Official TVTropes Nuzlocke Thread

This is probably the single most popular form of self-imposed challenge in the pokemon community, and definitely the most heart-rending.

I am aware that there are a number of pokemon fans here but after a cursory search, I found no dedicated thread.

So I decided to make one.

For those interested, feel free to post your progress or a dramatic retelling of your journey, whichever you see fit.

For those who are unfamiliar with Nuzlocke, there are two base rules:

• A fainted pokemon must be released, or permanently boxed if you so choose. This pokemon is DEAD, no ifs ands or buts.
• You may only catch the FIRST pokemon you see in each area. This means each route, cave, town, or building. Connected routes count as separate areas. This DOES NOT include repeat visits.  ^{A word to the wise}
  ^{Use this to your advantage, when you see this first pokemon, attempt to catch it.}
  If the pokemon faints or flees, too bad for you, it's gone, you used up your chance for that route.

A note:

• If a mon is permanently boxed it STAYS THERE. It only comes out after you either beat the champion, (or in the case of the Johto games, Red) or if you have the option, you send it to Pal Park or have it Poke Shifted to Gen V, effectively releasing it.

Optional Rules:

• Pokemon centers only. No berries, no potions. Rest houses may or may not count.
• Items only. No pokemon centers allowed, no rest houses allowed. Unavoidable heals like with the partners in D/P/Pt are allowed.
• White/black out means you are DEAD. Whether or not you have more mons in the box.
• No freebies. That means no eevees, no eggs, no lapras.
• No breeding. Self-explanatory.
• No TMs
• No Move deleter
• No move relearners or tutors.
• No trading, through wi-fi, with yourself, or with an NPC. The NPC rule may be changed.
• No duplicates, if you caught a mon already and another is the first on the route, you may try again. (Whether this means you are currently in possesion of one, or whether you caught one period is up to you.)

It is considered traditional to nickname every pokemon you catch in order for you to form an emotional bond with the pokemon, so their death has more of an impact.

Suggestions for "fun" rules.

• One gender run. You may only catch the first pokemon you see of the same gender as your trainer, no gender pokemon are considered both and must be caught if they are the area's first. Starters and gifts are allowed to be different.
• Shiny run. If you happen to find a shiny, you are allowed to catch it.
• Name pokemon after friends and family.
• If you are getting Black or White, play it blind.
• One type only. (Given the starters and the unavailability of certain types until late in the games, this will be difficult to implement)
• One color only. (A pokemon MUST have a body part of the given color in order to be caught)
• No evolution. (Have fun with that.)
• No more pokemon after catching your first six. Period.
• Code of hono(u)r: Each pokemon has its own specfic rules. For example:
  • Turtwig can only use physical moves.
  • Zubat must know Supersonic

Good luck on your journeys.

Never Give Up, Never Forget, Grind Like Hell.

I might have to do this especially considering I am blind from generation 3 on.

Hoo.

Good luck man.

Especially if you choose Platinum, I hear that one's a tough one to do.

Alright Platinum it is

edited 3rd Feb '11 9:46:53 AM by stevebat

Good luck.

I'll be doing a Soul Silver one if I can find my copy.

Hmm. Perhaps after I beat Platinum normally I'll Nuzlocke it up in SoulSilver alongside my normal HeartGold run - I've been trying to figure out what to do with my copy since I did a lot of "hack up a crazy/randomly determined team" with the original Silver version...

In the meantime, go Nuzlockers! *pom poms*

I Nuzlocked my Blue version once cause in Red I had 150 Pokemon.

Only one survived; Persian with Thunderbolt. Lost my starter to Koga's Weezing's selfdestruct D:

Now where to acquire a perfectly legal not rom copy of platinum that is not an emulation while at the same time acquiring a so not emulated DS.

edited 3rd Feb '11 11:21:58 AM by stevebat

I'm Nuzlocking HG right now...it's going horribly actually. I have 3 badges, and only 4 mons. I've lost about 3/4 of my party T_T

Dang. Any tips barry?

I've been meaning to do this. Next time I play through Fire Red or Emerald.

I tried to do this in Diamond, died when I got to Gardenia. I'm going to run through it blind in Pokemon White once I get it. My rules for it have been decided, and are as follows:

• Catch only the first pokemon in the area.
  • Legendaries are fair game
  • Event Pokemon are fair game
• If a pokemon faints, it must be released, no exceptions.
• Nickname all pokemon caught.
  • They will all be named after obscure cities (Quirihue, Pinole, etc)

I wasn't planning on Nuzlocking it, but I'm planning on naming my Black team after cities that fit their type or some stereotype or reference to them, too, i.e. a Scrafty named Bronx and a Drillbur named RÉSO.

What's so hard about Nuzlocking Platinum?

The difficulty in general is much higher than other games.

Here's a tip, do NOT underestimate Bugsy's Scyther. Thats were things took a turn for the worst with his friggen U-turn (powerful bug move that switches it if it can)

If you plan on using your pokewalker (I'm not because I couldn't work out a way to do the paths on it while following the rules) then you may want to save any nice berries you find in it for when you get your Berry Pots.

And don't forget to bring repel, especially if you're trying to save a route till its night time or something like that.

One funny thing about nuzlockes is that it makes you gain appriciation for pokemon you wouldn't get otherwise, and other pokemon that you liked or were neutral about get your scorn. For example, I miss my Zubat and am hoping to get another one in Mt. Mortar, meanwhile, that Abra thing happened to me too...except without success. I DID manage to catch one in my emerald nuzlocke but it still locked me out of another route before hand.

edited 4th Feb '11 8:01:05 AM by Barrylocke

Nevermind, I'm still dead from the neck up.

edited 3rd Feb '11 2:48:32 PM by CalamityJane

I gained a new appreciation for the bats with my Heartgold as I caught one using a friend ball and evolved it to Crobat.

And yes, that scyther is a dumb.

I have only heard the stories but wouldn't a HG be REALLY BAD if you guys included post game content like red?

edited 4th Feb '11 7:02:33 AM by stevebat

yeah, I'm not sure how I'm going to handle red. I can probably manage the kanto 8 at least, but red will require massive grinding, I'd imagine.

I did a Nuzlocke run of Gold, but didn't bother with Red, or Kanto.

I don't think I'm the right sort of gamer to do this challenge. I like to take more risks than this sort of run allows (aka none), and dislike grinding. I have tried it a few times, but never got very far. In retrospect, I shouldn't have tried it on Yellow (O HAI BROCK! SHOULD I FIGHT YOU WITH RATATA, PIDGEY, PIKACHU OR KAKUNA?) but I still lost badly even when I did get past him. I'd rather just play Omega.

In before "Just grind more".

I remember doing a variation of this. I did it on emerald, but instead of the one catch (attempt) per route, I had that I would roll a twenty sided die and could only catch it on a twenty, even legendaries.

I also couldn't use any healing items when a member of team aqua or magma was nearby (I explained to myself that if I tried they would steal it). That includes the leaders, which was not fun.

Oooh, that's a tough challenge. Did you ever manage to get more than one pokemon with that 20-sided die thing?

A good way to use Walker Pokes would be to only catch the first one you see in a route, and you can only catch one every two or so badges.

Doing one on Crystal, of all things. I just started to record everything, so I deleted my old one which was just past Falkner. Only had two fatalities, but one was my Cyndaquil... I lol'd when my level 15 Pidgey swept Falkner's entire gym single-handedly. It was pretty awesome.