Current Events > Pokemon Brilliant Diamond Nuzlocke topic *i guess spoilers?*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Spoiler tag because mods be crazy sometimes

Anyway, doing a Nuzlocke run of Brilliant Diamond.

Not adding any of the crazy extra rules like "no potions", just the basics:

1 - Can only catch the first thing I see in each area (rule is in place after I receive my first Pokeball)
1b - Can skip to the next Pokemon if I already have its Pokedex data
2 - If a Pokemon faints, it's dead and must be released
3 - Nickname everything
4 - Battle style is on Set

I'm also going to let the last number of my Trainer ID determine my starter. 1-3 is Turtwig, 4-6 is Chimchar, 7-9 is Piplup, 0 is move up to the next digit. My ID is 021698, so my starter is Piplup.

OBTAINED - Pebbles the Piplup

Tune in next time for more PBDN

Got my Pokeballs, and returned to Route 201 and Lake Verity to add to my team.

OBTAINED - Shia the Bidoof
OBTAINED - Feathers the Starly

Also told my mom I'm running away to raise Pokemon. She was cool with it and gave me a hat.

Tune in next time for more PBDN

Dawn showed me how to catch a new Pokemon after I already caught two. You'd think by now they'd have it programmed to skip this tutorial if you've already done it.

I also caught a liom.

OBTAINED - Zapp the Shinx

Get it because it's electric-type and also Zapp Brannigan

Hahaha I kill me sometimes

Anyway tune in next time for more PBDN

After the requisite trainer battles I arrived at Jubilife and gave Barry his stupid parcel. He gave me a map which I'll probably never look at.

I then beat up some dweebus kids who had Abras and got a handful of Work Up TMs.

Went back outside, saw a clown in the street, and decided that was enough for tonight.

Tune in next time for more PBDN

I'm enthralled.Go get a Magikarp and give it a silly name.

TMOG posted...

Pebbles the Piplup

Nice

Also, how are you going to handle the Underground?

Kim_Seong-a posted...

Nice

Also, how are you going to handle the Underground?

Undecided. Serebii says it's split into six different areas/maps, so I might just consider each map as its own instance, so I can get six Pokemon from the Underground total. It's the same thing I did with the Wild Zone in Shield.

Or I might split it up by biome instead.

Bump to starve the purge monster, playing more in a bit after a work meeting

Tune in next time for more PBDN

I'm always down to follow Nuzlocke topics. Good luck TC!

Ok let's do this

Later getting back to it than I planned but stuff kept coming up today (by which I mean I was playing Powerwash Simulator)

Quick team refresher:

Pebbles the Piplup, level 9
Shia the Bidoof, level 7
Feathers the Starly, level 7
Zapp the Shinx, level 8

Two steps out of the Pokemon Center and a guy challenges me to find three hidden trivia clowns if I want a watch. Sweet, that literally sounds like a nightmare, let's do it. A green-haired guy also asks me to join or create a pyramid scheme. This is a great place.

Armed with my new watch, I head to Route 218, and a man asks me if I like Old Rods.

...

No, but I'll take the item. I'm not gonna use it though because my starter is a Water-type already, so I don't really need another one. With nothing else to do in this direction, I head back to Jubilife and dip north for a moment into Route 204, but only as far as the first patch of grass so I can look for a new team member.

OBTAINED - Sprout the Budew

Sick, I love this evolution line.

Five Pokemon deep now, and it's time to head east to my actual destination, Route 203. Immediately, that horn-haired speed addict Barry challenges me to a Pokemon fight. Zapp fucks up his Starly easy enough, but since Feathers doesn't have an actual Flying move yet, it's a bit of a war of attrition against his Turtwig, especially since he won't stop using fucking Withdraw. I have to burn more Potions in this fight than I would have preferred to, because he pushes out a lot more damage than I can after making himself into a tank.

And, of course, immediately after Turtwig faints, Feathers hits level 9 and learns Wing Attack. Thanks, Feathers.

Time to backtrack so I can heal and restock my Potions, and then start my trip to Oreburgh for the first gym badge.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

First step into the grass in Route 203, and I find another team member.

OBTAINED - Flappy the Zubat

I probably should have given this one a Batman reference, but oh well, too late now. Also that's hacky.

One more catch and I'll have to start thinking about my actual team composition. Right now I'm setting myself up for a heavy Electric weakness, with three team members already vulnerable to it and a fourth who will be once he evolves. So somebody's gonna have to leave this lineup in the near future.

Thankfully, in Oreburgh Gate, I catch exactly the team member to make up for that Electric weakness...

OBTAINED - Rox the Geodude(tte)

...but just barely. Sprout goes fucking NUTS, and with a single non-crit Absorb, brings her down to 1 HP for the Pokeball. I'm very close to having my first catchless route thanks to an insane Budew.

I box Flappy for now, but I do want to eventually grind her up into a Crobat. Crobat's great. But right now I can't have two Flying-types in the party next to a Water, and Feathers actually has a Flying move to use.

Tomorrow I take on the gym, tonight I sleep.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

Starving the purge again

Tag

Now that you've shored up that Electric weakness, its time to make it worse by going to get a Magikarp and giving it a dumb name.

Proto_Spark posted...

Now that you've shored up that Electric weakness, its time to make it worse by going to get a Magikarp and giving it a dumb name.

I'll absolutely do that if I'm in a town or something where fishing is the only way to get a team member, but I don't really want to waste a catch if Pebbles is never going to leave my party

At least not by choice

you can fish in the route connecting Jubilife to Canalave.

Here's some general advice on the 6 spots where getting a game over or otherwise being forced to recognize you can't reasonably continue the nuzlocke are:

Roark
If your starter can't 2 hit ko his ace you're probably gonna need a new starter lol and besides onix, nothing else really has the bulk to outlast their ace. More dangerous if you went Chimchar and don't allow stat boosting moves because power-up punch is banned.

Between 2nd gym leader and the 3rd gym, either route (fighting or water gym)
Roserade can kinda wreck your shit, anything other than like Beautifly with 4x resistance is gonna get messed up. There's also gyarados either way you go to the 3rd gym. And they have waterfall because of a quality of life improvement to their learning movepool. Oh, and a few other Pokemon that trainers have got better moves so one or two suddenly have things like bug buzz.
Ice fang on Wake's gyarados is borderline cheating. Also if you don't allow yourself to outlevel a gym leader's ace, be aware that they have the same level cap so you really need to be careful not to lose something to leveling too high. Helps to start building a B team anyways, to get through the gym trainers and ones on the routes in between.

Everything from Canalave gym to Candice
Improved movepools suck, and using the optimal ability on Pokemon also makes a few things more capable of a crit one shot, so feel free to abuse protect to get through the boosted ice move phase of the fight from Abomasnow's hail that way.

Galactic hideout through Cyrus
Better movepools, enough said. Ironically Weavile is probably the least deadly thing Cyrus has now because they gave it fling for... some reason.

Volkner's gym
Gym trainers might accidentally score a KO if you don't know what moves they have (basically everything has at least one TM move). And between all the healing items, the gym leader basically has more bulk than you if you aren't allowing yourself to use items in battle.

E4, especially Cynthia
Basically your entire team needs to be made with a strategy in mind to beat Cynthia. She's super lethal even if you don't have a level cap because it starts getting really slow to level up after about level 55. You need to plan out your strategy for every fight. Don't shy away from such strategies as: send out a Pokemon to use intimidate, protect, then switching to something immune to that attack, protect, then back to the intimidate user. Incidentally, it'll take forever but if the fire guy uses baton pass with Drifblim he can send out Infernape and then Drifblim will be his last Pokemon and it can't KO any fire type Pokemon because with its movepool only burn can KO. Leftovers also come in handy. Bertha is also ridiculously good in this game even without double team spam. Oh, and when you finally get to Cynthia you need to look at your team. If your win conditions (your heavy counters to things like Garchomp and Milotic) are dead, that's basically it. You get to just kind of cry as you face her knowing you're gonna wipe. Well, unless you abuse x items and full restores against Spiritomb, in which case I guess congrats on breaking the game.

gunplagirl posted...

Here's some general advice

Thanks for the general advice! I'll keep this stuff in mind. This is semi-blind because I haven't played Gen 4 in a long time, but I did remember that the first gym is Rock. I'm not gonna worry about matching level caps or anything because I don't even remember what they are, my levels will just be what they be.

Anyway let's see how much farther I can get before Triangle Strategy shows up. Probably won't be very far, because I do plan on doing some training with Pebbles and Sprout today, they're definitely gonna be my MVPs going into the first gym.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

Quick team recap before I do stuff.

Pebbles the Piplup, level 11
Shia the Bidoof, level 9
Feathers the Starly, level 11
Zapp the Shinx, level 11
Sprout the Budew, level 10
Rox the Geodude(tte), level 5

Yeah, some training is definitely necessary. Without even knowing what the gym leader's range is, I feel underleveled for it.

Anyway the first thing I see upon loading my save is that Barry (I keep wanting to call him Wally) has his twitchy ass parked in front of the gym. Gym leader's already gone to Oreburgh Mine, which sounds like a good excuse to catch a new team member before I take him on.

While doing my quick pillage of the town, a guy wants to see a Zubat, so I pull Flappy out of storage real quick and demonstrate. For my trouble, I get a Heal Ball, which I guess I might maybe use? Could actually be useful in a Nuzlocke run.

I decide to dip up north to Route 207 real quick and see what I can find for a new team member. And what I find is...

OBTAINED - Randy the Machop

Going into a Rock gym, he will be a VERY welcome addition to the team, and also help diversify my portfolio even more. See you in the box, Shia.

And now it's down to the mine. Geodudes abound, which help Randy catch up to the rest of the team. I find the gym leader surprisingly quickly, could have sworn this mine went a little deeper, but I might just be misremembering. Oh well.

Disaster nearly strikes as a level 10 wild Geodude starts using Rollout, nearly killing Randy. Disaster then decides to strike anyway -- I'm forced to swap Rox in to start eating hits, since she's the only member of my team with any resistance to Rock moves. Despite my best attempts at helping her to tank it out with Potions, this Geodude's Rollouts decide they want to hit all five times, and even with her resistance I end up losing her just out of sheer attack power.

DECEASED - Rox the Geodude(tte)

So... that sucks. I'm back to having that Electric weakness. I really didn't expect a wild Pokemon to go so hard.

Back to the Pokemon Center to bury my dead, and I swap Shia back into the team. While I train, I'd like to get him to a Bibarel if possible (I think they evolve early?) for two reasons: With a Water typing he'd be good against the gym, and it gets Bibarel out of the catch pool later in the game.

And with that I return to the mine to start my montage. I'm not gonna level too much, just enough to feel comfortable.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

So, while training in the mine, and having thought I was only going to be finding Geodudes there, this happened.

OBTAINED - Big Rox the Onix

Onix isn't... great... but at least it shores that Electric weakness back up for now. Back to the box, Shia.

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit more comfortable with my levels, so let's go a-Gymming. First, another recap of my team, this time with a bit more of a deep dive to check out their natures and how their stats will be growing.

Pebbles the Piplup, level 13 - Mild nature, + Sp. Attack, - Defense
Feathers the Starly, level 13 - Calm nature, + Sp. Defense, - Attack
Zapp the Shinx, level 13 - Adamant nature, + Attack, - Sp. Attack
Sprout the Budew, level 14 - Gentle nature, + Sp. Defense, - Defense
Randy the Machop, level 12 - Calm nature, + Sp. Defense, - Attack
Big Rox the Onix, level 9 - Mild nature, + Sp. Attack, - Defense

So, some less-than-ideal natures there. Zapp's is great, Luxray can easily be built into a physical brute. Pebbles also isn't too bad off aside from the Defense drop. But Randy's is very bad, and Big Rox's is pretty useless.

Anyway, gym time.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

Pebbles solos the first two Youngsters in the gym, and after the second one is defeated, this happens.

EVOLVED - Feathers the Staravia

Very nice. :)

Now to take on Roark, and... yeah, Pebbles solos again. Tiny blue penguin > sentient rocks. Cranidos puts up a bit of a fight (the first Headbutt outspeeds me and flinches, which sent me into a Potion loop for about four turns; I couldn't switch thanks to Onix setting up Stealth Rock) but I'm able to kill it, my first Water Gun dropping its HP low enough that Roark uses a Potion of his own, which doesn't heal enough to prevent the followup from finishing the job.

BADGE GET - Coal Badge

Victorious, I head back to the Pokemon Center and heal Pebbles. After a poop and some lunch, it will be time to head off on the next leg of my journey.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

Ah if you're going it blind then good luck with the elite 4. My furthest run died when I lost a core part of my team to the last E4 member. Slowly been progressing to get back there but I've had a few other runs die because the things I needed from certain routes either didn't have the right ability or I lost them to high range crits. D; Just remember that this game has the hardest E4 and champion. Period.

Okay, tracker says I still have a couple hours left before Triangle Strategy shows up, so let's see if I can clear the game before then.

Immediately upon trying to leave Oreburgh, Barry bumps into me like the crackhead he is and points me to Eterna City for my next badge. Team in hand, I set off back to Jubilife, detouring in Oreburgh Gate to smash up some rocks and find a path downstairs. There's a TM for Flash, but not much else worth writing home about until I can Surf and/or Bicycle.

Heading north from Jubilife, I see Professor Rowan and Dawn getting hassled by some bowl-cut-wearing nerds. I double battle with Dawn against them, and kick their asses in the inexplicable void of the Team Galactic Logo. It only takes one turn. After the fight, a girl who I swear looks exactly like Bart Simpson when viewed from behind and above walks up and fangirls all over me, introducing herself as Bebe. She gives me the ability to access my Pokemon Boxes from anywhere, so now team management is a formality.

MORE EXCITINGLY, I GET THE ABILITY TO USE STICKERS! Definitely gonna bedazzle my balls once I get a better selection. Why this wasn't a feature in any other games besides DPP and these remakes, I don't know.

I Rock Smash my way through the Ravaged Path, and while continuing to fight trainers on the northern end of Route 204, a few things happen.

EVOLVED - Zapp the Luxio
EVOLVED - Pebbles the Prinplup

Niiiiice.

Anyway, now I'm in Floaroma Town, so let's heal up at the Pokemon Center and then see what's up.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

No food for the purge today

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Oh yeah, I know all this, but Sprout wasn't a very high level at the time, so I didn't think she'd end up doing THAT much damage, lol

Okay let's make some progress before Triangle Strategy pulls me back in.

Before I actually dive into Floaroma Town, I take a quick look at the trainer card / badge collection, and remind myself that the next gym is Grass. Based on this, I swap Big Rox out of my party and bring in Flappy. I'm opening myself up to that Electric vulnerability again as I go from gym to gym, but a Zubat (or ideally, Golbat (or really ideally, Crobat) with a 4x resist would be great going into there. Zapp and Sprout should be able to tank Electric hits for now.

Anyway, Floaroma is "the town of flowers, flowers, and more flowers, yay for flowers!" I can dig it. While looting the town (collecting berries and a watering can for my trouble), I learn that those Team Galactic nerds are in Floaroma Meadow.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, I CAN TRADE BERRIES FOR STICKERS! I'm now resolved to become a gardener.

Wait, hold up, did this old guy just give me a fucking...

OBTAINED - Geno the Jirachi

No, seriously, this old man standing in a field of flowers just casually gave me a mythical Pokemon?

Well, he's definitely going into the party, because of course I'm gonna go ahead and use fucking Jirachi if the option's available to me. It's kind of a tough call to figure out who to box right now, but I settle on Randy. I want both Flappy and Feathers ready for the gym, Zapp and Sprout are going to be my anti-Electrics for now, and Pebbles is the starter. Randy's cool, but he's kind of the option. Geno's only level five, but he can soak up some EXP for a bit on the bench.

Now armed with a legendary Pokemon, I go talk to the bowl-cut-brigade, but can't fight them yet to get them to clear the fuck out. Ah well. I guess I'll just head east, to Route 205.

Right away, there's a little girl begging me to go find her dad at work, saying that people dressed like space aliens won't let her into the building. Well, I'm not afraid of a few cosplayers. Outside the Valley Windworks, I find another team member.

OBTAINED - Shella the Shellos

Enjoy the Box.

Giving the guard outside the Windworks a beatdown, he locks himself inside the building, which seems like it was the smarter play from the beginning. He then tells me where to find the other key, which is just... just classic Pokemon villain team behavior.

Back to Floaroma Town I go, and now it's time to give those ruffians at the meadow what-for. I find out that their ultimate goal here is to... get... honey. You guys know supermarkets exist, right? These guys are clowns, and after a thrashing, they abandon their quest for the sweet stuff and run back to the Windworks, dropping the key like idiots as they go. I also get some honey as a reward. I slap that shit on a nearby tree, hoping that I remember to come back in a little bit and see if there's a Pokemon there.

Anyway, I think I need to take a little chance to grind Flappy and Geno up on par with the rest of my team, because as I recall there's a boss fight coming up in the Windworks and I don't want two underleveled members in my party for that. I'd also kind of like to find room to get Randy back in here, since as I recall, Team Galactic bosses like to use Normal types.

Tune in next time for more PBDN.

No food for the purge

haven't played this yet. they really just hand you a freaking legendary after just 1 badge? wtf lol.

Gastrodon with storm drain is an amazing asset. Otherwise it's... still actually really good, just has a useless ability except for in like two battles and one is an E4 enemy. Though I guess with knock off being boosted from the original value it might be scary depending.

Levitate bronzong is a must in runs where you can't grind to outlevel gym leaders and ESPECIALLY if you can't use items in battle.

At the very least everyone should implement the "no x item" rule. After they got buffed to 2 stages they became the most broken thing in the series because you can find some no later than the 2nd gym and buy infinite amounts by the city that has the 3rd one.

gunplagirl posted...

At the very least everyone should implement the "no x item" rule. After they got buffed to 2 stages they became the most broken thing in the series because you can find some no later than the 2nd gym and buy infinite amounts by the city that has the 3rd one.

Even moreso with the new games now that X Items are +2 instead of +1. You can have literally any pokemon use swords dance and sweep any trainer you might have trouble with.

Proto_Spark posted...

Even moreso with the new games now that X Items are +2 instead of +1. You can have literally any pokemon use swords dance and sweep any trainer you might have trouble with.

Two x defenses and 2 x special defenses plus eviolite and you can't die even without healing

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


ah never played either. i bought legends of arceus as part of a buy 2 get 1 free deal but haven't started yet. was gonna buy SwSh eventually but knowing nintendo it'll never be on sale

Gyarados gets Waterfall at lv21. And later learns other moves like Ice Fang and Dragon Dance

Oh shit thanks for the bumps, I've been really busy planning a D&D session and haven't had time to play, but I'll be getting back to this soon

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Ahhhh okay that makes sense. I do agree that it feels a bit early to be handed a legendary for free, but dammit, I'm still gonna use it lol