Fatmanonice
Banned via Warnings
Link to original post: [drupal=4461]Fatmanonice's Nuzlocke Challenge: Sapphire Edition [/drupal]
The Nuzlocke Challenge is named after the comics by the same name where the author records his journeys through different Pokémon games. Some people refer to it as Pokémon: Hard Mode because it makes the games significantly more challenging. You can do this with any Pokémon version and there are three basic rules:
1. You can only catch the first Pokémon you come across in an area. If you make it faint, too bad, you can’t catch any more Pokémon in that area. You can only catch more than one Pokémon in an area if you come across a shiny or if the area has a body of water but, again, you have to catch the first one you come across using surf or a fishing pole or do without. If different areas of the same place have radically different Pokémon (like the Safari Zone or the Route 111 Desert), you can catch one Pokémon per area. Multiple levels of caves like Mount Moon or buildings like the Pokémon Tower DO NOT COUNT. This makes getting certain Pokémon like dratini and ralts almost impossible to get but that’s all part of the challenge.
2. You must nickname every Pokémon you catch. The purpose of this is to try to create a bond between you and your Pokémon because of the final rule…
3. If your Pokémon faints during battle, it’s officially dead. You can’t revive it and you have to release it. NO EXCEPTIONS. If you want your Pokémon to survive, you need to be careful and plan ahead because one mistake can mean losing someone vital to your team.
You officially pass the challenge when you beat the Elite Four in your respective game. For Gold/Silver/Crystal, you only have to do this once and the trip to Kanto is completely optional and, from what I’ve seen so far, most people don’t bother. If you lose all your Pokémon in a battle, it’s game over and you have to start all the way back at the beginning. It’s a really harsh punishment and I’ve come to see that most people lose to the Elite Four in the end but, having played through the Pokémon games so many times, I figured I’d give it a shot.
For my first challenge, I have decided to play Pokémon Sapphire because one of my friends is currently doing this with Leaf Green and I also wanted to do one in the third generation. When most people do the Nuzlocke challenge, they usually add a few extra rules to make it more challenging and, like them, I’ve added a few of my own:
1. No legendary Pokémon. When you fight them, you have to make them faint.
2. No TMs until you’ve gotten past Victory Road. Up until then, you have to rely on your Pokémon’s natural moves so choose your team wisely. HMs can be used BUT only one person on your team can have a particular move (for example, multiple Pokémon can’t have strength) so, again, be careful who you give certain moves to.
3. If a Pokémon on your team faints, you can’t replace it with the same Pokémon or a Pokémon in its evolutionary line. For example, if you have a pidgeot and it faints, you can’t replace it with a pidgey or a pidgeotto from your box.
4. Your team for fighting the Elite Four cannot have repeating types. If you have a normal Pokémon, you can’t use another normal Pokémon even if it’s normal flying, psychic normal, etc. Up until then it’s perfectly fine especially since it’s borderline impossible not to do this until about the third gym in nearly all the games with the Nuzlocke challenge.
5. No stat boosting items like Iron or Calcium until you’ve reached the Elite Four.
Like I do in many of my Pokémon games, I named my main character Archnid. I picked torchic as my starter and named him Ryu.
As I don’t have any pokeballs, I can’t catch anything so I wasn’t able to get anything in this area.
I trash May and I make sure I don’t stay in the grass too long to avoid contacting anymore Pokémon before I get pokeballs. After getting pokeballs from Oldale, I go back and catch a male zigzagoon and name it Coonskin.
I catch a female poochyena and name it YipYipGuyu. Coonskin finds a King’s Rock using Pick Up.
I hope to catch a wingull or taillow but I wind up with a female wurmple that I call Ali (float like a butterfree, sting like a beedrill).
Once again I’m banking on finding something that doesn’t completely suck but I end up with another wurmple (male) that I name Inch. Ali evolves into Cascoon and then Dustox after painstakingly battling other wurmple and cascoons/silcoons and rushing back and forth from the Pokémon center to avoid losing her.
I catch another male zigzagoon that I name Swiggles and YipYipGuyu just about bites the dust against Lady Cindy’s zigzagoon by taking a critical hit.
I catch a male nincada and name it Blade but I become annoyed with how slow its growth rate is and promptly box it after trying to level it up. YipYipGuyuu’s slow growth rate and subpar stats are starting to get on my nerves too but I keep it around just in case things go terribly wrong.
I catch a female whismur and name it Hush. Its defense is laughably bad but its attack stats were promising so I had high hopes for it and decided to keep it as a permanent member of my team.
Not wanting to get my face handed to me during my first gym battle against Roxanne, I grind a bit with four of my team members: Ryu, Hush, Coonskin, and Ali. Ryu evolves into combusken and all seems right in the world.
Team: Ryu (combusken), Ali (dustox), Hush (whismur), Coonskin (zigzagoon), and YipYipGuyu (poochyena)
Ryu and Ali stole the show without giving Roxanne a chance to attack.
After a little bit of traveling, I arrive in Dewford town where I stock up items thanks to all the money I’m saving not buying pokeballs. I catch a male makuhita which I name Yokozuna who instantly becomes one of my favorite team members. I decide to grind here to make Yokozuna fit better on the team and to prepare for Brawly. Under the Nuzlocke challenge this place is actually pretty rough. I just about lost Hush when a makuhita survived getting OHKO’d and came back with a 5 hit arm thrust. All the arons made leveling up Ryu and Yokozuna very easy while the zubats fed Ali’s experience. The only thing that kept it alive was that it was level 16 and at full health when it happened. YipYipGuyu ended up going through potions like water so I box it after grinding and it became the first Pokémon I officially “retired.”
Team: Ryu (combusken), Ali (dustox), Hush (whismur), Coonskin (zigzagoon), and Yokozuna (makuhita)
Once again, Ryu and Ali took charge, completely overwhelming Brawly’s team. His meditite delayed the inevitable by using detect but Ryu’s peck eventually took it down.
I look for a sixth member to round up my team and luck was on my side when I caught a female electrike which I named Thundara. I did some more grinding to get her on level with the rest of the team.
Thundara effortlessly killed everything that Team Aqua threw at her leaving piles of bodies in her wake.
There’s so many annoying Pokémon on this route… electrike + gulpin +plusle+ minun= using an absurd number of paralyz heal and antidotes… I defeat May effortlessly again, further cementing the fact that she’s the worst rival in the entire franchise.
A perfect spot for grinding so I take the time to prepare for Mauville’s gym. I catch a female oddish and naming it Iris but after going on Serebii.net and finding that it has virtually no attacks until it becomes a Vileplume, I decide it would be too much of a hassle to raise. My team goes on an evolution spree: Coonskin evolves into Linoone, Hush evolves into Loudred, and Yokozuna evolves into Hariyama. I decide my team is more than ready to fight Wattson.
Team: Ryu (combusken), Coonskin (Linoone), Ali (Dustox), Yokozuna (hariyama), Hush (Loudred), and Thundara (electrike)
Ryu easily takes down magnemite while Hush pounds voltorb. Yukozuna manages to OHKO magneton with a vital throw. I figured this would be the hardest gym under this challenge but I’m glad I was wrong.
Thundara practically takes out the whole Winstrate family by herself. I catch a female numel and name it Wednesday, but as I already have a useful fire type, I box it.
Ali’s usefulness is starting to wane but I decide to keep her around until I raised a proper substitute and beat the fourth gym. Luckily, I came across a female grimer that I named Goo that would accomplish this.
I catch a male Spinda and name it Herp. My team blazes through all the trainers here.
I catch a male swablu and name it Silverwing. Swablu’s movepool is complete garbage until it becomes an altaria so I decide to box it until I get the HM Fly. I change my mind about Goo and decide to retire Ali to take this chance to grind her to a respective level.
I come across a Lunatone and decide to catch it. It takes a lot longer than expected to catch it and Yokozuna loses a huge chunk of health in the process. I name it Redeye and move on.
I grind some more because I know Flannery’s torkoal is going to be an enormous pain. I mainly focus on Thundara, Goo, and Coonskin because they have the highest special defense on my team. Thundara evolves into Manectric and her special attack goes through the roof in the process.
Team Aqua was waiting and Thundara was more than ready to show off her new abilities. Archie didn’t stand a chance against Thundara and Ryu. On the Jagged Pass, I was really hoping to bump into a spoink but instead I came across another numel which I decapitated in a fit of rage.
Team: Ryu (combusken), Hush (loudred), Coonskin (linoone), Goo (grimer), Yokozuna (hariyama), and Thundara (manectric)
So… I didn’t remember all the members of Flannery’s team had overheat because I usually trash Flannery’s team with a good ground/water type by this point in the game. Thundara lost half her health against the first slugma using the attack which really caught me off guard and in a panic I switched to Hush. She took down the first slugma and Goo took out the second. Coonskin led the fight against Flannery’s torkoal and lost about ¾’s of his against the first overheat. I decided to stall for time by healing Coonskin and Goo while torkoal continued to spam overheat. Once torkoal’s special attack was reduced to virtually nothing, I switched to Goo and spammed harden and minimize until torkoal was SOL. Then began a long battle as torkoal kept paralyzing Goo while dealing minimal damage but, in the end, Goo came out on top.
I figured this would be a good place to grind but boy was I wrong… Under the Nuzlocke challenge, this place becomes downright hostile. The sandstorm constantly chips at your heath and raises the evasion of the cacnea and sandshrew but that’s not the worst part. The worst part is the baltoy which have psybeam and self-destruct. It’s pretty unnerving when a level 24 baltoy can almost kill a level 34 Hariyama in two attacks. Upon almost losing Yokozuna, my key to beating Norman, and grabbing the root fossil, I decided to leave. In this area, I caught a female trapinch and named it Breeze, deciding that, like Silverwing, I would keep it in case one of my main team members fell before the Elite Four.
Team: Ryu (combusken), Coonskin (Linoone), Yokozuna (hariyama), Thundara (manectric), Goo (grimer), and Hush (Loudred)
After grinding all around Hoenn, I decided to crash the Petalburg gym. At this point, all the trainers were easy but Norman would be a different story. Yokozuna lead the fight and stalled his first Slaking for a turn by using fake out. I then lead with two vital throws, taking it down in the process. Hush fought vigoroth but could barely take its slash attacks so I switched to Ryu. He won but was so badly damaged that I didn’t dare to use him against the final Slaking, even if it was just to stall. Yokozuna was back up and I changed my strategy knowing that if Yokozuna were to go down, two more teammates would probably go down just trying to defend themselves. I used fake out to stall and then used sand attack on the turns where slaking was slaking off. I used super potions when I needed to and continued my strategy until Slaking couldn’t land anything. This carried on for like five minutes until I finally won using arm thrusts and vital throws. With Norman defeated I knew the next step was to find a solid water type for the rest of the game.
After teaching Coonskin surf, I obtained a good rod and traveled to all the areas I couldn’t access before. On Route 103, I caught a male magikarp and named it Wrath. I knew Gyarados was freakishly good but I thought having one would take too much away from the challenge of the game so I decided against putting him on my team. On Route 102 I caught a male marill and named it Bubbles but I knew its usefulness would easily run out by the time I reached the Elite Four. On Route 109, I caught a male wingull and named it Gulliver and I caught a female tentacool on Route 108 and named it Medusa. Neither were what I was looking for but I would come across what I wanted in Meteor Falls.
I found just what I was looking for in the form of a goofy looking fish. It was a male barboach which I affectionately named Scatman. I then traveled to New Mauville to grind amongst all the electric types. Scatman soon evolved into a Whiscash and had both earthquake and surf, making it an instant powerhouse on my team. Coonskin, my first caught Pokémon, was solemnly retired and, using the Trainer Eye, I traveled around Hoenn finding trainers to have rematches with. I used them as well as the trainers on route 118 and 119 to further level up my team. I caught a male oddish which I named Sprout but, once again, shoved in the box. Goo eventually evolved into Muk, Hush finally evolved into Exploud, and, best of all, Ryu evolved into Blaziken. The Weather Institute was a breeze and Hush took out everyone single handedly. I named the Castform I got Storm and then proceeded to **** May on the bridge outside.
Things could have been really ugly here. In my past play throughs of this game, there was one fight that usually took half my team. Back then, this was just a minor inconvenience that meant going back to the Pokémon center but, under the Nuzlocke challenge, this could have been a game ruining battle. This battle is against Cool Trainer Jennifer’s Milotic… in the rain… with water pulse… and refresh... and recover. Thundara lead the charge but I panicked when I saw that the first water pulse took down ¾’s of her health despite the fact that Thundara had nearly 10 levels on the milotic. I then switched to Goo who wrapped up the battle after 2 turns. I went back up Route 120 and caught one of the invisible kecleon and named it Rango. I then went to the Safari Zone to discover that I had completely forgotten to get the pokeblock box back in Slateport. I then decided to divert to Mt. Pyre where I caught a female shuppet that I named Wisp. I considered putting Wisp on my team to eventually fight Phoebe’s team but then I remembered that Exploud could learn shadow ball and that Wisp would be in just as much danger as Phoebe’s team even if it had more than a ten level advantage. Before I went any further, I wanted to first get the HM Fly so I could run a few errands so I decided it was a good time to fight Winnoa.
Team: Ryu (Blaziken), Goo (Muk), Hush (Exploud), Thundara (Manectric), Yokozuna (Hariyama), and Scatman (Whiscash)
Thundara took down swellow, pelliper, and altaria effortlessly while Ryu busted a hole through skarmory’s skull with a blaze kick. Simply put, it was the easiest gym battle yet.
Being more than half way through the game, I decided to start making plans to have back up Pokémon in case any of my team mates bit the dust before I reached the Elite Four. I decided that I was going to respectfully retire Yokozuna because, despite his strength, his slow speed was going to be his downfall in the Elite Four and I needed somebody dependable to rely on if Ryu fell in battle. In his place, I brought in Silverwing the swablu. I first flew to Slateport to pick up the Pokeblock Box. I then flew to Rustboro to revive my root fossil which ended up being a female lileep that I named Audrey. I then took her and Wisp to the Daycare Center to train while I started level grinding with Silverwing.
At the Safari Zone I caught a male doduo that I named Krazy, a male psyduck that I named Wonderduck, and a female girafarig I named Gigi. At Mt. Pyre, I trounced Team Aqua yet again and picked up a female vulpix in the process that I named Kirara. Silverwing was still more than 20 levels behind the rest of my team so I continued the long process of catching Silverwing up. After about two hours of grinding, Silverwing was caught up and evolved into an Altaria.
I once again stormed into Team Aqua’s base and promptly disposed of them only using Thundara. After that I began preparing for Kyogre because, under my rules, I had to treat it like a boss fight and could only win by making it faint. I surfed around and caught Riptide (a female Sharpedo), Rosy O (a female wailmer), and Kiss-Kiss (a female luvdisc). As I was running into only water types, Thundara made a huge jump and was soon five levels higher than the rest of my team.
Team) Ryu (Blaziken), Hush (Exploud), Goo (Muk), Silverwing (Altaria), Thundara (Manectric), and Scatman (Whiscash)
I wasn’t expecting Tate and Liz’s solrock and lunatone to be the same level as my team but I was able to get through the battle easily enough. Scatman’s first surf brought both of them down to about ¾’s of their health and Hush’s astonish left lunatone hanging on by a thread. Solrock attempted to pull off solar beam but Scatman finished the battle with another surf attack. It was a good thing that I was the same level as solrock and lunatone because, if I hadn’t been, I probably would have lost Scatman.
Once again, Thundara trashed everyone she came across and Kyogre was unleashed upon the world. Before I left to fight Kyogre, I caught my last new Pokémon underwater, a male chinchou that I named Sparks. Traveling into the Cave of Origin, I hesitated for a bit because I knew a critical hit from any of Kyogre’s moves or a hydro pump would probably be the end of Thundara and I’d be left with a giant hole in my team that would be hard to fill. I knew thunder would hit without fail thanks to Kyogre’s drizzle but would it OHKO? I stepped into its sanctum and the fight began. Thundara used thunder but Kyogre held on by a smidge of health and countered with body slam. I was lucky that it didn't paralyze her so I just used another thunder to wrap things up.
Team) Ryu (Blaziken), Hush (Exploud), Goo (Muk), Silverwing (Altaria), Thundara (Manectric), and Scatman (Whiscash)
Silverwing beat luvdisc with two dragon breaths despite falling to an attract attack. Ryu quickly took out Sealeo with a double kick and Hush quickly disposed of Whiscash with two strengths. The Whiscash made the incredibly stupid choice of using rain dance which allowed Thundara to OHKO both Seaking and Milotic. Now it was time to take on the Elite Four but first I had to look for a few TMs. After I tracked them down, I then headed to Victory Road.
This place was unnerving, to say the least. I never got the TM flash so I just wandered around in the dark, being extra careful that none of my Pokémon fell below ½ of their health. After a nail biting encounter with a golbat’s air cutter against Ryu, I decided that once I got out of the cave I needed to find a better place to grind. Goo only had sludge bomb and rock smash to defend herself against all the poison/steel/fighting types while Hush was severely SOL thanks to her limited moveset. Scatman, on the other hand, had a hay day and was knocking Pokémon flat left and right and jumped three levels in a very short time. After bumping around for nearly an hour, I finally found my way to the exit when Wally appeared.
Silverwing beat altaria, Hush beat delcatty, Scatman beat magneton, and Ryu beat roselia without any problems. The fight against gardevoir was nerve wracking because of how strong his psychic attack was and how it had double team to consistently dodge my attacks. This fight was truly a team effort. Thundara let the charge with a spark attack, taking down gardevoir’s health to half. It seemed like an easy victory but Thundara missed the next attack thanks to double team and had half her life taken from a psychic attack. Not thinking, I sent out Hush, the Pokémon on my team who had the lowest special defense. Trying to think of what to do, I stalled for time using hyper potions as gardevoir’s psychic dwindled Hush to less than ¼ of her health with each attack. I then switched to Silverwing who finished the battle with a dragon breath. The battle was over and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had nearly lost Hush in the process but everything came out okay. Me and my Pokémon then stepped out into the light and headed to Ever Grande City.
I did a lot better than I thought I would with my first Nuzlocke challenge. I hadn’t lost a Pokémon yet and only had to deal with close calls (mainly with Hush). I had followed my rule about not using stat boosters or TMs up until this point and now, finally inside Ever Grande City, I was finally able to use them. I distributed the stat boosters evenly and sat for a while trying to decide which TMs I would use on each Pokémon. Up until this point, my Pokémon’s movesets were:
Ryu- Bulk up, double kick, blaze kick, slash
Hush- Hyper beam, astonish, screech, strength
Thundara- Thunder, spark, bite, thunder wave
Goo- Sludge bomb, screech, rock smash, acid armor
Scatman- Waterfall, surf, earthquake, amnesia
Silverwing- Dragon dance, fly, dragon breath, astonish
I seriously thought over whether or not I should replace Goo or Hush with Audrey but in the end I decide to keep them as Audrey is still about ten levels behind and her usefulness against most of the Elite Four is questionable. I then went off to grind to make sure my team was ready for the Elite Four. When I was done, everyone was level 60 and I went through the gates to the Elite Four…
Final Team) Ryu (Blaziken: roar, overheat, sky uppercut, and blaze kick), Hush (Exploud: hyper beam, earthquake, brick break, and shadow ball), Thundara (Manectric: double team, thunderbolt, thunder wave, and bite), Goo (Muk: screech, acid armor, sludge bomb, and return), Scatman (Whiscash: waterfall, earthquake, rain dance, and ice beam), and Silverwing (Altaria: fly, ice beam, dragon breath, and dragon dance)
Thundara took down mightyena and sharpedo and Ryu took down absol, cacturne, and shiftry. Thundara only had to use thunderbolt and Ryu only had to use blaze kick.
Hush started things off against Phoebe’s first dusclops with a shadow ball. It failed to OHKO and Hush was then hit with a confuse ray. Hush was able to fight it off and landed another shadow ball. Phoebe then sent out her first banette which was taken down by two of Thundara’s bites. Next was Phoebe’s second dusclops. I sent out Hush again and she was confused again. She held on and was able to finish the fight with two shadow balls. Goo was sent out to fight sableye and won with two sludge bombs. Hush finished off the second banette with a single shadow ball.
Hush led the charge again by using brick break on the first glalie. It wasn’t enough and it delayed the inevitable by using hail and a full restore. Hush was able to bounce back though and finished it with a critical hit brick break. Thundara effortlessly took out Glacia’s two sealeos and her walrein with thunderbolt. Hush was back up again against the final glalie which she handled just fine with two brick breaks.
Goo took out shelgon with a single return while Silverwing took down the first flygon and altaria with ice beam. Scatman finished off the other flygon and salamence with ice beam too. Now it was time for the final battle…
Thundara cast skarmory aside with a single thunderbolt. Hush took down aggron with a critical hit earthquake. I decided to keep Hush in against cradily. The first earthquake I wasn’t enough to finish it off and it countered with a confuse ray. It then boiled down to a waiting game where I tried to land earthquake as Hush repeatedly hurt itself and kept getting hit by ancient power. Hush eventually pulled through and landed another earthquake. Scatman was up against claydol and I was actually more worried about this fight then the fight against metagross. Scatman used rain dance while claydol used reflect. I knew things would get ugly if I allowed claydol to use light screen so I quickly finished it off with a waterfall. Next up was metagross. My original plan was to send out Ryu and take my chances by trying to land a single overheat but the fact that it was raining made me change my plans. I kept Scatman in and waited for both reflect and rain dance wear off while I chipped away at metagross’s health with earthquake. Using a full restore, I kept Scatman going long enough to finish metagross in a fairly anti-climactic manner. Armaldo was the last Pokémon Steven sent out and I was hoping to wrap things up quickly with Ryu. He landed a sky uppercut but armaldo somehow held on by like 3 hp and countered with an aerial ace, taking out about half of Ryu’s health. Not wanting to risk losing Ryu, I switched out for Goo. She used a couple of acid armors and screeches to make armaldo borderline useless before taking down it down with a single return. The battle was over and I had successfully completed my first Nuzlocke challenge.
I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and I plan on doing this again with Fire Red. Through this challenge, I believe I have had one of the deepest experiences I’ve ever had with a video game. When I normally play Pokémon, I usually never buy items until the Elite Four, I take a ton of risks, and I’m usually at a Pokémon center every 15 minutes or so. I found myself genuinely concerned for my team as if I was actually traveling with them and I felt sad about the idea of losing any of them. When a challenge makes you treat 16 bit sprites like they’re your pets and actually feel a deep level of attachment to them, I would say that it’s worth taking. See you guys again when I go through Pokémon Fire Red!
Ryu (male blaziken, level 5-60), Hush (female exploud, level 5-61), Thundara (female manectric, level 13-60), Goo (female muk, level 16-60), Scatman (male whiscash, level 18-61), and Silverwing (male altaria, level 16-60)
YipYipGuyu (female poochyena, level 3-10), Ali (female dustox, level 5-28), Coonskin (male linoone, level 2-30) and Yokozuna (male hariyama, level 7-39)
Final Play Time: 49 hours, 52 minutes
Final Pokémon Count: 45
Pokémon lost: 0
I’ve decided to take a little departure from what I usually write to write this journal about a special Pokémon play through. I realize this is an incredibly long read but if you want to quickly get the main points out of the way, you can read the first couple of paragraphs about what the Nuzlocke challenge is and/or scroll all the way to the bottom to see how well I did in the end. Will I succeed? Keep reading to find out.
What is the Nuzlocke Challenge?
The Nuzlocke Challenge is named after the comics by the same name where the author records his journeys through different Pokémon games. Some people refer to it as Pokémon: Hard Mode because it makes the games significantly more challenging. You can do this with any Pokémon version and there are three basic rules:
1. You can only catch the first Pokémon you come across in an area. If you make it faint, too bad, you can’t catch any more Pokémon in that area. You can only catch more than one Pokémon in an area if you come across a shiny or if the area has a body of water but, again, you have to catch the first one you come across using surf or a fishing pole or do without. If different areas of the same place have radically different Pokémon (like the Safari Zone or the Route 111 Desert), you can catch one Pokémon per area. Multiple levels of caves like Mount Moon or buildings like the Pokémon Tower DO NOT COUNT. This makes getting certain Pokémon like dratini and ralts almost impossible to get but that’s all part of the challenge.
2. You must nickname every Pokémon you catch. The purpose of this is to try to create a bond between you and your Pokémon because of the final rule…
3. If your Pokémon faints during battle, it’s officially dead. You can’t revive it and you have to release it. NO EXCEPTIONS. If you want your Pokémon to survive, you need to be careful and plan ahead because one mistake can mean losing someone vital to your team.
You officially pass the challenge when you beat the Elite Four in your respective game. For Gold/Silver/Crystal, you only have to do this once and the trip to Kanto is completely optional and, from what I’ve seen so far, most people don’t bother. If you lose all your Pokémon in a battle, it’s game over and you have to start all the way back at the beginning. It’s a really harsh punishment and I’ve come to see that most people lose to the Elite Four in the end but, having played through the Pokémon games so many times, I figured I’d give it a shot.
My Nuzlocke Challenge
For my first challenge, I have decided to play Pokémon Sapphire because one of my friends is currently doing this with Leaf Green and I also wanted to do one in the third generation. When most people do the Nuzlocke challenge, they usually add a few extra rules to make it more challenging and, like them, I’ve added a few of my own:
1. No legendary Pokémon. When you fight them, you have to make them faint.
2. No TMs until you’ve gotten past Victory Road. Up until then, you have to rely on your Pokémon’s natural moves so choose your team wisely. HMs can be used BUT only one person on your team can have a particular move (for example, multiple Pokémon can’t have strength) so, again, be careful who you give certain moves to.
3. If a Pokémon on your team faints, you can’t replace it with the same Pokémon or a Pokémon in its evolutionary line. For example, if you have a pidgeot and it faints, you can’t replace it with a pidgey or a pidgeotto from your box.
4. Your team for fighting the Elite Four cannot have repeating types. If you have a normal Pokémon, you can’t use another normal Pokémon even if it’s normal flying, psychic normal, etc. Up until then it’s perfectly fine especially since it’s borderline impossible not to do this until about the third gym in nearly all the games with the Nuzlocke challenge.
5. No stat boosting items like Iron or Calcium until you’ve reached the Elite Four.
Archnid’s Adventure
Little Root Town
Little Root Town
Like I do in many of my Pokémon games, I named my main character Archnid. I picked torchic as my starter and named him Ryu.
Route 101
As I don’t have any pokeballs, I can’t catch anything so I wasn’t able to get anything in this area.
Route 103
I trash May and I make sure I don’t stay in the grass too long to avoid contacting anymore Pokémon before I get pokeballs. After getting pokeballs from Oldale, I go back and catch a male zigzagoon and name it Coonskin.
Route 102
I catch a female poochyena and name it YipYipGuyu. Coonskin finds a King’s Rock using Pick Up.
Route 104
I hope to catch a wingull or taillow but I wind up with a female wurmple that I call Ali (float like a butterfree, sting like a beedrill).
Petalburg Woods
Once again I’m banking on finding something that doesn’t completely suck but I end up with another wurmple (male) that I name Inch. Ali evolves into Cascoon and then Dustox after painstakingly battling other wurmple and cascoons/silcoons and rushing back and forth from the Pokémon center to avoid losing her.
Route 104 (part two)
I catch another male zigzagoon that I name Swiggles and YipYipGuyu just about bites the dust against Lady Cindy’s zigzagoon by taking a critical hit.
Route 116
I catch a male nincada and name it Blade but I become annoyed with how slow its growth rate is and promptly box it after trying to level it up. YipYipGuyuu’s slow growth rate and subpar stats are starting to get on my nerves too but I keep it around just in case things go terribly wrong.
Rusturf Cave
I catch a female whismur and name it Hush. Its defense is laughably bad but its attack stats were promising so I had high hopes for it and decided to keep it as a permanent member of my team.
Route 116 (part two)
Not wanting to get my face handed to me during my first gym battle against Roxanne, I grind a bit with four of my team members: Ryu, Hush, Coonskin, and Ali. Ryu evolves into combusken and all seems right in the world.
Rustboro Gym vs. Roxanne
Team: Ryu (combusken), Ali (dustox), Hush (whismur), Coonskin (zigzagoon), and YipYipGuyu (poochyena)
Ryu and Ali stole the show without giving Roxanne a chance to attack.
Granite Cave
After a little bit of traveling, I arrive in Dewford town where I stock up items thanks to all the money I’m saving not buying pokeballs. I catch a male makuhita which I name Yokozuna who instantly becomes one of my favorite team members. I decide to grind here to make Yokozuna fit better on the team and to prepare for Brawly. Under the Nuzlocke challenge this place is actually pretty rough. I just about lost Hush when a makuhita survived getting OHKO’d and came back with a 5 hit arm thrust. All the arons made leveling up Ryu and Yokozuna very easy while the zubats fed Ali’s experience. The only thing that kept it alive was that it was level 16 and at full health when it happened. YipYipGuyu ended up going through potions like water so I box it after grinding and it became the first Pokémon I officially “retired.”
Dewford Gym vs. Brawly
Team: Ryu (combusken), Ali (dustox), Hush (whismur), Coonskin (zigzagoon), and Yokozuna (makuhita)
Once again, Ryu and Ali took charge, completely overwhelming Brawly’s team. His meditite delayed the inevitable by using detect but Ryu’s peck eventually took it down.
Route 110
I look for a sixth member to round up my team and luck was on my side when I caught a female electrike which I named Thundara. I did some more grinding to get her on level with the rest of the team.
Slateport Museum
Thundara effortlessly killed everything that Team Aqua threw at her leaving piles of bodies in her wake.
Return to Route 110
There’s so many annoying Pokémon on this route… electrike + gulpin +plusle+ minun= using an absurd number of paralyz heal and antidotes… I defeat May effortlessly again, further cementing the fact that she’s the worst rival in the entire franchise.
Route 117
A perfect spot for grinding so I take the time to prepare for Mauville’s gym. I catch a female oddish and naming it Iris but after going on Serebii.net and finding that it has virtually no attacks until it becomes a Vileplume, I decide it would be too much of a hassle to raise. My team goes on an evolution spree: Coonskin evolves into Linoone, Hush evolves into Loudred, and Yokozuna evolves into Hariyama. I decide my team is more than ready to fight Wattson.
Mauville Gym vs. Wattson
Team: Ryu (combusken), Coonskin (Linoone), Ali (Dustox), Yokozuna (hariyama), Hush (Loudred), and Thundara (electrike)
Ryu easily takes down magnemite while Hush pounds voltorb. Yukozuna manages to OHKO magneton with a vital throw. I figured this would be the hardest gym under this challenge but I’m glad I was wrong.
Route 111
Thundara practically takes out the whole Winstrate family by herself. I catch a female numel and name it Wednesday, but as I already have a useful fire type, I box it.
Fiery Path
Ali’s usefulness is starting to wane but I decide to keep her around until I raised a proper substitute and beat the fourth gym. Luckily, I came across a female grimer that I named Goo that would accomplish this.
Route 113
I catch a male Spinda and name it Herp. My team blazes through all the trainers here.
Route 114
I catch a male swablu and name it Silverwing. Swablu’s movepool is complete garbage until it becomes an altaria so I decide to box it until I get the HM Fly. I change my mind about Goo and decide to retire Ali to take this chance to grind her to a respective level.
Meteor Falls
I come across a Lunatone and decide to catch it. It takes a lot longer than expected to catch it and Yokozuna loses a huge chunk of health in the process. I name it Redeye and move on.
Return to Route 111, Fiery Path, Route 113, and Route 117
I grind some more because I know Flannery’s torkoal is going to be an enormous pain. I mainly focus on Thundara, Goo, and Coonskin because they have the highest special defense on my team. Thundara evolves into Manectric and her special attack goes through the roof in the process.
Mount Chimney Summit and Jagged Pass
Team Aqua was waiting and Thundara was more than ready to show off her new abilities. Archie didn’t stand a chance against Thundara and Ryu. On the Jagged Pass, I was really hoping to bump into a spoink but instead I came across another numel which I decapitated in a fit of rage.
Lavaridge Gym vs. Flannery
Team: Ryu (combusken), Hush (loudred), Coonskin (linoone), Goo (grimer), Yokozuna (hariyama), and Thundara (manectric)
So… I didn’t remember all the members of Flannery’s team had overheat because I usually trash Flannery’s team with a good ground/water type by this point in the game. Thundara lost half her health against the first slugma using the attack which really caught me off guard and in a panic I switched to Hush. She took down the first slugma and Goo took out the second. Coonskin led the fight against Flannery’s torkoal and lost about ¾’s of his against the first overheat. I decided to stall for time by healing Coonskin and Goo while torkoal continued to spam overheat. Once torkoal’s special attack was reduced to virtually nothing, I switched to Goo and spammed harden and minimize until torkoal was SOL. Then began a long battle as torkoal kept paralyzing Goo while dealing minimal damage but, in the end, Goo came out on top.
Route 111 Desert
I figured this would be a good place to grind but boy was I wrong… Under the Nuzlocke challenge, this place becomes downright hostile. The sandstorm constantly chips at your heath and raises the evasion of the cacnea and sandshrew but that’s not the worst part. The worst part is the baltoy which have psybeam and self-destruct. It’s pretty unnerving when a level 24 baltoy can almost kill a level 34 Hariyama in two attacks. Upon almost losing Yokozuna, my key to beating Norman, and grabbing the root fossil, I decided to leave. In this area, I caught a female trapinch and named it Breeze, deciding that, like Silverwing, I would keep it in case one of my main team members fell before the Elite Four.
Petalburg Gym vs. Norman
Team: Ryu (combusken), Coonskin (Linoone), Yokozuna (hariyama), Thundara (manectric), Goo (grimer), and Hush (Loudred)
After grinding all around Hoenn, I decided to crash the Petalburg gym. At this point, all the trainers were easy but Norman would be a different story. Yokozuna lead the fight and stalled his first Slaking for a turn by using fake out. I then lead with two vital throws, taking it down in the process. Hush fought vigoroth but could barely take its slash attacks so I switched to Ryu. He won but was so badly damaged that I didn’t dare to use him against the final Slaking, even if it was just to stall. Yokozuna was back up and I changed my strategy knowing that if Yokozuna were to go down, two more teammates would probably go down just trying to defend themselves. I used fake out to stall and then used sand attack on the turns where slaking was slaking off. I used super potions when I needed to and continued my strategy until Slaking couldn’t land anything. This carried on for like five minutes until I finally won using arm thrusts and vital throws. With Norman defeated I knew the next step was to find a solid water type for the rest of the game.
Route 118 and the Search for a Water Type
After teaching Coonskin surf, I obtained a good rod and traveled to all the areas I couldn’t access before. On Route 103, I caught a male magikarp and named it Wrath. I knew Gyarados was freakishly good but I thought having one would take too much away from the challenge of the game so I decided against putting him on my team. On Route 102 I caught a male marill and named it Bubbles but I knew its usefulness would easily run out by the time I reached the Elite Four. On Route 109, I caught a male wingull and named it Gulliver and I caught a female tentacool on Route 108 and named it Medusa. Neither were what I was looking for but I would come across what I wanted in Meteor Falls.
The PokeNav Chronicles: Team Archnid Evolves
I found just what I was looking for in the form of a goofy looking fish. It was a male barboach which I affectionately named Scatman. I then traveled to New Mauville to grind amongst all the electric types. Scatman soon evolved into a Whiscash and had both earthquake and surf, making it an instant powerhouse on my team. Coonskin, my first caught Pokémon, was solemnly retired and, using the Trainer Eye, I traveled around Hoenn finding trainers to have rematches with. I used them as well as the trainers on route 118 and 119 to further level up my team. I caught a male oddish which I named Sprout but, once again, shoved in the box. Goo eventually evolved into Muk, Hush finally evolved into Exploud, and, best of all, Ryu evolved into Blaziken. The Weather Institute was a breeze and Hush took out everyone single handedly. I named the Castform I got Storm and then proceeded to **** May on the bridge outside.
Route 120 and Route 121
Things could have been really ugly here. In my past play throughs of this game, there was one fight that usually took half my team. Back then, this was just a minor inconvenience that meant going back to the Pokémon center but, under the Nuzlocke challenge, this could have been a game ruining battle. This battle is against Cool Trainer Jennifer’s Milotic… in the rain… with water pulse… and refresh... and recover. Thundara lead the charge but I panicked when I saw that the first water pulse took down ¾’s of her health despite the fact that Thundara had nearly 10 levels on the milotic. I then switched to Goo who wrapped up the battle after 2 turns. I went back up Route 120 and caught one of the invisible kecleon and named it Rango. I then went to the Safari Zone to discover that I had completely forgotten to get the pokeblock box back in Slateport. I then decided to divert to Mt. Pyre where I caught a female shuppet that I named Wisp. I considered putting Wisp on my team to eventually fight Phoebe’s team but then I remembered that Exploud could learn shadow ball and that Wisp would be in just as much danger as Phoebe’s team even if it had more than a ten level advantage. Before I went any further, I wanted to first get the HM Fly so I could run a few errands so I decided it was a good time to fight Winnoa.
Fortree Gym vs. Winnoa
Team: Ryu (Blaziken), Goo (Muk), Hush (Exploud), Thundara (Manectric), Yokozuna (Hariyama), and Scatman (Whiscash)
Thundara took down swellow, pelliper, and altaria effortlessly while Ryu busted a hole through skarmory’s skull with a blaze kick. Simply put, it was the easiest gym battle yet.
Making my Back Up Team
Being more than half way through the game, I decided to start making plans to have back up Pokémon in case any of my team mates bit the dust before I reached the Elite Four. I decided that I was going to respectfully retire Yokozuna because, despite his strength, his slow speed was going to be his downfall in the Elite Four and I needed somebody dependable to rely on if Ryu fell in battle. In his place, I brought in Silverwing the swablu. I first flew to Slateport to pick up the Pokeblock Box. I then flew to Rustboro to revive my root fossil which ended up being a female lileep that I named Audrey. I then took her and Wisp to the Daycare Center to train while I started level grinding with Silverwing.
Preparing Silverwing
At the Safari Zone I caught a male doduo that I named Krazy, a male psyduck that I named Wonderduck, and a female girafarig I named Gigi. At Mt. Pyre, I trounced Team Aqua yet again and picked up a female vulpix in the process that I named Kirara. Silverwing was still more than 20 levels behind the rest of my team so I continued the long process of catching Silverwing up. After about two hours of grinding, Silverwing was caught up and evolved into an Altaria.
Surfing Hoenn’s Seas (Route 124-132)
I once again stormed into Team Aqua’s base and promptly disposed of them only using Thundara. After that I began preparing for Kyogre because, under my rules, I had to treat it like a boss fight and could only win by making it faint. I surfed around and caught Riptide (a female Sharpedo), Rosy O (a female wailmer), and Kiss-Kiss (a female luvdisc). As I was running into only water types, Thundara made a huge jump and was soon five levels higher than the rest of my team.
Mossdeep Gym vs. Tate and Liz
Team) Ryu (Blaziken), Hush (Exploud), Goo (Muk), Silverwing (Altaria), Thundara (Manectric), and Scatman (Whiscash)
I wasn’t expecting Tate and Liz’s solrock and lunatone to be the same level as my team but I was able to get through the battle easily enough. Scatman’s first surf brought both of them down to about ¾’s of their health and Hush’s astonish left lunatone hanging on by a thread. Solrock attempted to pull off solar beam but Scatman finished the battle with another surf attack. It was a good thing that I was the same level as solrock and lunatone because, if I hadn’t been, I probably would have lost Scatman.
The Secret Base and the Battle Against Kyogre
Once again, Thundara trashed everyone she came across and Kyogre was unleashed upon the world. Before I left to fight Kyogre, I caught my last new Pokémon underwater, a male chinchou that I named Sparks. Traveling into the Cave of Origin, I hesitated for a bit because I knew a critical hit from any of Kyogre’s moves or a hydro pump would probably be the end of Thundara and I’d be left with a giant hole in my team that would be hard to fill. I knew thunder would hit without fail thanks to Kyogre’s drizzle but would it OHKO? I stepped into its sanctum and the fight began. Thundara used thunder but Kyogre held on by a smidge of health and countered with body slam. I was lucky that it didn't paralyze her so I just used another thunder to wrap things up.
Sootopolis Gym vs. Wallace
Team) Ryu (Blaziken), Hush (Exploud), Goo (Muk), Silverwing (Altaria), Thundara (Manectric), and Scatman (Whiscash)
Silverwing beat luvdisc with two dragon breaths despite falling to an attract attack. Ryu quickly took out Sealeo with a double kick and Hush quickly disposed of Whiscash with two strengths. The Whiscash made the incredibly stupid choice of using rain dance which allowed Thundara to OHKO both Seaking and Milotic. Now it was time to take on the Elite Four but first I had to look for a few TMs. After I tracked them down, I then headed to Victory Road.
Victory Road
This place was unnerving, to say the least. I never got the TM flash so I just wandered around in the dark, being extra careful that none of my Pokémon fell below ½ of their health. After a nail biting encounter with a golbat’s air cutter against Ryu, I decided that once I got out of the cave I needed to find a better place to grind. Goo only had sludge bomb and rock smash to defend herself against all the poison/steel/fighting types while Hush was severely SOL thanks to her limited moveset. Scatman, on the other hand, had a hay day and was knocking Pokémon flat left and right and jumped three levels in a very short time. After bumping around for nearly an hour, I finally found my way to the exit when Wally appeared.
Vs. Wally
Silverwing beat altaria, Hush beat delcatty, Scatman beat magneton, and Ryu beat roselia without any problems. The fight against gardevoir was nerve wracking because of how strong his psychic attack was and how it had double team to consistently dodge my attacks. This fight was truly a team effort. Thundara let the charge with a spark attack, taking down gardevoir’s health to half. It seemed like an easy victory but Thundara missed the next attack thanks to double team and had half her life taken from a psychic attack. Not thinking, I sent out Hush, the Pokémon on my team who had the lowest special defense. Trying to think of what to do, I stalled for time using hyper potions as gardevoir’s psychic dwindled Hush to less than ¼ of her health with each attack. I then switched to Silverwing who finished the battle with a dragon breath. The battle was over and I breathed a sigh of relief. I had nearly lost Hush in the process but everything came out okay. Me and my Pokémon then stepped out into the light and headed to Ever Grande City.
Preparing for the Elite Four
I did a lot better than I thought I would with my first Nuzlocke challenge. I hadn’t lost a Pokémon yet and only had to deal with close calls (mainly with Hush). I had followed my rule about not using stat boosters or TMs up until this point and now, finally inside Ever Grande City, I was finally able to use them. I distributed the stat boosters evenly and sat for a while trying to decide which TMs I would use on each Pokémon. Up until this point, my Pokémon’s movesets were:
Ryu- Bulk up, double kick, blaze kick, slash
Hush- Hyper beam, astonish, screech, strength
Thundara- Thunder, spark, bite, thunder wave
Goo- Sludge bomb, screech, rock smash, acid armor
Scatman- Waterfall, surf, earthquake, amnesia
Silverwing- Dragon dance, fly, dragon breath, astonish
I seriously thought over whether or not I should replace Goo or Hush with Audrey but in the end I decide to keep them as Audrey is still about ten levels behind and her usefulness against most of the Elite Four is questionable. I then went off to grind to make sure my team was ready for the Elite Four. When I was done, everyone was level 60 and I went through the gates to the Elite Four…
Final Team) Ryu (Blaziken: roar, overheat, sky uppercut, and blaze kick), Hush (Exploud: hyper beam, earthquake, brick break, and shadow ball), Thundara (Manectric: double team, thunderbolt, thunder wave, and bite), Goo (Muk: screech, acid armor, sludge bomb, and return), Scatman (Whiscash: waterfall, earthquake, rain dance, and ice beam), and Silverwing (Altaria: fly, ice beam, dragon breath, and dragon dance)
The Elite Four vs. Sydney
Thundara took down mightyena and sharpedo and Ryu took down absol, cacturne, and shiftry. Thundara only had to use thunderbolt and Ryu only had to use blaze kick.
The Elite Four vs. Phoebe
Hush started things off against Phoebe’s first dusclops with a shadow ball. It failed to OHKO and Hush was then hit with a confuse ray. Hush was able to fight it off and landed another shadow ball. Phoebe then sent out her first banette which was taken down by two of Thundara’s bites. Next was Phoebe’s second dusclops. I sent out Hush again and she was confused again. She held on and was able to finish the fight with two shadow balls. Goo was sent out to fight sableye and won with two sludge bombs. Hush finished off the second banette with a single shadow ball.
The Elite Four vs. Glacia
Hush led the charge again by using brick break on the first glalie. It wasn’t enough and it delayed the inevitable by using hail and a full restore. Hush was able to bounce back though and finished it with a critical hit brick break. Thundara effortlessly took out Glacia’s two sealeos and her walrein with thunderbolt. Hush was back up again against the final glalie which she handled just fine with two brick breaks.
The Elite Four vs. Drake
Goo took out shelgon with a single return while Silverwing took down the first flygon and altaria with ice beam. Scatman finished off the other flygon and salamence with ice beam too. Now it was time for the final battle…
The Elite Four vs. Steven: the Final Battle
Thundara cast skarmory aside with a single thunderbolt. Hush took down aggron with a critical hit earthquake. I decided to keep Hush in against cradily. The first earthquake I wasn’t enough to finish it off and it countered with a confuse ray. It then boiled down to a waiting game where I tried to land earthquake as Hush repeatedly hurt itself and kept getting hit by ancient power. Hush eventually pulled through and landed another earthquake. Scatman was up against claydol and I was actually more worried about this fight then the fight against metagross. Scatman used rain dance while claydol used reflect. I knew things would get ugly if I allowed claydol to use light screen so I quickly finished it off with a waterfall. Next up was metagross. My original plan was to send out Ryu and take my chances by trying to land a single overheat but the fact that it was raining made me change my plans. I kept Scatman in and waited for both reflect and rain dance wear off while I chipped away at metagross’s health with earthquake. Using a full restore, I kept Scatman going long enough to finish metagross in a fairly anti-climactic manner. Armaldo was the last Pokémon Steven sent out and I was hoping to wrap things up quickly with Ryu. He landed a sky uppercut but armaldo somehow held on by like 3 hp and countered with an aerial ace, taking out about half of Ryu’s health. Not wanting to risk losing Ryu, I switched out for Goo. She used a couple of acid armors and screeches to make armaldo borderline useless before taking down it down with a single return. The battle was over and I had successfully completed my first Nuzlocke challenge.
Final Thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and I plan on doing this again with Fire Red. Through this challenge, I believe I have had one of the deepest experiences I’ve ever had with a video game. When I normally play Pokémon, I usually never buy items until the Elite Four, I take a ton of risks, and I’m usually at a Pokémon center every 15 minutes or so. I found myself genuinely concerned for my team as if I was actually traveling with them and I felt sad about the idea of losing any of them. When a challenge makes you treat 16 bit sprites like they’re your pets and actually feel a deep level of attachment to them, I would say that it’s worth taking. See you guys again when I go through Pokémon Fire Red!
Final Team
Ryu (male blaziken, level 5-60), Hush (female exploud, level 5-61), Thundara (female manectric, level 13-60), Goo (female muk, level 16-60), Scatman (male whiscash, level 18-61), and Silverwing (male altaria, level 16-60)
Retired Members
YipYipGuyu (female poochyena, level 3-10), Ali (female dustox, level 5-28), Coonskin (male linoone, level 2-30) and Yokozuna (male hariyama, level 7-39)
Final Play Time: 49 hours, 52 minutes
Final Pokémon Count: 45
Pokémon lost: 0
