Fair warning, this first chapter will be short as I didn't take notes when I started this run, and only offered to record it off-handedly, not thinking anybody'd be interested. But I got at least one vote of confidence, so here we are. I promise to take notes henceforth so I can provide more details in future chapters.
First, the rules.
1: I may only catch the first Pokemon per route that isn't of a species I've already caught. 2: If a Pokemon faints in a battle with a trainer, it is to be released as soon as possible. The box is only for Pokemon that are not in the main party.
The second rule might be a bit controversarial, so I'll explain. I've seen an NPC in an earlier gen say that trained Pokemon are a lot stronger than wild ones. While this was meant to reference Stat XP (now known as EVs), I'm taking it as a lore excuse. Besides, I've bad ended too many nuzlocke runs due to losing mons to wild Pokemon. I actually recorded one of those in this guild before.
Also, I won't be going over what happens in the story because everyone should know it by now, and if you don't, then you should learn it by playing the games instead of reading this. Anyway, enjoy this Nuzlocke run of Pokemon Black.
~*~ Chapter 1: Basic Badge ~*~
My starter is a male Oshawott named Samurai for obvious reasons. If it were female, I would have named it Onna (short for Onna-bugeshi, which I've read somewhere is the term for a female samurai, but I could be mistaken on that), but that wasn't the case in this run.
I caught a female Lilipup in Route 1 and named it Lily based on its species name, which, if you've seen some of the Pokemon my characters have, you'd know this is a bit of a habit of mine.
I trained Samurai and Lily to level 8 before entering the Accumula Gym, netting them Water Gun and Bite respectively. Our first battle with N was fairly easy as a result, and after collecting a few items about the town, we moved on.
I caught a Patrat in Route 2 and named it MattPat after Game Theory's host. I won't be going over my opinion of that show here. Since I don't need two Pokemon weak to Fighting-type moves, I put MattPat in Box 1 of Someone's PC to eventually replace Lily if she ever dies. Speaking of Lily has Pickup, so I've been getting free items as I travel, so I'm not exactly looking forward to her being replaced any time soon. Bianca challenged me as I left the route, but we won handily.
My first Gift Pokemon is a male Pansear I named b0ss, referencing both Pink Guy of Filthy Frank infamy and Big Boss*, progenitor of Solid Snake and his two brothers in the Metal Gear series.
After besting Cheren and collecting some items around town, I raised Samurai to level 12 and b0ss and Lily to level 11 before entering Striation City's Gym. The two Gym Trainers posing as a waiter and waitress specifically helped b0ss reach lv12 before we reached the Trio. Because I has Oshawott with me, Cilan was the one to challenge me. Lily went out against his Lilipup first, but a Work-Up-boosted Tackle brought her down to 2HP. I can't remember if it was due to a crit or not, but it probably was because Samurai, who I brought out next, only took ten damage from the enemy's next tackle. Once Samurai finished it, Cilan switched to Pansage, and I switched to b0ss to answer it. Of course, Pansage was easier to take down than Lilipup due to Incinerate's 2.5x power boost (STAB + Super Effective).
After a solid Plasma beatdown, the Munna that they were torturing decided to join me instead of leaving with his Musharna friend. I named him Yomi, which is short for Tsukiyomi, the name of a Japanese moon god according to some wiki page I looked up after catching him. Unlike Samurai, Lily, and b0ss, who either came with or were caught in a Pokeball, I used a Dusk Ball to claim Yomi due to it being nighttime. After that, I used TM83 to teach Lily and b0ss Work Up and HM01 to teach Samurai Cut. I wanted to teach Cut to Lily, but she wasn't able to. Which, as it turns out, doesn't really matter since Cut has the same Power of Tackle in this gen anyway. Besides, with his scalchops, it makes more sense for Cut to go to Samurai anyway.
With that, we're ready to take on Route 3 and Chargestone Cave. With the Basic Badge in my hands, grinding is about to get a whole lot easier thanks to Audrey's kin.
Posted: Mon Aug 19, 2019 10:51 pm
Unfortunately, something happened to my copy of Pokemon Black, and I won't be able to continue that run. Fortunately, Sub was kind enough to supply me with a copy of Pokemon Black 2, allowing me to restart my run after two years of in-game time has passed because apparently that's a thing. I'm keeping the rules as they were in my previous post, however. Now, I'm playing this blind other than what I know of Gen 5's Pokemon and bits and pieces I've seen over the years, but as before, I won't be going over what happens in the story unless it pertains to something specific to my gameplay.
~*~ Chapter 1: Basic Badge Deux ~*~
Once again, I started with an Oshawott, and once again, it was male, so same name as last time. I have to say, the new rival's theme is...interesting, but the first battle wasn't all that difficult, surprising noone. I caught a Patrat in Route 1 which was also female. This time, I noticed that, and gave it a gender-appropriate name this time: Trisha, short for Patricia. Sure beats the first name I thought of, Patra. *shudder*
I have to say, Alder's appearance at the end of Route 1 confused me a bit, and makes me wonder if he retired from being Champion due to the way people talked about him. At any rate, I was very surprised when my first find in Route 2 was a Sewaddle of all things. (I was fully expecting a Lilipup). This one was male, and I named him Leif, as I was having trouble coming up with something more fitting for him. He only had Tackle and String Shot at first, which made it hard to help him catch up to Samurai, but he learned Bug Bite soon enough, which helped his damage output significantly. Why he had a Mental Herb on him when I caught him, I don't know, but I haven't taken it off of him or replaced it with something else yet.
I was even more surprised to find an Azurill at the entrance to Flocessy Ranch. I named him Bunchu (mouse that becomes a rabbit, so original) and boxed him, since I already have a Water-type on me. If something happens to Samurai, Arceus forbid, I've got a backup, now. That said, something... weird happened after that. Trisha got paralyzed by some old coot's pokemon after accepting the quest in Floccesy Ranch, and the new rival offered me a Paralyz Heal almost immediately after. He probably would have done that no matter how that battle turned out, but the fact that he hands me the specific thing to cure an ailment Trisha just got... I couldn't help think that he might be stalking me. Not that I wasn't grateful for the convenience. Unfortunately, Trisha died during a Pokemon battle deeper in the ranch. She wasn't with us long, but she will be missed. Especially since I'm down to two usable Pokemon right now.
Once I cleared the ranch quest, I explored the two cities I had been to up to this point as I didn't really have a chance to do so before now. Handholding in Pokemon, etc. Probably the thing that surprised me the most out of everything in my journey thus far, is that the first gym is in the first town in the journey. Never seen that in a Pokemon game before, not that I've played them all yet. *stares at Gen 6*
That said, the Gym Leader was probably just as surprised to see me. Turns out, he'd just become a Gym Leader that day, and his gym wasn't up to his exacting standards yet. He left me to a couple of trainers he'd picked up to be Gym Trainers for him while he made some finishing touches. I didn't have too much trouble with them.
Cheren, however, was another story. I'm really glad I bought all my starting money's worth of eleven potions the first chance I got, because I must have used at least half of them keeping Leif alive against the enemy Lilipup, who had been buffed with a predictable Work Up, which had seen play in my short playthrough of Black 1. But don't worry, Leif is still very much alive, and Cheren's Basic Badge is mine.
--Victory: Aspertia Gym. MVP: Leif--
As I was healing up in preparation to head to the next gym, I met someone who mentioned that Samurai has the Modest nature. For some reason, I had never thought to check this, but this certainly gives me a reason to raise him down one path instead of keeping him split between the two as I usually do with Oshawotts, though this does mean Razor Shell is a bit less appealing, now. That said, I got curious about Leif, and I laughed when I saw his nature. Very fitting, considering Sewaddle are very physical-focused with their moveset.
Current Team
Samurai//Oshawott (M,Lv12) Nature: Modest| Characteristic: Likes to fight| Held Item: None Tackle | Tail Whip | Water Gun | Water Sport
Leif//Sewaddle (M,Lv12) Nature: Adamant| Characteristic: Somewhat vain| Held Item: Mental Herb Tackle | String Shot | Bug Bite
For a Rainy Day
Bunchu//Azurill (M, Lv5) Ability: Thick Fat | Nature: Naive | Characteristic: Likes to relax | Held Item: None Splash | Tail Whip | Bubble | Water Sport
Once the uphill battle with Cheren was done, I trekked to the next city over, Virbank. Yeah, If I'd have though the Aspertia and Virbank gyms were this close together and the story made you visit both and then some before going to you first gym, I'd have made the first episode a double-badge special, but whatever.
That said, the fight with Roxie was not a walk in the park. With Trish dead, and Leif deathly weak to her type, Samurai was the only one who could fight, and I came close to losing the run more than once against her. But, Samurai is a beast, and the evolution mid fight really helped things for me. Wait, why does that sound familiar?
--Victory: Virbank Gym - MVP: Samurai--
After completely ignoring the nearby movie studio and dragging the local ship captain out of that place to ferry me to Castelia City against his will, I took Samurai and Leif through a tour of the town, emptying out the Battle Company of precious experience points and looting everything I could find, it was time to face Burgh. Just kidding, it's never that easy. Apparently Team Plasma is in town and me and the new kid have been tasked of clearing them from the sewers. I knew those Plasma grunts were nasty, but ew.
Whilst therein, I caught a female Grimer I named Meri. I should have taught her Venoshock right away (thanks, by the way, Roxie), but I didn't yet. Which is good for reasons I'll explain later. Levelling her to match Samurai and Leif was no trouble at all since the new guy healed my Pokemon after EVERY wild battle, something I kinda miss, now. Anyway, after wiping all the trainers and looting all the item capsules I could find, we stomped on the Plasma grunts hiding there and were about to delve deeper before Burgh stopped us, which I found suspicious. Then, somebody who looked too unique to not be unimportant to the story passed by us like it was nothing and insisted that I was... 'interesting'. Why is my 'detect evil' alarm going off?
Anyway, I flipped Burgh the bird behind his back as he and the new guy left the sewers together and went forward, only to find myself in a cave with the word Relic in the name. Remembering the previous Pokemon Black, I decided Burgh had the right idea after all, but an Onyx blocked my exit.
After two Poke Balls, three Great Balls, and FOUR Heal Balls, I finally caught the b*****d and named him Ligmite. Yes, I'm a terrible person. I quickly noped out of the sewers at that point, using the high wild battle rate to help everyone reach Lv20, and stormed the local Gym and helped Leif evolve into a Swadloon.
Burgh must be my b***h or something, because much like my badge run in Snagem, I roflstomped him. His trainers were another story, however, and I had a close call with Leif (I will never understand people who rule against items in Nuzlockes, but then I can't play without ruling to ignore fainting in wild battles, so I'm not one to talk). In fact, he ate his Mental Herb in that fight, and I still can't remember what it does. xD
--Victory: Castelia Gym - MVP: Meri--
It was at this point, as I had left the gym victorious for the local Pokemon Center, that I swapped Meri's Disable for Venoshock. The reason it was good that I waited until now for the swap is that Meri's Disable kept Burgh's Leavanny from
Current Party
Samurai//Dewott (M,Lv20) Ability: Torrent | Nature: Modest | Characteristic: Likes to fight | Held Item: Scope Lens Fury Cutter | Focus Energy | Water Gun | Razor Shell
I have to say, I've had it pretty easy up to this point. The loss of Trisha is tragic, but it was largely due to my own incompetence in paying attention to what I'm doing while trying to use other trainers to raise my Pokemon than some absurd difficulty spike.
Those of you who've played B2/W2 can see my current team and probably figure out what I'm talking about.
Colress was TOUGH. And yes, I remember that name being mentioned in Snagem RP. He is DEFINITELY affiliated with Neo-Plasma, although the story would have you believe he's just a scientist. Gen 5 likes you to think the bad guys are just normal people at first for some reason. Nevertheless, he had a Magnemite and a Kink, both with Steel and Electric-type moves. Yes, the Klink had Thundershock I know because I looked it up, which is something I'll try to avoid doing for the most part because this is supposed to be a blind locke, but I had to know.
In the end, Leif had to play tank, since Ligmite was weak to Steel-type moves, Samurai was weak to Electric-type moves, and Meri only has Poison-type moves, which I'm fairly certain Steel-types are immune to. I lucked out and took out Magnemite before it got to the point where Colress could use a Hyper Potion on it. I know, because he used said potion on Klink. I was pouring an ocean of Lemonades down Leif's throat to keep him alive, but a few turns after that Hyper Potion on Klink, Leif ran out of power points for Bug Bite, and I had zero means of restoring them. I didn't want to swap to Cut or Razor Leaf, both of which are ten and fifteen points weaker in power respectively, so I made a risky play and swapped Leif for Samurai. Thankfully, Klink didn't go for the Thunder Shock, and with what little damage he'd taken after the Hyper Potion, Samurai one-shot him with Razor Shell. Words cannot express how relieved I was that Leif and Samurai both lived that fight.
The run after that wasn't very remarkable. I caught a male Sandile in Route 4 that I named Chev based on a meme song that's been attributed to King K. Rool after his debut in Smash, since I had him in my mind when I caught said Sandile. I also caught a female Dwebble in Desert Resort that I named Debra, three letters out of the seven of her species name. Debra was also the name of one of my babysitters when I was real young. I didn't say this at the time because she died in the first episode, but Trisha is also the name of my aunt. My mother's youngest sister, specifically. I would have brought it up in the first episode, but the pokemon named after her died there, and I felt it would have been in poor taste, especially since it's my negligence that killed her.
At any rate, the reason I say these catches weren't very remarkable is that they both share a type with Ligmite - Chev's Ground and Debra's Rock. Therefore, they're going to the box until I lose Ligmite, Arceus forbid. This means I have one replacement for Samurai and two for Ligmite, which also means if I lose either Meri or Leif (pls no), that's an empty spot in the team up to this point. Mind you, I haven't gone to Pinwheel Forest yet, but I don't know if I should. I haven't tried it yet, so as far as I know, it could be blocked off. Since I'm not sure if I should try or not, I'll put it up to a vote at the top of this thread.
Despite what I said about the run after Colress, I wasn't exactly taking it easy. I made sure to go into every room in Route 4 and battle every trainer in both Route 4 and the Desert Resort. I didn't go into Relic Castle because I'm fairly certain I got Ligmite there, although I'm not 100% certain of that. During that time, Leif evolved into Levanny. AT LEVEL 21!!! This boy loves me so much that he evolved into a Swadloon at level 20 and evolved THE VERY NEXT LEVEL! I'd like to point out that before fighting Elesa, I checked everyone's stats for reasons I'll get into when I get there, and as of that point, all of Leif's stats were either the highest or the second highest in the entire party. He had the second highest HP next to Samurai, the highest Attack, the second highest Defense next to Ligmite, the second highest Special Attack next to Samurai, the second highest Special Defense next to Samurai, and the highest speed. Between that and the love he's shown for me, I think Leif is the MVP of this party right now, with Samurai at a very close second. Granted, Ligmite and Meri aren't slacking either - between their movesets and their stats, they're pretty powerful as well.
Nevertheless, I climbed the roof of the Join Avenue and walked over it to get to Nimbasa City, and after fighting a few battles throughout town, I bought two TMs from the shop inside Nimbasa City's Pokemon Center and sat down with my party. I bought Thunder Wave only to discover that nobody could learn it, and I bought Gyro Ball, which I put on Ligmite, thinking that he'd have low speed since he was a bulky Rock-type. This is when I checked everyone's stats to find out he has the second highest speed behind Leif, meaning that Gyro Ball wouldn't be that useful on him. I'd already replaced Rage for it, though, so I shrugged and moved on. I then taught Dig to both Meri and Ligmite, replacing Mud Bomb and Rock Tomb respectively. The latter had the same power as Rock Throw but had lower accuracy and the chance to lower the opponent's Speed.
With Ligmite knowing a Ground-type move, I made my way to the Nimbasa City Gym. I now know the look Sub was going for in my Unovan Badge Run in Snagem. Elesa didn't stand a chance, though. Her Emolga apparently didn't know Double Team as it insisted on spamming Pursuit, but Ligmite did get paralyzed due to Emolga's Static. Flaafy and Zebistrika fell with ease due to Ligmite's Dig, though Zebistrika apparently followed in Emolga's footsteps, as it spammed Pursuit. I'd like to say that Flaafy spammed Take Down, but it only used that move once. Get oofed, I guess.
--Victory: Nimbasa Gym - MVP: Ligmite--
That's three badges down, so far. I used the Dowsing Machine in the Desert Resort and Route 4, but I plan on going back to Aspertia City and using the Dowsing Machine eveywhere between Nimbasa City and there. While I'm doing that, I could get an encounter in Pinwheel Forest, so let me know whether you think I should ignore that area as I doubt there's any story content in that area, or whether you think I should take any encounters I can get and go for it.
Current Party
Samurai//Dewott (M,Lv24) Ability: Torrent | Nature: Modest | Characteristic: Likes to fight | Held Item: Scope Lens Fury Cutter | Focus Energy | Water Gun | Razor Shell
Meri//Grimer (F,Lv23) Ability: Sticky Hold | Nature: Bold | Characteristic: Proud of her power | Held Item: Leftovers Minimize | Dig | Venoshock | Sludge
Ligmite//Onyx (M, Lv20) Ability: Sturdy | Nature: Impish | Characteristic: Impetuous and silly | Held Item: None Rock Throw | Dragonbreath | Dig | Stealth Rock
For a Rainy Day
Bunchu//Azurill (M, Lv5) Ability: Thick Fat | Nature: Naive | Characteristic: Likes to relax | Held Item: None Splash | Tail Whip | Bubble | Water Sport
Chev//Sandile (M, Lv20) Ability: Intimidate | Nature: Brave | Characteristic: Often dozes off | Held Item: None Bite | Sand Attack | Torment | Sand Tomb
Debra//Dwebble (F, Lv19) Ability: Sturdy | Nature: Docile | Characteristic: Likes to relax | Held Item: None Sand Attack | Faint Attack | Smack Down | Rock Polish
~*~ Chapter 4: Y U NO GRIND DUMMY!? also Quake Badge Get but ok ~*~
It turns out that Pinwheel Forest is out of bounds after all as work is underway to repair the Skyarrow Bridge. Sorry for the pointless poll, but I'm going on this journey without knowing anything about it beforehand (other than the Pokemon obviously) so yeah. That said, I discovered an area I didn't visit before whilst Dowsing Machining everywhere I've been to up to now - something south of Virbank City that I don't remember the exact name of. That said, I managed to catch a male Magby there which I named Lavos. Glad to have a Fire-type, now.
Once my Dowsing Machine escapades were done, Bianca met me outside Nimbasa City the second I left the place and brought me to a secluded area off Route 5. I almost got excited for a second only to find out she just wanted to show me a rare Pokemon. I considered this a static Pokemon since it was in a hidden grotto that I was forced to enter and caught the male Minccino, whom I made Cena. It can't see me, but it's not incapable of fighting. Since I considered Cena a static Pokemon catch, I went for an encounter in Route 5 and caught a male Gothita that I named Goram. However, since I now had a full team, off to the Box Goram went.
The trainers didn't give me any trouble for the most part, but they were high enough level to warn me that my team was severely underleveled, so I took to the dark patch of grass and hunted wild Liepard as there wasn't really enough room to effectively hunt wild Audino. It was difficult at first, especially since Lavos was WAY underleveled compared to the rest of the team and had to be put on the old EXP Share pacifier for a while.
Once everybody was at about the same level, I took on Charles, who likes to ride it dirty and put it away wet, as the euphemism goes. No, I'm not talking about his motorcycle. With his three Pokemon and the ability to swap them around without taking up a turn doing so, keeping up with the man was difficult unto itself. It took a LOT to actually take his team down. But, with patience, my Pokemon persevered, and with that, we passed through Charizard Bridge, where I caught a female Ducklett I named Diva. Congratulations, Meri, you're no longer the only female Pokemon in my team is what I would say if I hadn't already caught Debra. It's a bit alarming how few female Pokemon I've found in the wild so far.
I don't know why these former Plasma punks think I care about their group, but they wouldn't let me challenge the gym unless I visited their museum or whatever. I got a Zorua out of it, but since I'm not its original trainer, I won't be using it for the challenge. Shame, too, since it's a Dark-type and has decent stats. With that done and the town looted, It was time to mess with the gym.
Samurai and Leif roflstomped the Gym Trainers and two of his Pokemon, but the problem was his Excadrill. The thing threatened to two shot pretty much all of my Pokemon with Slash and Rock Slide and because of Metal Claw and its potential of having a Ground-type move, I didn't want to risk Ligmite. In my attempts to find somebody that could stand up to it, however, Cena's life was taken. That alone showed me that I had to make the attempt and bring out Ligmite. Fortune was clearly favoring me for my boldness in that move, because Excadrill's next attack missed, allowing Ligmite to get underground and one-shot him with Dig as Samurai had weakened him significantly before that. With Excadrill down, Leif was free to sweep.
If Charles wasn't enough of a warning, Clay was definitely the ultimatum I NEED to make my Pokemon stronger before I face the next gym. I really hope I'll get the chance to hunt Audino in the next route, but for now, Clay wants to show me and new kid something south of town.
Current Party
Samurai//Dewott (M,Lv2cool Ability: Torrent | Nature: Modest | Characteristic: Likes to fight | Held Item: Luck Incense Revenge | Focus Energy | Water Pulse | Razor Shell
