i just call it the "super nintendo"

what that mouth do

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:

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:

I'm pretty sure there's dozens of mods out right now that do the exact thing as this

but this time you get to pay and support bethesda, so that automatically makes it the better option

Quote from: FatherlyNick on September 27, 2017, 04:11:11 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 27, 2017, 04:06:37 PM

Quote from: FatherlyNick on September 27, 2017, 04:04:06 PM

Quote from: challengerX on September 27, 2017, 03:48:18 PM

Quote from: Aether on September 27, 2017, 03:17:23 PM

Currently in one of the most boring times of my life. I need change desperately.

I feel you on that brother

What do you want to change?

Where I am, what I do, who I'm around. Everything.

Not enough money to get you out of there?

Nah money isn't the issue. I wish it was.

no you don't

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.


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:

gonna try to watch lupin, psycho pass, FLCL, one punch man, and haruhi next

Quote from: Verbatim on September 26, 2017, 03:12:08 PM

wouldn't say excited, but i'm certainly not afraid to die or of what whatever comes after

Have you ever been in a near death experience?

every time i'm on the road

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.

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RIP:

it's pretty fun, but it can get boring

i always preferred puyo puyo

Can we talk for a minute about how fucking awesome Azalea Town's music is?


Obviously, this whole game just cascades a waterfall of nostalgia over me, but it's this song, this one song right here, that just... DOES it for me. I can't explain it. I just listen to this track, and I'm literally a child again. It's wonderful. I can't say if it's my favorite song in the game, but it's certainly the one that's taken me back like nothing else has so far.

Anyway, I made it back to Violet City, and for better or for worse, Doherty the Bellsprout wound up in better hands. The dude's name is Kyle, apparently. Don't worry, I still have Patches. In exchange, I got Rocky the Onix from Kyle, whose level is always copied from the Bellsprout that you present him. In this case, he was level 6. It's unlikely that I'll ever need him for anything in the foreseeable future, but it's just nice to purge out some of the duplicates from my squad. I like variety.

From here on, the order of the things I did may be slightly off before heading to Ilex Forest, but it's honestly not a big deal.

I traveled all the way back to Azalea to do a little bit of training for my fight against Bugsy, the next gym leader. The level of his strongest Pokémon, Scyther, is 16, so I tried not to exceed that. Though, this proved to be a complete non-issue that I didn't have to "try" for at all, since Quill is a Fire-type, and Ember is known to mercilessly destroy those pesky Bug-types.

Nah, the fight I actually WAS kind of worried about was the second rival fight that takes place after defeating Team Rocket at Slowpoke Well. Since I've already done this, attempting to head west into Ilex Forest will now trigger the second rival fight, and there's no way out of it. He has three tough Pokémon in his party. From my memory, I remember getting my ass beat by his scary Croconaw, but he also has an annoying Gastly and Zubat, too. Not good news.

That said, I took care of Bugsy first, since he's such easy pickin's and all. Quill went in so hard, he evolved into Quilava, who is probably one of my all-time favorite middle stages (and I tend not to like four-legged Pokémon that much). It just looks so cool.



And damn, it's about time something on my team evolves. Everyone else takes so long.

Ironically, I actually didn't use Quill at all during the Bugsy fight. I let Rattaboy, Bram, and Blair take him out instead. Patches found himself without much use once again, but he shouldn't feel too bad about that. He kind of carried the team through Union Cave, so I suppose he deserves a break.

With the Hive Badge now in my possession, I knew I had to go fight the rival next. Since this fight is much scarier, I went back to Union Cave and trained everyone up to level 14.

It was during this training session that my Egg finally hatched, making Togepi an official member of the team. I couldn't think of a good nickname for him at first, so I thought it would funny to just call him "Nick," but then I went with the extended "Nicholas" instead. I always felt there was this holy, angelic air about this name that seemed to fit a Togepi well (and especially Togetic), so there you go.

If you call up Professor Elm after the Egg hatches, he'll ask you to stop by his lab (all the way back in the starting town) so that he can see it. If you do this, all he gives you in return is an Everstone, which is used to prevent your Pokémon from evolving. Sounds pretty useless, but I decided to head over there anyway, mostly so that I could actually train baby Nicholas in a safe location. You know, where he's not absolutely guaranteed to die. He's just a baby, after all. The amount footsteps I'll be taking will also boost his happiness by a lot, which is something I have to do anyway if I want him to evolve any time soon.

Since he only knows Growl and Charm, I taught him the move Swift from that TM I picked up to give him some kind of fighting chance. Seems like a fitting attack for him anyway (shooting stars). With STAB, it actually has 90 power, and it never misses, so there was no reason not to teach him the move.

To my surprise, he actually held his own against some of the tougher Pokémon in those early routes, and eventually learned the move Metronome. Normally, this is one of my favorite moves, but I strictly prohibit its use in nuzlockes (unless I'm feeling cheeky) because there's a 1/120 chance that Nicholas will end up blowing himself up with Self-destruct or Explosion. That's simply something that I cannot allow to happen, even when it's such a remote chance.

Eventually, I brought Nicholas up to level 11 and thought he was caught up enough for me to move on. It was time for me to fight the rival.

As I made my way back, I briefly revisited the Ruins of Alph to solve the Kabuto puzzle just for fun, and I used Repels to prevent myself from having to catch any of the Unown in the chamber. In order to get my encounter here, I need the move Surf, so I'm not quite ready yet.

Back in Azalea, I made my way towards the forest when, of course, my rival stopped me in my tracks. After refusing to believe that I was the one who stopped Team Rocket down Slowpoke Well, he challenged me.

He led with his Gastly, and I led with Rattaboy. This is perfect, since Gastly can't touch Rattaboy at all. I thought about switching to Blair so that we could have a cheeky Gastly fight, but nah, that would've been stupid. The obvious answer was to spam Mud Slap, which is not only super effective, but reduces Hypnosis's accuracy to near-nothing. I'm sure glad I taught him this move.

Even so, the Gastly was still faster, and tried to put Rattaboy to sleep twice in a row, which would've been horrifying, but it missed both times thanks to that Accuracy fall.

I fully expected him to send out his Croconaw next, but he went for his Zubat instead. What makes this thing annoying is its impeccable accuracy with Supersonic and its powerful Bite attack, which is a Dark-type move in this generation, so Blair is out of commission for this matchup. I stuck with Rattaboy, since he needed a level-up anyway, and just tried to Hyper Fang it to death. This worked splendidly.

Finally, Croconaw came out, and this thing was a level 16 monster with Water Gun, putting Quill out of commission. I seem to recall this thing having Bite as well, but I must have just been thinking about Zubat, because it didn't seem to use that move. Knowing this, I managed to put it to sleep with Blair and cut it down with a few Vine Whips from Patches, who also resisted his Water Gun attacks.

Not only did I win this fight with no casualties, I got to witness another great fight where my entire team plays off their strengths and weaknesses. There's a lot more synergy here than it seems, and it's gonna be exciting to see what kind of role Nicholas will play once he's at a proper level.

With the rival fight taken care of, I was free to enter the forest. It's here that I'll obtain the TM for Headbutt, which is a move I can use outside of battle to bump short little trees in the overworld to try to shake something rare or interesting out of it. I'm on the hunt for two things: a Heracross and a Pineco, both of which are some of my favorites, but I've never actually seen them before in the game, because it's such a weird and obscure mechanic.

But first, I had to teach someone on my team Cut, the infamous HM, because there's a skinny tree blocking the way towards the dude who gives you the Headbutt TM (and the next route).

Sorry, Patches, but you're getting the shaft again.

I made a beeline for the Headbutt dude, making sure to use plenty of Repel so that I don't waste my encounter on something silly like an Oddish. There are three areas where I can still encounter things: Here, Azalea, and the route just before Azalea. The forest and Azalea are considered "forest" regions, so I'll be looking for Pineco there. The route before Azalea is considered a mountain region, and that's where I hope to find a Heracross.

I eventually got Headbutt and taught it to Quill, replacing Tackle. I honestly could've taught it to Nicholas, so that may have been a mistake, but oh well.

It only took a couple tries to get my Ilex Forest encounter: An Exeggcute. This is probably the last thing I wanted to find, because it's such a hard thing to nickname, but I decided to name it Aubergine. Because it's an eggplant. I don't really wanna use an Exeggcute, but maybe I'll be desperate some day.

In Azalea, a Weedle fell from the tree. That's more along the lines of what I want, but still not the most exciting encounter. I named her Alkali. I might actually use her, since I really like Beedrill.

In the Route just before Azalea Town, my encounter was a Spearow (that was still sleeping). I named him December, after the Fearow I took to the Hall of Fame in my Blue nuzlocke (who was named November).

On a whim, however, I decided to headbutt the tree a second time. What did I find?

A motherfucking Heracross.

But since it's my second encounter, I don't get to have it at all. Son of a bitch. It's the first Heracross I've ever seen in my life, too. Even checking its dex entry doesn't reveal its nest anywhere.

I did take away something useful from the encounter, though: if you take too long to catch it or whatever, it will just run away after a few turns, just like the Legendary Beasts do. That's good to know, and it makes me proud to have Blair on my party, since she has both Hypnosis (which makes everything easier to catch) and Mean Look, which prevents things like Heracross from ever running away. I'll have to remember not to get rid of that move if I'm ever tempted to do so.

Blair in general has been a little more cooperative lately, like she's finally warming up to the team. Quill, too, seems to be taking this whole "nuzlocke" thing a lot more seriously, and is assuming the leadership role a lot more.

After picking up some Charcoal for Quill to hold (it boosts his Fire-type attacks by a little bit), I made it through Ilex Forest and began to make my way towards Goldenrod City.

PARTY:


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Quote from: Tammy on September 17, 2017, 02:24:17 PM

ppl complaining about this being in serious are dumb af

this is an article about fake news

sorry its not spelled out for you haha

tbh you're scientifically illterate enough that I thought you posted it genuinely believing it was true.

pretty sure he thought it was legit

he's just trying to cover it up now

Just had my first death tonight. Pretty upset about it since it was completely my fault and easily preventable. More on that later.

Fucking traps makes you gay.

False