Gameplay Journal UNBREAKABLE: Mandriel's Diamond Nuzlocke (complete)

There's something I've never understood about the evil teams' hideouts in any of the Pokémon games: Why can't you ride your bike in there? I mean, I guess that it's polite not to do so, but why would our player even consider being polite to a gang of lunatics who literally want to destroy the world?

I used Mimie and Russell to get through the warehouse, occasionally switching one of them out for Kit or Bing Bing. Overall, I was surprised at how easy it was. Heck, even Cyrus wasn't that hard, his only evolved Pokémon was a golbat. Heck, I think Saturn was actually harder to fight than him. He told me that he's planning on launching his master plan at Mt Coronet and I had to travel there immediately if I wanted to stop him. So naturally, I've been avoiding going to battle him ever since.

I've been training, visiting the Move Tutor and debating whether or not to use some of my TMs. I found out that Dash can learn Megahorn, which is awesome since his moves prior were Growl, Ember, Fire Blast and Stomp, so not an incredibly diverse selection. I also taught Bing Bing Steel Wing to replace Metal Claw when I found out that move sucked. A few other of my Pokémon are currently plagued with bad moves that I really need to find replacements for sometime soon.

Mimie and Russell are finally the same level as my own Pokémon. I think I want to get all six of them around level 45 by the time I challenge Cyrus for the second time. Kit and Chino are currently my strongest Pokémon at 43 and the rest aren't far behind. I'm trying to train at Acuity Lakefront, but the Pokémon are pretty weak, so I'm thinking of trying the Pokémon inside Mt Coronet after I fight everyone in Fuego Ironworks (I want to fight every trainer I missed before I move on to Team Galactic. Also, as I recall, that place has a whole lot of free stuff).

I figured I may as well check out Mt Coronet, and when I got there the first Pokémon I found was a medicham. Finally, after getting Cora killed and watching a perfectly good wild medicham KO itself, the ability Pure Power was finally mine! I called him Leigh, which feels like the first normal nickname I've to have given a Pokémon in a while. I then found out that he can't learn any physical psychic-type moves (unless I breed him with a kadabra so that his offspring would know Psycho Cut, but I don't have a kadabra and I'm not allowed to go back to an old route and catch one), so I swapped him for Mimie almost as quickly as I'd swapped her for him.

Outside Fuego Ironworks, I caught myself a Gastrodon that I called Betsy. This is the first evolved Pokémon I've caught which I haven't named after a previously-caught pre-evolution. All Pokémon around here, both wild and trained, are pretty weak, so I'll be done with this place in no time. I then I guess I'll have to move on to saving the world or something, Eugh.

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Dash

Russell

Mimie
[pretend there's a gif of a Mr Mime here]

Kit

Chino

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Flappy - Staravia
Adrian - Cranidos
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Vivian - Wingull
Quigley - Quagsire
Georgia II - Graveler
Ray II - Golbat
Blop - Tentacool
Dia - Lucario
Snee Snoo - Sneasel
Snew - Snover
Leigh - Medicham
Betsy - Gastrodon

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling
Sir - Roselia
Manuel - Machop
Bluey - Bronzor
Boo - Drifblim

 

I just checked Bulbapeida. Apparently, during the battle in the Veilstone HQ, Cyrus's Pokémon are higher levels in Platinum than in Diamond. On top of that, both his golbat and murkrow are fully evolved in Platinum. Huh, no wonder you had trouble!

 

Is it called the Rock Incense because it smells like a rock? What does a rock smell like?

In the snowy part of Mt Coronet, I got myself a bronzong I called Meep Morp. I don't know if that place should have counted as a new area but whatever, what are the odds that I'm actually going to use this thing?

I trained a bit on the wild Pokémon and grunts. Then I figured that I'd wasted enough time already and it was time to save the world!

My rival showed up and joined me to battle Mars and Jupiter, having half his Pokémon KOed in the process and then running away when the battle was over and leaving me to deal with everything else.

I was really concerned about battling Cyrus but I think I did pretty okay overall. Both our first Pokémon were our honchkrows and I thought Russell would have some trouble, but he actually did pretty great. Sure, it took a while for him to KO Cyrus's honchkrow but he didn't faint, so he did good. Weavile was next, though Dash knocked it out in one hit, as did Chino with the gyarados. Chino had some real trouble with Cyrus's crobat as the thing brought him down to red HP at one point, but we were able to pull through in the end.

And then I accidentally challenged Dialga without saving first. Whoopsie. I began to freak out a little when I rediscovered just how powerful their Roar of Time attack is, but it miraculously didn't kill anybody. Bing Bing was able to weaken them down to red HP and I kept throwing Ultra Balls until one didn't break open.

Yeah! The Lord of Time has been captured! Now it's going to sit in my PC for eternity because I already have a perfectly good steel-type on my team! Why did I bother catching this guy again?

Anyway, with Team Galactic out of the picture, I was finally free to go to Sunnyshore City. But not before catching the first Pokémon I could find on the way there, a floatzel I called Sir Killer. Yeah, I bet you thought I was over that, didn't you? Well you were wrong!

I trained my Pokémon up a little more using the wild Pokémon and trainers. I also figured I may as well drop into the Gym quickly to see how powerful the trainers' Pokémon were. Most of their Pokémon were around the same levels as my own, so I'm probably going to have to grind a little more before I challenge Volker. Yippee.

Also, none of my Pokémon are good at or resist electric-types. I think the only reason nobody's gotten paralysed so far is because a surprising number of trainers aren't using electric types. You'd think that once Game Freak realised there weren't many Pokémon of the Gym leader's type in the game, they'd, you know, add some more.

I was battling some Ace Trainer's raichu using Kit when her Pokémon used Dig. This sent me on a mild freak-out when I realised once again that all my Pokémon are weak against ground moves, so I switched Russell in since he was the only one immune.

*Looks around for a desk to slam my face against*

Ah, of course. The classic save-the-world-without-losing-anybody-and-then-immediately-get-a-teammate-get-oneshotted-by-some-random-trainer schtick.

I wanted to replace Russell with Snee Snoo since a weavile would be a good counter for Cynthia's garchomp. Unfortunately, I need a flying-type instead to replace him because this is still a time where you actually needed HM moves. I didn't want either of the Rays because they've got a weakness against psychic and Vivian has a double weakness. I ended up choosing Flappy because he was the only flying-type Pokémon left. Maybe the first Pokémon I caught will help get me through the Pokémon League. All the same, he's got a looooooooooot of training to get done.

Until next time!

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Flappy

Dash

Kit

Mimie
[imagine there's a gif of her here]

Chino

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Adrian - Cranidos
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Vivian - Wingull
Quigley - Quagsire
Georgia II - Graveler
Ray II - Golbat
Blop - Tentacool
Dia - Lucario
Snee Snoo - Sneasel
Snew - Snover
Leigh - Medicham
Betsy - Gastrodon
Meep Morp - Bronzong
Prima - Dialga
Sir Killer - Floatzel

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling
Sir - Roselia
Manuel - Machop
Bluey - Bronzor
Boo - Drifblim
Russell - Honchkrow

 

Thanks for the encouragement! I've gotten so far, I'm paranoid of slipping up now. There's still so much time left to fail!

 

Just a quick update:

I've been training Flappy and he's now level 43. That's still 3-4 levels lower than the rest of my team, but still pretty good.

Volker was a massive pain to beat. Most of his team went down fairly easily, but his luxray almost murdered Bing Bing. Kit managed to beat it because it kept using Crunch for some weird reason instead of Charge Beam.

On the next route, I caught a Tentacruel I named Splet. I don't know if I'll find any new Pokémon inside Victory Road, but we'll see.

My entire team needs to go through some serious training. The wild Pokémon on Victory Road are about the same level them, so I reckon I should level everybody up a little bit before I challenge any trainers.

 

Thanks, naming Pokémon is always tons of fun I may need some luck since Cynthia's team is gonna be hella powerful...

Follow your dreams! Take the Nuzlocke challenge! Suffer as you watch your team die! Have fun!

 

Aw, thanks! I'm flattered to hear that I've influenced you in some way!

I actually am on Fanfiction.net under the same name. I've been pretty inactive recently though, so I'm surprised you did find me.

Ahh, I'm really worried about the Elite Four. I usually keep challenging them with no real intention on winning so that they can level my team high enough for me to challenge them for real, but this time around, I only have one shot at it

Thanks! I think I really need that luck now...

Good luck with your own Nuzlocke, too!

 

I'm going to be pretty busy over the next week due to a massive assignment that I've been procrastinating doing. I'm trying to level up my Pokémon a little in the meantime, but I won't be able to dedicate as much time to training as I'd like for a while.

Flappy is finally the same level as the rest of my team, though I'l having trouble training him due to all the steel and rock-types in Victory Road. He knows Close Combat, which helps, but he isn't strong enough to KO a graveller in one hit, leaving him open to an Explosion attack. He's almost gotten killed like, three times already. I'm going to try my best to keep him alive because I really don't have the patience to have to go through the process of training a new, severely under-levelled teammate.

In the meantime, I'm growing all the Leppa berries I can. I'm also trying to get myself some Shuca berries to protect my team against ground-type moves but I haven't had much luck so far.

The other day, I researched the Elite Four's Pokémon and their moves and actually started to make a strategy to defeat each Pokémon. Wow, I'm becoming oddly organised lately. I'm still wondering whether or not it'll be a good idea to use Bing Bing against Cynthia's Garchomp. On one hand, Bing Bing can learn Blizzard and Ice Beam, but on the other hand, Cynthia's Garchomp knows both Brick Break and Earthquake. Guess that's more reasons to get myself some Shuca berries, huh?

I'm thinking of getting all my Pokémon to level 50 before I challenge the trainers on Victory Road, then when I get to the Pokémon League, turn back and try and train everyone to level 60 or so. Maybe I should train Bing Bing to be a little stronger if he's going to take on the Garchomp.

Now I just need to keep returning to that berry woman's house in Pastoria City, plant some more Leppa Berries, train my team a little and MaKe SuRe NoNe Of ThEm DiE. Maybe I should also change a few of my pokemons' moves, too. A few of them still have pretty bad attacks that can be replaced.

Until next time! Whenever that may be...

 

UPDATE:

I wasn't able to catch anything on Victory Road. Training's been pretty slow lately. I've gotten Flappy and Bing Bing up to level 50, and the rest of the team is level 47-49. I'm growing all the Leppa Berries I can and I still haven't gotten any luck getting a Shuca Berry. Chino is a pain to train and the gravellers here know Explosion. Dash was almost killed by a wild golbat's Poison Fang and would have died had the move infected him. I hate the wild machokes and their No Guard ability. I haven't even challenged any of the trainers yet. Training would be so much easier if my Pokémon were stronger, but they need to go through training to get stronger in the first place. I am scared of ground-types and their potential destructiveness.

But yeah overall, things are going ok I guess.

Also, I just realised that I established a rule specifying that I'm not allowed to use legendary Pokémon. I guess that means Prima's just going to sit in my PC for all eternity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Self-Destruct and Explosion are literally the worst moves. When the enemy uses it, you'll most likely die and when you use it, you die. Where's the benefit???