Board 8 > Started a Shining Pearl Nuzlocke...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Bump

I'd put this on a hiatus until I reached Glameow (for the version exclusive trade). However, I thought Glameow only became accessible on route 222, all the way deep in the game after catching Palkia. Turns out you can get it as soon as you unlock Surf, which is still absurdly long for a Pokemon like Glameow...but earlier than expected. Needless to say, I need to catch up to my Diamond game now.

Not a lot to update. Just started clearing out the trainers on route 209, 210, and inside Lost Tower. No new Pokemon for route 210 (unless something dies), since I already have everything from that route (I really hate Sinnoh's Pokedex and Pokemon distribution). I did catch an F Unown, level 15 (named Effie), but that's the only new thing. Also, I hit up the Pokemon diner at the midpoint of route 210 and nearly fucked up by taking on a team of three Sudowoodos (each armed with Wood Hammer, Hammer Arm, and Stone Edge...which is WAY too powerful for these low of levels) without a single Pokemon that could use a Water, Grass, Fighting, or Steel-type attack. I survived due to Lucas' Psybeam (and some poor move choices on the part of the second and third Sudowoodo), but that could've been a TPK.

Made it to Veilstone City, but not about to fight Maylene just yet. I was really worried about the pair of Ace Trainers on route 215, because one of them has a Gyarados with Waterfall, and the whole route is constantly under downpouring rain. I wound up switching Edgar in and out to hit the Gyarados with Intimidate, and Samantha was able to tank some hits (and use the rain to her advantage to wipe out Monferno/Glameow, and outspeed Kadabra to OHKO it with a Bite). The point is, despite the threat posed by Gyarados, I beat it.

Then after reaching Veilstone, I went directly to route 214 and fished up a level 20 Goldeen (named Elvis). Spent a while after that in Ruin Maniac's cavern, finding a ton of Geodudes (but I already have one, so there was only one other option to catch). Eventually though, I did find a level 22 Hippopotas (named Jordan). Battling my way down route 214 got Joy to evolve into Blissey (not sure if I've mentioned that she evolved from Happiny into Chansey already). And to finish the night, Valor Lakefront gives me a level 21 Girafarig (named Patrick). Still no deaths in a while, but I'm sure that will change soon enough. There's just a lot of routes opening up without necessary gym battles as of yet.

Inviso posted...

I was really worried about the pair of Ace Trainers on route 215, because one of them has a Gyarados with Waterfall, and the whole route is constantly under downpouring rain.

Oh I know exactly the one you're talking about because I saw a streamer lose a Graveler there because for some reason they didn't switch it out

Brief update, since I'm at the part of the game that is the least fun to Nuzlocke. Route 213 gave me a level 20 Wingull (Louisa), Route 212 gave me a level 18 Wooper (Amelia), and the Great Marsh gave me a Psyduck (Colleen). I now have a team of Water-types I need to catch up to the rest of my squad as the lack of diversity on my team is becoming very apparent. Sinnoh has such a bad regional Pokedex, my God.

Addendum: traveled to the Trophy Garden and caught a level 19 Pikachu (named Ashley). IMMEDIATELY Thunderstoned her into a Raichu, since apparentl I can buy Thunderbolt for only 3k in Veilstone. No more waiting to evolve for THAT stone evo. I head to the Move Tutor to check on a few moves for Raichu, and apparently I've bought enough old moves that he's no longer going to charge me Heart Scales. Fuck yeah! And finally, I realized I can fish in Pastoria, and seeing as how they've been a massive pain in the ass to battle in the past few routes, I thought I'd fish up a Magikarp to evolve into Gyarados. Turns out Pastoria City also had a level 15 Remoraid (named Barbara).

Anyway, having collected all of these new Pokemon (and I'm pretty sure that aside from route 210 and route 211, I've gotten something from every area possible). I went training and clearing out the trainers from route 214 to route 212. Along the way, Louisa evolved into Pelipper, and Amelia evolved into Quagsire. However, tragedy struck as I hit up the restaurant attached to the Lake Valor Hotel. I'd had some close calls with the double battles in there, but I got cocky in a double battle against a Sudowoodo and a Bonsly. Barbara blasted the Bonsly with Bubblebeam, as she does, but the little bastard had Sturdy, so it survived with a single hit point. Meanwhile, Ashley Thunderpunched the Sudowoodo for average damage. Then the other team got to attack. Sudowoodo critted Ashley with a Stone Edge for a KO, and the little bastard Bonsly used Flail, taking advantage of having his whole HP pool depleted, to KO Barbara. I finished them both off, and their Pichu back-up, but that's still two more for the kill list...including yet another of the region's already-limited Electric-types. RIP Ashley (Level 19-23) and RIP Barbara (Level 15-20). I am...pissed about Ashley, especially with Crasher Wake's Gyarados coming up in the near future.

Twinleaf Town: ???
Lake Verity: Bidoof->Bibarel (Erin)
Route 201: Starly->Staravia (Edgar)
Sandgem Town: Turtwig->Grotle (Rafael)
Route 202: Shinx->Luxio (Cecilia) *DECEASED*
Jubilife City: Manaphy (Tristan)
Route 203: Abra->Kadabra->Alakazam (Yuri)
Route 204: Kricketot->Kricketune (Roberto)
Ravaged Path: Zubat->Golbat->Crobat (Sumara)
Oreburgh Gate: Geodude (Sylvester)
Oreburgh City: Shieldon (Percy)
Oreburgh Mine: Onix (Jemma)
Floaroma Town: Mew (Zelda)
Floaroma Meadow: Wurmple->Cascoon->Dustox (Lucas)
Route 205: Buizel (Samantha)
Valley Windworks: Shellos (Sally) *DECEASED*
Eterna Forest: Buneary (Tiffany) *DECEASED*
Route 206: Bronzor *DECEASED*
Route 207: Machop (Gordon) *DECEASED*
Route 208: Machop (Ivan)
Route 211: Ponyta (Chase)
Mt. Coronet: Chingling->Chimecho (Nicholas)
Hearthome City: Happiny->Chansey->Blissey (Joy)
Route 209: Bonsly->Sudowoodo (Woody)
Lost Tower: Misdreavus (Hermes)
Solaceon Town: ???
Solaceon Ruins: Unown (Effie)
Route 210: ???
Route 215: ???
Veilstone City: ???
Route 214: Goldeen (Elvis)
Ruin Maniac Cave: Hippopotas (Jordan)
Valor Lakefront: Girafarig (Patrick)
Route 213: Wingull->Pelipper (Louisa)
Route 212: Wooper->Quagsire (Amelia)
Great Marsh: Psyduck (Colleen)
Trophy Garden: Pikachu->Raichu (Ashley) *DECEASED*
Pastoria City: Remoraid (Barbara) *DECEASED*

Over the past few days, I ground out some levels by rematching the old couple on route 212, which got me a ton of money, and let me buy a ton of special attack TMs in Veilstone city. That gave me some move diversity on a lot of my Psychic-types, but it did leave me wishing there were equivalent physical attack TMs. You know, 80-90 power, 95-100 accuracy, no side effects necessarily. Anyway, with my Psychics hooked up with Thunderbolt, I was able to clear Veilstone Gym and Pastoria Gym without issue. Along the way, Edgar evolved into Staraptor, Rafael evolved into Torterra, Percy evolved into Bastiodon, Samantha evolved into Floatzel, Ivan evolved into Machoke, Colleen evolved into Golduck, and Elvis evolved into Seaking.

Anyway, beat Brennus again and returned to the northern end of route 210, where I finally found a new Pokemon (level 25 Meditite) for the Nuzlocke...and promptly confused it so that it KOed itself. RIP.

Twinleaf Town: ???
Lake Verity: Bidoof->Bibarel (Erin)
Route 201: Starly->Staravia->Staraptor (Edgar)
Sandgem Town: Turtwig->Grotle->Torterra (Rafael)
Route 202: Shinx->Luxio (Cecilia) *DECEASED*
Jubilife City: Manaphy (Tristan)
Route 203: Abra->Kadabra->Alakazam (Yuri)
Route 204: Kricketot->Kricketune (Roberto)
Ravaged Path: Zubat->Golbat->Crobat (Sumara)
Oreburgh Gate: Geodude->Graveler->Golem (Sylvester)
Oreburgh City: Shieldon (Percy)
Oreburgh Mine: Onix (Jemma)
Floaroma Town: Mew (Zelda)
Floaroma Meadow: Wurmple->Cascoon->Dustox (Lucas)
Route 205: Buizel->Floatzel (Samantha)
Valley Windworks: Shellos (Sally) *DECEASED*
Eterna Forest: Buneary (Tiffany) *DECEASED*
Route 206: Bronzor *DECEASED*
Route 207: Machop (Gordon) *DECEASED*
Route 208: Machop->Machoke (Ivan)
Route 211: Ponyta (Chase)
Mt. Coronet: Chingling->Chimecho (Nicholas)
Hearthome City: Happiny->Chansey->Blissey (Joy)
Route 209: Bonsly->Sudowoodo (Woody)
Lost Tower: Misdreavus (Hermes)
Solaceon Town: ???
Solaceon Ruins: Unown (Effie)
Route 210: Meditite *DECEASED*
Route 215: ???
Veilstone City: ???
Route 214: Goldeen->Seaking (Elvis)
Ruin Maniac Cave: Hippopotas (Jordan)
Valor Lakefront: Girafarig (Patrick)
Route 213: Wingull->Pelipper (Louisa)
Route 212: Wooper->Quagsire (Amelia)
Great Marsh: Psyduck->Golduck (Colleen)
Trophy Garden: Pikachu->Raichu (Ashley) *DECEASED*
Pastoria City: Remoraid (Barbara) *DECEASED*

Fought all the way to Celestic Town, but next up I have a fight against Fantina, so I wanted to level up my team to match her a bit better. I also realized I still hadn't caught anything from Twinleaf, so I flew back and fished up a level 20 Magikarp (named Violeta), which I promptly evolved into Gyarados. Spent a while fighting the Ace Trainer duo on route 210, taking out Gyarados and Raichu over and over to powerlevel Violeta, and level some of the others.

Once I finished leveling everything I have that knows Thunderbolt, I headed down into the underground to take on some wild Pokemon that range from 32 to 37. No big deal. I popped a bunch of Grass statues into my hideout so my remaining Psychic and Flying-types could take out Roselias for a ton of Exp. And in the Forest Hideaways, if not Roselias, there are also Pinsirs, Absols, and Biberals to fight. However, I had Ivan on my team, and I faced a Bibarel. Ivan's a tough Fighting-type, but I'd been holding off on trading him to evolve into Machamp until I had Glameow, so the trade wouldn't be a one-off incident. The Bibarel was clearly faster than me, and it used Skull Bash. One turn to prepare and boost its defense, but that's no big deal; I'd already beaten a Bibarel doing the same thing, earlier. Except this time, Ivan's Low Sweep didn't OHKO, nor did it lower the Bibarel's speed enough for Ivan to go first on turn two. The Skull Bash scored a critical hit and OHKOed Ivan, marking the second Machop family member I've lost this Nuzlocke. Oh well, the journey continues on. RIP Ivan (Level 16 to 32).

Fought Fantina, and the whole gym was worrying (kept up my self-imposed rule of no team swaps or exiting to heal up until the whole gym was cleared). The problem is I have no Dark-types, and Ghost is weak against Ghost, so I didn't WANT to risk Stephen or Hermes. Ultimately, I led the team with Erin, who is immune to Ghost attacks, and knows Crunch. That did pretty well (and I had Patrick as a back-up, since he's immune to Ghost as well and can use Thunderbolt for Drifloon/Drifblims). Fighting Fantina's Drifblim though, I wasn't sure what her first Pokemon was, so I led with Violeta, which stuck me in a battle where I didn't WANT to use a physical attacker, but I couldn't risk switching out. I beat her, but Violeta was burned, so that negated her usefulness. Patrick took out Gengar with Psychic, and then it came down to forcing Stephen to take a risk against Mismagius, which worked out! No casualties and five badges down.

Of course, this leads to the most annoying aspect of BDSP: the Surfing. It's bad enough that everything from route 213, Pastoria, the Great Marsh and route 212 is water-based, but now I've unlocked a whole bunch of new routes that are MORE Water-types. Route 219 and 220 have exactly two new Pokemon to catch, which I caught: a level 18 Finneon (named Jennifer) fished up on route 219, and a level 23 Tentacool (named Gillian) on route 220. Of course, surfing down both of these routes means a never-ending streak of encounters with worthless Pokemon (and the occasional Pelipper for a bit more EXP), which is annoying.

Then I got to route 221 and caught the one new Pokemon I could from there: a level 29 Roselia (named Pierre). This is the part of the game where you're kinda trying to level up your new stuff to catch the rest of your team, which leads to some risky behavior that doesn't pay off. I was fighting an Ace Trainer, and I'd taken out her first two Pokemon, no big deal. Her last Pokemon was a Lopunny, and I had nothing that knew Fighting attacks, so I figured "This won't hit too hard. I'll just send out Gillian to get some extra EXP so she can evolve into Tentacruel. Headbutt, Critical Hit, RIP Gillian (Level 23 to 29). But hey, I happened to have Chase on the team, and he hit level 40, so he finally evolved into Rapidash. Battery started dying after that, so I've only managed to clear surfing opportunities on the south end of the map. I still have Fuego Ironworks, half of route 213, route 218, and the inside of Mount Coronet to come.

Twinleaf Town: Magikarp->Gyarados (Violeta)
Lake Verity: Bidoof->Bibarel (Erin)
Route 201: Starly->Staravia->Staraptor (Edgar)
Sandgem Town: Turtwig->Grotle->Torterra (Rafael)
Route 202: Shinx->Luxio (Cecilia) *DECEASED*
Jubilife City: Manaphy (Tristan)
Route 203: Abra->Kadabra->Alakazam (Yuri)
Route 204: Kricketot->Kricketune (Roberto)
Ravaged Path: Zubat->Golbat->Crobat (Sumara)
Oreburgh Gate: Geodude->Graveler->Golem (Sylvester)
Oreburgh City: Shieldon->Bastiodon (Percy)
Oreburgh Mine: Onix (Jemma)
Floaroma Town: Mew (Zelda)
Floaroma Meadow: Wurmple->Cascoon->Dustox (Lucas)
Route 205: Buizel->Floatzel (Samantha)
Valley Windworks: Shellos (Sally) *DECEASED*
Eterna Forest: Buneary (Tiffany) *DECEASED*
Old Chateau: Gastly->Haunter->Gengar (Stephen)
Route 206: Bronzor *DECEASED*
Route 207: Machop (Gordon) *DECEASED*
Route 208: Machop->Machoke (Ivan) *DECASED*
Route 211: Ponyta->Rapidash (Chase)
Mt. Coronet: Chingling->Chimecho (Nicholas)
Hearthome City: Happiny->Chansey->Blissey (Joy)
Route 209: Bonsly->Sudowoodo (Woody)
Lost Tower: Misdreavus (Hermes)
Solaceon Town: ???
Solaceon Ruins: Unown (Effie)
Route 210: Meditite *DECEASED*
Route 215: ???
Veilstone City: ???
Route 214: Goldeen->Seaking (Elvis)
Ruin Maniac Cave: Hippopotas-Hippowdon (Jordan)
Valor Lakefront: Girafarig (Patrick)
Route 213: Wingull->Pelipper (Louisa)
Route 212: Wooper->Quagsire (Amelia)
Great Marsh: Psyduck->Golduck (Colleen)
Trophy Garden: Pikachu->Raichu (Ashley) *DECEASED*
Pastoria City: Remoraid (Barbara) *DECEASED*
Route 219: Finneon (Jennifer)
Route 220: Tentacool (Gillian) *DECEASED*
Route 221: Roselia (Pierre)

Some stuff actually happened today! I continued clearing out the various Surf routes in the game. Not including small one-off patches of water (of which there are way too goddamn many), I hit up Fuego Ironworks, where I picked up a level 29 Luxio (named Reynold) to replace Cecilia's bullshit Destiny Bond death many hours ago. He soon evolved into Luxray, and it feels good to have one of my favorite Pokemon around again (seriously, the only other Pokemon I have that's even in my top 50 is Chase, and I JUST evolved him). Route 208 brought unexpected surprises, since I've never fought any of the trainers there, somehow. I whalloped them and continued on to Route 213, where Jennifer evolved into Lumineon. I also thought I found Pierre's evolutionary stone...but it was Dawn, not Shiny. That sucks.

Anyway, side content cleared, I hit up Route 218. I'd never even picked up the Old Rod before! I used a repel because I didn't want to waste my only catch of the route on ANOTHER Tentacool (when that's literally the only Pokemon I can catch in Canalave City). So I got to some grass and hopped around in hopes of getting to try out a Glameow. Nope. A level 28 Shellos (named Larry) replaces Sally, since I guess that's the theme of these two catches. At least he leveled up to 30 soon enough to become Gastrodon, and therefore KINDA useful.

Hitting Canalave City, I was trying to go for Tentacool and forgot that Brennus spazzes his way into you on the bridge. I have my D or F-team with me and I'm unprepared...but the good thing about that is that their deaths are largely meaningless to me because they are SO MANY Water-types. Everything went smoothly enough, except for him starting with pointless Double Team spam to prolong the battle. But then he whipped out his Heracross, and I had only Lucas with Psychic to KINDA do super effective damage. But Lucas is weak as fuck, and he failed to 2HKO Heracross with Psychic, while Heracross (btw, way to rub it in, Brennus. I've only found ONE in Diamond despite checking a fuckton of trees) just kept lowering my defense with Leer. One Aerial Ace later, and Lucas was dead. Oh well, in the words of Stephen King, "Not great loss".

I finished out the battle with a bit more reckless abandon at that point, since again, this was my F-team. RIP Lucas (Level 15 to 38). And then I went for the Canalave City Tentacool, only to accidentally OHKO it with a critical hit. Oh well. Time to hunt for Metal Coats on Magnemites so I can finally evolve Jemma and not feel guilty if I run into a Steelix before I get my Riolu egg (which is currently the only Pokemon I can get from Iron Island).

Twinleaf Town: Magikarp->Gyarados (Violeta)
Lake Verity: Bidoof->Bibarel (Erin)
Route 201: Starly->Staravia->Staraptor (Edgar)
Sandgem Town: Turtwig->Grotle->Torterra (Rafael)
Route 202: Shinx->Luxio (Cecilia) *DECEASED*
Jubilife City: Manaphy (Tristan)
Route 203: Abra->Kadabra->Alakazam (Yuri)
Route 204: Kricketot->Kricketune (Roberto)
Ravaged Path: Zubat->Golbat->Crobat (Sumara)
Oreburgh Gate: Geodude->Graveler->Golem (Sylvester)
Oreburgh City: Shieldon->Bastiodon (Percy)
Oreburgh Mine: Onix (Jemma)
Floaroma Town: Mew (Zelda)
Floaroma Meadow: Wurmple->Cascoon->Dustox (Lucas) *DECEASED*
Route 205: Buizel->Floatzel (Samantha)
Valley Windworks: Shellos (Sally) *DECEASED*
Eterna Forest: Buneary (Tiffany) *DECEASED*
Old Chateau: Gastly->Haunter->Gengar (Stephen)
Route 206: Bronzor *DECEASED*
Route 207: Machop (Gordon) *DECEASED*
Route 208: Machop->Machoke (Ivan) *DECASED*
Route 211: Ponyta->Rapidash (Chase)
Mt. Coronet: Chingling->Chimecho (Nicholas)
Hearthome City: Happiny->Chansey->Blissey (Joy)
Route 209: Bonsly->Sudowoodo (Woody)
Lost Tower: Misdreavus (Hermes)
Solaceon Town: ???
Solaceon Ruins: Unown (Effie)
Route 210: Meditite *DECEASED*
Route 215: ???
Veilstone City: ???
Route 214: Goldeen->Seaking (Elvis)
Ruin Maniac Cave: Hippopotas-Hippowdon (Jordan)
Valor Lakefront: Girafarig (Patrick)
Route 213: Wingull->Pelipper (Louisa)
Route 212: Wooper->Quagsire (Amelia)
Great Marsh: Psyduck->Golduck (Colleen)
Trophy Garden: Pikachu->Raichu (Ashley) *DECEASED*
Pastoria City: Remoraid (Barbara) *DECEASED*
Route 218: Shellos->Gastrodon (Larry)
Route 219: Finneon (Jennifer)
Route 220: Tentacool (Gillian) *DECEASED*
Route 221: Roselia (Pierre)
Fuego Ironworks: Luxio->Luxray (Reynold)
Canalave City: Tentacool *DECEASED*

Well, I went hunting for Metal Coat Magnemites, and while I was doing that, I decided it was quite pointless to just run around without fighting the Bibarels, Golbats, Houndooms and Gravelers that popped up. So I managed to level my entire team to at least forty, surviving multiple attempted homocides from exploding Gravelers. Well. My entire team except one. Larry was still in the low level phase of trying to catch up to the rest of the team, and I thought Gastrodons had stronger defense than he did. Graveler Self-Destructed, and that was enough to kill one of the many. Many. MANY Water-types I've picked up recently. RIP Larry (Level 28 to 32). But at least I eventually found a Metal Coat and was able to trade Jemma into a Steelix.

Anyway, I beat Iron Island easily and got my Riolu egg, which hatched into a level 1 Riolu (named Jackson). With him holding the Soothe Bell, I got Jackson a massage, had him walk with him, and fed him a bunch of vitamins. Then I remembered he evolves during the daytime, so that was pointless anyway. Whatever. I fought and destroyed Byron's gym without breaking a sweat, and then instead of continuing the story, I cut through Mt. Coronet to catch some new Pokemon. I say new, but despite there being only two Ice-types in the Sinnoh dex, and both are concentrated to the area around Snowpoint City, I found a level 32 Meditite first on route 216. Okay, fine. Then it High Jump Kicks my Misdreavus, misses, and kills itself. Hooray.

Route 217 gave me MediCHAM. Specifically a level 36 Medicham (named Yasmin). That left just Acuity Lakefront. Surely THAT would get me either a Snover or a Sneasel. Nope. After my tremendous luck with the line thus far, I found a level 36 Machoke (named Butch). Hopefully he won't die like the previous members of that line I've caught. I'll continue the story soon enough. Also caught up to where I am in Diamond, which means trading over Palkia first and foremost.

Twinleaf Town: Magikarp->Gyarados (Violeta)
Lake Verity: Bidoof->Bibarel (Erin)
Route 201: Starly->Staravia->Staraptor (Edgar)
Sandgem Town: Turtwig->Grotle->Torterra (Rafael)
Route 202: Shinx->Luxio (Cecilia) *DECEASED*
Jubilife City: Manaphy (Tristan)
Route 203: Abra->Kadabra->Alakazam (Yuri)
Route 204: Kricketot->Kricketune (Roberto)
Ravaged Path: Zubat->Golbat->Crobat (Sumara)
Oreburgh Gate: Geodude->Graveler->Golem (Sylvester)
Oreburgh City: Shieldon->Bastiodon (Percy)
Oreburgh Mine: Onix (Jemma)
Floaroma Town: Mew (Zelda)
Floaroma Meadow: Wurmple->Cascoon->Dustox (Lucas) *DECEASED*
Route 205: Buizel->Floatzel (Samantha)
Valley Windworks: Shellos (Sally) *DECEASED*
Eterna Forest: Buneary (Tiffany) *DECEASED*
Old Chateau: Gastly->Haunter->Gengar (Stephen)
Route 206: Bronzor *DECEASED*
Route 207: Machop (Gordon) *DECEASED*
Route 208: Machop->Machoke (Ivan) *DECASED*
Route 211: Ponyta->Rapidash (Chase)
Mt. Coronet: Chingling->Chimecho (Nicholas)
Hearthome City: Happiny->Chansey->Blissey (Joy)
Route 209: Bonsly->Sudowoodo (Woody)
Lost Tower: Misdreavus (Hermes)
Solaceon Town: ???
Solaceon Ruins: Unown (Effie)
Route 210: Meditite *DECEASED*
Route 215: ???
Veilstone City: ???
Route 214: Goldeen->Seaking (Elvis)
Ruin Maniac Cave: Hippopotas-Hippowdon (Jordan)
Valor Lakefront: Girafarig (Patrick)
Route 213: Wingull->Pelipper (Louisa)
Route 212: Wooper->Quagsire (Amelia)
Great Marsh: Psyduck->Golduck (Colleen)
Trophy Garden: Pikachu->Raichu (Ashley) *DECEASED*
Pastoria City: Remoraid (Barbara) *DECEASED*
Route 216: Meditite *DECEASED*
Route 217: Medicham (Yasmin)
Route 218: Shellos->Gastrodon (Larry)
Route 219: Finneon (Jennifer)
Route 220: Tentacool (Gillian) *DECEASED*
Route 221: Roselia (Pierre)
Fuego Ironworks: Luxio->Luxray (Reynold)
Canalave City: Tentacool *DECEASED*
Acuity Lakefront: Machoke (Butch)

So I started progressing the story and clearing more NPC battles, first at Lake Valor and then at Lake Verity. No big deal. Then I realized that I hadn't gotten the Strength stuff from Oreburgh Gate, and I still never went into Wayward Cave. So I did that and went to the extra area of Wayward Cave, knowing I had a 50/50 chance of getting a Gible (yay) or a Bronzor (boo). Turns out I found and caught a level 16 Gible (named Shay). I brought her along as I battled the trainers along routes 216 and 217, and I even let her hold the Lucky Egg I got in the underground, which helped her evolve into Gabite. Then I started leveling in preparation for Snowpoint City gym.

This is where I made some mistakes. My Water-types are way too plentiful, so I was a bit more liberal in using them to fight Gravelers and Houndooms, but I guess I got lucky that only one Graveler used Self-Destruct during that whole run. Since my only other Water-types (I try to level my weakest stuff first) were Violeta and Tristan, I switched over to battling Roselia and Pinsir with my other types. It was going smoothly, but then I ran across an Absol. Now, I COULD have sent out Edgar and used Close Combat. THAT would've been the smart thing to do. Instead, I sent out Zelda, figuring she was lower level and needed the active combat EXP boost more. Dazzling Gleam did not OHKO, but the Absol's Night Slash critted and I lost my freaking Mew. And then, stupidly again, I figured "Okay, well, at least it's dead on the next attack". So I sent out Nicholas, and the Absol used Sucker Punch to kill him too. THEN I finally used Edgar, but only after losing two team members (and GOOD team members at that). RIP Zelda (Level 1 to 40). RIP Nicholas (Level 21 to 43).

It's really disappointing, because I would much have preferred to lose some useless Water-types instead of valuable team members. But I guess that's what a Nuzlocke is all about.

Big update today.

Got my team to level 45 underground and went to fight Candice. She's an Ice-type gym leader, so it wasn't like she was tough. Honestly, the most irritating part about her gym was how there are only TWO goddamn Ice-type lines in Sinnoh, so her gym trainers all had random Pokemon. And then the sliding puzzle was annoying too. All to give me an EXTREMELY mediocre gym battle that I aced. Boo. Anyway, beating her gave me access to Lake Acuity, which allowed me to travel there and FINALLY catch one of those two Ice-types I mentioned. A level 35 Sneasel (named Dani). Dani got to hold a Lucky Egg while I kicked Team Galatic's ass in their own HQ, and eventually I made it through their Veilstone building to advance to the next stage of the game. I should point out that along the way, Shay evolved into Garchomp, and I got a Dusk Stone to evolve Hermes into Mismagius.

Almost caught up with my Diamond Version, I went around and dealt with all the Rock Climb stuff that became available, and then fought my way through Mt. Coronet, beating on Galactic goons until reaching the top of Spear Pillar. I was already worried, because there's a decent leap in difficulty from Candice to the trio of fights atop Spear Pillar, but I pushed forward. I nearly died multiple times over to the tagteam of Mars & Jupiter, even with Brennus' useless Munchlax contributing NOTHING to the fight. I had to wait for his Munchlax AND Staraptor to die before he actually accomplished anything. Then I fought Cyrus, and HE nearly overwhelmed me too. Same deal as the previous fight; my whole team was in the yellow or red by the end, but they survived.

Here's where things took a turn. I swapped out my team, since my original plan was to just throw a Master Ball at Palkia and catch it without issue. BUUUUUUT, I thought that wouldn't be much fun, since this is a Nuzlocke and all, and I can't always just play it completely safe. Plus, I wanted to save my Master Ball, since I knew the three Pixies all counted as their own caves and I could catch all three in theory...which meant like hell am I chasing Mesprit all over Sinnoh. So, the fight commenced. I figured I could send out Reynold for an intimidate stat decrease, then Volt Switch out to Violeta, and keep doing that until Palkia's attack was way down. Spacial Rend attacked first and critted, wiping Reynold out in a single hit. Then after a few Ancient Powers beat Violeta down a bit, I sent in Yasmin, who was promptly critted by another Spacial Rend. And then Hermes NEARLY got OHKOed by ANOTHER Spacial Rend crit. I kept healing him up, and eventually he waited out the 5 Spacial Rends and 5 Ancient Powers, and then Palkia only had Slash and couldn't hit me.

You would think, with Palkia down low and unable to hit me, I'd be free and clear, right? Well, he had Aqua Ring to constantly undo any damage I tried to inflict, and none of my Thunderbolts paralyzed him. So I just kept throwing ball after ball after ball. Nothing stuck. The battle went on so long that he Struggled himself to death. Yeah, that happened. And fuck that; I need Palkia for my Diamond version. So I restarted at that point, keeping in mind that the two team deaths were canon, and even if/when I caught Palkia, it would also be canonically dead. Second time around, the fight went off without a hitch, and Palkia was caught without further casualties. Still...RIP Reynold (Level 29 to 45). RIP Yasmin (Level 36 to 46).

With Palkia done, I went around and started collecting the legendary trio. I'd like to state, on the record, that Sinnoh's legendary trio is easily the worst legendary trio the game has ever produced. They're generic as fuck and boring as fuck monotypes that are all the SAME monotype. Went to fight Mesprit and it ran off. I'd deal with it later. Then went to Uxie. Used Dani, and none of its Psychic-type attacks could hit her, so I was golden. Got Uxie's HP low and started throwing balls. 50 balls later, it struggled itself to death. Again, fuck that. I'm going to catch that bitch in case I ever decide to turn the save file into something other than a Nuzlocke. So I fought it again. 50 balls, Struggle to death. Again. 50 balls, struggle to death. It took me FOUR goddamn tries to catch Uxie, all to go immediately into my Nuzlocke graveyard. Jesus Christ.

Next was Azelf, and it was more of the same. I decided to bring Jackson along in hopes that Force Palm might paralyze it, and it did. Then I switched to Dani and took no damage for the rest of the fight. Now, at this point, Azelf is paralyzed, and thus misses attacks every so often. I threw 100 Dusk/Timer/Ultra balls at that motherfucker. It's paralyzed and it broke out EVERY time. And then it struggled and killed itself. Fucking...fuck. I tried a few more times and killed it outright before FINALLY making the catch after 20 Dusk Balls and no paralysis. All to go directly into the graveyard with its sister.

That catch JUST happened as I typed this up, which meant it's now nighttime. And since Lake Valor is now open as a zone, I surfed over and searched for the ONLY new Pokemon in this area I can catch. I found and caught a level 36 Noctowl (named Eileen). With Eileen given the Lucky Egg to hold, it's time to go hunting for Mesprit, to add that little bastard to my team. Now, I was gonna catch it wherever and just count it as a catch from its cave, but then I realized that I'd still never caught anything on route 215, so why not just catch it there and keep everything nice and fair. I did just that and caught a level 50 Mesprit on Route 215 (named Flora, since it's the red one of the trio). Not sure if I'll actually use it, but we'll see.

With that, all I have left to do is continue with the story and move onto route 222. I'm going to hold off on that until tomorrow though, because I'd really like to at least have a CHANCE at catching something besides Gastrodon. I could get Glameow or Purugly, sure, but I'd at least like a SHOT at catching Chatot.