My apologies if this is considered a necrobump, but I'm unsure as to where else to put this.
Now, I have a story to tell...
On July 27th, 2013, roughly 4 and a half years ago, I started up a new HeartGold file with the intention of doing a nuzlocke challenge, my very first. I picked Chikorita and set out on my journey, catching Pokémon as per the rules. While the first part of my journey was not uneventful, I lost relatively few Pokémon up until the Radio Tower. However, disaster struck as 5 of my six Pokémon (Belate the Slowking, Amphi the Flaaffy, Roxi the Golem, Lief the Bayleef, and Dogas the Koffing) all fell to Archer. The resulting training was positively disastrous, claiming the lives of many Pokémon, including the lone survivor of the battle with Archer. This training, due to lack of motivation and the constant having to retrain new Pokémon, is the main reason this playthrough took nearly half a decade.
Finally, after over a year of training in the Ice Path, I emerged victorious, with a full team, and ready to challenge Clair. That team was...
Sadly, due to the length of time that has passed between now and then, I don't remember anything more about these Pokémon at this time in their lives than who they were; I will not be able to provide detailed movesets. However! I was proud of this team, for they had survived and were ready to take on the world. And so they did, defeating Clair without a loss and moving on. But it didn't last forever. Solaria the Sunflora was the first to fall, being vanquished by the Vaporeon of the Kimono Girls that she was supposed to defeat. Two more Pokémon died in the process of training up a replacement, until a Doduo was caught near Victory Road. More training subsequently ensued, in an effort to raise these Pokémon to levels to survive their toughest challenge yet: the Pokémon league. After another year of training and waning interest, my team had been brought to par, and could provide a match for even the finest. Or so I thought.
Will proved much trickier than I initially thought, since I had a Forretress, and he claimed Emultiple the Dodrio, my newest member, in a tough bout. This would not be the first time having Forretress would cause me to become overconfident, but it seems I didn't learn from my mistake. Koga and Bruno went smoothly, the former falling before Forretress like I intended, and the latter bending to Alakazam. Karen proved tougher, and took Jellisa the Tentacruel away from me on my way to Lance. Lance was, ironically, the easiest, as Gyarados set up two Dragon Dances before Ice Fanging through his entire team.
And thus, I was the champion. But it was not enough. To end my journey, I must collect all sixteen badges and defeat the strongest trainer in the world: Red.
Training still proved decently tough, as I still had not mastered the art of safe training. One more Pokémon fell in my attempts to train up a full team, but eventually I had six and proceeded to do battle with Janine. Two more, a Dewgong and a Donphan, my newest additions, perished, but my core four at this point remained untouched. Foolish as I was, I thought they were invincible. Foolish indeed...
One last Pokémon, a Quagsire, was lost in training to a selfdestructing Graveler. A second Quagsire replaced them, when I made the most foolhardy decision I possibly could have: Challenge Erika underlevelled. My team, looking like this:
seemed to match up very favourably against her - multiple Pokémon could hit her for weakness and Forretress would be an indomitable wall, right? My first warning should have been the gym itself; I ended up boxing Gyarados temporarily for an untrained Sandslash as none of my Pokémon could learn Cut (This was over a year ago, I'm not sure if one of them could and I just didn't want to or if they legitimately couldn't). Foolhardy as I was, my team was ravaged, leaving Nidoqueen as the sole survivor. She returned to Gyarados to pick up the pieces, and after many more months of training, managed to rebuild a team.
With a new team in place, carefully trained to their maximum, I set my eyes on claiming the six remaining gym badges. Lt. Surge was first, providing laughable resistance to my Choice Scarfed Nidoqueen. Brock and Blaine proved similarly easy, being defeated by Kingler alone. Misty was more difficult, and a combination of Gyarados, Fearow, and Hypno was required to handle it. Sabrina was the hardest of the five, and she defeated Fearow before falling to Gyarados and Hypno. Afterwards, I selected a Shroomish I had been lucky enough to find in Viridian Forest as my final member, and after quickly training her to meet her peers in level, I set off to fight Blue. And what a fight it was! I was lucky enough to not lose anyone, but every Pokémon was pushed to their limits, even Muk, who had done next to nothing so far. I claimed my Sixteenth badge from Blue and trekked to Mt. Silver, where my destiny awaited at the top. But first, more training was in order. After weeks of nonstop training, my team emerged battered and bruised, but stronger and ready for the end of the road.
The team:
Belle (Nidoqueen), level 75
- Earthquake
- Sludge Bomb
- Fire Blast
- Rock Climb
The longest-running member of my team, Belle's somewhat average stats left her slightly situational, but highly useful. I gave her the Choice Scarf to give me something with immediate speed, and the results were so successful that she beat Lt. Surge by herself with nary a scratch.
Lucky (Gyarados), level 75
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Thunder
- Dragon Dance
Surprisingly a blue Gyarados, Lucky proved to carry on the legacy of my past Gyarados very well. Thunder may look very out of place, but it's very handy for frying any water types (especially other Gyarados), which my team does somewhat struggle with.
Creep (Hypno), level 75
- Hypnosis
- Headbutt
- Psychic
- Nasty Plot
As the first Hypno I've ever used, Creep did not disappoint. Hypnosis was dicey, but worked often enough to allow her to pull off the rest of her strategy well. Headbutt was a good field move, netting me Shroomish and some others that went unused.
Poo (Muk), level 75
- Gunk Shot
- Mud Bomb
- Strength
- Acid Armor
I'm just going to say this bluntly: This Muk is the worst Pokémon I have ever used in any run I've done, ever. Muk's level-up moves are horrendous, and the TM moves he could've got weren't worth it, as Nidoqueen was just better overall. Additionally, he had absurd amount of trouble hitting anything with Gunk Shot, nearly always missing the first try and missing multiple times in a row way more often than I'd like. One of the only Pokémon I ever regret using, but it didn't die up until this point, so I guess that's something?
Sebastian (Kingler), level 75
- Crabhammer
- Surf
- Rock Smash
- Cut
Don't let the three HMs fool you, Kingler's a beast. with sky-high attack that dwarfs any of my other members and okay enough speed, Kingler could decimate anything that didn't resist water in two hits maximum, and became my go-to water spammer on the team, although Gyarados was still more useful in situations where I couldn't just click Crabhammer. Training this Pokémon was absolutely awful, however, as you won't get Crabhammer until level 56.
Toadette (Breloom), level 75
- Seed Bomb
- Dynamic Punch
- Spore
- Mach Punch
The most recent member, and grinding her was somewhat difficult due to my wanting to get Spore, but Spore was so worth it, and became the go-to reason to send her out. Being able to hit waters for SE damage was the main reason I was using her.
With my team prepared and ready, I thanked them for everything, knowing this would be the last time I'd battle with some of them. I thought of my long journey, and all the Pokémon I'd already lost, on my way to the top, and then, cloaked in snow, I saw him. The ultimate test.
Red.
Wordlessly, he called out his Pikachu. I had anticipated this and prepared Nidoqueen, still carrying her choice scarf. My trick was just as effective here, and Pikachu went down without even getting to attack. Red, still saying nothing, sent out Lapras, and I countered by switching out to Breloom as he did so. Just as I planned, I put it to sleep with Spore, as Breloom was thankfully faster. However, one attack was not enough to defeat Lapras, and it woke up the very next turn and finished off Breloom with a single Blizzard. I had already grown so attached to her in such a short time. Nidoqueen defeated Lapras, but then I was left with a tough opponent: Blastoise. After some deliberation, I switched out to Muk, praying he would be useful for the first time in his life, and Blastoise started firing away with Blizzard. It was enough to take Muk out in three hits, so maybe Muk could-
no.
Muk couldn't.
Muk, summing up all of his usefulness throughout my entire run, missed. He got a second chance and hit, doing enough to where another Gunk Shot (or, you know, the first one hitting) would have defeated Blastoise, but Muk would never get that chance. I attempted to send in Nidoqueen again afterwards, hoping to finish it off, when disaster struck. Sadly, Nidoqueen didn't damage Blastoise hard enough through its resilient shell, and after a very long and successful journey, Nidoqueen fell. The rampant hailstorm failed to defeat Blastoise, and as I sent out Gyarados, Red healed. Gyarados unveiled his secret tactic, Thunder - although it took two tries to hit (but he'd more than made up for it over the course of this playthrough, unlike a certain someone) - dented Blastoise enough, and a Hydro Cannon allowed Gyarados to Dragon Dance, in case he survived. Not wanting to risk Thunder missing, as this Blastoise seemed adept at dodging, I went for Waterfall, and it left Blastoise on his last legs before Gyarados, the last of the old guard, the last of the Pokémon born in Johto to make it on this journey, was too swept away by Blastoise. He had done his job though, reliable to the end, and the hail finished off Red's biggest threat. With two Pokémon to Red's three, this looked very difficult. He sent out Snorlax yet, and I responded with Hypno, putting it to sleep before switching to Kingler to pound at it with Crabhammer. Snorlax didn't wake, and after two Crabhammers the hail took its toll. That's when I began to think this was doable, as the Pokémon evened out and Red's Venusaur made its entrance. I went back to Hypno and put it to sleep - I missed the first time, but Venusaur also went for sleep Powder, reminding me what Hypno's ability was. After it was asleep, I went for Nasty plot and--
it woke up. The rotten luck on Sleep was taking its toll on me, and a Sludge Bomb hurt, but wasn't enough to do Hypno in. Hypno finished off Venusaur with a supercharged Psychic, but knew her time was up as Red sent out his Charizard. She stayed in, attempting to get off a last Hypnosis, but Charizard proved too fast and Hypno joined the four others in blessed sleep. This was it. One to one. His Charizard versus my Kingler. My heart was pounding, this was the closest I've ever gotten, five years worth of adventures and training and lives lost, many other journeys beginning and ending as this one slumbered on or continued, all coming to a close here, on this mountain, either way. This was it, one last command. Screaming to the high heavens, I yelled my saving grace.
"Crabhammer!"
Kingler's aim was true, and Charizard was no match for the super-effective move. As he fell, Red faded away in the hailstorm, leaving me panting and mourning those that had fallen to allow Kingler, the last Pokémon between victory and defeat, to emerge victorious.
I did it. My first nuzlocke, won. And I couldn't have done it without this team at the end (well, except Muk). 50 Pokémon in total gave their lives over the challenge, and while some never had a chance to become heroes, others gave it their all and fought to their last breath. For each and every one of them, I am truly grateful.
