Board 8 > Pokemon Crystal Nuzlocke - playthrough topic 1

(+) Yeah! (+)

got the urge to play through a pokemon game for the first time in a decade and thought i'd spice it up a bit.

in addition to the core rules, I'm also playing with dupes clause active, set mode, and no in-battle items.

My team, 45 mins into my second try:
LEBRON, Lv. 8 Cyndaquil (starter)
MUGGSY, Lv. 5 Spinarak (Route 30)
VINSANITY, Lv. 4 Hoothoot (Route 29)
RON ARTEST, Lv. 4 Poliwag (Route 31)

Second try because I lost in the first rival battle earlier this evening. Whoops

bit of a theme going. pulling for the Lakers in the bubble with my Bulls being trash. i always liked having names in all caps.

off I go, hoping for a Geodude in Route 46 for Falkner

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I played through crystal about 3 years ago and ariados was my mvp. I believe in muggsy

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What's dupes clause

oh like you can't have multiple of the same pokemon

My brain went to dupes as in exploiting a glitch to create duplicates of things

dupes clause = if you are in a new location and your first encounter is a pokemon you already own, you're not locked into it

so you CAN catch it (and if you do, the route is done) but if you want to wait and catch another mon you're allowed

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Badges
Falkner

Play Time
4:10 (although some of this was idle time)

Starters
LEBRON - Lv. 14 Quilava (starter)
KENTAVIOUS - Lv. 12 Geodude (Dark Cave)
VINSANITY - Lv. 9 Hoothoot (Route 29)
RON ARTEST - Lv. 8 Poliwag (Route 31)
D ANGELO - Lv. 8 Rattata (Route 46)
PAT BEV - Lv. 8 Zubat (Route 32)

Bench
MUGGSY - Lv. 7 Spinarak (Route 30)
RODMAN - Lv. 3 Gastly (Sprout Tower)
EGG - Lv. 5 Egg (Prof. Elm's friend)

I leveled KENTAVIOUS up until he learned Rock Throw (lv. 11), which makes the Falkner fight a joke. Mud-Slap from his Pidgeotto is super-effective, but did 5/31 damage per turn. Meanwhile, Rock Throw crit and one-shot the fancy pigeon.

I am playing on 3DS VC, so benching RODMAN because I don't want to play with Haunter forever. Shame, too - Gengar is so cool. Between Poison types, I'm leaning towards an eventual Crobat over Ariados.

Next up is Rte 33 and Bugsy. If I go to Azalea now I will guaranteed not run into any Pokemon I don't already have. I can grind a bit or just go into Bugsy knowing that my best two Pokemon both annihilate him.

Thinking ahead to Whitney. KENTAVIOUS is an obvious choice here, but he doesn't evolve until 25, and he is male and thus susceptible to Attract. D ANGELO, on the other hand, is female, learns Hyper Fang very early, and evolves to Raticate at 20. Definitely doable. Maybe the best call is . . . rely on both? Would love to go deathless this run so would rather not sacrifice a mon to Miltank.

Deeply disappointed I did not get Wooper on Route 32. I even went at night! But I learned that surfing in the Ruins of Alph is 100% chance of Wooper or Quagsire, so I'll just have to wait until then. Or get my guaranteed Slowpoke (more Zubats, but I already got one) in the Slowpoke Well in Azalea Town.

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no new badges yet, but i'm starting to reach the point where battles are a bit scary! Had a few instances where if an attack had crit I would have had to say goodbye to one of my mons . . .

Also, I now realize I have no good answer to Water types with my two best being fire and rock/ground. Which doesn't kill me on any gyms, but still . . . and there's no Mareep line in Crystal. Maybe an Oddish in the forest.

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location: i'm in Azalea Town now. Used a Repel I found in Union Cave so I can still get that Lapras there eventually.

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final update for the night: LEBRON just dunked all over Bugsy for Badge 2. As expected. Gotta prep for that Miltank now . . .

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something i've always wondered about nuzlockes- what are the rules about grinding levels?

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banananor posted...

something i've always wondered about nuzlockes- what are the rules about grinding levels?

The only core nuzlocke rules are you can only catch the first new pokemon in a location and if a pokemon faints, it's done for good.

Everything else is optional. There are a ton of possible variants to add challenge. One is that your pokemon have to be leveled relative to the highest pokemon in a gym/E4 (they can't be higher than the boss' highest mon, or maybe they can't be more than 5 levels higher, multiple ways you can do it). Another is that you can't grind wild pokemon at all. But these are totally optional and i'm not playing with them.

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Tag

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got a slowpoke! nicknamed it BIG HONEY after everyone's favorite NBA slowpoke, Nikola Jokic

This thing was actually quite a bear to catch - RON ARTEST the Poliwag was a godsend as it knows Hypnosis and Bubble, and a weak attack (to safely get it into the red) + sleep is basically the perfect combo.

still it broke out of 4-5 balls before submitting. And it felt like all of them shook three times before breaking for the extra annoyance.

now i'm starting to have more worthwhile mons than my team can hold. Since Crobat can learn Fly I'm thinking of putting Noctowl on the bench and running with two water types - Poliwrath and Slowbro will end up being different enough, and Slowbro has more special atk power for those Ice Punches against Lance. No Slowking bc no trade.

Yes, I'm already thinking ahead as far as Lance, and even Red. Planning on saving both the Master Ball and Earthquake TM for Snorlax - Curse/Rest/EQ/Body Slam should make the Red fight pretty manageable

Of course, this might all be moot. The Red Gyarados looms, and I repelled through Union Cave so the Lapras that appears there on Fridays is still on the table (and is a superior Ice option - learns Ice Beam through leveling and gets STAB).

sidenote there is a "no guide" variation, which given my reliance on bulbapedia might be the hardest of all for me to consider . . .

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I'm counting Slowpoke Well as its own area, for the record, just as I did Sprout Tower - so if I headbutt a tree or surf/fish to get something in Azalea Town, that's valid

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They are definitely their own areas.

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Just had my second Rival fight. (My rival's name? J.DOLAN)

Man, I have no answer to Water Pokemon. I think I have to level up BIG HONEY the Slowpoke, stat. Sorry VINSANITY.

KENTAVIOUS took out the Gastly first and the Zubat last without a problem.

That Croconaw, though . . .

RON ARTEST the Poliwag is the unquestioned MVP of this fight. Despite being Lv. 12 to the Croconaw's Lv. 16, he still outsped it, and was able to get Hypnosis off three times (with two misses).

My biggest stroke of luck was that the first Hypnosis lasted five turns. I ended up switching to LEBRON the Quilava, getting two Smokescreens up, Leering once, and hitting with one Tackle. At the end, LEBRON got hit with Water Gun once before I switched back to RON ARTEST.

The second Hypnosis I actually tried switching to D ANGELO the Rattata (figured it might pack a punch with Quick Attack - no Hyper Fang yet). But Croconaw woke up immediately and took out more than half D ANGELO's health. Back to RON ARTEST I went.

On the third Hypnosis I switched to Quilava and just Tackled away. lasted long enough for me to be one Tackle away from KO'ing when Croconaw woke up. Got hit with another Water Gun, but not enough to kill (it was a 4HKO on Quilava).

No one went down! But I have work to do before Whitney . . .

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And I get the Weed Pokemon (Oddish) in Ilex Forest. No more fitting name for him than DION (Waiters, noted edibles connoisseur)

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