Y'know, I never realized how bad I was at the whole "don't let your Pokémon faint" thing until I started this Nuzlocke run.
Not even one gym in and I've already lost two guys thanks to my terrible planning. I mean, I hated those Pokémon but they still had their uses and they only died because I needed someone to take hits...
When I say it like that it sounds bad...
For those unfamiliar with this Nuzlocke thing, it's basically playing a Pokémon game with some extra rules like:
- If a Pokémon faints
it's deadyou put it in the Box or release it. - You can only catch the first thing that pops out every route.
- When all of your guys are dead it's Game Over.
...If you're asking me why I'm doing a Pokémon Nuzlocke it's because quarantine is long and I had nothing else to do.
Last time I had just recently killed obtained the game's first gym badge and had caught a Purrloin that I named Katto, in honor of the recently deceased Ratto.
Some story stuff happened after the gym battle but that isn't important, after that I caught an electric zebra which was named ThunderHorse.
The rest of my time was spent making sure ThunderHorse (and Katto) could actually take a hit. I was lucky enough to find an Audino (a somewhat rare Pokémon that, once defeated, gives the Pokémon that fought it huge amounts of experience) and that made the process a little faster.
Unfortunately, Katto's training proved he could not take a hit and died after being nuked by a Patrat.
The bloody thing was almost dead and it just crit poor Katto.
These things continue to be the bane of my existence.
After Katto's traumatic death (which made me even more scared of critical hits) I decided to take it easier and wait until the next town, which had some Pokémon that could make ThunderHorse's training easier (Pokémon that he's strong against).
On the meantime I simply trained the two big players of the team: Baconator and Lil'Doge.
Making it to the next city was not a problem and once there I was stopped by Cheren, one of the game's rivals, who decided to give me some berries or something.
Welcome to Nacrene City
The only thing of interest in this little city is to challenge the gym but my PTSD induced flashbacks from the first gym remind me grind a little in the next route before going into the gym, just to make sure none of my Pokémon die this time.
This next route isn't really a "route", it's more like the entrance to Pinwheel Forest and it shares the name with the forest in question, which you can only enter once you get Nacrene's City gym badge.
...What this means is that I can only catch a Pokémon in these two areas, because they share the name.
Buuuuuuuut! -I have actually looked it, turns out that there's an optional rule here by the name of "Pinwheel Clause" (named after this specific place) which lets you treat two areas in a Nuzlocke run that share the same name as two different areas so long as "the type of Pokémon you encounter in each area are different enough".
There's a lot of other "clauses" as well which deal with different things, most of them are optional rules to make your experience more difficult (or easier).
...I'm still not sure if I want to use this one though, it kinda feels like cheating.
Aside from this tidbit there's also a nurse here who, after challenging me to a Pokémon battle and losing, can heal my Pokémon every time I talk to her so it makes it easier to grind here now that I have a Pokémon center so close to me.
Immediately after I step on the first block of tall grass I find the next member of my team...
I hoped it was a Timburr, which would have helped with this gym.
Instead I got this abomination of nature.
Gen 5 is my favorite Pokémon generation but I have to admit that some of the designs in it are just... weird.
I mean, what the hell is this? A human tadpole? A man's soul stored in the form of a tadpole? The sins of humanity contained within the body of a giant tadpole?
I just know that it looks weird and that it makes me uncomfortable.
Anyway, this thing can cover the rock and ground weakness in the team and eventually does evolve into something decent.
I shall name you... Wotr.
After catching Wotr and traning ThunderHorse a little I switched back to Baconator and decided to focus on her a little bit more (because she's the only one with Fighting type moves and that helps in Nacrene's gym).
Baconator's traning consisted of her bullying fighting against preschoolers until their Pokémon could breathe no more.
Preschooler's Pokémon continue to be the best target to level up a trainer's team.
And then we moved on to a giant rock in the middle of a forest and trained like people train in those Kung Fu movies (we punched the big rock until it broke or something)
We only got to break a little of the stone tough, but it didn't matter, because Baconator is ready.
Eventually I got tired and decided to just go for it, so I headed towards the gym...
Oh no it's the creepy guy. Quick, call the Pokémon cops!
...And was stopped by this guy again, who asked me a philosophical question I didn't want to answer (because he's weird and also because stranger danger)
He proceeded to have a Pokémon battle with me (without my consent may I add) and was soundly defeated by the power of ThunderHorse and Baconator's overpoweredness.
He then proceeded to ramble about the legendary Pokémon from the other game and was off.
This finally let me challenge the gym! ...But first I had to heal my team, just to make sure they don't die from my overconfidence.
This city's gym is a normal type gym, which means that fighting type attacks have an advantage against these creatures.
I made some last minute changes to my team's movesets. Baconator only had one move that was effective in this gym and it wasn't something that could deal enough damage so I replaced it with Rock Smash, which I received from a very nice lady back in Pinwheel Forest (Baconator learns Arm Thrust, not a bad move but it's not reliable enough in this situation). I also had Lil'Doge learn it just in case.
Then I headed into the gym and...
Turns out gyms in Unova have to double as another type of business or they go bankrupt.
...I was stopped by a scientist/museum guy/museum director guy.
He was nice though, lead me to the entrance of the actual gym and I was on my way to winning my gym badge.
This gym's gimmick is fun, you're given some clues and have to find bookshelves that have the books with the indications as to what you have to do next, eventually you find a button that opens a secret passage and make it to gym leader Lenora's office/room.
I like trains.
I kinda cheated here, by looking up the gym leader's team. I've read that some people have difficulties here and it's because of her Watchhog, Patrat's demonic evolution.
I assumed the difficulty was in Watchhog's Hypnosis, because the berries Cheren gives you are so that your Pokémon wake up on their own after being put to sleep (thinking it was some sort of message from the devs to make me aware of it).
Here we go...
It's the battle of the century! The Demonic Watchog vs the Crispy Baconator!
But the real danger was on a different move.
Retaliate.
This move's power doubles if the Pokémon uses it the turn after a team member dies.
...I'll just tell you what just happened.
Baconator kills Herdier before he has a chance to react.
Lenora calls Watchog, it's her last Pokémon.
Baconator uses Rock Smash, it takes half of Watchog's HP.
Watchog uses Retaliate and takes Baconator's HP from 51 to 3.
My butthole clenches as Baconator's Health rapidly decreases.
I've never felt so stressed in my life, Jesus Christ.
I heal Baconator and use Rock Smash to murderize Watchog.
Gym Leader Lenora is surprisingly happy even after having her entire team murdered by an angery pig.
Yeah, I'm definitely grinding for the next gym. I'm not letting any of these guys die anymore... My heart can't take it ;-;
Lenora gives me the "Basic Badge", allowing Pokémon up to level 30 to listen to what I have to say, and gives me the TM for Retaliate... which is kinda useless because it's only truly useful if i'm letting my Pokémon faint, which I am not.
I think this is as far as I'm taking this today... This turn of events has me a little shook.
...These nuzlocke things are actually somewhat stressful, y'know? Once you play it you realize it's designed to make you care about your Pokémon, either because that's the only team you get or because you actually bond with these virtual creatures.
It's why I was affected by what happened in that gym fight, I was genuinely scared I was going to lose Baconator, which is kinda funny if you say it out loud.
Anyways, thanks for reading everyone and remember to stay safe!
The ones that are dead...
Current Party:
Before the fight with Lenora.
