#(it was the two teammates with worse movesets that I caught later on)

[midnite-enjoyer]

GUESS WHO BEAT CLASSIC MODE ON POKEROGUE FOR THE FIRST TIME

[narellenuzlockes-blog]

Black 2 Nuzlocke - Update 1

BW2 is my least favorite set of games in the entire pokemon franchise. I really hate Unova in general, but the sequels are SO much worse than the originals.

But I have this game, since I collect all of the games, and should really try to get through it at least once. Maybe I’ll like it more than I expected if I get past the dumb parts. Or maybe the whole thing is dumb. We’ll see. This is my second go at nuzlocking it.

RULES:

1. Only catch the first encounter per route/area.    1A. Cheatiest dupes clause in the world. If I encounter a pokemon from an evolutionary line I’ve caught before, I can ignore it every time I encounter it. The first pokemon I’ve never caught before becomes the first encounter. If a route only has pokemon I’ve encountered before, I can catch the first dupe I encounter.    1B. Shiny clause. If a shiny is encountered I MUST try to catch it, regardless of dupes or if I’ve caught anyone else. If I want to use it and I’ve already got a pokemon from that route/area, I have to move that mon to the DEAD box. And nobody leaves the DEAD box. 2. If a pokemon faints, it’s DEAD and must be forever stored in the PC’s DEAD box.    2A. If a shiny dies, its dead for this run, but can be traded to regular games because who would ever get rid of a shiny for real? 3. All pokemon must be nicknamed with Highly Suspect song names (or shortened versions that fit in the allotted space). If I run out of songs, I can use the band members’ names or reuse names from dead pokemon. Or some alternative naming convention I’ll have to figure out later. 4. Learn to use stat moves and stuff! All pokemon must have their moveset used to the best of my ability, not just overleveling and spamming attacks. No cop out movesets. 5??? Pokemon can only be leveled up to the gym leader’s highest level pokemon (unless they get an accidental extra level or so). They can be as overleveled as I want for every other battle ever. (This might mean overleveling is allowed for E4 etc.) If this is too hard for me while learning to better use stat moves and such, I might give up on it.

So I started out the game with a female Oshawott. I named her Lydia, after the Highly Suspect song. I’m going to name everyone in this locke after their songs, until I run out of songs. (They are a somewhat newer band, there are only so many to choose from.)

Lydia, female Oshawott. Ability Torrent. Met at Lv. 5 in Aspertia City. Rash Nature. Alert to Sounds.

I restarted the intro a few times trying to get through the rival battle, because I was having terrible luck with it, but Lydia was the one to make it through.

On Route 19, the only possible encounters were Patrat and Purrloin. Purrloin is pretty terrible, so I was really hoping for a Patrat. I got:

Claudeland, male Purrloin. Ability Unburden. Met at Lv. 2 on Route 19. Hardy Nature. Sturdy body.

I wasn’t super excited about Claude, but I need teammates, so I’ll make the most of it. I gave him a good name, hopefully it will be lucky for him. Ground him up to Lv. 5, Lydia up to 7.

Cut through Floccesy to Route 20. Didn’t look ahead at who I could meet here. I caught:

Vanity, male Sunkern. Ability Solarpower. Met at Lv. 2 on Route 20. Quirky Nature. Thoroughly cunning.

Not the strongest pokemon in the world, but nice to have a type that helps add some balance to the team. I like knocking out the main 3 as early as possible. I was pretty upset with all the Sewaddle encounters afterwards though - I love the Sewaddle line, its an overall better pokemon, and it would have given me that grass type coverage as well. Oh well.

Got Vanity and Claude up to Lv. 7, Lydia to Lv. 10 (switch training keeps her way ahead). Moved on to Floccesy Ranch, where I met:

Chicago, female Lillipup. Ability Pickup. Met at Lv. 6 at Floccesy Ranch. Brave Nature. Good perserverance.

I wasn’t excited about this catch. Can’t stand Stoutland, and I know there’s plenty more interesting pokemon available to catch here. But at least I got something a little more sturdy on this team full of softies. I can’t expect Lydia to carry them all.

I knew I was supposed to be looking for the rival character, which would probably mean a battle, but didn’t expect anything difficult so I didn’t bother to look ahead. I went into it leading with Chicago, still at Lv. 6, and also had Claude at Lv.7, Vanity at Lv.7, and Lydia at Lv.10.

The rival still only had a Snivy, but it was up to level 8. I knew based on Lydia’s level ups that it should have a grass type move by that point, and that Claude and Vanity were too weak to take it on underleveled, so I stuck with Chicago. She got in a tackle or two? I don’t remember, I’m going from memory here. But pretty sure she got OHKOed. My only hope was to switch in Lydia and cross my fingers that she’d make it out alive. I lucked out in that the rival spammed tackles the rest of the fight till Lydia finished off his Snivy.

There went my only decent catch.

Chicago, Lillipup. Lv. 6 - 6. Death Count: 1

After that, I trained everyone up a ton and went through all the silly Floccesy Ranch plot stuff. While training, I practiced some strategies for the upcoming gym battle (that I DID look ahead at). I have always just overleveled and went in blazing with my strongest type advantage moves. In this run, I’m trying to teach myself to make use of the moves I’ve always dismissed and learn to use real strategies in pokemon games. Which means I decided to only level up to Cheren’s highest level pokemon. (Not sure if this will be a real rule?)

I was actually pretty impressed with Vanity? He still can’t take a hit, but his movepool does a good job of compensating for that. By the time I got him to Lv. 13 (and had finished beating up those small children for Alder and the gym trainers keeping me from my Cheren battle), he had Grasswhistle, Growth, Leech Seed, and Mega Drain. I usually finished my training battles with him at full health. I was feeling pretty good about him.

Claude...not so much. He lagged behind everyone else, and took a bunch of extra (super tedious) grinding to get him up to Lv. 13 with the other kids. But I did figure out a decent strategy for him. He ended up with Sand Attack, Growl, Assist, and Fury Swipes. So I sand attacked my opponents like crazy so that they would rarely even get the chance to hit me, then growled at them a ton so any hits that got through barely did a thing, then I could assist (because the rest of my team had better moves) or fury swipe them to death without worrying about him dying in the time it took him to finish them off. Takes forever, but it works.

Lydia is just a tank and doesn’t really need the help. She has Tackle, Tail Whip, Water Gun, and Focus Energy.

VS. Aspertia City Gym Leader Cheren

So my plan for the gym was to lead with Vanity against Cheren’s Lv. 11 Patrat, and use my sweet bullet-proof sleep-heal-fight strategy, then have Claudeland lead against the Lv. 13 Lillipup to set up as many sand attacks and growls as I could get in until he got hit, at which point I would switch to Lydia. I figured if Vanity struggled, Lydia could be his backup too, but I wasn’t too worried about him.

The Patrat fight started out great. It outsped my slow little Sunkern and got in a Work Up, but then my Grasswhistle put it right to sleep. I threw out a Leech Seed and then a Growth, then hit it with Mega Drain. It woke up after that, which I wasn’t too worried about. It only had a couple HP left, but my plan was to immediately put it back to sleep to be safe and then finish up with another Mega Drain.

Except it OHKO’d Vanity with a single Tackle.

Vanity, Sunkern. Lv. 2 - 13. Death Count: 2

I was pretty stunned, but had a plan for this so I threw in Lydia who finished off the last couple HP with an overkill Water Gun.

Cheren switched to Lillipup, so I switched to Claude. I was 100% convinced I was sending him to his death, but I wanted to stick to the plan and keep trying this whole ~strategy~ thing.

Claude was faster, so I got a sand attack in off the bat. Cheren used work up, though, and I knew better than to let that fly, so I responded with growl. Which turned into something like nearly 10 turns back and forth of workup and growl? Finally he hit me with a tackle instead. That was supposed to be the point that I switch in Lydia, but I knew Claude could take one more hit as long as it wasn’t a crit. So I left him in and tried to fit in one more Sand Attack.

He got tackled again right after, but no crit, so he survived and I switched to Lydia. Her watergun did surprisingly little damage, but the sand attacks worked and Cheren’s Lillipup missed a ton, so I was able to use a tail whip and a couple more tackles to finish it off.

I won, so I got the Basic Badge. I expected that to go much smoother, but I guess that’s how it goes when you use weak pokemon that aren’t overleveled. Impressed with Claude, though - maybe if he sticks it out I’ll try to drag him all the way to the E4. We’ll see.

I think that’s enough of an update for now, though I’ll probably keep playing. I’ll likely doodle up my team and maybe add in some doodles to this post, or reblog with some, at some point. Assuming I keep up with this blog. ^^;;