Knumpify

I've done filming the first three segments of my new nuzlocke run, and I've only had one special moment. I was distracted by all the people following me around, healing my pokemon, giving me pokeballs, there's a whole entourage here with me. I was so distracted that I forgot to try and catch my first encounter entirely in the forest and went through keeping my two pokemon. I'm not too concerned, though as there seem to be many new places to catch pokemon. I'm just arriving at the first city with a gym and I've gone through three routes and a forest. All this, plus I get an event pokemon. I'm using the town as the location for the event pokemon since the town has no water around it. Editing starts tonight and uploading soon.

Grinding is an inevitable part of Pokemon. You have them, now get them better. I'm going through route 32 with my bellsprout in front hoping to find woopers to fight. Since they are ground and water, I've got a x4 attack against them. So far, I've hit everything but. The route goes on and most trainers don't seem to pose a challenge. They all seem to have a rattata or something small and normal with them. Having a geodude in my party is proving most awesome. Unless it's super effective, everything this early one does 1 damage, even with a critical hit.

the end of this route is a trip through union cave. There's another chance for new pokemon, and my egg is fairly close to hatching. I've got a mildly leveled party, all around 14, and I was worried about having to teach one of them flash. I don't have anyone I'd want to reduce to an HM slave. Move management is one of the biggest challenges in this run. Bellsprout should tear through anything with rock through this cave. He shall channel his inner Nuptup and harvest all souls. but first, let's heal up and find our first encounter...
Onix! well, this should be a challenge. I have to not kill it, and not run out of pokeballs. These guys are a decent challenge to catch. Fluffy will be awesome here, since onix doesn't learn rock throw until level 14. I'm going to lick it into submission, and the paralysis will help with the capture rate. Five licks later, I'm good and ready to start chucking balls at her face. With a little luck, I'll catch without too much fuss. I don't want to run out of pokeballs here. Even though I have 9, it may not be enough.
2 Pokeballs, not bad at all. I expected more of a struggle against this one. It's not an amazing pokemon, but it's another member on hte team. He can definitely tank a physical hit here and there, but long term use is minimal with good ol' lumpy in my party. He just doesn't have the build to keep up with a geodude. Or, graveler for that matter. Well, that aside, what do you name a giant rock snake? He squirms through the ground, so Squirmle it is

On with the cave! My next random encounter is a sandshrew. That would have been a very useful addition to the team. I have to sit back now as Das plant! harvests another soul. One of the people that inspired me to upload and post a nuzlocke run did one a little while ago where a little oddish proved to be his most useful pokemon. This surprising little beast would prove unequal throughout the run. Nicknamed "Nuptup", it qiuckly became the devourer of souls with his own lore and legends growing in the fanbase. Should das plant! continue to grow and maim at this rate, I may have to rename him, for he is the nuptup incarnate.

Fluffy is getting a few rounds in with the random encounters now, since I've run out of PP for Das' vine whip. It's his only offensive move, save for wrap. So he's effectively useless until I heal. I'm going to stick in union cave a little and try to even out my party.

After much fiddling with programs, sites, and my anger, I seem to have found a way to make this slightly more... Awesome. I cleared bellsprout tower with ease and got the flash tm, then healed and walked right in to take out the flying gym. I had my lumpy with rock throw. What bird could stop me? Behold, Falkner's Gym...



This gym went almost flawlessly. I did forget to switch fluffly out of the way, since his attacks can't damage normal types, he was nothing super here. I did try to put spearow to sleep with hypnosis before switching, but he wasn't having any of it. Then, out came the bane of all birds, the fucking boulder himself, Lumpy! He proceeded to level the gym entirely. Rock throw was perfect. No misses, I even got to sort out my moveset there. Everything that seriously needed to go right went right.

I like the gyms in video, but I don't think I'll do all recording. It just takes too much time for now with this format. There will be mostly text and pics where cool stuff is going down, but I think I can bump out the gyms in video. On to prepare for the next route. I only have four pokemon and there are a couple of new places coming up. The ruins and a new route. I hope I can find a mareep first encounter. I hate unown, so I really hope I don't end up actually needing it for anything. It's one move is... something. hidden power is a variable of both power and type. I could get an awesome high damage dragon or ice type, but that won't happen.

Gym one in Pokemon Gold is Falkner. He uses flying type Pokemon and I'd be concerned if anything other than Lumpy showed up first. With defense like that, I can pretty much stand up to anything early game, save bellsprout tower. Good thing I've got my fire starter. Training is simple early on, and early trainer battles with bugs and rattatas are no problem. I'm taking my time a little bit getting to the first city, going through route 30 again, and looking for a new pokemon on route 31 at the turn. My big concern at this early of the game is my rival encounter before the forest. I know he's going to have a croconaw, and with a fire type and a rock type in my party, this could get tricky. That's still a little while off, though. I'm still rusty on the order of events in this.

Going around the turn on route 30, I forgot that there's an entrance to dark cave. I'm tempted to go in, but I'd probably just find another geodude. I'll have to hit it sometime, maybe I'll get lucky and bump into a zubat...
Well, it seems the RNG gods are with me today. Now I just have to not kill it.
...Or run out of pokeballs!! It's a freaking zubat! I've never seen one escape period! Let alone twice!! really?! Wow. I thought this could work. I'd have a few pokemon going into town, there'd be a nice spread. Welcome to the joys of a nuzlocke.

The kicker to all of this, is that at the end of route 31, there's a pokeball on the ground. If I had just moved on for now, I could have gotten the pokeball, maybe even a new guy on route 31, and had something, but nooo, RNG giveth, and RNG taketh away. Now backtracking to Cherrygrove to get some more pokeballs, potions, and a few antidotes. Antidotes are one of those few items that become gold early game compared to when you actually need them . In casual gameplay, you would get poisoned, and if you had one, handy, else, you move on, and hope that you make it to a pokemon center before the poison makes it faint. I don't have that luxury. If it faints outside of battle due to poison, it's still dead by the rules, and I have to release it. Weedle is a secret killer.

I've spent all my money, and stopped to heal at the pokemon center. I should be good for whatever pops out at me at route 31. Please, don't be spinarak. Anything but spinarak. I'm seriously considering killing it rather than adding it to my team. It's hard to train, useless attack wise until way later, and it can't take a hit. Well, we'll just have to hop in and hope. Also, try not to run out of pokeballs. My first encounter is...

Actually fucking awesome! This has got to be one of the best case scenarios. I'm starting to get suspicious about these encounters. No wonder everything is putting up a fight. Here we go. Bring out Q and tackle it a little, lightly now, no crits. Nice, down just under half health. now, for the hard part. Don't kill me, and stay in the ball...
Perfect! one pokeball, no struggle, no hair pulling, just perfect. One more to the team, and super against my rival to boot! I have to be careful with him though, I can't use him in the gym. Now, for the nickname. I have no idea. I usually don't, or I go with what they pretty much are. Bellsprout is, well, a bell sprout. Hmm, We shall name him...
Das plant! shall strike fear into the hearts of water types everywhere. Behold the bane of totodile, woopers, and all of rock type.

My party one step closer to functional, the grind begins. Next up in my travels, we start to take on sprout tower. Filled with trainers with bellsprout, hoothoot, and the other things I can't remember, I'm hoping to have an elemental move from each of my pokemon by the time I storm the tower. I need ember from Q, rock throw from Lumpy, and I've got vine whip from Das. This could shape up nicely.

Burned routes: 29, 30, 31, dark cave, 46
Nothing dead yet!

As long as there have been Pokemon games, there have been rivals. Gary, those other guys, the occasional girl, N...

But here, our story is about a young man with bad intentions. A boy with long red hair whose name is ???. I'm not sure if it's pronounced like that or he just mutters, but it's a fun way to give him a name later on. He breaks into the lab, then challenges you to a battle.

As standard rival asshat laws dictate, he has the one Pokemon I'm weak against and I have only the one pokemon. If it faints, gg, run over. Come on, Q, let's hope for no crits, else, it was fun while it lasted.

I start off by Firin my lazar! and lowering defense, so I can kill him a little quicker. Totodile has better attack than me, so being scratched to death is a possibility. After a couple of exchanges, I manage to score a critical hit and wipe him out, much relieved that it was him, and not me.

The trainer defeated, I return to the lab and answer the question the police had. What was his name? well, ??? doesn't have a nice ring to it, let's have some fun and be immature here. He plays by asshat rules, he shall be know as...


I'm not too sure on the use of the word rival here. I mean sure, he's going to be competing with me throughout the game, but he's a wanted criminal. Hes a known thief and abuser of Pokemon. Why aren't the police wiring me or something and busting him after I win? Well, all these questions seem a little silly to a world where the average age of leaving home is 10.

Ah well, goodbye to mother and off on a new adventure where there is no bed time and everyone has your phone number.

Yep, bye! And don't spend my money!

I've been trying to play here and there and I've really not progressed very far at all. I've defeated team rocket at Goldenrod tower, beaten the eighth gym, just barely, and I defeated the kimono girls and learned about lugia. He's a legendary Pokemon that you have to catch in order to progress to the Pokemon league. Legendaries are usually background things, optional side quests if you will, and don't usually impact or impede your progress. In an act of rebellion, I'm not doing the whirl islands until I've filled my pokedex a little more. I prepared a few HM slaves and now am re-walking all the routes. I know there's a few more Pokemon to get from headbutting and there are some rare encounters to do. Also, I have to finish catching the legendary dogs. My party now includes the Extremespeed dratini from the dragon's den and I plan to keep her in my party. This basically sets my team for the league and the next gym set. Fearow, Ampharos, Dratini to become Dragonite, Gengar, and Golem.

I don't like having to go through the whirl islands because it's a horrible maze with a bunch of one way cliffs and four separate islands you can emerge from. Basically it's the most frustrating sequence of trial and error you can imagine.

Moving in a couple of days. Really excited for the new place. Will be up and posting again after the move unless something epic happens in casual play.

Johto Pokemon: 72

Normally there's a fairly big level gap between the gyms in Pokemon games, but in this one, since there's a fork in a major route leading in opposite directions to two gyms on one path and another gym on the other path. Since there's nothing to stop you from going either way, the level of the gyms can't be too far off. Preparation can allow you to do a rush called the triplet, where you do all three gyms right after the other. The first two didn't put up much trouble. The fighting gym was hit hard by my flying type and the steel dropped quickly from graveler and feraligatr. The third in the set, the seventh in the game, was an ice gym and one Pokemon gave me some real trouble. Piloswine is an ice and ground type meaning my ampharos can't even hit it and it is super effective against my fearow and my graveler. I had to weaken it with my raticate and finish it off with my feraligatr. Was close at one point.

As far as catching goes, there hasn't been that much. I've made it over the ocean and caught a tentacool, and unlocked the safari zone. In here I caught a misdreavous and a psyduck. I'm going to backtrack a little now that I have fly and do a nice clean sweep of wild Pokemon. I'm not evolving any if it can be helped since I'll have to do it in white again anyway.

As I briefly mentioned before, I've evolved my flaaffy into ampharos and my croconaw into a feraligatr. My party levels are all around 35 and I'm nearing the end of the Johto region. One more badge to go and I go to the league and fight Lance. Lance sucks. I've got nothing really suited to fight dragon pokemon and he carries three dragonites. THese guys are fucking hard. High special attack, high speed, and hp like a tank. Oh, and they can learn almost any move. My best bet is to send out ampharos and hope that the flying half of dragonite will be zapped well. I'll have to work on that later. Been thinking of switching something in my party for a magmar anyway.

As I venture through, the game keeps up with the strange reactions from world events. My rival has apparently been on the island before me and not only beaten one of the homeowners on this island, not a trainer mind you, just a home owner and stole his pokemon. his reaction? I look strong so I should have his other one. Really?! One trainer stole one Pokemon so he gives his other away? He even says that they are for his work. He raises shuckles and uses them to make berry juices. Why the hell would he give away his livelihood? Shortbus people.

Team rocket is back, too. They've taken over the Goldenrod radio station and are trying to make Pokemon evolve with radio frequencies. I don't know why I can't just let them go with it and make dratini feasible to train. I like how you have to grab one of the uniforms and infiltrate, but it's kinda pulled when you can't leave the city with one and you only go past the first guard before Wanker shows up and blows your cover. You can set your pokegear with a team rocket skin, why can't I keep the uniform?

The Safari Zone opening leads me to one of the exceptions of the rules set forth at the beginning of this mission. No pokeballs in the safari zone, only safari balls. The layout becomes customizable later on and I can get a bunch of new guys there later, but that's not until after I get the national dex.

It should be mentioned here that things will slow a touch, as I am moving in two weeks.

I'll have to come back with a list of all the new captures and evolutions, but right now my pokedex stands at...

Johto Pokemon: 63

I feel somewhat mixed about making my pokemon bang his head against a "moderately sized tree" repeatedly to find bug pokemon. Remember when they just jumped out in forests? and what ever happened to the bug catchers? now they're all just lads. I'm headbutting trees to find a couple of rare pokemon. One I call rare because you have to wake up at seven in the morning to find it in the wild. The cool thing is if I knock it out of a tree, there's a good chance it will be asleep. Unfortunately, I have to wade through a bunch of hoothoot looking for the things.

I need to backtrack here, I've made a lot of progress overnight and won two more gym badges. I'm liking my current party a lot and i'm trying to resist the urge to swap out guys for an abra I just found. I've been trying to incorporate HMs into my party, but things are getting crowded move-wise. I need the move deleter and a couple of HM slaves for this stuff.

Had my first run-in with the new team rocket at slowpoke well. Nothing here, just a little warm up before the gym. Caught a slowpoke while I was here and promptly left.

The second gym is bug type. Not hard at all considering my spearow. It chewed up everything really nice. Had a battle with my new rival, affectionately named Wanker, and mopped the floor with him. I like this one. He's blatantly a dick, almost more so than Gary. Gary was a rude dick, this guy is a thief and a dick. Granted he's done a lot worse things than "Smell ya later," but there's something about Gary that just makes me want to slap him. This guy I just want to pummel with Pokemon. Iunno. Anyway, went through the woods no problem and taught rattata headbutt. Not a bad move at all, base of 70 damage plus STAB, making it start at 105. That and hyper fang make for a devastating couple of moves.

Came out the other side and that's where I really bumped up my pokedex. In the woods I caught a paras and an oddish, but outside, I found drowzee, abra, magikarp, ledyba, ditto, and an exeggute. Nothing overly powerful except for abra. I may switch out for abra in my party later, but I'll try to make due with mu current party since I've been training them all up.

Made it into goldenrod without a problem. There are these security guard types that stand on certain routes and bug you if you walk past at night. Pokemon logic states that if you wander around at night, you're up to no good, but if you beat them in a battle, then you're ok. Goldenrod gym is all normal type, so my gastly is totally useless and geodude gets to shine again. He now knows magnitude and selfdestruct. I thought I was just dumping rock smash on him, but it turned out to be more useful than I expected, being a fighting type move.

This is the fun part of training where all of my Pokemon are getting ready to evolve or have just done so. My mareep is already a flaafy and totodile is a beefy croconaw. My geodude, spearow, rattata and gastly are all about to evolve. Off for a little grind and to catch a sudowoodo.

Johto Pokemon: 30, (already? making good time.)

Traveled a little more and trained for the first gym, then promptly rocked the first gym. Didn't need too much since I had a geodude. Grind it a little and once it learns rock throw (yeah, I did that), any bird Pokemon are going down hard and fast. Geodude is great in the early game. He has unrivaled defense and the only Pokemon he can't handle are bellsprout and wooper.

Made it through the city and stopped for a quick spot in the ruins. The ruins have these fun little tile puzzles that unlock new areas and forms of unown. Neat little buggers. They have one form for every letter in the alphabet and their move, hidden power, is a different type and power level for each one. I can't be bothered to figure out which ones are useful or powerful. Not really interested in a one trick pony anyway. Cought one for the entry and moved on.

I like this Route. Route 32. Nice, scenic, and has mareep. Mareep is caught and immediately given a permanent spot in my party. It's not bad now, but once it evolves to ampharos, it's pretty badass and fast. Once this egg hatches I can set my party for most of the game. It's going to be geodude, rattata, totodile, spearow, mareep, and ghastly. Never powered through the game with a ghost type before. Will be new to me.

Caught an ekans, a weedil, a hoppip, and a wooper. Most of those are useless. Wooper is only good for it's immunities to electric attacks, but at the cost of any defence against grasses. Just waiting for the egg, dammit. Need the slot.

Johto Pokemon: 17
after the egg, 18

And with that, we start the new journey through the region of johto in Soul Silver. 16 badges, 300 Pokemon, and a national dex that registers everything up to 4th generation. This will be the most ground to cover. Don't have to worry about the starters in this one, I've already moved them all over from the previous version. I'm starting with totodile, and I have to breed the other two, but I can get all forms relatively easily.

The adventure has begun! I've met with Professor Elm, got a totodile, and now I'm ready to depart from New Bark Town. With my Pokemon trailing behind me. Yeah, in this one the first Pokemon in your party kinda just walks behind you. There's some actual explanation about happiness and it growing and some sorta influence on evolution maybe, but I like to think of it as the Professor is just a stingy bugger. No pokeballs for you, not until after you go find Mr. Pokemon and run my other errands. And stop for milk, will ya?

Lots of memories flooding back, I'm remembering Routes, Pokemon, people, I'd even forgotten about apricorns. Not that they'll do me any good, since I'm only using pokeballs.

Made it to Mr. Pokemon, met Professor Oak, and he gave me his number for the pokegear. What is it with old men giving me their phone numbers?

Johto Pokemon: 1