#thank you pansear this is. the best thing to wake up to

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon White Randomized Nuzlocke Run [Part 4]

We have an invitation to run off and battle one of our rival characters for free exp, so in the immediate wake of earning the third badge, that is where those still remaining shall march off.

Still breathing:

Frogger (Seismitoad)

Ptera (Archeops)

Palm (Breloom)

Batman (Escavalier)

But instead of running where game progression wants us to...

Back to the bridge. I wish I had my bike. As much as I love these monstrosities in this game, I’ve done a lot of back and forth in my grinding quest. This should hopefully cover it for a while. One last time for grins.

Or. Not.

My memory was that this guy left after you earned the Bug badge. I guess that was mistaken. So I guess I get to run all the way back across the bridge, since I just wasted my time.

I know I can’t catch whatever’s in the dark grass he’s blocking off, but I still really want to know what’s available. I guess I am doomed to wait until later.

Off to fight Bianca.

I haven’t given my Amulet Coin to anyone yet. I’ll give it to Frogger. Ptera’s still batting first because there’s no reason not to, but he has Acrobatics, so no items for him. He will have to play with other people and pokemon, not toys.

Frogger has seniority. He will care for our finances.

Heeeeey, Bianca.

Give me levels.

I love how these fights always reference the mess me and my friends made of my room in the first five seconds. We’ve learned so much. Now we ask before we have fights indoors, and keep in mind the expensive electronics nearby.

She has a level 18 Herdier. It doubtless knows Bite.

That no longer concerns us.

Frogger is permitted to duel with her bloodthirsty level 20 Patrat. A dangerous foe, to be sure. Arrogance has been no friend to us in past altercations with it.

I am ridiculously overleveled.

A level 18 Munna and Pansear will round out her team, and Frogger will slay them both with distinction, granting us no levels and money. We can settle for money.

Bianca always makes me so sad. Watching a character’s enthusiasm dwindle is never fun, no matter the game, and she’s such a sweetheart. It isn’t her fault the plot won’t let her win. She calls me her friend and remembers to ask permission to have pokemon battles indoors.

Then she says more stuff and me being sad about her sad feelings is less important because she’s talking about all of her happy feelings thanks to the journey.

Maybe I should stop talking about parts of the story I barely remember as they’re happening and just read.

See now, you, you I have no problems beating.

Opening move is a level 20 Pidove. I think we can safely switch that to past tense. Same for the level 20 Pansage, level 22 Meganium I keep forgetting he has, and level 20 Liepard.

Palm was given the Liepard to feast upon.

The rest were tribute for Ptera.

Hello what is up, are we doing a thing?

Oh. No, she just called to let us know she’ll be waiting for us at the next city. You know, in the old days, professors would just show up unannounced and throw eggs at whatever ten-year-old happened to be closest and tell them to run around so it’ll hatch.

I’m not sure I like this more modern approach of politeness.

Three cheers for being allowed to move forward again. Onward, to trainers who will not expect a level 32 Archeops!

Naturally, what all this time I spend being ridiculously overpowered is going to do is build a false sense of confidence, and at some point in the future I will, once again, suffer horrific losses that shine a light on my hubris.

Then I’ll go through another grind session, whining all the way, and the segment after that, I’ll be back to being superpowered.

Knowing this should theoretically protect me from letting it happen. Let’s watch.

!

It’s a new area!

Is it... could that possibly mean...?

...

Hey Randomizer what in the fuck.

Uh.

Um.

...Game, the dramatic legendary music is not helping much with thought. At all. Let me think... I know it’s at least partly Flying (in as much as I know anything, so without looking it up, I don’t actually have a clue). I don’t know a thing about its moveset in general, forget at this level.

I guess before I start asking complicated questions like what’s best suited to wound it and not die, I should try throwing a Quick Ball.

I have those.

I sometimes have luck to go with. Let’s hope now is one of those times.

I do not foresee enjoying this encounter.

Adding to the trouble, whatever this thing’s typing is, it is not resistant to sandstorms. It’s going to take damage every single turn, and has an abysmal catch rate to boot.

I think Palm can get a hit in without killing it. Mach Punch is weak against Flying.

So it knows Gust and Swagger. One Mach Punch without the aid of Swagger got it to almost mid health. I don’t think I get to attack it again. I should just let the sandstorm do its work. Frogger knows how to stand still.

Add Bite to the moveset list, but nothing on my team cares anymore! Insert sobs here.

You know. I’m looking at the Poke Balls I have available, and I can’t help but notice that my stock does not have legendaries in mind. I have ten of the standard model, but everything else is in the single digits. Single digits that don’t even fill up one hand.

...It’s going to die to Sandstorm before I can catch it, isn’t it?

My only Ultra Ball is now gone.

I don’t think I’ve gotten a single roll for it yet. I have maybe four more chances.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GLORY TO THE POWER OF THE DUSK BALL!

Pure Flying, you do not fill any gaps in my team at all except for conceivably the most crucial: The number gap. If I’d lost another route, I would have been very sad indeed.

What do I name you, though?

Gelding.

Because I can’t look at this set of legendaries without thinking about Wind Waker, so you get Zelda, then gusts and gales and all things blustery tend to start with G, and ‘ing’ is just a nice finisher.

(Looking up pokemon stuff is against my self-imposed rules, but dictionary stuff isn’t. I knew when I picked the name that it was an actual word, and something to do with animals, maybe to do with leggy ones, but did not remember what, just that it is a nice sounding word. I was banking on it being deer related.

Nope.

Sorry about your name, Gelding. It’s staying now.)

Gelding is Lax and proud of his power. I never like seeing either of the Defense stats in the blue, but I have zero memory of what this legendary is good for anyway. Presumably you’re going to be an overpowered monstrosity that I accidentally kill.

I think, rather than exploring the Resort area further (there’s some sort of underground section that it’s own area somewhere in there, so maybe, maybe teammate number six lurks beneath), I’m going to head to the next town and buy some more catching supplies.

That was far from a chill catch.

In lieu of thinking, I’m going to throw the Exp. Share on Gelding. He is twenty levels behind. As a responsible trainer who is absolutely not going to be his leading cause of death, I wish to correct that imbalance.

Oh yeah, you wanted me for something.

Free stuff! Free stuff I actually want! Thank you Professor Juniper, I will remember this the next time I complain about you interrupting my wanderings with things like story progression!

ffs guys, I just want to hit the PokeCenter. Could you stop stealing things for five scenes?

Could you also stop having things like Watchdogs? I do not enjoy fighting such creatures, as they make me needlessly paranoid and cast lingering glances at the empty spots in my roster.

Yo, I have a bike! I didn’t think you got that so early in this one. Thank you, random old person. My bridge-traversing ways are forever in your debt. Oh, wait, not so random. He runs a Day Care.

The store in this town does not sell Ultra Balls.

I’m not going to stock up too much, just in case healing items become as desirable as I think they might in the future, but I grab thirty Poke Balls and twenty Great Balls. I might not need them, but I don’t want to be thrown into a situation where the one thing I can catch on a route is a legendary, and I can’t catch it.

Having said that, there will be no more legendaries anywhere in the rest of the map.

But okay, healed up, time to head back to the Resort and maybe meet lucky number six.

[Pictured above: First of the things not caught in Desert Resort]

I need to make a note to enjoy myself properly with the Randomizer at some point. Part of me is a little sad that my first experience is being spent on a Nuzlocke run.

Then the rest of me considers my self control, and considers that having some clear boundaries the first time out isn’t such a bad thing.

-rubs hands together-

Show me something good, game.

Excuse me, what in the fuck.

Quick Ball?

Yeah, that’s a strong no.

Ptera will chomp right through it. I don’t know its moves. Fire would murder Batman and Palm, but Frogger doesn’t have anything that wouldn’t murder Entei. Risking Gelding feels wrong, but Gelding has the best Type for this.

Okay, buddy.

Try. Not to die.

Entei has Bite and Ember.

Gelding at 13 HP put Entei just into the orange. So.

I’m going to use up my Premier Balls, because if it comes down to it, I do have a couple of Timer Balls. I don’t think I can do anything to damage it further without risking death on one side. Besides, who knows, maybe one will work.

(No.)

Entei also has Leer.

That’s a much scarier move when it has all the time in the world to use it.

...And it has Roar.

Oh please no. Do not let this fool’s errand end that way.

I’ve watched a Ultra Ball roll three times twice now. This is torture.

I am really glad Roar keeps failing, but I don’t know enough about why it is to know if that will continue or not. Usually with things in the wild, Roar just ends the fight, and I don’t have any Ability that I know of to counter it.

I have one Ultra Ball left.

Aaaaaand it’s gone.

Sigh.

Thanks, Professor Juniper.

Holy fuck, casual Heal Ball of despair for the win.

What to call you, what to call you...

You have a cloud on your back... Cloud is a Final Fantasy character... F is for... Fido!

Good dog!

Do you know what that means?

I have six!

Time for healing and grinding and finding out what non-legendary things I could have gotten instead, not that I would have preferred less heart stress in rounding out my team!

Having a Fire type is also really, really useful. I tend to use Fire as my multipurpose enforcers, especially against things like Electric types, so Fido is a high quality boon.

Is this Randomizer accidentally set to Badass Mode?

There’s also Altaria here. The first non-heart eyes option is Lickitung. Look at all these things that aren’t legendaries. Of course, now I’ve been spoiled, and just want to run ahead to the next area where I can catch a thing again. I want to know what it will be. The curiosity. It drives progress.

I found a Fire Stone in the Resort. This is worth mentioning because out of the options, a Fire Stone is the evolutionary stone I already chose to have in my collection.

A lot of my choices don’t seem to result in anything nearly as helpful as I intended for them.

I forgot out big the Resort area is. Or maybe it just feels larger because all the sand kills visibility.

I have no memory of this place.

Wait. Something about... the Fire/Bug type Alder has? Champion’s name is Alder, right? I think at some point in the game you can come across that somewhere in here? Maybe?

I dunno, let’s explore.

Still Relic Castle, so nothing to catch here, sadly.

Is this the way out if you go down the quick sand portals on the other side? Probably.

Aw, there’s Kangaskhan down here. I’ve never played through a game with one of those. I think I always trade to get it. That would have been cool.

Not that I’m judging Fido’s place in the team or anything. I am just providing color commentary.

There’s also Vanillish.

I need an area where I can catch something again. All this cool stuff is tormenting me.

The problem with Ptera being so strong, and resisting the Sandstorm, is that I’m coming up short on a compelling reason to swap him out for someone else. He’s just so perfectly competent.

Resort also has Mareep. So many treasures.

I’m trying to hit all the trainers here, but I think I’m mostly making myself lost.

Would this randomized mode perhaps like to chill?

It’s another Relic Castle one, so I don’t get to try to catch it, but honestly, what in the fuck. I am going to run out of legendaries to catch by my sixth badge at this rate.

...Well. Probably not. I don’t care to do the math on that, but there are kind of a lot of legendaries at this point. But still, what the heck.

Oh hey, a Walrein! That’s not a legendary! What a twist.

I should consider switching Ptera’s spot more strongly. He is four levels higher than the next highest.

Hello, there.

So it hasn’t really come up, but I think the rules I’m choosing to use are that I can use gift pokemon, but only if they’re randomized. I’m not sure if the fossils will be their usual selves or not. I’m going to pick the Cover Fossil either way, since Ptera doesn’t need to have an insecurity added to life, but it would be neat if it turned out to be something new.

Ugh, but that would mean going all the way back to the fossil gym.

...When do I get Fly?

Eh, I have six at the moment anyway. There’s no rush.

...

I need to know.

No such luck. Dear turtle friend, were this a normal run, you would be a grand addition, and I would love you muchly, but as we are doing what we’re doing here, you must go unnamed and into a box. Fear not, you are not dead, merely forever frozen and unused.

Back to Resort grinding.

(Hooray for bicycles.)

Relic Castle continues to astound.

This is so awesome. I hope whoever programmed Randomizer is out living their best life.

Okay, Ptera’s 35. I need to give something else a chance. Palm, show me what you’re made of and train up our new legendary pals. Though as long as I’m doing this in a specific area... I mean, I won’t go out of my way to EV train, but Palm is already swimming upstream with his Nature. Maybe I’ll just give him a level and switch over to Frogger.

Not that I even remember what any of these things dish out. HP, maybe?

...Ptera really is the best thing on my team to manage this stuff. Maybe I should just go deal with the next gym.

Batman, how about you go ahead and murder a bunch of Cresselia for me. It’ll be our bonding experience. You like killing Psychic things, right? I seem to recall something about our first meeting...

No, okay, fine, I won’t hold that grudge. We’re partners now, and that’s all that matters.

On fourth thought, I’m just gonna stay upstairs and let Frogger take out Entei when Fido isn’t clearing out the Budew. Gelding’s almost 30, so I won’t feel obligated to keep the Exp. Share on for much longer.

Fido is at a level where this is actually annoying. My kingdom for a legendary that learns good moves early. Ember is just not all that great, and Budew’s Water Sport is annoying to work through.

Roar keeps not working for the wild Entei. I have no idea why that is, but it’s convenient. Having my free exp scare me away every other time would be frustrating as heck.

Eh, Fido learned Fire Spin. Yay. Its leading quality is being slightly more appealing to me than Roar.

Wait a moment. Fido. I didn’t take a look at what you’re like. I was so excited to have six that I completely forgot to check up on you.

Fido is Sassy and often dozes off. What that means is largely lost on me, but in general losing out on some Speed to up a Defense stat is okay in my book. The ability never had the option of being something else, I don’t think.

A belated welcome, doggo.

...Good grief you need better moves.

...It learned Stomp.

Okay, everyone’s 30 or higher, time to return to the plot.

Wow, I did not expect that. It’s so weird when random NPCs just hand out HMs.

I’d forgotten about the stadium trainers. I think every day they have different sports going on, and each set contains trainers. I have vague memories of grinding using them. ..I probably could have just hung around here instead of Relic Castle.

Oh well, more levels for me.

Is this where we have our Ferris Wheel thing?

(I remember so little of these games, yet N possibly having a thing for the protagonist has stuck in the consciousness of the internet for so long that it is what sticks.)

Yeah, this happens.

Tale as old as time.

I want N’s hat. Will Pokemon Go make his outfit available at some point? That would be neat. The protagonist gear always looks a bit dorky. Unlike turtlenecks and button-up shirts.

He has a nice hat.

Elesa, why does your gym look like this. It makes me want to go play laser tag.

Time for some exp I don’t really need.

Nimbasa has a lot going for it. I think this is the generation where I realized how you could breed things and EV train them, so I spent a lot of time messing around with the subway features. I wasn’t very good. I think I wanted my trainer card to reach a higher tier of color?

Yeah, that didn’t work. It was all confusing, and mostly I just wasn’t good enough at coming up with strategies. Or copying them efficiently.

...Are there really only two trainers here? And the other sport court has a game in progress. Dang it.

I don’t remember if I have to participate in the Pokemon Musical.

I know I don’t wanna.

Bianca is walking me inward. This does not bode well.

I have a Prop Case now.

What part of “I don’t wanna” is so hard to understand. ;-;

Gelding, you want to put on a show? You’re probably most likely to be swapped out if I see anything I like in future routes, so we should treasure our time together while we can.

By which I mean we will participate in mutual suffering.

It’s an expression of love, Gelding.

Bianca leaves before I’m asked to do anything else. Do I stay and check it off the list, or flee and hope that this is not necessary to progress?

...Maybe I will go back inside.

Dude, all I remember about this encounter is that Elesa is better than you. And most everyone else. It’s time for Bianca to lay proper claim to her independence, right?

...Wait, this ends well?

Right, I guess all the truly terrible parenting has to be saved up for N.

Congrats, Bianca!

I think I’ll actually go ahead and deal with the gym now.

...No, I won’t. I want to check and see if I have access to the other routes yet. Mayhaps it is time to catch things. Or meet Alder. That’s his name, I think. I think we see him for the first time on the route to the left. So I shall go right.

Huh. This is a fun thing.

The next badge probably makes Strength usable outside of battle. So if I go and do the gym, I’ll have the choice between two spots of grass. Darker grass doesn’t necessarily have better stuff, because it’s all random, but it will have things of higher levels, which means less grinding.

...I’m gonna check out the other side. Possibly get a badge.

Then will come the decision.

Which may or may not be dependent on how much I want to put off giving something on my team Strength.

Here, things do not appear to be nearly so complicated.

There is dark grass, but I think it’s impossible to get to without walking through the normal grass. Maybe I’ll find something in the normal grass on this side, then use Strength and deal in the dark grass on the other side.

Plan? Plan.

...Still largely dependent on what I have that can learn Strength.

I guess that’s one nice thing about these legendaries with the awkward movesets. Fido can probably handle not fainting our new teammate. Probably.

...Hey Gelding guess what you get to stay.

I’m gonna name you Bandit. If we’re both very lucky, we’ll never, ever use you.

Next thing to pop up in the grass is a Maractus, then a Bonsly. This is like. A sane route. Weird.

Meanwhile, over in the dark grass.

Chikorita, Munna... Samurott.

By the standards of this run, I’d still call it pretty sane. The Samurott is darn near level appropriate. I don’t know what I would have picked out of this set. Bandit has some proper charm. That’s hard to say no to in the midst of such chaos.

OH!

Bandit can learn Strength!

Awesome!

Who’s a good girl? You’re a good girl!

Gym time!

This makes me want to hit the arcade so bad.

I haven’t really decided what to use here. Fido was the assumption, but Fido’s moveset is terrible. I think half the things in here are likely to have Static, and its only decent moves are all physical attacks.

Gelding shouldn’t go anywhere near anything here.

Ptera would probably be fine, but his Defense is abysmal, so all it would take is one round of not being fine to ruin that.

Batman would be pretty okay all around, but not a great damage dealer. She does know Headbutt, though...

Palm I’m paranoid about letting loose against things he doesn’t have a Type advantage with, but I think he’d mostly be okay. I just don’t want to risk my precious Breloom coming to harm.

...Fido and Frogger will have to do, I think.

What even is the deal with this gym. Elesa has so much style that it would cause poisoning in a real world setting.

The trainers so far have dealt in mid-20s pokes. Elesa’s might hit 30, but my guess would be that 28 might be closer to the mark.

...Elesa’s gym is full of neon, rich kids, and roller coasters, and I just love it so very much. And Ember isn’t doing too shabbily. I would still prefer having something better to work with, but as long as Emolga are so popular, Frogger’s not the best choice, so it’s good that Fido can put in the proper work.

Can I say for the hundredth time how much I love the work they put into the gyms in this gen? Because it is one of my primary joys of the games. Pokemon are great and all, but the aesthetic.

Firs up is a level 25 Emolga. With Volt Switch, so that will leave the stage after one Ember to let loose a different level 25 Emolga. Who will also use Volt Switch, bringing the first Emolga back out. That Emolga faints, Fido grows to level 34, and time to find out if that’s enough to push the second Emolga into fainting with two Embers instead of three. Apparently there’s a Special Defense difference between the beasts.

Yep, that did it. Emolgas down, and I’ll switch to Frogger for the Zebstrika.

Dang, I was off. It’s level 27.

Frogger downs it, getting up to 34 as well, and we have another relatively painless gym experience!

Go team!

Elesa also promises to deal with the pesky bridge problem I didn’t bother screencapping. I think the next Leader is a Ground type. Cowboy dude who has to be pestered into letting pedestrians use the drawbridge.

But that will have to wait for next time!