After succeeding in my first Emerald Nuzlocke which I won't go into detail here but I'd be happy to talk more about at some other time and place if you'd like, I decided to do a LeafGreen Nuzlocke as well.
Since I enjoyed Pokemon Origins I thought I'd do a Nuzlocke. However I would also be emulating the journey of Red as portrayed by Pokemon Origins, so whenever he had to choose between Pokemon I would pick the same Pokemon he chose. However I do not have to copy Red's team exactly, but that's a no brainer.
These are the rules I set for myself.
-You can only catch the 1st Pokemon of every new area. If you knock it out, you don't get another chance for that area.
-You can only use items against major trainers such as Blue, Giovanni, Gym Leaders, Elite 4, Champion, or if you encounter a wild Pokemon whose level is higher than your entire team and you already attempted to escape and it failed
-If a Pokemon faints you can never use it again, but you are allowed to keep it in a PC Box for their memory and honor.
-If you White out you may use any available Pokemon in your PC excluding your fallen Pokemon to try again from where you left off (of course grinding would be a bitch).
-Nickname every Pokemon
-Duplicate Clause (if you currently have the same Pokemon that's the first you run into in a new area you can keep trying until you find a Pokemon you don't have)
-When faced with a decision for gift Pokemon, go with the choice Red made in Pokemon Origins
-Pokemon received in trades, Safari Zone, or Legendary Pokemon are not to be used and are only for filling up the Pokedex to obtain important items.
So now here we go!
Badge: 0
1.Choose Charmander as a starter (Red clause) and named it Drought.
2.Beat Blue in Rival Battle 1 (Squirtle)
3.Obtain Poke Balls and Pokedex
4.Catch Jerry the Rattata on Route 1 at lv 2
5.Catch KarateLife the Mankey on Route 22 at lv 3
6.Charmander/Drought took out Pidgey, Mankey/KarateLife took out Squirtle, Beat Blue in Rival Battle 2
7.Catch Bomber the Pidgey on Route 2 at lv 3
8.Catch Forrest the Caterpie in Viridian Forest at lv 3
9.Defeated Brock with Mankey/KarateLife, since the rest of my Pokemon wouldn't do much and I didn't want to risk Drought being KO'd by Rock Tomb
10.Obtained Boulder Badge and Rock Tomb
CHECKPOINT
Current Team Charmander/Drought lv 12 Mankey/KarateLife lv 12
Badge: 1
1.Obtain Running Shoes
2.Knocked out Nidoran-F on Route 3 (skip Magikarp at Pokemon Center)
3.Caught Crater the Geodude in Mt.Moon at lv 8
4.Beat Team Rocket and Super Nerd Miguel, obtained the Dome Fossil (since Red was seen using Kabutops in Pokemon Origins)
5.Evolved Charmander/Drought into Charmeleon in Mt.Moon
6.Taught Charmander/Drought Mega Punch and Mankey/KarateLife Mega Kick
7.Caught Armadilly the Sandshrew on Route 4 at lv 6
8.Beat Blue in Rival Battle 3 (Wartortle Pidgeotto Abra Rattata)
9.Beat the Nugget Bridge gang and got a Nugget (promptly sold)
10.Caught Cheerio the Weedle on Route 24 at lv 7
11.Caught Magic Mike the Abra on Route 25 at lv 9 (OMG you had no idea how excited I was because you know how it is with Abra, you get once chance before it Teleports)
12.Got S.S. Anne Ticket from Bill
13.Trained Abra so Magic Mike could evolve into Kadabra
14.Team facing Misty: lv 22 Charmeleon lv 22 Mankey lv 18 Kadabra lv 17 Geodude lv 4 Caterpie (heal bait) lv 6 Sandshrew (heal bait)
me vs. Misty
I knew Misty would be a much tougher opponent than Brock from the get go but I didn't imagine it would be this tough, but I should've considering how none of the members of my team resisted Water Pulse. Staryu was easy to beat but Starmie was a whole different story. Misty’s Starmie KO'd Forrest/Caterpie, Armadilly/Sandshrew, Magic Mike/Kadabra, and Crater/Geodude. Drought’s Smokescreen and KarateLife’s Mega Kick and a huge amount of luck saved the day as my Nuzlocke was turning from a dream into a horrible nightmare.
15.Obtain Cascade Badge and Water Pulse
16.My only remaining pokemon are Charmeleon/Drought, Mankey/KarateLife, Weedle/Cheerio, Rattata/Jerry, and Pidgey/Bomber. After 2 gyms I have 4 casualties, which is more than my total prior to facing the Elite 4 and Champion in my Emerald Nuzlocke (3, including E4/Champion it was 6). It’s very unfortunate I couldn’t get Bellsprout but Nuzlockes can be cruel as I have just witnessed. I’m down but now out, let’s keep moving forward!
Badges: 2
1.Beat Team Rocket Grunt (Drowzee Machop; not a boss battle) Obtain the TM for Dig
2.Caught Liberty the Bellsprout (finally.....why couldn't I get this before battling Misty? Oh well quit living in the past, vaporterra) on Route 5 at lv 15
3.Caught Cash the Meowth on Route 6 at lv 12
4.Caught Wacky the Diglett in Diglett’s Cave at lv 20
5.A tense encounter with a wild lv 29 Dugtrio (thankfully with Sand Veil, not Arena Trap) KOs Cash/Meowth, Cheerio/Weedle, and Bomber/Pidgey. Number of casualties now 7 and I haven't even reached the SS Anne yet. What the hell? lol
6.Obtained Old Rod, Bike, and VS Seeker <---Hooray! VS Seeker will likely come in handy in case of a level spike, like the infamous level spike between Celadon and Fuschia.
7.Caught Dream On the Drowzee on Route 11 at lv 11
8.Boarded the SS Anne (Current Pokedex 15, need 30 to obtain Itemfinder)
9.After defeating Sailor Huey’s Staryu, Liberty/Bellsprout evolves into Weepinbell!
10.Rival Battle 4: Drought/Charmeleon handles Pidgeotto, Liberty/Weepinbell defeats Wartortle, Dream On/Drowzee defeats Kadabra, and KarateLife/Mankey defeats Raticate.
11.Obtain HM01 Cut and taught it to Jerry/Rattata
12.Voltorb defeated by Liberty/Weepinbell, Pikachu defeated by Wacky/Diglett, Raichu weakened by KarateLife/Mankey but once KarateLife got paralyzed I switched out for Wacky to finish the job.
13.Obtained my Thunder Badge from Lt.Surge along with the TM for Shock Wave without too much struggle.
14.3 badges in things are looking up. Against Blue and Lt.Surge my team really came together and worked wonders. My team seems pretty balanced and powerful. My main concern is the defensive side of things since a few of my Pokemon (particularly Dream On/Drowzee on the physical spectrum and Wacky/Diglett in both defenses) are frail. But up next against Erika (Dream On, Liberty, and Drought) and my first Giovanni encounter (Liberty and KarateLife), I think I’ll be prepared by then.
Badge: 3
1.Obtained HM05 Flash
2.Caught Pillar the Spearow (Spear-ow Pillar? Sinnoh? You better get the joke and you better think it was clever cuz I have feelings) on Route 9 at lv 13
3.Caught BombThreat the Voltorb on Route 10 at lv 17
4.Taught BombThreat Flash before heading into Rock Tunnel
5.While wandering in Rock Tunnel, Wacky, KarateLife, and Dream On evolved into Dugtrio, Primeape, and Hypno respectively.
5.Caught Rock Train the Onix in Rock Tunnel at lv 13
6.Taught Drought/Charmeleon Rock Slide (replacing Metal Claw) via Move Tutor.
7.After enough "fun" at Rock Tunnel I head to Lavender Town.
8.Rival Battle #5 vs. Blue (Immediately Drought's Rock Slide makes dealing with Pidgeotto even easier, Liberty took out Wartortle, Drought took out Exeggcute, Dream On dealt with Kadabra, and Wacky defeated Growlithe).
9.Defeated a few Channelers before deciding enough was enough, especially since I didn’t have the Silph Scope yet.
10.Caught Mint the Meowth on Route 8 at lv 18 (remember if a Pokemon gets knocked out and the same species of that KO’d Pokemon is the first one you encounter in a new area, you have to catch it)
11.Caught McCloud (I know I'm clever
) the Vulpix on Route 7 at lv 1812.Bought several items at the Celadon Department store, most notably a Leaf Stone and Thunder Stone for future evolutions(cough Weepinbell and Eevee).
13.Got TMs for Safeguard, Reflect, and Light Screen from the girl at the top of the department store and Return from the girl in Route 12.
14.Obtained a Coin Case. However I won’t be using it to obtain any Pokemon since Eevee counts as my 1 Pokemon for Celadon City. But the Game Corner has some great TMs so likely will be useful.
15.Evolved my Plasma (Eevee) into Jolteon with my Thunder Stone and taught it Shock Wave. It's either that or wait until I have enough coins for Thunderbolt or it learns Thunder naturally, and if I waited that long that would fricking suck.
16.Obtained tea from the old lady. You can access Saffron City that early but you will be denied access to Silph Co and Saffron Gym until you run Team Rocket out of Lavender Town. You can challenge the Fighting Dojo and obtain either Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan as early as after the 3rd badge but the levels are pretty high for now.
17.Used Jerry the Rattata to use Cut to access Celadon Gym.
me vs. Erika
I've never really struggled against Erika in the past, especially when starting with Charmander, but she could be a handful at times. Drought beat Victreebel, Liberty beat Tangela, while Dream On and Drought weakened Vileplume before Plasma dealt the finishing blow with Quick Attack. Stun Spore caused problems for Hypno and Charmeleon but I still got the job done.
18.This Nuzlocke run is promoting feminism or something because the two male Gym Leaders I’ve faced so far were pushovers and the two tougher Gym Leaders so far were the females. I still wasn’t too worried though because my Pokemon are low 30s and I was able to exploit Erika’s weaknesses. It seems like I have a full team but Koga and Sabrina’s Pokemon are high 30s low 40s so hopefully that doesn’t slow my Pokemon’ growth too much. Not sure if the 6 Pokemon I have right now will be the 6 Pokemon I take on the Pokemon League with, but we’ll take it once step at a time. Now to deal with Team Rocket.
19.My main dilemma right now is deciding when to evolve Weepinbell.
Team: Drought lv 31 Smokescreen Mega Punch Ember Rock Slide. KarateLife lv 30 Seismic Toss Karate Chop Mega Kick Dig. Liberty lv 30 Poisonpowder Sleep Powder Acid Vine Whip. Dream On lv 31 Headbutt Disable Hypnosis Confusion. Wacky lv 29 Scratch Mud-Slap Sand Tomb Dig. Plasma lv 29 Growl Sand-Attack Shock Wave Quick Attack.
Alright thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed, let me know your thoughts in response to the Nuzlocke so far!