Gameplay Journal Achromatic's HeartGold Nuzlocke

Achromatic's HeartGold Nuzlocke
Starting now! I'm finally about to start a new nuzlocke after so long. Here's the rules I'm using.

- If a Pokémon faints, it's considered dead and MUST be boxed, never to be used again.
- Can only capture the first Pokémon per area. If I fail to catch it, no Pokémon for me.
- If the first Pokémon I find is a duplicate of one I already have, it won't be counted as my first encounter.
- Each Pokémon must be nicknamed.
- Two heals per Pokémon center. One before the gym and one after. No gym? One heal.
- Healing items are allowed, but I will be limiting myself as much as possible.
- If I find a shiny, I can catch it no matter what. Though this never happens.
- Battle Style set to Set.
- If all Pokémon faint, it's game over.

Alright, let's get this started. I'll be starting with Totodile and will have a more lucrative update soon. Feel free to comment here and let me know your thoughts on each entry!

 

Nuzlocke has officially begun!

To start myself off, I chose Totodile and nicknamed it Africa. Anyone get the reference? After doing a bit of grinding, making my way back from Mr. Pokémon as the standard, I got into a battle with my rival, Silver. He pretty much was steamrolled by me, poor guy. Chikorita has never been a great starter choice imo so I'm glad Silver has it. Anyways, once I got my Poké Balls the real fun can begin.

Route 29
Caught my first mon ever, Pidgey. I'm pretty ok with this! Route 1 doesn't exactly have a wide pool of mons to chose from, so I'm glad it was Pidgey. I named it Birb just because it's nice and cute. D'aww.

Route 46
I love this place. It means I can get another Pokémon right off the bat, and I did! First mon I ran into was Geodude. Had to be reaal careful I didn't faint this guy but thankfully I caught her pretty soon! Just decided to name it Pet Rock because I'm not feeling that creative right now. It's cool. Also it's Adamant nature. Niiiice.

Cherrygrove City
After some very close calls on the previous route, I've made my first and only heal at Cherrygrove. Whew. Time to keep progressing!

Route 30
Found a Pidgey originally but seeing as I already have my own, and it's still alive... we'll encounter something else. Next mon we find is Caterpie! BUT I crit it. Ugh. No mon for me this route. :'( Our first fail.

Next, we do our first battle with the ABSOLUTE LEDGE, YOUNGSTER JOEY. Pet Rock and Africa have got this one in the bag, let's be real. Our first win. Pretty hyped about this, but not at all surprised. This route is gonna be some great experience for all of our mons.

Dark Cave
Another place, another mon. Not many options in here but hey, I'll take what I can get. So many Geodudes... nope, nope. We can't have another. Our first is... Zubat! What a shock! I have absolutely no ideas for this guy. Um. Achrobatic. That'll do.

Did I mention Birb is also a Jolly nature? I've gotten real lucky with this stuff so far. More updates will be coming soon, for now - here's my team.

♂
Africa Lv. 8
Careful Nature, Torrent
- Scratch
- Leer
- Water Gun
- Rage

♀
Birb Lv. 8
Jolly Nature, Keen Eye
- Tackle
- Sand Attack

♀
Pet Rock Lv. 4
Adamant Nature, Sturdy
- Tackle
- Defense Curl
- Mud Sport

♂
Achrobatic Lv. 2
Naughty Nature, Inner Focus
- Leech Life

Deaths:
None... yet.

 

We back. Lots to do. Just for clarity, I'm writing these live as stuff happens, not after I'm done. You get my live thoughts and reactions...!

Violet City
This place conflicts me. I could get one Pokémon egg as a gift in the center, but it feels kinda cheap to me since I can choose which. I don't think I will. Either way, got my first heal here. Will get one more after the gym.

Sprout Tower
Pet Rock will not like this place. Gonna keep him at the front for some extra XP but he won't be battling at all for this place. No risks!

First encounter is Rat. I didn't want one honestly but I'll take it. Probably gonna box it with Zubat soon though because the two of them are just wack. :'( It's hard to balance XP out properly anyways. Named Rat "Trash", aptly.

I'm also really scared for Africa in this place, but thankfully the Bellsprouts are fairly weak. Wanna at least get Africa to level 10. This place scares me, I've made it to the leader of the place but I can't go back to heal because I used up my pre-gym heal. Why I did I do that.

Pet Rock learned Rock Polish... ok. Real useful. Not gonna help me again this Hoothoot which I am very scared of. <_< Thankfully, Africa beat it with relative ease. That's a big weight off my shoulder. No losses, yet! However... I have one Potion left. I've gotta use it on Birb if I want to kill this final Bellsprout.

The Sprout is down! No losses. That was incredibly lucky - remind me to stock up on extra potions next time I do a suicide mission like this.

Violet City
First mistake has been made. Using my instincts, I healed in the Pokémon Center right after Sprout Tower. BAD. As punishment, I now can't heal in the center after the gym, no matter how badly beaten up my mons are. I won't make this mistake again. The rules are there for a reason!

Onto the Gym and Pet Rock is putting in some work. I'm proud of my lil guy. Just needs a proper rock move now!

It's Falkner time! Can we win? Will we get our first death? Then it dawns upon me... I forgot to stock up on potions. I am. Not. Smart. WHY. First death is in, Trash the Rat. I have a feeling he won't be the only. THIS GUY HAS ROOST TOO. I'M SO DEAD. Achrobatic was next.

Well friends, I hate to say it - but this is genuinely where I lost. What an embarrassing defeat. It's sorta like karma for that heal though, truly. I'm a man of my word. I won't pretend like it didn't happen.

The Nuzlocke will begin again. I will post here with shorter updates, explaining how I get back to fight Falkner again with my new save. Thankfully it happened sooner rather than later, eh?

See you in a bit!

 

Take 2!
Defeat won't be coming to us this time. We will not lose. I'm not gonna go into specifics but here's what I've caught up until I reach the same point as I did last time. This time, Falkner will go down and we won't have an embarrassing entry like that last one!

I apologise in advance for these boring updates, but they're purely informative so we can get back to where we were before we lost and then continue as normal. Won't take long.

Starter
Africa the Totodile once more. She's a girl this time though.

Route 29
First mon is Pidgey. This time a boy. Gonna name it Borb.

Route 46
Caught Geodude here. A girl like last time. I'm noticing a pattern! Gonna name it Pet Rock in tribute. Unfortunately, Geodude does NOT have an Adamant nature this time. Hoping for some variety after this route.

Route 30
Caterpie this time, and I didn't fail to catch it! Redemption will be theme of this round. Guess what though? I got a crit on this dude AGAIN. It's like the game is in a loop. Thankfully, I didn't kill it this time. Gonna name it Borb Food.

Route 31
I genuinely didn't realise this route was a thing. I just thought it was Route 30. I found... Metapod. I don't know how to feel about this. Genuinely. I guess I'll box Caterpie...? This doesn't quite fall under the dupes rule but I'll avoid evolving Caterpie for now. Named it Birb food, the alternative Borb Food. It's a tribute ok.

Dark Cave
Same 'ol crappy Zubat again. Gonna name it Achrobatic, again. I'M CREATIVE.


Sprout Tower
Rat. Again. Trash Rat.

Now here's the great part. The AMAZING Part. You'd think I'd have learnt right? Wrong. Totodile was very sadly killed by a Bellsprout in this tower. Crits do indeed suck and NEVER seem to be in my favour, so early on we're already without a starter. This sucks, but I'll go on. It'll be kinda interesting to see how I cope without it, but yeah... RIP Africa. I promise to git gud in your name. Borb is gonna have to pick up the slack in Africa's stead.

Sprout Tower is done with, therefore we are officially back where we were before we lost. After some hefty grinding, this is my team before I face Falkner. My best chance is to have a looot of Potions, so I'm going through a lot of money here. :') Once again, I did the STUPID healing before the gym. I couldn't help it, it's just instincts to heal before a big battle. So once more, no healing after the gym no matter how much I get hurt.

Anyways, here's my team and I'll catch YOU in the next update to let you know how the battle went. I won't lose.

♂
Borb Lv. 13
Rash Nature, Tangled Feet
- Tackle
- Sand Attack
- Gust
- Quick Attack

♀
Pet Rock Lv. 12
Quiet Nature, Sturdy
- Tackle
- Defense Curl
- Rock Throw
- Rock Polish

♀
Achrobatic Lv. 2
Mild Nature, Inner Focus
- Leech Life

♂
Birb Food Lv. 5
Bashful Nature, Shed Skin
- Harden

♂
Trash Lv. 7
Serious Nature, Run Away
- Tackle
- Tail Whip
- Quick Attack

Deaths:
Africa (Totodile),

Alive In Box:
Borb Food (Caterpie),

 

VS Falkner
So I don't know how to feel about this one. This time around I had NO losses and barely used my potions. All it took was a lot of Defense Curl and Rock Throws from Geodude to take both of Falkner's Pokémon out. I'm glad it's over with relative ease but it feels weird after I lost so badly the last time. I guess beggars can't be choosers! Falkner is down and I'm victorious. We'll continue on with our journey, just like I said we would. Pet Rock is my MVP, along with Borb. We will turn them into CHAMPIONS.

Violet City
No heals, don't worry. I will however get Togepi as I haven't claimed any Pokémon in this location yet. Welcome... "Mystery Egg" to my team! I dunno how I feel about using Togepi later on though. Depending who joins the team, I might box it for safe keeping.

Route 32
A new route, a new mon. On this route we got... Hoppip. I genuinely don't even know where to begin with this one. It's weak, but it's interesting and has grass typing which we need. I'm kinda ok with this, though a Mareep would have been THE BEST. Too bad I guess, we'll stick with Hoppip and see where it can take us. I've never actually used one before, weirdly enough. This will be an experience, one probably ending with it dying.

Welcome Seedling to the team, whilst Achrobatic the Zubat returns to the box for the time being. Also got a Miracle Seed to put on Seedling.

Ruins of Alph
Well, I caught myself... I wanna say Unown T, and it's going straight into the box. I have literally no use or desire to use this thing, ever. I will if I have to but damn... I really don't want to. Named it T-Pain. It's perfect.

Seedling is actually turning out to be a pretty dang good member of the team! Grass coverage is very, very helpful. I'm pretty stoked to be using this guy for the first time. Water types beware...!

Outside of the Union Cave, I found a Shell Bell. Gonna put it onto Borb.

Union Cave
First mon was Sandshrew! I'm pretty ok with this, though I'm not sure I want it on my team for now. I think I'm gonna box it and keep it as a backup, because it could be useful down the line. We'll see, it's always nice to have some backups. Named her Anakin because y'know... sand.

Rock Tomb TM has been found...! Therefore Pet Rock gains another useful move. Woop woop.

Route 33
I'm convinced there's nothing new I can obtain on this route so I'm gonna give it the skip. :'(

More progress coming soon!

♂
Borb Lv. 15
Rash Nature, Tangled Feet
- Tackle
- Sand Attack
- Gust
- Quick Attack

♀
Pet Rock Lv. 12
Quiet Nature, Sturdy
- Tackle
- Defense Curl
- Rock Throw
- Rock Polish

♂
Seedling Lv. 14
Calm Nature, Chlorophyll
- Tackle
- Synthesis
- PoisonPowder
- Bullet Seed

♂
Birb Food Lv. 9
Bashful Nature, Shed Skin
- Harden

♂
Trash Lv. 7
Serious Nature, Run Away
- Tackle
- Tail Whip
- Quick Attack

-INSERT EGG HERE-

Deaths:
Africa (Totodile),

Alive In Box:
Borb Food (Caterpie), Achrobatic (Zubat), T-Pain (Unown), Anakin (Sandshrew)

 

Slowpoke Well
A new day, a new area! I wonder what I'll get in here...? Only Zubats are appearing for now so I'll have to come back once I've beaten Team Rocket. I REALLY want a Slowpoke. After beating Team Rocket, Togepi hatched out! Decided to name it Yolk because what the hey. Right after I found a cute little Slowpoke. Gonna box Togepi for now and bring Slowpoke onboard. I named it Seaweed. How cute.

Azalea Town
Time to fight the gym! I'm not nervous about this one at all, but Scyther can be a pain. Don't worry, I stocked up on potions. This is gonna be nerve-wracking but I don't feel I'm gonna lose. I have high hopes for this gym.

Sadly, soon into the battle... Borb was lost. :'( Scyther had gotten a crit against it, killing it effortlessly. Borb could barely make a scratch. This SUCKS because I had been training Borb a lot and hadn't even gotten to evolve it. I was so close too, it was around level 17. :'( Sigh. It's never easy losing a Pokémon, but it happens. Second one down...

However, if I want a chance at winning this I need Pet Rock. Pet Rock once again is my only real chance to win this, so I'm gonna have to let Trash the Rat die. Unfortunately... Pet Rock is poisoned. I couldn't heal before the gym battle and I didn't buy Antidotes stupidly. RIP Trash. Thankfully, Pet Rock took out Scyther in on easy hit. I don't know what I'd do without this guy.

Bugsy was beat. Without Pet Rock I would have lost, but I still lost two Pokémon in the process. It sucks. I'm gonna miss Borb but I'll continue on. I do think I'm gonna be putting more time into grinding next time but there's not a ton of areas to grind at in HeartGold. :'(

I'm not out of the woods yet though. Next entry we'll be fighting my rival, Silver. Once again I'm gonna have to rely on Pet Rock... but he still has Chikorita under his belt. I need to find a counter ASAP, and it seems like Seedling is my only bet. It's grinding time.

♀
Pet Rock Lv. 17
Quiet Nature, Sturdy
- Tackle
- Defense Curl
- Rock Throw
- Rock Polish

♂
Seedling Lv. 14
Calm Nature, Chlorophyll
- Tackle
- Synthesis
- PoisonPowder
- Bullet Seed

♂
Birb Food Lv. 9
Bashful Nature, Shed Skin
- Harden

♂
Seaweed Lv. 9
Rash Nature, Oblivious
- Curse
- Yawn
- Tackle
- Growl

Deaths:
Africa (Totodile), Borb (Pidgey), Trash (Ratatta)

Alive In Box:
Borb Food (Caterpie), Achrobatic (Zubat), T-Pain (Unown), Anakin (Sandshrew), Yolk (Togepi)

Who out of my box should join me next?

 

Azalea Town
I got my heal right after beating Bugsy, my team was simply too weak to go on. It's time to fight Silver however, so let's go! Shame there's no flying moves on Hoppip (it doesn't get one until level 40) but oh well. It'll still help as it resists grass type moves severely. LET'S GO SILVER YOU PUNK. I WILL NOT GO DOWN.

Crazily enough, he actually has Bayleef. I didn't expect him to have Poisonpowder either. Eck. Don't worry, Hoppip has it too so HE can be poisoned. Eat that, Silver. Annoyingly Bayleef has Synthesis and Reflect, so this thing is gonna be a doozy to kill. :| Eek. Hoppip is way too weak to do much against it. Somehow, the idiot didn't use Synthesis anymore and got wilted down by the poisoning and died. Go Hoppip! You're awesome. I'm really glad I got it now.

I really miss Borb, but I'm gonna go on. My team needs me. There's lots of grinding to do too!

Ilex Forest
Another area, another Pokémon. After searching for ages... nothing. I did manage to evolve Birb Food into Butterfree though. Pretty happy about that! At this time of day, I can only possibly find Paras but can't seem to find one. Hrm. Tricky business... at least Ilex Forest will be good for a bit of extra grinding before the onslaught of trainers in and around Goldenrod. Not many new Pokémon are coming up either... gonna be a tricky ride from this point onwards.

Finally found Paras. I'm not gonna be using it unless I need to but I've caught it. Decided to name it Much Room. After finding both Farfetch'd, I shall proceed onwards to Goldenrod! I'm excited for what's in store. Hopefully not much more death! Also taught Headbutt to a few Pokémon in Ilex, because wynaut?

Before I fight Whitney's gym I intend upon catching as many new mons as I can on the way to Ecruteak. I can't go there before fighting Whitney sadly but still! There's a few on the route there.

Route 34
Next mon here is Drowzee! In terms of type coverage, I'm pretty ok with this guy! Gonna name it Silph, because it reminds me of Silph Co. Seaweed the Slowpoke is thankfully gaining quite a decent amount of EXP recently which I'm happy about. I sense great things in Seaweed's future.

Goldenrod City
I'm here! Can't get any new mons here yet, but I can get an Eevee here after meeting Bill which I'm pretty excited about. Any suggestions for what I should evolve it into? I could get something from the Game Corner too however... tricky. Conflicting. We'll see. I generally hate Voltorb Flip so probably not.

Not gonna take my heal yet but I will take one before the gym. There's a lot of trainers that are gonna smash me down to a pulp. :')

Route 35
Skipping ahead to this route for a new mon! It's Abra! Oh no! IT TELEPORTED. OF COURSE. OF COURSE IT DID. THANKS ABRA YOU GEM YOU.

National Park
This general area has more places than I remember. I'm not complaining though, more mons for me! First mon here is Sunkern which I'm pretty okay with. It's not exceptional but I'll take it, the more the merrier! Gonna name it Cress, because I've been growing a lot of cress recently and it's totally not cress.

Route 36
This route sucks. Seriously. I almost can't believe it. Basically, I went to attack a Kadabra with Pet Rock, thinking it didn't have a chance. However, it was faster than me and managed to get me down to 8 HP. Fine right? Well... I was confused. Geodude hit itself in confusion. Geodude died. ;_; I wasn't expecting this. It's a crappy way to go out, and an unfortunate error of judgement but I had no idea Geodude would get confused. Pet Rock was my strongest team member by a long shot, and has been with us through a lot. It was gonna be a big help VS Whitney, now I'm not sure what to do. Rest in peace Pet Rock... you won't be forgotten.

Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice Anakin the Sandshrew too. Seedling managed to take it out with the assistance of Birb Food's Stun Spore, but it wasn't an easy fight and losing two Pokémon just so I could get one more on this route wasn't a wise move. I hope the mon I find here is good.

Next mon is Nidoran male. I'll take it, could be much worse and the ground coverage will be useful after losing Pet Rock, but it can hardly compare in terms of defense. Gonna name it Regal, since it's HOPEFULLY gonna turn into a King.

That's all for this entry, but I will be back soon with the Goldenrod Gym match. For now, time to grind!

♂
Seedling Lv. 17
Calm Nature, Chlorophyll
- Headbutt
- Synthesis
- PoisonPowder
- Bullet Seed

♂
Birb Food Lv. 13
Bashful Nature, Compoundeyes
- Harden
- Confusion
- PoisonPowder
- Stun Spore

♂
Seaweed Lv. 13
Rash Nature, Oblivious
- Curse
- Yawn
- Tackle
- Water Gun

♂
Yolk Lv. 1
Lax Nature, Hustle
- Growl
- Charm
- Extrasensory

♂
Regal Lv. 12
Calm Nature, Poison Point
- Leer
- Peck
- Focus Energy
- Double Kick

Deaths:
Africa (Totodile), Borb (Pidgey), Trash (Ratatta), Pet Rock (Geodude), Anakin (Sandshrew)

Alive In Box:
Borb Food (Caterpie), Achrobatic (Zubat), T-Pain (Unown), Much Room (Paras), Silph (Drowzee), Cress (Sunkern)

 

National Park
Another death. Whilst grinding, I lost Seedling to a crit. It hurts. Seedling was looking good too, but alas... it's gone. It took two leers and one crit headbutt to completely kill it. I'm running out of solid team members now.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. Regal got killed by a Rollout streak from a Voltorb. There was no one else I could switch into without them taking supreme damage and if anyone, I'd rather it be Regal honestly. But man, what a waste. What am I doing. I really need to step up my game because I'm disappointed with how I'm playing right now.

I didn't catch anything on Route 33, so I'm gonna head back there with Headbutt and see what I can get in the trees. Here's hoping something! Anything helps at this rate.

Route 33
It's Spearow! A new flying type is welcome. I'll name it Burb.

Azalea Town
I haven't caught anything here either, so that's something else I can possibly get my claws on. It's Aipom! I'm actually very excited about this one. It's a bit low leveled but I can tolerate. Excited to train this little guy. Welcome, Tarzan.

Goldenrod City
I'm back, more time for grinding! Got my first heal here as I severely needed it.

Route 35
This route sucks too. RIP Cress, Silph and Burb. We hardly knew ye but holy crap. Don't underestimate a Marill with rollout when half of your mons are severely underleveled. Things just don't get any better, do they?

And then, Slowpoke and Aipom to a Magmar. :| I don't even know what to say. After this grinding session, Birb Food was literally the ONLY mon left in my party. I'm shocked and disappointed right now. No more trainers for a while, just grass grinding.

No more updates for a little bit. I need to come back from this stronger than ever, and it's gonna take a lot of unfun grass grinding.

Deaths:
Africa (Totodile), Borb (Pidgey), Trash (Ratatta), Pet Rock (Geodude), Anakin (Sandshrew), Seedling (Hoppip), Regal (Nidoran), Tarzan (Aipom), Seaweed (Slowpoke), Cress (Sunkern), Silph (Drowzee), Burb (Spearow)

Alive In Box:
Borb Food (Caterpie), Achrobatic (Zubat), T-Pain (Unown), Much Room (Paras), Yolk (Togepi)

 

Final Update
Alas, it was not to be. Unable to heal at the Pokémon Center to regain PP and with an already weak and damaged team (plus a lack of areas to grind at, and no trainers to fight) I lost to Whitney. The run ends here.

I could restart but honestly I don't think I'm gonna. Two times is enough. :') I have failed miserably at this, but I gave it a try. I'm not sure whether I'll start another challenge run on a different game or what, all I know is that I'm done with HeartGold. With the mistakes I made and the cards dealt to me by the end, there was no way I could win unless I stood in the grass literally all day, and that's just not something I have the patience for.

If I do Nuzlocke another game, which should I do? I'd certainly be bringing more knowledge into it the second go but I have a feeling with this harder set of rules, I'm destined to fail. :') We'll see.