Climb to the Shrine, Right What Is Wrong

Here it is! I pretty much beat the game to death, so... it's finished, definitely. :D;; That was fun! I'm looking forward to my next run(s), but I should probably catch up on other things before I continue one in any serious way.

I do need to continue STOP! THIEF! though... :\ *checks* Oh, WOW, that one has a lot of views. Okay, got to do that sometime... That will be next, I suppose.

(I was thinking of doing a Backstroke of the West-themed Randomized Nuzlocke of Pokemon Green after Randomized Silver was completed. The only captions allowed on screenshots would come from this textfile. That idea blesses god'sly, no?)

Hope you're all doing well!

Or where you know the hack has a really bullshit move combo on the later Pokemon of a Gym Leader.
(Two Full Restores per Pokemon from second Leader on was REALLY fucking cheesy, though. I was NOT forewarned about that.)

It was fine. I'd figured out how to break (most of) the hack's level curve anyway, so I really only ran into trouble because I screwed around rather than just hyper-leveling boosted!Raticate. I... really did it just because I was goofing off, anyway.

Eh, now I can do Alt Evos with a clean conscience. :P At least that hack creator told players what the level curve was there. (No &!@(ing idiocy like L38 Pokemon at Lt. Surge...)

I just wanted to retry Unprejudiced Red (in a marathon session) after my first failed run. I didn't fail this run, but I kind of got tired of it. (The strategy became too simplistic with all the overly-good Pokemon, much to my surprise. Sleep + Leech + win. Sleep + Tail Glow + win. &c &c &c)

Plus, I guess I'm really not good at blindly running hacks. Grinding doth bore me. :P

However, I've got to organize the plot of the Alt Evos run before actually playing it. While working. And... bleh. :P Well, welcome to the summer...

Moody and stressed today. Sorry to not have more to say.

Wait.

Actually, today just turned very nice! :D My Thieflocke run got featured on the Nuzlocke Forums! All that Engrish pays off! WOW!

(That, and consistent updating... :D;;)

Feel free to go over and check it out! I'm so glad they liked it! :D :D :D

I began, but... ahhhh, I decided I'm not in the mood for a Villain Protagonist at present. That, and my ruleset got bizarrely pretentious, and pretentiousness is usually a marker that I need to go off and do something else for a while.

(The ruleset makes sense and doesn't look that badly written. The issue is that, whenever I get pretentious, I've usually lost my sense of judgment in some way, and I can't figure out in what manner until later. In this case, I THINK it was that I fluffed it out massively when I could have just said it tersely. I think.)

I'm probably just bored with Gen 1/Gen 2 games and should take a break with a more casual run.
(Another issue with pretentiousness: it's usually a marker that I'll blow a ton of energy on it at first, then take one look at it later and go 'WTF? What was I trying to do here?!' Don't get me wrong, I would LIVE off of pretentiousness if I had the energy level necessary, but I crash a few updates/~1000 words into something and don't have the energy level to pick it up again. The enthusiasm is gone.)

Meh. Time to go RP an amnesiac Giratina.

What do you mean, this run is supposed to be LESS pretentious? >_> SHHHHH!

Fortunately, Poisoned Haven got moved to Other Adventures, so I'm not so keen to finish it. That frees me up to do another run... if I really want to do so.

Thank heavens, that means I could potentially do the Rocketlocke sometime in the next century.

Aside from that, Thieflocke is taking about 10 updates per game-section due to the sheer amount of Engrish. The terrifying thing is that it's gotten 4,600+ (non-unique) hits, so people are definitely reading through the trainwreck. (Fortunately, I was able to 'cheat' through the Celadon Gym via severe Twineedle abuse, so that didn't take longer than it had to.) That said... I'm probably not finishing it for some time due to the humor value. And Team Rocket members keep calling me "skunk". :psyduck:

I guess Silver Randomlocke is the only run that's getting finished any time soon. *sigh* I really don't want to risk Remoillent, but such is life. After Lance, I suppose anything is possible. Erika's reasonably weak, so I'll consider taking her out first. I'd prefer Janine, but it depends on how quickly I find my way to Fuchsia... At least the complete-crap Trainers make for good Exp. packets.

(Seriously, though - 449 images just for Erika and the opening of Rocket Hideout. *sigh* I know I took time off to catch several Pokemon, but that is a LOT. Was the Blue Nuzlocke this bad? My apologies, everyone. It only really hits home when you're limited to posting 50 images at a time.)

However, ideas for my next runs:

-CAREER OF EVIL: A Pokemon Yellow Rocketlocke
Archer, after a life of poverty and resentment, snaps when the Professor's grandson takes the Eevee meant for him.
Fortunately, the plague-carrier that took its place has no objection to a life of crime.
( The CAREER OF EVIL sequels (if I ever get around to the first run...) )
-NOW IS THE TIME WHEN WATER BEGINS TO BURN: An Ire Fred Nuzlocke
As far as she can recall, Tina is just another fledgling Trainer in Kanto, about to embark on her Pokemon journey.
But a persistent feeling of wrongness haunts her. She swears nothing is as it should be. As the world begins to come apart at the seams, she heads for the League, determined to face off with her rival, Cy, and discover the truth...
-VOLCANO BAKETHIEF: A Vietnamese Crystal Thieflocke
Thievery for fun and profit in Gen II! Now with 100% more Engrish!
-DON'T TURN YOUR BACK: A Pokemon: Team Rocket Edition Thieflocke
It's time to determine the next head of Team Rocket! But the inhabitants of the Aster region show no mercy to criminals, and it will be a difficult task indeed to reach the top...
-POISONED HAVEN II: A Pokemon Silver Poison Monolocke
Three years after Cowbane became "League Champion", the rebel Venusaur's disciples set off to liberate another land from human domination...
-COATOL EMERALD: A Pokemon Emerald Limited-type Nuzlocke
(That is to say - due to plot reasons, Rock, Ground, Fire, Water, and Ice Pokemon are banned. This is Hoenn. There went half the regional Pokedex...)
Amnesiac, uncertain, and marked for death, Ray wakes up in a Hoenn terminally out of balance. Cults dedicated to Groudon and Kyogre control the land, and their extremist members have gone so far as to scheme to wake the beasts themselves. With the few Pokemon willing to help him, Ray sets out to find why everything wants to kill him, what's gone wrong with the world, and whether it can be fixed...

...As you can see, I have a lot of ideas, and no time in which to do them. *sweatdrop*

I'd estimate that Silver Randomlocke is 75% done (having just begun on Kanto - which is essentially a Gym Leader boss rush with woefully inadequate Trainers), Poisoned Haven is 50% done (ugh, plot), and STOP! THIEF! is 33% done (having cleared Rock Tunnel). So... basically, if I could just bear to risk the Kabutops, I could get through one long-overdue run straightaway and begin on finishing the others.

You can see my runs in the signature of my Nuzlocke Forums profile. As you can see, I have three going at once... (I'm a bloody genius! *FACEPALM*)
*sigh* Wish I had the self-discipline to just finish one up already. Anyway - work calls. Have a mini-talk to give in class tomorrow. Wish me luck... *trudges off to prepare my notes some more*

1. Only Pokemon used by the Rival may be used.
2. First USEABLE Pokemon may be caught; in concession to the limited catch pool, the usual Monolocke rule of "three attempts allowed" is in play.
3. Any Pokemon that faints is unusable for the duration of the run.
4. OPTIONAL: the ROM must be hacked to give you the same starter as the Rival. If playing on a cartridge, just ignore this rule.

For RBG, this means you are limited to the Rattata, Pidgey, Abra, Magikarp, Exeggcute, Growlithe, Rhyhorn, and [Starter] evolutionary lines.

Places to catch:
Rattata: anywhere
Pidgey: anywhere
Abra: above Cerulean, Celadon Game Corner
Exeggcute: Safari Zone
Magikarp: Salesman, anywhere (via Old Rod)
Growlithe: East of Celadon, West of Lavender
Rhyhorn: Safari Zone

---

Commentary: in some sense, you are getting the best Pokemon lines in the game. In another sense, you're highly limited (especially early on) and may suffer difficulties.
( Basically, do this if you want a challenge but not too much of one. )

Also updated Thieflocke. Might as well do my next session of Poisoned Haven, because I've caught some crud-bug and don't really have the brains to do much work. Currently hoping to pick up a paper I need off of some sleazy Russian site or other. Ugh. Next time I talk to my professor and he mentions a hard-copy of a paper, I'ma just usin' my cellphone camera and "copying it down".

Actually, never mind. It seems the sleazy Russian sites reserve their business for textbooks that actually cost money in the real world, as opposed to obscure papers that are only relevant to weirdos doing research in that area. *sigh* Ooh well. Off to find another paper that's relevant, because that one ain't doing it until I can borrow or beg a copy off the library.

Also: oh, yay, I'm out of screenshots for STOP! THIEF! Clearly the only option is to... make more! :D ...OTL

(I am doing all right. I'm just somewhat wasted from the congestion. Mercifully, this isn't one of my class days.)

Incidentally, since apparently I'm not always clear, I don't do much programming. However, I did do a simulator of a certain RNG Nuzlockes Emerald scenario in the last month or so. Not actually that interesting, but I did manage to unnerve the person "doing" the run. :D

Hope you're all doing well.

Also, Viet. Crystal can accept type-inversion patches but not level-doubling patches due to its altered memory addresses. L106 Slowpoke was amusing, but NOT what was intended.

I think Viet. Crystal would be a better challenge than Inverse Doubled Crystal, if only because I have no idea what I'm doing in Viet. Crystal. (Example: I thought Reflect was Growth. In my defense, Viet. Crystal is so incomprehensible that it seemed to be a reasonable guess.)

Chikorita is so overpowered in Inverse that a test run of Doubled was a cakewalk through Violet City, wth the only hitch being that I had to keep healing to deal with Noctowl's Hypnosis. If I did it for real... definitely Cyndaquil territory. (Cyndaquil gets beaten up in Inverse early on, which is what I want - I'm going for the challenge, after all.)

None of that is relevant right now, though. I've got schoolwork as well as the other Nuzlockes.

I'm just distractible because I want to be distracted. That, and I've had enough of a weekend that I feel like I should be Doing Things. :P

...Sad to say, I'm really glad that I have enough video games challenging me that I feel the need to procrastinate by... gasp... doing PRODUCTIVE things. :P I feel like I'm seven years younger.

-Most of current plot updated for Poisoned Haven. Due to Gen 1's lack of coverage, I think I now have my endgame team... plus or minus tomfoolery with anti-Psychic testing. (I could switch out Arbok for Tentacruel eventually, for instance.) Basically that run centers around killing Silph Co. Alakazam, Saffron Gym Alakazam, Route 22 Alakazam, and Champion Alakazam with no casualities. Who thought it would be funny to put FOUR Alakazam fights in the game?!
-STOP! THIEF! will be updated as soon as I play through the the update. I'll be doing Teamlocke ruleset now (fixed team until causalities).
-Silver Randomlocke is awaiting the fooling around with savestates. I haven't felt motivated, to be honest.

On the bright side, I finally am rested up enough that I feel like working again. Ugh. Not a morning person, this one...

*sigh* I don't know what I'm worrying about. I HAVE Grass/Poison types out the kazoo, and the only thing you need to really do to survive Rock Tunnel is make sure you have something to OHKO Geodudes and Gravelers.

Now let me figure out what to call this Zubat. Let's see...

I didn't realize my Golbat had Confuse Ray! That makes it MUCH more useful. Mainly because I hate confusion and I hope the A.I. does too.

Managed to avoid any calamities from the Self-Destructers. Had a horrible moment where Absorb failed to OHKO, but the Graveler wasted its turn on Defense Curl instead and all was all right.

HAHAHAHAH

OMIGOSH

OH, WOW

OPERATION TWINEEDLE IS A SUCCESS

I just beat the ENTIRE Celadon Gym in 20 uses of Twineedle. While taking no damage EXCEPT from Tangela, which got off a few rounds of Bind due to being only Grass rather than Grass/Poison, because my Beedrill outsped every single one.

You see, Bug is super-effective against Poison in Gen 1, rather than being resisted by it. (They should have kept that. It actually makes Bug-type moves usable.) So all Grass/Poison Pokemon? Have a 4x weakness to Twineedle.

I just found what Beedrill's niche is supposed to be. You know how Butterfree's Lethal Joke entry notes that it's ideal for taking down Bruno? Beedrill just absolutely MAULED the Celadon Gym. And it wasn't overleveled, either. I just walked in with a level 24 Beedrill and walked out with a level 29 Beedrill and the Rainbowbadge.

Stopping for now. That was a VERY satisfying new section.

[These are first-gen rules only.]

1. A Rocket's gotta get in and out. You can only dawdle around enough to catch the first you see in an area, then skedaddle.
2. Ya gotta know who your subordinates are! Nickname all Pokemon.
3. It's a hard-knock life! Any Pokemon that faints is dead to ya.
4. Ya gotta hold up yer Rocket pride! Only the following evolutionary lines may be used:
RB: Sandshrew, Rattata, Zubat, Ekans, Machop, Drowsee, Grimer, Koffing, Cubone
Y: Meowth may also be used.
5. PROMOTION CLAUSE: (RBY) Upon any defeat of Giovanni, he promotes you. The evolutionary lines he used in that battle are unlocked.
First Battle: Onix and Rhyhorn unlocked. Kangashkan unlocked for RB ONLY.
Second Battle: Nidoran lines unlocked.
Gym Leader Battle: Diglett line unlocked.
6.  EXTENDED PROMOTION CLAUSE: Ya ain't a true Grunt unless you stick to yer proper ranks. No Pokemon may be evolved until its evolution has been fought.
(Machoke may be evolved to Machamp after the Fighting Dojo has been ransacked and its secrets seized.
If Cubone is obtained, it may be evolved after Marowak's ghost has been neutralized.)
7. (OPTIONAL) ABSOLUTE PROMOTION CLAUSE: Don't use Pokemon ya ain't got permission to use! No Pokemon except yer trusty Rattata may be used until you've fought a Grunt with that Pokemon.

[GSC modifications]

5. PROMOTION CLAUSE: Giovanni's been replaced by the Executives. Unlock lines accordingly.
(Yes, this does mean that Onix, Rhyhorn, Nidoran, Kangashkan, and Diglett are no longer allowed.)
6. EXTENDED PROMOTION CLAUSE: Unchanged, except that Machoke may be evolved after defeating Chuck. Cubone may be evolved after defeating Morty if obtained at Goldenrod's Game Corner in Crystal, and otherwise after defeating Brock. As Cubone is a legitimate line, it does not fall under the prior post's GAME CORNER CLAUSE.
7. (OPTIONAL) ABSOLUTE PROMOTION CLAUSE: Strictly speaking, this disallows you from using Sandshrew and Machop.

[RSE modifications]

As Team Rocket is officially toast, you'll have to do something else. Suggested modification:

With the Admins having given up the ghost, your branch has done its best to bled in with the locals. However, as you progress, you can be more open about your true allegiance.
4. HOENN CLAUSE: You're officially a member of Team... Whichever One Ain't Makin' A Nuisance Of Itself. Only the following evolutionary lines may be used:
Ruby: Poochyena, Zubat, Carvahna
Sapphire: Poochyena, Zubat, Numel
Emerald: Poochyena, Zubat, Carvahna, and Numel may be used, AND the Baltoy and Wailmer lines.
5. PROMOTION CLAUSE: After the first fight with each Aqua/Magma Admin, you may unlock the first Pokemon in a Kanto evolutionary line. The second is unlocked with the rematch. (Machamp cannot be unlocked. Period.)
6 + 7. EXTENDED PROMOTION CLAUSE + ABSOLUTE PROMOTION CLAUSE: Ya ain't a true Grunt unless you stick to yer proper ranks. No Pokemon may be evolved until its evolution has been fought. Except, since yer on the other team:
Unlock Numel (/unlock its evolution) after fighting Carvahna (/after fighting its evolution). Unlock Carvahna (/unlock its evolution) after fighting Numel (/after fighting its evolution).
For Emerald:
Unlock Wailmer after fighting Baltoy. Unlock Baltoy after fighting Wailmer.

1. A Rocket's gotta get in and out. You can only dawdle around enough to catch the first you see in an area, then skedaddle.
2. Ya gotta know who your subordinates are! Nickname all Pokemon.
3. It's a hard-knock life! Any Pokemon that faints is dead to ya.
4. Ya gotta hold up yer Rocket pride! Only the following evolutionary lines may be used:
RB (FR/LG): Sandshrew, Rattata, Zubat, Ekans, Machop, Drowsee, Grimer, Koffing, Cubone
Y: Meowth may also be used.
GSC (HG/SS): Venonat and Oddish now also permitted.
RS: Blend in with the locals! Poochyena now also permitted. Carvahna may be used in Sapphire and Numel may be used in Ruby.
E: Both Carvahna and Numel may be used. Baltoy and Wailmer now also permitted.
We of Team Rocket have no plans of obtaining a DS emulator at this time.

( Optional Clauses to allow for more team diversity. )

Team Magma and Team Aqua grunts... only use three evolutionary lines?!

Carvahna, Zubat, and Poochyena for Aqua (and one freak with a Wailmer in Emerald), and Zubat, Poochyena, and Numel for Magma (Baltoy line added in Emerald).

That's just... that's really strange.

Team Rocket uses the Sandshrew, Rattata, Zubat, Ekans, Machop, Drowsee, Grimer, and Koffing... and apparently Cubone, though I don't remember that... lines. They're reduced in GSC, yes, but they still have the Rattata, Zubat, Ekans, Koffing, Drowsee, Grimer, Venonat, and Oddish lines.

Actually, I can see Sandslash/Raticate/Golbat/Machamp/Hypno/(Muk/Weezing) as a halfway-acceptable roster, so I wouldn't mind Nuzlocking that. Should think about doing it sometime.

*ahem* Anyway, I didn't compile that list to point out a lack of diversity in Team Magma/Team Aqua rosters - I was contemplating a 'Team Aqua/Team Magma -Grunt' challenge, and then I found out... uh... that it didn't exactly work, unless I REALLY liked Crobat and Mighthyena. Hm. Back to square one. :\

(A severe issue with the TR-Grunt-locke is that, unless Dupes Clause is switched on and all non-eligible Pokemon are disqualified, you'll likely get Rattatas, Zubats, and a Sandshrew or Drowsee from Route 11. MAYBE Muk/Weezing from the Mansion. I did luck into a Machop in my Dupes-Clause-on Inverse Red run, but otherwise... yeah, a definite Zubat, if anything.

The subtitle of that run would probably be 'The Rat Race', seeing as how that's what I anticipate myself catching for the first several Routes of the game...

So it would actually be more of a Raticate/Golbat/Sandslash challenge. :\

To avoid boring others and myself, I'd include Promotion Clauses. What are Promotion Clauses, you ask? I'll explain in a minute...)

My Randomized Silver Nuzlocke has been updated, as well as my Mono-Poison Red Nuzlocke (this one with a story attached!).

I actually have screenshots up to Rock Tunnel for the Mono-Poison Nuzlocke, but I've been feeling unmotivated. ...I have a nasty tendency to get wary of my own stories after some point. Can't keep characterizations straight, start to dislike the plot, et cetera.

(On the bright side, a reader said that it was a great run but that they couldn't keep track of all the different speakers. At least that's easily fixed with a guide to the colors.)

...Also, I have 160+ screenshots to post, which translates to 3.2 updates. And I'm lazy.

I've told myself that I'm not getting a GBA emulator until I complete these two runs, so I'm going to complete them in the end.

Hope you're all doing well.

In-Progress Runs
My Silver Randomlocke: "Sudowoodo" captured, now taking a stroll to Olivine	Poisoned Haven (my Mono-Red Poison Storylocke): At the base of Mt. Moon

---

Completed Runs
My Blue Randomlocke: Rest well, brave heroes	My Inverse Red Nuzlocke: Victory despite all odds

As you can see, I have two completed, and I'm... waiting for my wireless limit to reset so that I can update the other two runs to the current area of progress. (Respectively - "Gym Leader Morty defeated" and "Lt. Surge defeated, now entering Rock Tunnel".) Haven't updated in a few days due to said limit, but ah well... I'm using my LJ for imagehosting via private-locked entries. I still have 948.68 MB/1000 MB left. :P Not going to need a new imagehost for a while, that's for sure. Anyway, I'm mainly browsing the Nuzlocke Forums for entertainment these days, because fandom doesn't seem to be moving that fast and I... forgot that MedicalXpress existed. >_>;; The Nuzlocke Forums are not the fastest-moving place, admittedly, but at least there's a decent amount of excitement with deaths, victories-by-1-HP, and the like.

Since I mentioned MedicalXpress, have a few links.

Staphylococcus aureus bacteria turns immune system against itself
Brain structure shows affinity with numbers (WHAT THE **** IS THIS 'SPATIAL' NONSENSE?! I... I literally have never heard of anyone processing numbers that way. And scientists thought that was the PREDOMINANT way? I... wow.)
Switching learning on

Hope everyone else is having a good day!

Beginning to get a little burned out on Nuzlockes/addicted to comments right now. May have to take a break. At least learned that I can do something that gets comments.

By the way, I just finished my Nuzlocke of Inverse Red. Cheer, cry, and scream with laughter as I inadvertently fuck myself over via an elementary GameShark mistake. Thank heavens for my Snorlax...

Anyway, hope you're all doing well!

 Ran right down to the wire. Last PP of a damaging move on the last living Pokemon . 

Totally fucking epic.

And to think, it's because I flubbed the end of the prior battle and forgot to turn off the instant-battle code. >_>

I defeated the strongest Trainer in the entire game TWICE. Consecutively. Without healing between battles. After defeating the Elite Four and Champion, and using only Max Potions to heal up between the fights. And I did it with a party where all the Pokemon were level 45 or below at the start of the sprint, save my ace which was level 48. By the end, I don't think I had anything over level 50.

PROF. OAK's Pokemon are level 70.

And I defeated him twice.

I'm happy with this ending.

( Our heroes! )

...And now for the deaths. :\

( And those who fell in the line of duty. )

Sold 6 Super Potions. Sold 11 POKe BALLs. Withdrew Max Ether x2. Withdrew Ether x2. Withdrew Elixir x1.

Have 28:44 on the clock, 41 Pokemon in Pokedex.

After spending spree, have Max Potion x40 and Full Restore x50.

Time to tango.

( ...against all odds... )

FINAL STATISTICS:
( And so it ends. )

( Current Party and Deaths, one last time: )

AND THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!

( No deaths this time! Sailing on through. )

Okay... now, as much as I'd like to charge into the Elite Four screeching a crazed battlecry, I acknowledge that I need to grind. Like, BADLY.

So I'll do a failtastic Elite Four run for your entertainment, then reload and embark upon a SERIOUS grinding run. :P If I don't get to the end with Pokemon all at L50 - THEN I have a problem, and I will take it as a legit loss. But for now, it's all a joke.

Current Party: HORSEMAN L47 Horseman, BIO L43 Pidgeot, FITZBLACK L44 Charizard, AVENGER L43 Marowak, STATUS L44 Nidoking, CRITDEMON L45 Alakazam
Deaths: ROMHACK L5-13 Porygon, FODDER L3-L23 Voltorb, SURGEGUARD L20-24 Raichu

See you next post, in Balanced Blue Randomizer Run: OHGADWHYYYYYYYY!

( In which another valued party member falls. It seems I am not that great a Nuzlocker. :\ )

See, someone started a NU Pokemon White Nuzlocke (but never finished it), so I'm thinking that, if I ever get to Nuzlocking RSE and a sane Ruby run bored me, I could always switch to Sapphire and use it as motivation to go do work as something less painful challenge myself by doing the same thing.

( Because all the pain is for pleasure/and nothing can measure... )
...Do note that Zigzagoon's evolution is NOT on this list. As such, I may or may not choose to use Dupes Clause in this hypothetical run.

Those that can be CAUGHT in RS:

( And good shall die first, said thy prophet,/ Our Lady of Pain. )
(list edited down from Moviebuff2287's Pokemon Locations FAQ)

In short, I would only get to use the following 34 Pokemon.
( these Pokemon may be bad, but they're perfectly good at it )

...In short, in a Dupes-Clause-Off run, I would live off of Pelipper, Wailord, Glalie, Seaking, Whiscash, Crawdaunt, a Wurmple evolution, Delcatty, Nosepass, Trapinch (UNEVOLVED), Masquerain, Spinda, Torkoal/Magcargo, Castform, Kecleon, Girafarig, Chimecho, and Relicanth. Any more team members would be sheer good fortune.

19 Pokemon, and all of them officially at the bottom of the barrel, competitive-play-wise. And almost all of them mortal bait for Wattson.

*in monotone voice* Oh, boy. This would be FUN.
[It's better than the FR/LG equivalent, though. Try using only Beedrill, Butterfree, Dewgong, Ditto, Farfetch'd, Lickitung, Parasect, Pidgeot, Raticate, Seaking, Venomoth, Wigglytuff to get you through the entire game... though I remember one crazy bastard solo'ing Emerald with a Rattata, so anything can be done, really.]

I'm not playing it NOW, obviously, since I have a lot to do. I just wanted to work out the practicalities, because I have a fondness for working out a lot of theoretical nonsense because I tend to either botch the application or wind up wanting to desperately do something else. Besides, it took my mind off... said stuff I have to do. :\

( No screenshots, but you can instead have some actual data! )
I do think that Psychojoe's rules are better than the silly random ones I was using. Let's face it, a Ground/Ghost Snorlax with 180 base Special or whatnot can barely be called a Snorlax at all, and Nuzlockes are about Pokemon Hard Mode more than 'Game Vaguely Resembling Pokemon' Hard Mode.
Though if there was a Ground/Ghost Pokemon with 180 base Special, I'd name it Teraconic and use it for all it was worth. *broad grin*
Now, SOME of this is because I haven't caught any fully-evolved Pokemon - if I'd snagged the Alakazam (or, heaven forbid, the MEWTWO) I saw in Mt. Moon, I suspect the difficulty level would abruptly drop. (Or the Dragonite in Viridian Forest. Then again, Psychojoe lost his Dragonite to a Flareon with Blizzard.) Some of it, however, is because it works.
I am slightly annoyed that I missed that he had randomized TMs, but oh well. I'll do that in a later Randomlocke. Random TM moves ARE popping up in Pokemon movesets, however... Bide appeared in the failed attempt, and Bubblebeam and Toxic have showed up here. Thunderbolt, Mega Drain, Psywave, Fire Blast, and Fissure will inevitably make appearances.

Now watch my Rival show up to the Championship with 5 Alakazams (and one Victreebel), or something similarly cheesy. *headdesk* At least I have the option of refilling from my Box and praying for the best if I run into absolutely HORRIBLE bullshit...

On that subject: Psychojoe's completed Red Randomlocke is here, and his failtastic Gold Randomlocke is here. Give them a look, will you?

( Initial report )

Now, Brock's Jr. Trainer... had a L11 Diglett as his first Pokemon. It outsped everyone. Its only move was Dig.

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED.

Now, when I went on anyway and powerleveled L13 Blitz to L16, he swept the Gym with ease. And I KNEW I should have done that initially, but decided to just run on in because LOL WHAT'S TEH WURST THAT COULD HAPPEN?

So... okay, declaring this one lost. It was a fair-and-square screwup, and I can't even call bullshit because it wouldn't have been bullshit if I'd intelligently powerleveled.

Considering that Psychojoe apparently wiped before Bugsy three times in his attempts at a Gold Randomlocke, I take this as a fairly typical Randomlocke result and am actually quite chipper about it. :) Aside from the oh-THAT'S-why-Raticate-was-always-a-nightmare do-over in the Red run, I haven't had any proper Nuzlocke OHCRAP results, so this revitalizes the challenge.

Also, I now can say that I've managed to outdo dinogrrl at Shortest Nuzlocke Ever epic fail. :P

*sourly* The last few times I took on That Damned Raticate, I was carting either very high-Defense creatures or Rock-types.

...I forgot what its effects were on unevolved Pokemon of the same level. Especially since, this time, I wasn't grinding.

Anyway, AFTER reset, I introduced it to Lord Herne the freshly evolved L16 Nidoking, which proceeded to introduce it to how much fun it was to confront an overpowered adversary in close quarters. I DID beat it the first time, so I didn't LOSE the Nuzlocke, per se, but... I did not consider it fun to face the prospect of clearing Mt. Moon with a Beedrill and a Jigglypuff.

(Wigglytuff has base 45 speed, in case you're contemplating putting Abra to Sleep with it. Ah ha. No.)

Besides, I... did consider it a bit of Bullshit Clause, since I think I could have beaten Super Nerd with that team. (I beat Super Nerd without the use of Lord Herne after beating that Rocket - just Vidar and JIGGLYPUFF.) And I used incredibly stupid switch-constantly tactics against it, since I was trying to have no deaths... I could have made it with only a few deaths if I had just stayed in against it, I think. Thunder Wave, then Sand Attack, and then Leech Seed if I could manage it, and then wail away with L15 Lord Herne. ...Eh, I didn't take a savestate, so I'll never know.

So this isn't a true Nuzlocke, I suppose. Look, I AM able to take deaths, as I've shown in other Red runs, but that was just... eesh.

I'll take care to NOT assume Pokemon that were easy in one run will still be that way in another from this point on. And any deaths WILL be kept.

*sigh*

Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Narration will be in plain text. Notes will be in italics.

( NOW WITH A CUT )

I beat the Brock battle almost entirely with Leech Seed and Growl.

Literally. I had been an idiot and failed to learn any Special attacks before that, so I just dug in my heels and kept Growling my way through Geodude and Onix's attacks while Leech Seed filled the HP back up. I came in with 18/31 HP or something from the Jr. Trainer battle. I had full HP at the end of the battle. No Potions used.

If I didn't know that later-battle!damage outpaces Leech Seed, Growl or not, with ease, I'd say the move is gloriously broken.

However... the Venusaur line does learn SLEEP POWDER at a certain level... |D

(Growth, Leech Seed, and Sleep Powder would do wonders to get Venusaur past certain enemies. If only certain deadly Pokemon didn't carry super-likely crits (Alakazam, Slash!Charizard, etc.), I'd seriously consider tanking certain Pokemon that DO have supereffective STAB against Venusaur. I mean, I REGAINED HP in that battle. ...*sigh* Since I'm planning to use Razor Leaf, though, Growth isn't helpful. And one fizznucking supereffective STAB critical would render all that stat-boosting useless...)

Also, due to the Gen 1 critical quirk, Gen-1!Razor Leaf is 100% superior to Solarbeam - it's a guaranteed critical every use, which means it's a STAB attack with an effective power of 110 versus Solarbeam's every-other-turn 120. Wahahah, I had better keep this Bulbasaur alive. I WANT to introduce the E4 to the wonders of Leech Seed, Sleep Powder, and Razor Leaf.

Anyway, on to Mt. Moon!

A section of the plot is going to be based on Der Erlkonig, so advance warning for disturbing content. ...I'll do the actual warnings when that section comes up, don't worry.

Anyway, since I already did my Let's Play of Pokemon Blue with all the appropriate screenshots and in-game dialogue, this is going to be in the style of the Storylocke runs in which the author sometimes just includes the screenshots necessary to have the readers understand where the actual run is in the game and writes their own ''dialogue'', so that they can give certain characters any take on their personalities that they wish. Just noting that ahead of time so you don't get thrown.

Anything else I should be noting? Well, I can't think of anything peculiar aside from that and the pre-run Dupes Clause. This is more procrastination for my Pokemon Yellow run than anything else, because... eh, I'm not feeling that enthusiastic about the 'totalitarian government' take any more. That, and I accidentally burned myself out on the countless Randomizer runs (which turn hideously unbalanced the moment you get something good - Teraconic the Ground/Ghost Snorlax with massive base Special, I'm looking at you), so I'm looking for something a tad more 'typical' to get me back into the swing of things. I also think I need to do a story run to renew my enthusiasm for Nuzlockes, because I just didn't connect to the Pokemon when I didn't have a plot attached, and ended up with several stupid deaths as a result of futzing around. So there's a lot of reasons I want to do another plot-based run, really, so long as it isn't as compulsively wordy and screenshot-stuffed* as the Syaoran run. (/TL;DR)
*This wasn't an issue in and of itself, but it took a while to upload all the screenshots to LJ, and then the writing to accompany them took forever. That was an accident of thinking I wrote much more early-run than I actually did, admittedly, but I think I hit a good balance with the final part of the run, in which I only wrote it up if I wanted to do so or it was extremely relevant to the plot, and I'll try to stick to that this time.

I've realized to my irritation that I won't get Sandslash OR Persian, since I'm doing Red... but I don't think I'll need Slashspam cheese to get through this. After all, I will be slightly benefiting from all the Pokemon eliminated by the pre-run Dupes Clause, in that several common 'Derps' get taken out by those rules (yay for endgame Fearow and Raticate!)... even if I'll also get severely disadvantaged by the removal of certain of those (Dugtrio, Lapras, GYARADOS).

Ah, well. It wouldn't be called a Nuzlocke CHALLENGE if it wasn't hard, eh?

I may not use any Pokemon I seriously used during the Pokemon Blue Nuzlocke or the No-Marts Pokemon Red Nuzlocke. To make this slightly less painful, said Pokemon also count for Dupes Clause.

What does this mean? I MAY NOT use the following evolution lines:
Squirtle, Charmander, Rattata, Nidoran-Female, Caterpie, Spearow, Magikarp, Geodude, Bellsprout/Oddish, Diglett, Drowsee, or Lapras.


I may accept Lapras without releasing it, but it's staying in a Box (officially: 'being released into peaceful custody of Cerulean Gym, who will provide food, safe waters, and a mate').
Being denied usage of some of my best Pokemon will spice up the run, I think. (I am already shuddering at the implications of a Poison-type starter and no Gyarados or Hypno to protect me from Alakazams. Either I'm going to be recording several deaths, or the LACK of Fearow/Dugtrio/Raticate Glass Cannons is actually going to help my team a lot. I have no idea, but I suspect it will really be one or the other.)

A confession: As you may notice from the lack of Pidgey, I'm not ordinarily counting Pokemon that I 'used' but stopped using partway through the run. (Though Nidoran-Female does count, as I seriously did plan to use Queen Aria before Ambassador proved to be an absolutely incredible Ground-type Glass Cannon.) So why am I dismissing Bellsprout/Oddish?

Because I'm secretly hoping to cheese my way to an Abra via Dupes Clause. It's easily possible that I'll be foiled by an encounter I miscalculated, and I will LIKELY be cheesed by a Teleport, but... I have hopes, okay?  Though I might screw up and get it killed even if I catch it... >_>

By the way, I have some evidence that the old tip to Paralyze Abra before you catch it is bullshit.
( Calculation and explanation. )

...So I have a 68% chance that, even if I can cheese my way into an Abra encounter with Dupes Clause, I won't be able to catch it. *shrugs* That's a Nuzlocke for you! (And besides, a Psychic isn't an instant-win button ANYWAY...)