Nuzlocke Challenge
 

A new generation means a new Nuzlocke thread, so here it is!

What is Nuzlocke?
The Nuzlocke challenge is a whole new way of playing Pokemon, inspired by this comic. The name comes from Ruby’s Seedot which would occasionally be given the face of Locke from Lost. When it evolved people started to combine Nuzleaf and Locke to make Nuzlocke and thus the name was born.

What are the rules?
Though there are countless variations, there are three “golden rules” that must be followed for the challenge to be considered a Nuzlocke challenge:


1) If a Pokemon faints, it’s dead and can no longer be used in any capacity. You can release it or you can deposit it into a box marked “Dead” and never take it out, but it can’t be used in battle, nor can it be used for HMs. Redos are NOT allowed; if a Pokemon faints, you can't simply retry the battle (well you can but the spirit of Nuzlocke will frown upon you).

2) You can only catch the first Pokemon you run into in any route/area, and you only get one chance. If you accidentally faint it or run out of Pokeballs, then that’s too bad for you. What makes up an area is debatable at times; a good rule of thumb is that if a new location indicator pops up that is different from where you just were, it’s a new area.

3) You must nickname all of your Pokemon. These Pokemon are your lifelong friends, they will fight for you until they die! You must bond with them, and the first step to creating a bond is to nickname.

Some other rules include:
-Repeats. Some people are willing to catch 5 <insert overly common early-game Pokemon here>, others aren’t. If you want variety in your team, feel free to modify the “first Pokemon you see” rule so that if it’s a Pokemon you already have you can ignore it. On the other hand, if you want to go hardcore with your army of <insert overly common early-game Pokemon here>, you can go right ahead.

-Item use. Usually either at any time, outside of battle only, in battle only, or not at all. Choose whatever you feel is best for you. Some people even allow Revives in specific occurrences, though that arguably goes against the spirit of the challenge.

-Pokemon Center use. Unlimited use is most common, but some people like to make the challenge more difficult by either limiting the amount of times they can use the Pokemon Center in each town or by making it cost more money each time (you can simulate this by buying items equal to the imposed cost then trashing them). If you really feel like a challenge, you can ban Pokemon Center (and PC) healing entirely as well.

-Legendaries. Usually not allowed to be used (though if you want to you can), but sometimes people like to go the extra mile and force themselves to beat the legendaries.

-Level limit. Being 20 levels higher than everything trivializes the challenge, so most players will usually avoid being any higher than a major foe’s strongest Pokemon. In a similar vein, usually people don’t just use one Pokemon for the same reason (plus you’re just asking for some horrible luck to completely screw you over by doing that).

-Gift Pokemon. Usually they simply count as the Pokemon you get for that area, such as Eevee for Celadon/Goldenrod. However, some people disallow them entirely.

-Switch and set. Generally people play on set for the increased challenge (plus it’s more conductive to a story), but if you prefer to make it easier you can always play on switch (where you get to choose to switch out whenever you KO a Pokemon, whereas on set it’s like competitive battling).

If there are any rules I missed, feel free to point them out.

The Challengers
Here I will keep track of all ongoing challenges (or so I hope). A few notes:
-Try to always keep links to past updates in each new update so people new to the thread can easily check back on earlier progress. This is especially important is you’re making a story/comic along with your Nuzlocke; no one will want to read your newest updates without having read the older ones first. I will only be posting links to the most recent update in this post.

-I will be putting Nuzlockes that have updates on the last 2-3 pages of the old thread here to start. If you want your Nuzlocke here and you haven’t updated in the last 2-3 pages, either post a new update or post/PM me a link of your latest update along with what game you’re doing. Obviously this doesn’t apply to new people; as soon as you start a challenge, I will be putting it here.

So without further ado, our Nuzlocke challengers and their challenges!



































That should be it; if anyone notices something I missed or spelling errors, feel free to PM me and I’ll fix it ASAP. One final note, though this is in the 5th generation forum Nuzlockes of all games are fine. Good luck to all of you!

So, to clarify, this thread is for ALL Nuzlockes, or just Black/White?

Unless a mod says otherwise, yes it is.

I'll be doing this. A scramblocke of sorts.

I will be playing through SoulSilver version with the following team, all traded in as eggs at the first opportunity and hatched. With the exception of unbreedables. This was given to me by a friend, I had to take it.

Unown. I will use the first one I catch, regardless of hidden power.
Kakuna. Admittedly this may make the game too easy.
Stalling Dugtrio. For all teams need a wall.
Sweeping Shuckle. I know it is debatably the strongest force in the game, but I really want to use it.
Clefable. This Clefable must know the move Softboiled, and must use it at every possible opportunity. In addition, since it must be migrated first then traded, it must be the first Pokémon sent out if it is ever above the level where it will obey.
Metang@. It must KO one Pokémon in every gym battle, and must always hold the specified hold item.

He said I could have 3 backups. Keeping with the theme, I need them.

Nuzlocke in B/W should be interesting. On the one hand, there's doctor/nurse NPCs on pretty much every route you spend more than five minutes in. On the other hand, I felt like the early game was a lot more challenging than previous generations, so a lot of people might find their runs cut rather short.

i think the b/w nuzlockes will be much more difficult than these of past generations...i mean even though you can get some good pokemon on some routes (for example the one with darumakka, sandile, scraggy) the first two gyms as well as n and ghetsis are pretty difficult to beat...you'll probably lose some pokemon against them...

Ghetsis in particular, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose at least one Pokémon to his Hydreigon unless you have something that can OHKO or get lucky with Fire Blast/Focus Miss.

Yeah, here I was coasting through the game, smiling smugly at myself at how easy it was... until I got to N :x My heart goes out to any of you guys attempting a Nuzlocke of this... it's going to be brutal at the end.

yeah my pokemon hadn't fainted once until N and suddenly i found myself using most of bianca's max revives because reshiram just wouldn't die...and then against ghetsis my samurott's megahorn missed against hydreigon and i just had to use the rest of them...

still i am definitely nuzlocking black after finishing with white...

I was playing against N... I used Cross Fire, hit, did decent damage, and then he used Cross Thunder right back, critted, and killed Reshiram. Kind of pissed me right off.

I actually attempted a B/W Nuzlocke on my Japanese version.

Aloe and Elesa are NIGHTMARES. If you don't pick up a Roggenrolla, of the Red/Blue fighting types, she WILL kill something with Vengance, and her Herdia will probobly take something down too.

Elesa is a pain in a NORMAL run. Let alone a Nuzlocke. Nothing avaliable at that stage of the game can handle her Emonga [They're immune to Ground, and the Rock types will just be 2HKO'ed, and Emonga are not frail, for that stage anyway] I wiped at Elesa 4 times. Never got past her in a Nuzlocke.

In theory, beyond there, should be rather easy. Clay is a cakewalk with Lilligant, who you have 2 chances to get by then, there's a whole cave silled with stuff that smashes Skyla apart, the 7th Gym is Pryce-level easy, and the 8th Gym is... nothing compared to the 2nd and 8th.

Triple Battles are a major threat.

As is the E4, to some degree, and the Finale.

On Reshiram, Dragonbreath should always be stronger, even if you use it on the same turn as his Fusion Bolt (60 power x2 vs 200 power x1/2). Possibly not with Zekrom, since Fusion Bolt runs off its higher Atk, but I haven't done the calcs for that.

I'm doing a Nuzlocke challenge on Black and I'm at Mistralton City (sixth badge). Like someone mentioned before, the nurses/doctors everywhere do make the grinding easier. I'm not looking forward to the pre-E4 grinding, though.

My team:
Scraggy
Joltik
Stoutland
Vanillite
Gothorita
Litwick

(all around level 33)

Boxed: Ducklett, Tranquill, Deerling, Patrat and Cottonee.

R.I.P.: Pansear, Oshawott, Roggenrola, Swadloon, Trubbish, Sawk, Liepard, Krokorok and Maractus.

They all died to either a critical hit or Pursuit when I was switching. You will all be missed. :(

Yay the thread is up :D

At the moment it's 7:30am where I am, going to the mall at 9am to pick up Black, my first playthrough will be a Nuzlocke. I reckon I should be able to be one of the top posters in this thread pretty easily ;)

starting a black nuzlocke right now!

i thought i would wait a bit to finish my white normal playthrough but i am really excited to nuzlocke...

i will try to update later tonight...

im pretty sure my starter died 2 times in a row against my back to back battles against my rivals when i started out. lolllll. does this count? because if it does.. im sure people will be starting over a lot.

I'm currently doing a Nuzlocke on Fire Red, the link to the latest update can be found in my signature. Just saying.

I see what you did there. Even if it was probably by accident. To nitpick at this statement though, Patrat with Detect can avoid the boosted Retaliate, but lol Patrat. He probably gets one-shotted without the boost.

Krookorok (or however it's spelt) can 2KO them with Crunch, actually, in my experience. Suck on that, Emolga.

The rest of this I agree with.

One good point about Nuzlocking BW is that you CANNOT lose because you can't advance due to lack of Pokémon to use HMs, unless you fail horribly against Striaton Gym.

BLACK NUZLOCKE CHALLENGE

UPDATE 1

THE RULES

ROUTE 1

THE MYSTERIOUS N AND GHETSIS

ROUTE 2

STRIATON CITY

GYM LEADER CILAN

TEAM

PASSED AWAY

ouch
condolences

I'm planning to do a White Nuzlocke once I'm done with this current PT(which I say its over when I get the 7 Sages, Kyurem, Ulgamoth AND beat E4 Round 2. I AM AN ECCENTRIC DITTO!)

Back in October 2010, I did a Nuzlocke of Pokemon White with Tepig. It was decently difficult, but it was really, really fun. Every death was painful after you'd worked with a pokemon you thought was awful and learned it was awesome.

My final Team was:

Ganon the Emboar (Lived)
Asar the Cofarigus (Lived)
Tumor the Seismitoad (Lived)
Lord the Virizion (Died in the final battle)
More! the Crustle (Died in the final battle)
Snare the Braviary (Lived, but boxed for Zekrom)

Casualties included...

ALERT the Patrat (Died first gym)
Gargl the Woobat (Died in Castelia City)
Pants the Scraggy (Died to a missed Hi Jump Kick)
Boss the Simisage (Died to a Crit Revenge from a Dewott)
A Stoutland I can't remember the name of at this time (Died to team plasma)
Shade the Litwick (Died trying to catch a replacement for Boss)
Black the Zekrom (Died in the final battle)

Now, I'm normally against catching legendary Pokemon, but Virizion was a special exception. Boss the Simisage was my fourth oldest pokemon and one of the teams powerhouses. His death was devistating, and apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought so. The very next pokemon I encountered was a shiny zebreika. I took that as a sign that catching a grand horselike replacement would be okay.

If you want, you can watch the final battle of my run here! (spoilers, obvious)

Just started my black nuzlocke with 'Tehpig' the Tepig. Trying to think of a nickname theme...

Anyway going through a regular playthrough right now (since it's my first) but soon gonna Nuzlocke white w/ an Oshawott. Serperior's movepool is abysmal. I really wanna play on set instead of shift, but the thought terrifies me.

Ok I'm getting owned slightly, but that's what I want from a Nuzlocke!
Just got to Nacrene City.

Party:
Tehpig the Tepig, lv.15
Bashful, Blaze
46/25/22/21/19/21
Tackle/Flame Charge/Tail Whip/Defense Curl
Looking forward to it evolving :D

Clawz the Drilbur, lv.15
Relaxed, Sand Rush
45/30/22/14/21/26
Fury Swipes/Mud-Slap/Rapid Spin/Metal Claw
-speed nature so will probably be more of a tanker, the +defense will help with that.

Boxed:
None :(

Dead:
Lilly the Lillipup, lv.12
Fryin the Pansage, lv.13
Lilly II the Lillipup, lv.9

Great, the new thread is up! Good luck to all attempting a black/white nuzlocke, from what I've seen it looks really hard. I'm going to try one after I do a normal playthrough, probably.