faster than this piece of shit and use Hyper Fang.

Somehow, even Miltank is faster than my Rattaboy. A turn-4 Rollout comes, and Rattaboy gets flattened. Two deaths already.

There's not much point in giving a play-by-play at this point. This is pretty much how the fight goes. One by one, my Pokémon are run over by these increasingly powerful Rollouts that I can't stop or outspeed. This is exactly how Whitney used to destroy me as a kid, and now she's destroying me as an adult. How embarrassing.

There were three moments where there appeared to be some degree of hope. Well, maybe more. B honestly fought his heart out and did as well as I commanded him to be. If I wanted him to perform better, I should've given him better commands. Bram and Rattaboy have also been real troopers, and I'm pretty upset to see them go as well, even though neither of them had a ghost of a chance in this fight.

When I send out Patches, the Rollout counter reset. This allowed him to tank a couple early Rollouts and put the Miltank to sleep with Sleep Powder. This gave me a moment's peace, but sadly, Patches doesn't have any other moves that can really help. He just doesn't deal enough damage. The Miltank woke up after two or three turns, used Milk Drink do replenish all the damage I was able to deal, and finished Patches off.

Nicholas tried his best as well. I gave him that Quick Claw, intending to assist him when using moves like Sweet Kiss, and it actually activated during this desperate fight. He Sweet Kissed the Miltank, making it confused, eking out another small hopeful moment—unfortunately, Miltank only stayed confused for two turns, and it never hit itself. Poor Nicholas was a goner.

Out of anyone else, though, Quill probably fought the hardest. The Rollout counter reset on him, as well, but because Whitney decided to be a cunt, she started using joke moves on him rather than just finishing me off. The Miltank used Attract instead of Rollout, and now Quill was infatuated with the fucking thing. To his credit, it didn't stop him from attacking whatsoever. In the three turns that he was able to continue living, his Ember attack hit all three times, bringing it down to about 20% of its life before finally finishing me off with Rollout. The move never missed a single time.

All of this was the result of one error during the fight—though, had I just trained Rocky the Onix and took him along, this fight would've been an absolute breeze. But I didn't, and now everybody's dead. I didn't take December. He's still in the box.

So, am I done now?

I don't think so.

Let's take a look at my current situation. Looking over my PC, I still have eight Pokémon to choose from: Spearow, Onix, Exeggcute, Weedle, Scyther, two Rattata, and another Zubat. I can either give up, and lose in the bitchiest way possible, or I can come back and avenge everybody while using the most random fucking Pokémon team I've ever used in a long time in my favorite Pokémon game. That sounds more appealing to me.

Between those eight Pokémon, though, I had to choose six.

Rocky is an obvious choice. Having a well-trained Onix would've saved me from this situation, no question, so I have to take him. He's only level 6, though, so training him up to a satisfactory level will probably take ages.

Between my two Rattata, Wotcher and Gnash, I think I'm gonna take Gnash, despite the fact that he's significantly weaker. I caught him in an area that's closer to Rattaboy, though, so it just feels right.

I'm not taking Balcombe, my other Zubat. She's far too weak, and I can't bring myself to train another Zubat right now. I liked Bram too much to just replace him so quickly. Maybe some other time.

Sheila the Scyther will do me absolutely no good against Whitney, since she's 4x weak to Rollout and everything. But she still has extremely high stats for a Pokémon of her level (13), and I want to use her at some point, so I'm gonna take her along.

Aubergine the Exeggcute is... something. His only attacking move is the piss-poor Barrage, a low-power, low-accuracy Normal-type move that relies on hitting multiple times (so, RNG) to deal any damage. It does have Hypnosis and Reflect, which is pretty cool, but the fact that it has such a shitty attacking move makes me think twice about using it. But I've already said "no" to two things, so I'm not sure if I have a choice. He would also be a decent candidate to hold the Miracle Seed, now that Patches no longer has any use for it. Being dead and all.

Alkali the Weedle is probably not going to help either, but since she's already at level 10, that means she's going to evolve rather quickly (being that she's already due for Beedrill status). But being such a high-level Weedle means that she's not going to learn anything good for a long time, since she won't learn Fury Attack. Beedrill learns that as soon as it evolves at level 10, but Alkali is already level 10, so she's gonna be fucked in terms of moves until she reaches her 20s.

December is already battle-ready in terms of moves, but I feel really bad about using him. I chose him to replace with B, and I honestly could've chosen anybody else. He could be dead right now, too. So I can't in good conscience pick him right now, even though I'm happy to still have him around.

So yeah, this is kind of a dire situation. I'm gonna have to do LOTS and LOTS of training to make this happen, but I'm gonna make it happen. I've never given up a nuzlocke before, and I'm not about to start here on my favorite game. We'll make it work somehow.

And yeah, I have two Pokémon on my team now that require Metal Coat trades to evolve, but I'm not allowing that. I thought about calling this team "Killers Without Coats," but I don't wanna get ahead of myself. The only things these guys are killing right now is my time.

I am really sad about losing my whole team, though. It really really stinks, and I probably got too attached to them all in the end. But that's what makes nuzlockes a fun and emotional experience—you take the good with the bad. I'm gonna leave this update with a very scary battle that happened just before I fought Whitney, while I was still training. I forgot to talk about it last time.

On Route 36, there's a Psychic named Mark. He has three Pokémon—two Abra and a Kadabra. I was training Nicholas at the time, and he was able to dispatch the two Abra all by himself. The only moves they did, however, were Flash—a stupid move that lights up caves, but in battle, it just reduces your opponent's accuracy, like Sand Attack. Thankfully, however, I taught Nicholas the move Swift, which always hits, no matter what. It completely bypasses all accuracy checks, so it was able to shred through those Abras in spite of their efforts to blind Nicholas.

That wouldn't be worth mentioning on its own, though, until the Kadabra showed up.

Given that we're now dealing with a seriously strong Pokémon, I decided to switch to Quill before things got too scary. The Kadabra used Confusion on my switch-in, blasting Quill for a loop—it did 40% damage to my strongest Pokémon. Now I'm really worried, because if it lands a critical hit, Quill is as good as dead. There's no sense healing at this point, either, since Kadabra is a fast motherfucker. I choose Headbutt and prey that nothing bad happens, but the Kadabra outspeeds me, as expected, and lands another heavy-hitting Confusion.

It didn't crit, but it DID confuse Quill. And then he hit himself, of course. The chances of that happening are 1 in 20.

Now he's at 10% health due to total RNG bullshit.

I switch back to Nicholas in desperation. What else can I do? I don't have any healing items that'll restore anything sufficient, and I certainly don't have any Full Restores to get rid of that confusion.

But you know what happened when I switched in to Nicholas? I was put in the EXACT SAME SITUATION. Nicholas came out, tanked a Confusion, took 40%. I chose Swift, he was outsped and hit with another Confusion, took another 40%, and then he got confused, too. And then he hit himself. The chances of this happening twice in a row? 1 in 400.

So now, the two Pokémon who were previously my best bets against this Kadabra are now at 10% health. How did I survive?

Well, the Kadabra started to make some really shitty moves. It used the move Kinesis, which does the same thing as Flash. Reduces accuracy. Of course, I used Swift, because Nicholas doesn't care about accuracy checks. And since Swift is a 90 power (with STAB) physically-based move this generation, and Kadabra has such low physical defense, I was able to one-shot the Kadabra after an EXTREMELY lucky critical hit. 1 in 6400.

Moments like that are why I play nuzlockes, and I hope to experience more of those moments than the ones I just experienced. Here's to my new team, and a better luck next time.

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

After a very long and excruciating session of nonstop grinding, everyone on my new team is now level 20 and ready to go.

I did make a few snap decisions beforehand, though. Route 36, the one blocked by Sudowoodo and the same one that I planned on catching as soon as I defeated Whitney, is home to a lot of Pokémon that could potentially help me out. Notably, Vulpix can be found, and that would definitely fill the void that Quill used to inhabit. Even better, though, is the 60% chance of catching another Nidoran, male or female.

Sudowoodo is cool and all, but I don't want to rely solely on Rocky for this fight. Trying to rely on just one Pokémon is what got me in this mess in the first place. So I burned my Route 36 encounter early, and I caught myself another Nidoran, except this one is a female.

Females are bulkier, but they have lower attack power and don't generally get access to the same moves that a male one would. But it still knows Double Kick, and that's what I'll be taking back to Whitney. I'll have to do it right this time, though. Don't fuck around with silly tech moves like Leer and Growl. Just spam Double Kick, and switch out to Rocky when things start getting nasty. That's the plan.

I named her G (for girl), assuming that B stood for boy, and put her in my party, replacing December.

Normally, I like to rematch the trainers I have in my phone book to help train, and also gain some extra money. But this time around, all of the trainers who want to rematch me require me to pass through Ilex Forest, which requires me to have Cut. Since Patches is dead, I don't have a Cut user anymore, and the only Pokémon on my team that can learn the move is Sheila. Let me tell you, I do NOT want to taint her beautiful moveset with such a shitty-ass move unless I absolutely have to, so I decided to pass on that option, even though I was tempted several times.

Things started out rough. Really, really rough. Gnash was relatively easy to train, but in terms of battle performance, he hasn't really impressed me in the same way Rattaboy has in the past. He seems like a nervous wreck with no confidence. He misses Hyper Fang all the time. Sometimes multiple times in a row. By the time I raised him to level 18, when comparing stat averages, he was 0.5 points lower than Rattaboy's at the time of his death. That's actually not terrible, but the fact remains that I have a slightly weaker Rattata on my hands.

Er, well, Raticate. He's a Raticate now. A pretty powerful one, at that. He still needs to prove himself too me in some way, though.

Rocky the Onix, being a traded Pokémon, gains a bonus experience boost every time he KOs something, which made training him up a fast and painless process. His gargantuan Defense and Rock/Ground typing will be invaluable against Whitney, but like Gnash, he struggles with his accuracy a lot. Between Tackle, Bind, and even his strongest attack, Rock Throw, he doesn't have any attacks that are perfectly accurate, and he likes to remind me of that a lot. He also has low attack strength overall, and relies on Screech to get some serious damage in, which is also, incidentally, a very inaccurate move.

Aubergine the Exeggcute wins the award for "most improved Pokémon." Starting out, he was the absolute worst thing to train, ever, of all time. He had ONE attacking move: Barrage. Exclusive to this Pokémon, Barrage is a multi-strike move like Fury Attack or Double Slap. Those moves are shitty enough, but I think Barrage has the lowest power of any of them, at 15. It's a Normal-type move, so he doesn't get STAB off of it, and it misses 15% of the time. And yeah, he missed with it. A lot. And even when it did hit, its low power combined with his shitty Attack stat combined with my shitty luck often resulted in a pitiful two-hit strike that barely scratches his opponent. His other two moves are Hypnosis and Reflect. Hypnosis is actually good, and Reflect is one of the best moves in the entire game, but neither of them do damage, which is what I need. On top of all that, he also gains experience VERY slowly, making him the most grueling Pokémon to train by far.

But then she gained Leech Seed. This is another high-tier move that is not only incredibly useful, but also fun and very satisfying to use. I've always been a fan of stalling strategies, and with the small amount of healing that the move grants Aubergine, it's actually a bit of a godsend, especially when paired with Reflect. Better yet, he finally learned Confusion, which is 10x better than shitty-ass Barrage. I'm very proud to see how far he's come in a (relatively) short time, even if it took an eternity for him to get somewhere.

The problems I had with Alkali were too real. Starting at level 10, she quickly became a Beedrill at level 12, sure. But she's gonna be stuck with that one shitty move, Poison Sting, for a very long time. I didn't want to teach her Cut, either, even though she's able to learn it. Poison Sting is bad, but it's not "can't get rid of it until Blackthorn City" bad. Though, honestly, Beedrill's movepool is so shallow, it may not have even mattered anyway. I probably should have taught her Cut all along, but I didn't. Being fully evolved means that she gains experience points very slowly, and she's not very good at fighting stuff on her own. It wasn't until she was level 16 that I trusted her with handling things like Hoothoot and shit. If you're struggling to fight things like that, you're in trouble. She eventually did learn Twineedle, which is actually a pretty nasty move, but she had only learned it at level 20, which means I was done training her anyway.

Sheila is strong and reliable. By level 17, she broke a 40 stat average, exceeding Quill's, and he was level 19 when he died. I taught her Fury Cutter, because why not, but her primary moves are Quick Attack and Pursuit. She also knows False Swipe, just for kicks. It might be useful if there's something I really need to catch. She didn't really "improve" much during the session, but she never really needed to. She was always a beast. Can't use her against Whitney, though.

And finally, we have G. She's pretty average in terms of overall strength. When she evolves into Nidorina, I knew she wasn't going to get anything cool like Horn Attack, so I sold a couple things and bought Headbutt from the Department Store to replace Scratch. She later learned Poison Sting, which isn't the best move by any means, but it's better than Tackle. All she really needs to fight Whitney is her Double Kick anyway.

Speaking of Whitney, it was time to fight her once again. My rule states that I can't go above level 20, after all, so I didn't have much of a choice.

I led with G, and this time, I did what I was supposed to do. Instead of KOing her Clefairy straight away, I took the time to equip a couple X items that I had picked up. X Defend first, X Attack second. The Clefairy did use Metronome, but all that G had to endure was a Giga Drain. One kick from Double Kick was enough to knock it out.

And here comes the Miltank.

Without needing to think, I select Double Kick. Naturally, I get outsped, and it's already using Rollout. I'm not scared yet, but even with that Attack boost, Double Kick had only done about 40%. That's the same amount that B was able to do without the use of an X Attack. Nonplussed, I choose Double Kick again, and thanks to that Defense buff, G tanks the second Rollout like a boss. Then she strikes.

The first kick did 20%.

The second hit was a critical.

That's a dead Miltank.

On one hand, I'm just a little bit salty that I spent all that time training just for G to run a train through Whitney. I didn't even need Rocky. It just drives the whole idea that I could've beat her the first time even further. But at the same time, I'm just glad I was able to avenge everyone who died, and now I can move on in the game with this exciting and unique team. I've never used a Nidorina, Exeggcute, Scyther, or Onix before, and I can't wait to see what'll happen next.

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

Seriously though, what a heartbreaking read. Beedrill and Scyther are cool as fuck, so at least you've got those going for you.

Also, these games had some solid music. Red's theme is still the best piece of pokeman music.

YouTube

Sorry, but these exist:

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube

These games are definitely the best, but I honestly don't share your problems with the remakes so if I ever need to play them again I'll just go back to my extra copy of Heart Gold. Even if I agree the music was less-than-stellar, the inclusion of so many new features and legendaries makes it all worth it, IMO. The only mishap was the classic music option being such a late-game unlock.

Still waiting on my Gen. 4 Sinnoh remakes, because those have the most nostalgia for me.

but the only things they offer here are Abra, Sandshrew, and Dratini. I don't really need or want any of these

>opportunity to own the literally GOAT pokemon
>"I don't want this"

This is why bad stuff happened to you and you deserve it all.

Charizard was always the better dragon, fight me.

I actually really love Dragonair, though. If Dragonair didn't go such a drastic change when it evolved, and retained its slender blue design in some way, I'd probably like Dragonite more, because it always looked kinda goofy to me.

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

wow

>multiscale
>total base stat of 600
>dragon type best type, puny fire is SHIT (2x resisted by dragon)
>electric, fire, dragon, water, flying, ice - Dragonite does it all both special and physical
>small wings for extreme mobility
>kind looking but fierce as a tiger
>what's that, you've got too much HP to die in a single move? HYPER BEAM bitch
>standing in water next to a lighthouse as a 90ft monster in the mist? Would love to see Charizard do this (oh wait he dies if water hits his tail lol)



Besides, you can't even get Charizard in this game, can you? Do what's right, Verb. Get that Dratini.

too late, i already picked up eevee from bill

come back to me when dragonite gets a single mega evolution

>small wings for extreme mobility

Did you learn aerodynamics from SecondClass?

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

dragonite's goofiness is part of his charm. hes like a lumbering gentle giant.

So, after doing a little post-Whitney partying with my team at the Goldenrod Game Corner, I picked up the Squirt Bottle from the Flower Shop and made a beeline for Sudowoodo on Route 36. Now, even though I did initially plan on catching this thing, recall that I already burned my encounter on this route by catching G out of desperation. I don't regret this one bit—I actually really wanted to use a Nidorina/Nidoqueen anyway, since I've never used one, and she ended up helping me kick Whitney's ass, so I'm not too sad about losing out on Sudowoodo here.

After defeating it, I obtained the TM for Rock Smash from that one guy, and since it was Thursday at the time of this session, I obtained the Hard Stone from Arthur, the weekday sibling who only appears on Thursdays. That makes 2/7 weekday siblings, I believe. Hopefully I'll find every one of them.

I taught Rock Smash to Gnash, replacing Focus Energy, because... why not. I already wasted Dig on Rattaboy, who's dead now, so it's not like it matters too much anymore.

When checking the possible encounters for Route 37, I noticed that it was my last chance at catching a Ledyba until Kanto, and  since I happened to be playing in the morning, I had a 40% shot at finding one. I also had a 10% shot at finding Vulpix, which would be REALLY nice, or a Stantler, which would be... interesting.

But uh, no. I just found a Pidgey. As usual, I had to go and find the most boring possible thing on the route. That's fine, though—believe it or not, I actually don't have a single Pidgey in my collection at the moment, so I'm not totally disappointed. I named it River, after the Pidgeot I took the Elite 4 in my Blue nuzlocke. She was a hall of famer.

I realize I've been referring back to my Blue nuzlocke a lot, so I just wanna give a quick recap on who my hall of famers were:



Bravo the Raticate—the "protagonist" and de facto "leader" of the squad when Alfa the Wartortle went and died. Fast, powerful, tenacious. Had a penchant for pulling crazy shit out of his hat, even under the most dire of circumstaces. Could cut his foes' HP in half with Super Fang, paralyze with Body Slam, and even burrow underground with Dig. Invaluable member of the team, I first met him on Route 1. He was the best.



Delta the Pidgeot—second in command and one of the most dependable members of the team. The "mother" of the squad. Less erratic than Bravo, Delta supported the team primarily by flying me from place to place. She was solid in battle, but never really had any "stand-out" moments. Like I said, she was just dependable. She's the Route 2 to Bravo's Route 1.



November the Fearow—always competing with Delta for that "most dependable Pokémon" distinction, but if one thing is for sure, he was a little bit more useful in battle due to his access to powerful moves like Drill Peck and Mirror Move. Fearow learns Mirror Move much sooner than Pidgeot, and it's a much more useful move than it seems. Drill Peck, meanwhile, is the best Flying-type move in the game that you can use turn after turn. He was a beast, even if he had trouble taking hits.



Romeo the Vaporeon—the obligatory Eeveelution and dragonslayer. His access to Surf and Ice Beam made him invaluable towards the late game, and his Special stat at the time was unmatched. Using him almost felt unfair, because pretty much every specially-based attack would just glance right off of him. Plus, he had Acid Armor, which doubled his physical Defense as well. He was the complete package, and turned Lance into a non-issue towards the end.



Zulu the Gyarados was kind of a last-ditch capture. I caught him as a Magikarp just before the Pokémon League, because my previous Gyarados, Kilo, had died to Koga. I gave him the most over-the-top ridiculous 5-year-old-fantasy moveset of all time: Fire Blast. Thunder. Blizzard. Dragon Rage.

During the final battle against your rival, Zulu leveled up to 55—the level in which it learns Hyper Beam, and my rival was at his last Pokémon, too. You already know how I finished that fight. It was the most satisfying shit ever.



Omicron the Kabutops—the sixth ranger. Gonna be honest: I only put him on the team because Kabutops is cool as hell, not because I expected him to be useful. Apparently, he thought he was cool, too, and his hubris resulted in his subsequent death at the hands of Lorelei. With his mighty Attack stat, I taught him the move Submission, the strongest Fighting-type move in the game, and gave him ONE simple task: Smash Lorelei's Ice-types with it.

But he missed with it. And then he missed with it again. Had he not missed, he would've made it out alive—but he did, and he got blasted with a Hydro Pump to the face and died at full health. A completely shameful display, and one of the few deaths in that run that I harbor no troubled feelings for. After all that training, I think he got the fate he deserved.

So that was the old squad in Blue, just so we're clear on that.

I have no intention of using another Pidgey, but if desperate times come again, I'm not completely against the idea.

I made it to Ecruteak City, and the road branches off in several directions at this point:
- To the north, there's the Burned Tower, where I can potentially catch myself a Magmar and reawaken the legendary beasts. The third rival fight also takes place here, if I recall correctly.
- To the east is Route 42. I could potentially catch a Mareep on this route, but the grass is currently blocked off by a body of water that I'll have to Surf over first. There's also Mt. Mortar, where I can catch a Tyrogue, but only later into the game will I have access to it.
- To the west is Route 38, where I can catch all sorts of fun stuff, and head to Olivine City.

In Ecruteak itself, there's the Ghost-type gym and the Kimono Girls to fight, but I wasn't really in the mood for that. I just wanted to catch stuff. The first thing I did was head to the Pokémon Center. Apparently, Bill is here, and I have to meet him here first before I'm able to follow him back to Goldenrod City to pick up a free Eevee. So I did that.

I named the Eevee "Montague," since that was the royal family Romeo was affiliated with in Romeo & Juliett. I plan on evolving him into an Umbreon, preferably before fighting Morty, the next gym leader. His evolution requires him to be very happy, so I gave him a haircut at that one place to boost his happiness. I always thought that was a bizarre mechanic.

Interestingly, the headbutt trees in Ecruteak will not yield any Pokémon at all, no matter how often you try. The only way to encounter anything in this city is by fishing—and, this is actually interesting. I made a big mistake when looking up the encounters for the fishing spots here: I mixed up "fishing" with "surfing."

What I READ was that there's a 90% chance of fishing up a Poliwag if you use an Old Rod, which would be very peculiar (usually they only catch Magikarp), but somehow, I believed what I thought I was reading. So I fished under that auspices, and you know what I ended up catching? A Poliwag, like I expected. So I didn't question anything.

When I checked later that day, though, I noticed my error. When fishing with the Old Rod in Ecruteak City, you have an 85% chance of hooking a Magikarp. The chance of hooking a Poliwag is 15%. So... I just got very lucky, then. Or unlucky, because believe it or not, I actually wanted a Magikarp more (it's tied for my second favorite Pokémon, after all).

Anyway, I was feeling particularly uncreative that day, so I decided to name the Poliwag "Mr. Green," just to lament the fact that I'll never be able to get a Politoed, since it requires me to trade the damn thing (while holding a King's Rock). I still technically needed a Water-type, I guess, so I'm not completely disappointed, but I'm gonna have no shortage of Water-types in these next upcoming routes.

On Route 38, I waited a specific time of day to catch something. There's a 10% chance of getting a Farfetch'd during the day. None at night. There's also Meowth here, and I wouldn't mind training one of those, either. Even rarer are Magnemite, Tauros, and even Snubbull, which would all be very cool and interesting.

So I find a Miltank.

That's right, a fucking Miltank. Technically, this is a rare 5% encounter, so I should be excited about that.

But I'm not. I am SO speciesist against this thing right now. You have no fucking idea.

I caught it anyway—but I didn't nickname it.

Speaking of Miltank, Route 39 has a whole farm of them—one of them is sick and needs to be fed Berries. I'm not so speciesist that I consider myself above helping a Pokémon in need, but the game's way of guilt-tripping you into feeding the thing is just too much. I had 8 Berries on me, and at one point, I realized I only had one left, and I always like to keep at least one of every kind of item on me at all times. Just an OCD thing, really. But when I said no, there was a text that read, "You didn't give a Berry. The Miltank looks sad."

Fucking slay me, man. I caved in and fed him my last Berry. Fucking Miltank.

As for my encounters here, I can catch all the same Pokémon I mentioned earlier, but this time, without the 1% chance of catching Snubbull (so finding Tauros is ever-so-slightly easier here). So what did I find? A Raticate. How thrilling. I named it "Pearcy," after Stephen Pearcy, who was the lead singer of the hair metal band, Ratt.

Anyway, I traveled all the way down to Olivine City. And the first person I meet there is my rival.

I almost shat myself, because I was so underprepared for this. I thought I was supposed to fight him in the Burned Tower?...

But, nah. He didn't fight me. He even makes fun of you for thinking he would even bother with you. All he's there for is to inform you that the gym leader for Olivine, Jasmine, is missing, so he can't get the sixth badge. How unfortunate.

That was genuinely scary, though. I actually didn't remember that part at all.

I didn't do much in Olivine except for find the HM for Strength (which I taught to G) and obtain the Good Rod, which gives me a SLIGHT chance of catching one of my favorite Water-types of all time: Staryu. Only a 10% chance, though. I'm more likely to find less exciting stuff, like Goldeen and Krabby. But still, we're getting somewhere.

Staryu can only be fished for at night, too, so I decided to wait until nighttime to go fishing with this new rod.

I biked all the way back to Ecruteak, and since I still haven't done anything here, I decided I might as well just fight the Kimono Girls. There's five of them, and each of them only use one Pokémon—an eeeveelution. I wasn't able to remember which Kimono Girls used which eeveelution, because their kimonos didn't give my any indication, but I was able to dispatch them all without any trouble.

Except for one of them.

I was training Aubergine against Kimono Girl Zuki when she sent out her Umbreon. Now, Aubergine is part-Psychic type. Umbreon is part Dark-type. Not only does Dark beat Psychic, Aubergine doesn't even have any attacks that can hurt Umbreon, since its completely immune to all Psychic-type moves. The best I can do is gamble with Hypnosis, or maybe use Leech Seed, but since Aubergine is probably just going to get smacked with something nasty like a STAB Bite, I should probably just switch him out for Sheila. So I did.

That ended up being the death of Aubergine.

As I switched out, Umbreon used Pursuit. Pursuit is a Dark-type move that intercepts your Pokémon if you try to switch out, dealing double its normal damage. Aubergine was smashed.

Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot I could do about that. Sure, I could've anticipated the attack. But what were my options? To stay in and get smashed by Pursuit anyway? Aubergine has high Defense, sure, but he also has very low Special Defense. Remember: In this generation, ALL Dark-type moves are specially-based. So he probably wouldn't have been able to tank that hit regardless. The only thing I could've done was use Hypnosis, and even then, there's only a 60% chance that it would've hit. All around, it was just a shitty situation to be in.

Make no mistake—I'm just as upset about this death as I am about all the others, since I was really starting to love Aubergine and his place on the team. He had access to some VERY advanced moves fairly early on, and with Leech Seed and Reflect, I thought he was really helping pull this new team together. It sucks that he's gone. I felt the same way about Blair—maybe that's the curse.

Every time I think, "Hmm, this Pokémon is really helping out and tying the team together!" they always seem to die. Maybe I should train myself not to think that way.

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

These games are the best

Defeating all the Kimono Girls will prompt a Gentleman in the audience to give you the HM for Surf, which is a major step in progress and opens up a lot of doors—only problem is, I can't use it to cross water until I defeat Morty, and I don't have a single Pokémon who can learn it right now (except for Mr. Green, but I already explained why I don't want to use him).

After laying Aubergine to rest, I took a moment to ponder my team. Who is most likely to survive until the end? How am I going to fight Morty The only ones who have any moves that can touch Ghost-types are Rocky, December, and Sheila. Alkali and G can, as well, but only for piddly resisted damage from attacks like Poison Sting and Twineedle. So, we have ourselves a bit of a problem—one that I hoped to mitigate by catching more Pokémon.

Remember how I was talking about evolving Montague, my new Eevee, into an Umbreon? Well, I'm still doing that, but it's gonna have to be after the gym. My level cap is 25, and Umbreon doesn't actually learn any Dark-type moves until level 30—well, technically, level 36. Eevee itself learns the move Bite at level 30, which means I have to keep it as an Eevee until then. Otherwise, Umbreon's not going to help at all, so there'll be no point in grinding out happiness points.

I had 30 more minutes of daylight, so I ran over to the Burned Tower first. Magmar is available here, and while they're most common during the day, they still only appear about 15% of the time. So I might catch a Koffing instead, but it's still worth a try.

Just as I remembered, my rival was there with his scary new team. He now has a Magnemite, and his Gastly evolved into Haunter. Haunter knows a silly move called Curse, which, if a Ghost-type uses it, cuts its own HP in half to put a "curse" on the opponent where they lose a decent chunk of their health every turn. But, more often than not, the AI just KOs their own Pokémon by doing this. He didn't do that here, but it's still funny when they do.

I took him out with relative ease, even if his Croconaw is starting to get scarily strong.

After he shoved off, I put on some Repel (because Magmar only appears in the basement) and cleared the first floor. There's a great moment where you fight someone called "Firebreather Dick," and when you defeat them, he says something like "I'm nothing but white ash now," and when you read that, you're like, "Yeah, whatever buddy."

But then his overworld sprite really does turn white. It's the best. This is what I love about Silver right here—it just does all these weird little things sometimes, and if I recall, it wasn't until Generation VI that they started doing stuff like that again. It doesn't happen at all in HeartGold and SoulSilver, which are my least favorite Pokémon games, and that's a small part of why—they ironically feel bereft of any heart and soul.

Anyways, I dropped down to the basement, and my encounter was ANOTHER FUCKING RATTATA JESUS CHRIST I'M SO SICK OF THESE GODDAMN RATS FUCK OFF WILL YOU PLEASE

I also awoken the Legendary Beasts. In my childhood, I have seen two of the three: Suicune and Entei. I've only captured Suicune, and it happens to be the first thing I ever caught with my first Master Ball, so I have a bit of an emotional connection to it. I've seen Entei several times, but never caught it. As for Raikou, I've never seen it in entire my life. It'll be interesting to see when and where I'll find these roaming legendaries, and whether I'll actually be able to catch one of them (most likely not).

By the time I made it out of the Tower, the sun was down—which means it's time for me to try and fish for some Staryu with my new Good Rod. Now, there are several spots where I can try to fish for stuff—Route 40, Route 42, Olivine City, and even Cherrygrove City. That's right—I still need to encounter something all the way back there, since all I can do is fish for stuff.

Now, given that there are slightly different Pokémon available depending on where you fish and what kind of Rod you use, I had to think this through a little bit. I decided to fish on Route 40 first, and that whatever I end up catching will determine my next course of action. I'm going for Staryu, of course, but with a Good Rod, it only has a 10% chance of appearing. Until I get a Super Rod, I'm more likely to fish up a Krabby or a Magikarp. In the event that I do catch a Krabby, I could either keep it, or I could trade it to an NPC who gives you a Voltorb for one.

I wound up catching a Magikarp. Most people would be disappointed, but joke's on the game—this is my second favorite Pokémon. It's female, so I named it Verbette for obvious reasons. It's also level 20, which is both good and bad—on one hand, it'll evolve into Gyarados with a single level-up. On the other, had it been level 19 instead, she would learn Bite upon evolving. As of right now, she can't, so she'll be stuck with shitty Tackle until level 25, which is pretty sucky, especially since she would've been helpful against Morty.

Fishing in Olivine City is a little bit more interesting. There are two fishing spots—you have the city itself, where you can fish for Magikarp, Krabby, Corsola (during the day), or my prized Staryu, and you also have the harbor, where you can fish for Magikarp, Tentacool, Shellder, or Chinchou. With a Good Rod, Magikarp is 35% in both spots, so that's nothing to worry about. It was time for me to face facts—even though I like Staryu a lot and really want to use one, it's probably not what I need right now. Not to mention, it's simply too rare. I'm much better off trying to catch something that'll actually help me, and the harbor contains more Pokémon that might help me. Chinchou in particular would be a really nice Water/Electric type to help round out the team.

I decided to fish at the harbor, and I did end up catching a Chinchou. I named him Peckham, after George & Elizabeth Peckham—biologists who coined the term "Peckhamian mimicry" to refer to an angerfish's method of predation. Not only can I teach him Surf, he also happens to know the indispensable Thunder Wave, which is perhaps the strongest non-damaging move in the entire game. I'm very excited to add this little guy to the tea—NO. No. I'm stopping myself.

That said, having an Electric-type on my team means I probably don't have to worry so much about catching a Mareep on Route 42 anymore, so it probably wouldn't hurt to headbutt the trees on that route to try for a Heracross. Alas—I only found another Spearow, who I named April. Might as well keep that month theme going, I guess.

With not much else to do exploration-wise, and an exciting new addition to the team to train up, I decided it was time to train for Morty. I wanted to bring everyone up to level 24, as that seemed sufficient. To help train, I went back and forth between old routes, rematching anyone who calls me. I found Frieda, one of the weekday siblings who gives you a Poison Barb. The only Pokémon on my team that even remotely benefits from this thing is G, since she has Poison Sting, so I just gave it to her.

I also caught eyes with a Legendary Beast: Raikou, the one I've never even seen before. I was pretty happy about that. It ran away instantly, of course, in a route I wouldn't have been able to catch it in anyway, but it was still cool to see, even if this was before they fixed its ugly-ass sprite for Crystal.



Eventually, I decided to train in the Olivine Lighthouse. Jasmine, the sixth gym leader who I'll be fighting way later, is meant to be up there, tending to a sick Ampharos. This is one of the few instances where a gym leader can be seen outside of his or her gym, interacting with the world around them. This makes her among one of my favorites, and it helps that she uses a Steelix. I also found the TM for Swagger, as well as my first Rare Candy. I've been wondering where these things have been sitting around...

As soon as everyone was trained up, I fought Morty after boxing Alkali for Rocky and Montague for December. I came relatively prepared, and I even taught Attract to G, but in the end, I only needed the help of two Pokémon: Peckham and Sheila.

Peckham kept his Haunter and Gengar at bay with his Thunder Wave, shutting down their high speed, and hitting relatively hard with Surf when needed, and Sheila stepped in to clean up the mess with her Pursuit attack. I almost forgot that she engaged in the dark arts—Ghost's only weakness (other than itself), so it was able to hit pretty hard, even if it doesn't take advantage of Sheila's high Attack stat.

Beating Morty is exciting, because not only do I get one of the coolest moves in the game—Shadow Ball—I also get to Surf all over the place. There are so many areas all over Johto that I can Surf in, and the game has been teasing me with bodies of water all the fucking time, so I'll finally be able to access all that shit. This opens up so many doors, so of course, I proceeded to explore every single one.

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

I didn't do much yesterday (in terms of progress) except revisit a bunch of areas that have bodies of water so I can Surf over them. I acquired a lot of interesting stuff, lots of Rare Candies, a couple TMs, and battled a bunch of Cooltrainers. By the time I beat Chuck, the fifth gym leader, I had lost two Pokémon—one of them due to surprise, one of them due to stupidity.

One of the things I chose to do early on was visit Kanto, since I'm technically able to now. I can't do much there, but I can get two encounters from Route 27 and Tohjo Falls—the waterfall you need to climb up before you head to the Pokémon League. Obviously, I can't do that just yet, so I just focused on getting my encounters.

Route 27 gives me one of my last opportunities to catch an Arbok in the grass, but I can't access any of the grass yet, so I just headbutted a couple trees instead. Even though I found a low-encounter tree (the only type of tree that Pineco can be found in), a Beedrill popped out instead. Pineco is 30%, Beedrill is 5%. Go figure. I caught the thing and named it Magnum, despite the fact that I have utterly no use for a second Beedrill.

I'm sad to say it, but I may not need my first Beedrill all that much, either. She's lagging behind the team in terms of stats, and I only ever use her because she knows Cut. Her Twineedle attack is nice, but given that it's a Bug-type move, it's only situationally useful against the rare Psychic-type. If I give her up, though, I'm not sure who to replace her with just yet. Rocky is kind of falling off in terms of usefulness as well, accounting for his low attack power.

In Tohjo Falls, I decided to Surf near the waterfall instead of fish. That way, I can guarantee that I won't catch another Magikarp. What I found was a Seaking, which is kind of interesting I guess. I named it Peking (after Beijing, because I believe koi fish derive from China), but whether or not I use it will depend on how desperate I am for a Water-type (and given how many water routes I still have, that seems unlikely).

Also in Tohjo Falls, I found a Moon Stone, which I can use to evolve G into a Nidoqueen. I decided to wait to do that, however—perhaps Nidorina still learns a couple useful moves that Nidoqueen doesn't. To prepare, though, I bought all the elemental punches from the Goldenrod Department Store, since I know she can learn them all.

Route 34 has an interesting spot where a bunch of female Cooltrainers jump you, and they're situated in such a way that you have to fight two of them one after the other, without being able to escape, and the third one is considered the toughest. The first one had a Goldeen and a Seaking. The second one had a Staryu and a Starmie. At this point, I'm noticing a pattern. The third girl had a Shellder, and if you see the pattern too, she also has a Cloyster. This was a pretty scary fight all around, but everyone made it out okay, and I got a Soft Sand for my trouble. Alkali had a rare moment where Twineedle saved the day, since Starmie is weak to it, and G was able to smash that Cloyster with Double Kick.

That night, one of the last things I did was head over to the Ruins of Alph to get my encounter there. I was looking for a Smeargle, even though it's a very weak Pokémon that's extraordinarily difficult to train in this generation. It's just really cool. In order to reach the patch of grass within the ruins, however, I had to come here from a secret entrance in Union Cave.

Within this deeper section of Union Cave, there were a lot of elite trainers using some pretty scary Pokémon and higher-level techniques. This is where another party member died.

This one is relatively simple: Hiker Leonard sent out a level 26 Geodude. It unleashed a Magnitude 7 on Gnash that resulted in a critical hit, but Gnash managed to survive it. At this point, I'm not sure what to do. Since it knows Magnitude, it may very well use the move again, so I can't switch to Rocky, Peckham, or G, who would otherwise have no problem dispatching a Geodude. I also can't switch to Sheila or December, because they could get fucked up by a Rock Throw. The correct option, I felt, was to heal Gnash and hope he tanks the next hit a little bit harder.

And then it uses Self-Destruct.

Rocky would've been able to tank that hit, but honestly, I don't feel all that bad. I have enough Rattata and Raticate to represent the entire fucking Rat Pack, so losing another one isn't the worst thing in the world, especially to some random bullshit that I had little control over. It still kinda sucks, though. RIP Gnash—he was starting to become a fairly good leader.

Since I didn't originally take Montague with me, I used him to take Gnash's place.

Oddly enough, even though I fought a shit ton of Cooltrainers, none of them were able to take down any of my Pokémon.

I made it back into the ruins and, wouldn't you know it—I caught myself a Smeargle. I'm pretty delighted about that, since it's a 10% encounter, and I had a 90% chance of catching Natu instead, which would've been much lamer. That said, I have NO fucking idea how I'm gonna train this thing. I named her Rosalie, after a famous French painter more commonly known as Bonheur (but I didn't go with that, because the pronunciation is a little too close to "boner").

If you're unfamiliar with how Smeargle works, it doesn't learn any moves whatsoever except for Sketch every ten levels. Sketch is used to copy the last move used by your opponent, and it can copy literally any other move in the entire game. Once Smeargle Sketches a move, it stays on its moveset for good—so, for example, I used Sheila's False Swipe against her to help me safely catch it. She Sketched that move, and now False Swipe is part of her moveset until I can get rid of it. That kinda sucks, in retrospect, and I probably should've just tossed an Ultra Ball at it right away, but oh well.

She's level 22 at the moment, and the next level that she'll be able to Sketch something else is 31. She'll have a full moveset by 51, and I'll be able to get rid of False Swipe at 61. That's not exactly the best news, but it's fine. For now, she'll just serve as the team mascot, I guess.

Since I was pretty much finished Surfing around, I went ahead and solved all the puzzles in the Ruins of Alph to unlock every Unown letter for no reason, and took a break for the night.

I started playing against this morning, and this is where my STUPID death happened. I'm still mad about it.

I Surfed my way down to Cianwood City to pick up some medicine for that sick Ampharos that Jasmine is taking care of, and also to take on the next gym. On the water route leading to the city, I caught a Tentacruel and named it Cthluha (though, if I use her, I'm planning on changing that name as I am not 100% happy with it). I can't quite access the Whirl Islands just yet, since I need the Whirlpool HM, but I can skirt around them and fight against all the Swimmers there, at least. This is where Peckham evolved into a Lanturn after slaying a couple Gyarados, which is pretty awesome. Not to jinx anything, but he's really turning out to be an excellent member of the team.

At Cianwood, I went ahead and took the Shuckle from the boy who lends you one. I'm considering it my encounter here, just because he lets you keep it as long as you actually take care of it. That is, if I ever happen to find myself using a goddamn Shuckle.

I picked up the Secret Potion and started training for the gym. Level cap: 30.

I decided I'd be good enough at level 29, especially since I need Montague to evolve at level 30 anyway, so I need to make sure he's super happy tonight. I also decided to cave in and use the Moon Stone on G, turning her into a Nidoqueen. The only moves she would've learned are Bite and Fury Swipes, both of which I would've replaced with an elemental punch anyway, so evolving her earlier than expected didn't seem like such a bad idea after all. I even taught her Thunder Punch, in case I decided to use her against Chuck, since I know he uses a Poliwhirl.

Nidoqueen is a very versatile Pokémon—it can even learn Surf! As you could imagine, I was very stoked to be able to use it.

And this is where tragedy struck—or, I would say tragedy, but honestly, I'm just a HUGE fucking idiot. You will be angry.

Against Chuck, I led with Sheila, since she has a 4x resistance to Fighting-type attacks. His Primeape was very easy, and she was able to take it out with three Quick Attacks. As for his second and final Pokémon, it was Poliwrath, just like I remembered. Since I know it won't go for Dynamic Punch, I launched another Quick Attack just to see how much I'd be able to hurt it, and it only did about 10%. And that's with a Pink Bow boost, AND from the strongest physical attacker on my team. This thing needs to be hit HARD.

However, the Poliwrath used Mind Reader on me. This was... interesting, and confusing. Chuck's signature move, Dynamic Punch, is a 50% accurate move with 150 power (accounting for STAB) and a 100% chance to confuse on hit. Mind Reader is obviously on his moveset to boost that move's accuracy to 100%, but... why would he want to use Dynamic Punch on a Scyther? Does he know how resistant she is?

I struck him with another Quick Attack, this time nailing it with a crit. His next move: Hypnosis. Okay, now Mind Reader makes sense, but my mind still isn't at ease, because now my Scyther has been put to sleep. I thought, I should probably switch out before it starts wreaking havoc with some crazy Water-type move. It wouldn't know Hydro Pump, though, so maybe it only knows Water Gun? It surely wouldn't know Surf, since Gym Leaders never use HMs on their Pokémon!

Still, I had to make a snap decision. What I should've done was obvious and right before my eyes, but I didn't do it. I should have just switched to Peckham, my Lanturn. Not only will it resist any Water-type move this stupid thing has, he'll easily be able to two-shot it with Spark. This Pokémon was practically meant for this sort of thing.

But, for whatever silly fucking reason, I decided to switch to G, my fucking Nidoqueen, instead. Yes, fully aware of the fact that Nidoqueen is part Ground-type and suffers super-effective damage to Water-type moves—one of the most BASIC and WELL-KNOWN type matchups in the entire fucking game.

But do you know why I wasn't worried? Two reasons—Nidoqueen is pretty tanky. She has the highest Special Defense on my team, and the second highest HP. Even if this Poliwrath uses Surf, Poliwrath itself has a relatively low Special Attack stat, so theoretically, Nidoqueen should be able to tank the hit. Secondly, I taught Thunder Punch to G shortly before the fight, just for this occasion. I just wanted her to have another cool little moment where she takes out another gym leader. It would've been fun, whereas Peckham was too "obvious" and would've made the fight too easy and less exciting. That's sort of where my mind was going.

So, I sent G out.

Big, big mistake.

The Poliwrath used Surf, and G took the blow full force—a critical hit, too.

You know what's funny, though? The crit mattered.

Had it not been a crit, she would've survived. She actually would've tanked the hit.

I went down to Pokémon Showdown's damage calculator, plugged in a bunch of numbers, and as it turns out, a Surf from a level 30 Poliwrath would've only been able to 2HKO a level 29 Nidoqueen, 15 out of 16 times—even if you assume the Poliwrath had the best possible stats, and gave Nidoqueen the worst possible stats. Absolutely unbelievable, but you can try it yourself—the numbers don't lie.

Basically, I made a REALLY fucking dumb decision that even 5-year-old me wouldn't have made, but the chance of that decision actually mattering in the end came down to a 1 in 16 critical hit. Do I deserve that? Maybe. Should I be all that upset? Probably not. It's a nuzlocke—shit like this happens. It's just starting to feel like the game is actively fighting against me using the Pokémon that I want. I know that's nonsense, but I don't know. It's frustrating.

I finished the Poliwrath with the Pokémon I should've used from the start and got my badge.

I can use Fly to get the hell out of here now, but honestly, after a loss like that, I'm not even in the mood to play right now. Most of my losses, though tragic, were easy enough to replace—even when I lost my entire team to Whitney. But this time, I'm not sure who to replace G with. No one else can really match up to her versatility, and if I happen to catch another Nido in Kanto, I'll be sure not to use it like a fucking moron.

There's a sixth slot empty on my team right now, and I have no idea who to fill it with. I'll think about it later.

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

These games are the best

i'm normally not okay with using legendaries in nuzlockes, but i'm lowkey wishing i get an opportunity to catch a suicune

These games are the best

i'm normally not okay with using legendaries in nuzlockes, but i'm lowkey wishing i get an opportunity to catch a suicune

Suicune is easily in my top 3 favourite Pokemon of all time. Getting her is a bitch in GS, though. That's why I like Crystal just a little more.

Damn it now I kinda want to play. I wish I had my original cartridge cuz I could play it on my big screen via Gamecube.

My team is in shambles.

Here's my situation: I have five badges, and I need three more. After beating Chuck, the sixth gym leader is technically Jasmine, but due to my level cap rule, I'm actually going to be fighting Pryce first. Even though he's the seventh leader, the level of his strongest Pokémon (31) is actually three levels weaker than Jasmine's strongest Pokémon (34). So, not only am I having to fight the gyms out of sequential order, my level cap has risen by a mere ONE level, from 30 to 31.

On top of that, G's death has actually shaken the balance of my team a lot more than I accounted for—not that things weren't tenuous before, but shit's even worse now.

The most reliable members of my team right now are Sheila, December, and Peckham.

Montague is caught in pre-evolution limbo right now. I need him to evolve precisely at level 30 so that he can learn both Bite and Confuse Ray, but I can't just evolve him whenever I want. He needs to be happy enough, and it's just taking a lot longer than I bargained for. I taught him Shadow Ball to tide him over, but he's still kind of a lame duck on the team at the moment.

Rocky, despite his weak attacks, still has some utility for his typing, extremely high Defense, and access to Strength now that G's dead. He also still has Headbutt in case I want to use that for an encounter. But besides that, he's still relatively underwhelming, and feels more like a load that I'm constantly switching into and out of my team. He's not consistently reliable, and I can't evolve him.

Alkali, besides the fact that she knows Cut, is really starting to become a liability. Her extremely weak and underwhelming attacks aren't doing her any favors, and her niche of being able to hit Psychic-types super-effectively is starting to fall by the wayside a bit—especially considering that any Psychic-type that's fast enough can hit her super-effectively, too. I got her this far, and she's had a pretty good run as far as Beedrill are concerned, but I honestly think it's time to retire her. I'll probably only be using her if I need to Cut something down.

I don't exactly have a rainbow of options in my box, either: I have a Zubat, Spearow, several Rattata/Raticate, another Beedrill, Poliwag, Pidgey, Magikarp, Miltank, Shuckle, Seaking, Tentacruel, and Smeargle.

Zubat, Spearow, and Raticate are all out. I'm sick of trying with Raticate, Zubat is too difficult to train for so little reward, and I already have a pretty reliable Fearow, so I don't need another. Obviously, I don't need Beedrill either.

Poliwag isn't bad, but I'd rather use a Politoed than a Poliwrath, and I can't. It's also redundant with Lanturn. Pidgey has the same problem—it's a solid choice, but it's just too redundant for my team.

Shuckle is Shuckle.

I'm racist against Miltank.

Seaking kinda sucks, and even though Tentacruel is awesome, again—I already have Lanturn. Tentacruel will be my last resort choice, along with Magikarp, who's on the verge of evolving into a Gyarados. Whether or not I catch the Red Gyarados will play a factor in whether I use Verbette—and yeah, I am planning to catch the Red Gyarados. There's nothing else worth catching in the Lake of Rage anyway, except for another Pineco attempt.

And then there's Smeargle. That's right.

As of right now, my top 3 picks are Magikarp, Tentacruel, and Smeargle. Given that my new level limit is 31 now, that gives Smeargle just enough leverage to relearn Sketch, so I can try to teach her some move other than False Swipe. Which move is that, you may wonder?

Well, I gave it some thought, and I think the best move for her to Sketch right now is Transform.

In this generation, Transform is simple—you copy the defending Pokémon's appearance, type, attacks, stats, and stat changes. The only thing it doesn't copy is HP, making the strategy somewhat risky, but it's an incredibly fun gimmick exclusive only to Ditto, and that's where I'm gonna have to Sketch it from. Also, in this generation only, the color palette of the transforming Pokémon stays the same, which is kind of interesting. Another downside, though, is that you only have five power points for every one of the moves you copy.

It's kind of bizarre, and it might just be the silliest idea ever, but honestly, this might just be the only way for Rosalie to reliably battle anything. Otherwise, I'm basically teaching it one attack every ten levels. At least with Transform, she'll be able to have virtually unlimited options, so long as she's not pitted against something too dangerous. If I want this to work out, though, she does need to reach level 31, and she's gonna need a lot of help with that. So I'm taking her along.

Hopefully some day, she'll be more than a mascot.

Here's something I actually forgot about—back in Ecruteak City, the second of the two towers, the Tin Tower, is blocked off until you beat Morty, which I've already done by now. This is where I can get Ho-Oh, but I'm not interested in catching legendaries. I'm interested in having a second chance at Gastly. At night, there's an 80% chance for them to appear, so I'm definitely gonna be going for that once I have the opportunity. For now, the tower is being blocked by a person looking for one of Ho-Oh's feathers, so that'll have to wait.

Since I already burned Route 42 searching for a Heracross, that's out of the cards for now, too.

Other areas I still need to find Pokémon in:
- Cherrygrove City. Staryu can be fished here, but I'm waiting to get the Super Rod to increase my chances.
- Mt. Mortar. Still need to get the HM for Waterfall before I go for Tyrogue, and it looks like I'll need Flash as well. Ugh.
- Route 45. This is a route I gained access to awhile ago after traversing Dark Cave for a bit. You're supposed to use Flash for this cave, too, but I'm not gonna lie—I cheated a little. There's nothing much for you to get anyway, so it's not a big deal. Anyway, from where I was able to access this route, there were no grass patches available, but there will be later on.
- Whirl Islands. I need the HM for Whirlpool to go inside, but honestly, there's not a whole lot of interesting shit here, either. Can't get Lugia. The best I can hope for is a Krabby or maybe a Seel. Neither are exciting options, but I can trade the Krabby.

You see why I'm so desperate now. I really, really wish I hadn't lost G.

As I Surfed over to Mahogany Town, one of the game's more obvious flaws really started to shine through a little bit: the levels are SO all over the place. I just got done getting my fifth badge, and my entire team is approaching level 30. But now I'm on my way to Mahogany Town—a LATE GAME town, home of the seventh gym leader, yet all the trainers are carrying Pokémon in their teens. I understand that the game probably expects you to visit this area much earlier, but come on. These guys are criminally weak.

Anyway, when I eventually made it to Mahogany, my first encounter was...

Nothing, because there are no Pokémon available here whatsoever. There are a couple of headbutt trees, but they're hardcoded not to have anything drop out of them for some reason. Oh well. The route to the east is blocked off by a dude who sells Rage Candy Bars, the gym is blocked off by a fat guy who wants you to visit the Lake of Rage, and there's no Poké Mart. Just a shady shop that sells weak items and creepy shit like Slowpoke Tails. Oh, and the radio is playing some creepy-ass noise on the far right frequency. Obviously, Team Rocket is afoot.

This noise is enraging the Magikarp in the Lake of Rage, causing them to evolve prematurely into Gyarados, and causing the Red Gyarados to appear, and it's up to me to calm them all down.

I went north, reaching Route 43, and decided to wait until night to catch something here. This eliminates the chance of me finding a Pidgeotto, which I absolutely don't need, and introduces a chance to catch a Noctowl or even a Venonat. I can also catch Girafarig and Flaaffy here. All of these are welcome additions, though Girafarig would be most appreciated.

And I found one, thankfully. It's a 30% encounter all day, and since its name is palindromic, I decided I should give it a name that's spelled the same forwards and backwards. I thought about naming her Reviver, because she'll be the one to revive my broken team from the sorry state that it's in, but I decided to just name her Madam instead. That'll work fine.

Fighting the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage is one of my favorite childhood moments with this game, so it was awesome to relive it. Though, sadly, I failed to catch it this time around. I chose Peckham to deal with it, mostly because he has Thunder Wave and can easily paralyze it. After bringing it down to red health, I wasted all of my Ultra Balls, all of my Great Balls, and even my Heavy Ball on the thing. Rarely would it even shake more than twice.

A stubborn bastard, it kept using Dragon Rage, which is a very scary move for me, because it always does exactly 40 damage no matter what. I wasted a lot of Lemonade for this. It also kept using Thrash, which is a scary move on its own, but it's really bad when trying to catch something, because when the Gyarados stops thrashing about, it tuckers itself out and becomes confused. At this point, it's at risk of knocking itself out and preventing me from catching it entirely.

Which it did. No Red Gyarados for me, guys. At least I still obtained the Red Scale, which I can use this to get an Exp. Share from Mr. Pokémon later.

That's definitely a huge shame, but there's not much I can really do about that.

Later, I helped Lance fight Team Rocket in their secret hideout. Another really cool sequence that's tons of fun, even if the rockets are all very easy to fight. Rocky wound up carving a niche as the perfect shield against random exploding Pokémon like Koffing and Electrode. Normally, moves like that are an immediate death sentence for any Pokémon, but Rock-types don't give a fuck.

That said, for this area, I actually wanted to catch one of the Electrode that's powering up the machine that's creating that bad radio frequency, but sadly, the first one immediately blew up on me. Once again, no encounters for me. All I was able to salvage from this entire area was a Girafarig, and I'm not entirely sure if I'm even gonna use it.

After giving me the HM for Whirlpool, I bid farewell to Lance and flew over to Mr. Pokémon's house and obtained the Exp. Share. I immediately gave it to Rosalie and flew back to Cianwood, since I can now access the Whirl Islands. It's time for some serious training.

PARTY:


BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

Hey, can you speed up battles in the re-release?

Hey, can you speed up battles in the re-release?

No, unfortunately.

Fun fact: When using Pokémon Stadium to play the games, there was actually a feature that allowed you to speed up the gameplay by up to 4x. You had to unlock it, but it was there.

I think it exists in Stadium 2 as well, but I'm not sure. I think it's the only time there's ever been an "official" way to increase game speed on a legal copy.

but the only things they offer here are Abra, Sandshrew, and Dratini. I don't really need or want any of these

>opportunity to own the literally GOAT pokemon
>"I don't want this"

This is why bad stuff happened to you and you deserve it all.

Charizard was always the better dragon, fight me.

I actually really love Dragonair, though. If Dragonair didn't go such a drastic change when it evolved, and retained its slender blue design in some way, I'd probably like Dragonite more, because it always looked kinda goofy to me.

wow

>multiscale
>total base stat of 600
>dragon type best type, puny fire is SHIT (2x resisted by dragon)
>electric, fire, dragon, water, flying, ice - Dragonite does it all both special and physical
>small wings for extreme mobility
>kind looking but fierce as a tiger
>what's that, you've got too much HP to die in a single move? HYPER BEAM bitch
>standing in water next to a lighthouse as a 90ft monster in the mist? Would love to see Charizard do this (oh wait he dies if water hits his tail lol)



Besides, you can't even get Charizard in this game, can you? Do what's right, Verb. Get that Dratini.

YouTube

related

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.

This user has been blacklisted from posting on the forums. Until the blacklist is lifted, all posts made by this user have been hidden and require a Sep7agon^® SecondClass Premium Membership to view.