elkchallenges

[elkchallenges]

Hate Blue (2.2) Third Fox the Charm?

Having been a few members down, I picked up the pieces and made my way to the SS Anne Rival, the demise of my very first Hatelocke attempt in Red, but this time it proved to be not a challenge at all.  New Jersey (Raticate) cleanly swept Blue and barely took any hits in the process, aided by TWO Hyper Fang crits:

Oklahoma (Diglett) swept Surge with Dig shortly thereafter, and we were off to the races.  In theory, at least.

Over the next portion of the run, I accidentally KOed not one but two Vulpix near Celadon city, bringing the death count for the run to 8.  Ile de France (Jolteon) joined the team in Celadon proper, and after an easy battle against Erika and the Pokemon Tower, we made our way to Fuschia.    In Fuschia, we went to the Safari Zone and came away with Amazonas (Nidoran-F), who can use both Surf and Strength - as well as being a valuable player in the endgame due to Agility-Bait.  

Other new members in this session include Castille (Voltorb), Essex (Machop), and Georgia - a Vulpix on my THIRD Vulpix encounter.  Finally.

I cleaned out all of Koga’s gym except Koga himself, and all of Silph Co except Rival Fival, and that’s where this session ends.

Next time on Hatelocke: Rival Fival, Koga, Sabrina, and the addition of our planned Water Sweeper.

[elkchallenges]

Hate Blue (2.1) Rat Infestation

With one leg of our hatelocke down, it was time to start into game number 2: Blue.  Second game, same as the first except I don’t have any of the mons that carried me through the endgame anymore.  The most important things I need to get this game are a water and electric type carry, as well as one hard physical attacker.  The rest is fairly flexible.  I realize that using Fearow as my physical attacker sets me up very well for Yellow, so I want to make sure that’s a priority in this run, and a priority to keep alive.  Powerful Poison types are also nice because of the so-called “good AI”.

My theme for Blue is going to be States and Provinces, both in the US and around the World.

Despite KOing the Route 1 Rattata, I was in decent shape by the time I reached Mt. Moon, with a team that looked like this:

Within Mt. Moon, however, I yet again ate a death against the Rocket before the Fossil Nerd, with his Rat taking down North Carolina the Pidgey and setting us back to 5 mons.

Just past Mt. Moon on Route 4, I got the encounter I was hoping for, adding Lazio the Spearow to my team.  While a crit from Pidgeotto nearly took down New Jersey the Rat during the Nugget Bridge Rival fight, I escaped by the skin of my teeth without any further deaths.

This turned into a rather bloody leg of the run, as I would eat not 1 but 3(!) more deaths before reaching the SS Anne, as a wild Abra TPed away, and a Trainer’s confusion KOed Zubat on Rt. 6.  In between those, however, came a battle with Misty.

Ivysaur is supposed to make the Misty battle easy.  Supposed to doesn’t mean does.  Ivysaur ate a crit from Starmie and needed to switch out, and I didn’t have a safe switch.  I had to switch through Tennessee (Jigglypuff) and get KOed in order to get New Jersey safely into the fight. 

Once I did, one Hyper Fang was enough to take Starmie’s remaining health and save the rest of the party. 

Before the session ended, I went and fetched Oklahoma (Diglett) from his namesake cave and started prepping for the infamous SS Anne Rival.

Next time on Hatelocke: SS Anne, Lt. Surge, and hopefully Erika too.

[elkchallenges]

Hate A2 Red (1.6) Elite?

So when we last left off, our team had just polished off Blaine, and it was time to circle back around to Viridian City.  Fortunately, a Vaporeon made the entirety of Giovanni’s gym a joke, including a 5 Surf Giovanni fight.  Before taking on Rival 6, I grinded up to 50, leaving my team like this:

The Rival 6 fight was a little scary if things went wrong - but they didn’t, and I kept my team clean and intact - the end of the rival battle let my team like this:

I kept my team the same, and cruised through Victory Road not even bothering to take an encounter, then ground to 60 before tackling the E4.  I was technically allowed to go a bit higher than that, but I didn’t expect to need to.  Each of the elite four fights was fairly easy, though Nidoking took a nasty hit from Lance when Gyarados didn’t know agility, and bait didn’t work.

But ultimately Blizzard let Nidoking take no damage from the dragon types who were agility-locked, and the rest was history.

Now on to Blue.

Magneton was able to clean up Pidgeot, and Dodrio took some damage on the swap but outsped and OHKOed Zam.  Rhydon forced me to swap over to Vaporeon, whose Surf did 4x damage and an instakill.  Exeggutor came out, and I knew I’d have my next chance for a bait, swapping Nidoking in to Blizzard it down.  Gyara came out, and I went for a gutsy Thrash - but it wasn’t enough to KO Gyara, and Nido went down to the revenge Hydro Pump.  With only Gyara and Charizard left, Magneton was able to finish the job with two Thunderbolts.

With that, I’d finished the first leg of the Hatelocke, though it took me two attempts, just 29 legs to go, and if we fail any of them, we’re right back at the beginning.  I’m not sure I needed to use up everything I used, Marowak in particular being somewhat unused in the endgame, but I don’t plan to eliminate the Gengar line until very late in the hatelocke, so Cubone will always be a rare encounter.

7 Deaths:

Banned Mons in future legs:

Next up is Blue.  I plan to start Bulba again, and use States/Provinces of the World as my naming theme.  Omastar will be my water-type carry if all goes well, and I would like to intentionally eliminate Fearow from the pool of available mons before Yellow for reasons that will become clear later.  I want to focus on eliminating some of the rarer mons from use now so I leave myself good options in Y, FR, and LG, and I don’t want to eliminate  Bulba yet.  Until next time, see ya!

[elkchallenges]

Hate A2 Red (1.5) Rocketing Through Midgame

This was the squad shortly before heading to Pokemon Tower, but while I was there, an absolute gamechanger happened.  My Pokemon Tower encounter was a Cubone!  Giza, welcome to the team!  

After clearing out the tower rather non-eventfully, I went to the Safari Zone and picked up a Nidoran-M (Seoul), who quickly joined the party and became a Nidoking.  While clearing out Koga’s Gym and Silph Co in parallel, I ate the 6th loss of my run, when a random scientist’s Electrode in Silph Co exploded, taking out Denver in the process.

While Giza was lagging behind in the grinding, my team was now here: 

I set a target of level 35, and when I got it, Rival Fival ended up not being much of a problem, nor did Giovanni (Pictured: Royal Rumble of Giovanni)

At this point I realized that Dodrio’s attack and speed absolutely smacked Sabrina’s low defenses, and took down Sabrina while taking zero damage.

Koga was easy with dig on the team, and Blaine was only a little scarier, due to a couple crits, but I still cleanly handled both. Due to having access to Surf, I went and took my power plant encounter before Blaine, adding Detroit (Magnemite) to the team for the forseeable future.

Despite a large level gap, Blaine wasn’t a problem at all.

At this point, I’m starting to feel like I’ve mostly locked in my team.  Dugtrio needs to be saved for future legs so Surge is never a problem, and I have excellent coverage at this point - two ground types, a poison type to bait Lance’s Agility, a water type, an electric type, and a hard physical attacker.  Everything I could possibly want.

Next time on Hatelocke: Giovanni and Rival 6, plus lots of grinding.  Lots and lots of grinding

[elkchallenges]

Hate A2 Red (1.4) On Pins and (Twin)needles

Well, I picked back up and cruised through the first part of the game through to SS Anne, picking up along the way the following team members, several of which were the same as last time: Sao Paulo (Bulbasaur), Hamburg (Rattata), Rome (Spearow), Denver (Weedle), and Cairo (Caterpie).  Of note, this time I didn’t have a Nidoran because I got a Weedle on Route 2, and I didn’t have a Pidgey at this point either.  Bulbasaur still made quick work of both Brock and Misty, picking up Nashville (Jigglypuff), Carthage (Ekans), and Brasov (Zubat) between Pewter and Cerulean.  I was a little disappointed to lack Geodude, but my dual bug-types were a very nice addition, as was an early Spearow - at least for now!

When I went to clear out Nugget Bridge, I left Rome in a little too long against Blue’s Pidgeotto, and for the second run in a row, Spearow became the first casualty.  I decided not to skip encounters this time, but an Abra on Route 25 decided to skip me - the second “death” of the run.  Philly (Pidgey) rejoined the crew on Route 24, and the full party from the last run except Geodude had been reaquired.

After Cerulean, four more encounters opened up: Avignon (Oddish) just north of the Daycare, Las Vegas (Mankey) just outside the underground tunnel, Jericho (Diglett) from Diglett’s Cave, and Boise (Drowzee) just East of Diglett’s Cave.  

Along the way, a second team member fell, with Carthage the Ekans falling to a Hyper Fang crit from a trainer on route 6.

With that, it was time to take on the SS Anne, but I decided to grind the whole team to 22 first.

And Hamburg the Raticate singlehandedly swept Blue on the SS Anne.

Since I still had a bit of room before the Lt. Surge cap of 24 on most of my party, I grabbed a few items from the SS Anne while I still could.   Then, it was time to take on Surge himself - after absolute hell on the switch puzzle, taking 8 attempts to find the doggone second switch, I made it through, and Ivysaur and Diglett cleanly cleaned up the Thunderbadge.

With most of the party still completely at full health, I headed for Rock Tunnel, flashless.  Around this time, Denver picked up Twinneedle, which turns out to be an absolutely broken move in Gen 1.  Absurdly, overtly broken.  Twinneedle ends up being the backbone of the entire next leg, in a generation where Bug is Super Effective against poison.  

At this time, my encounter luck, however, went downhill - I was duped out of any legal encounters on Rt. 9, I KOed the Voltorb I found on Rt. 10, and just on the other side of Rock Tunnel, I KOed a Rt. 8 Growlithe as well - bringing my death counter to 5.  

Rock Tunnel did provide me Doha (Machop) while navigating flashlessly and relatively seamlessly, despite a brief hairy moment when Vine Whip ran out of PP in the third to last trainer battle.  While I did not get a Growlithe on Rt 8, I did avenge this failure on Rt. 7, adding Kochinda to the team. Rotterdam (Eevee) joined the team for free in Celadon City, and St. Paul (Doduo) joined the team on Rt. 16 while acquiring Fly.

With that, it was time to clear out some Rockets and a Grass Gym that I dominated in type matchup, as well as pick up a Fire Stone for Kochinda and a Water Stone for Rotterdam.

Both Giovanni and Erika left my teams fairly healthy, and I’m now 4 badges into my second attempt!  

Seriously, though, Twinneedle is busted.

Next time on Hatelocke: Pokemon Tower

[elkchallenges]

Hate Red (1.3) Crash and Burn

I’m cruising along, the Bridge fight goes very smoothly once I hit level 17, and nugget bridge is no problem either.

When I get to Misty, there’s no kill like overkill

By this point most of my party is coming up close on 24, the Lt. Surge Cap, so I decide to rush the SS Anne Rival fight.  This was a mistake, disaster strikes!  

Hyper Fang takes down Philly

And Denver follows him to a crit

When Kadabra KOs Geodude, all hope for the run is lost

And after three poison types go down, the run is officially dead.

My final (deceased) party

Next time on hatelocke, we start Red all over again.  Attempt #2!

[elkchallenges]

Hate Red (1.2) The First Death

Viridian Forest itself was largely uneventful, with one forced fight and a very small number of random encounters, which set me up to train in the patch of grass just outside Pewter City for a while.

While I had forgotten that Bulbasaur takes until level 13 in this generation to get Vine Whip, taking him to 13 ended up being not much of a problem at all, and Brock went down in two short Vine Whips.  4x Weaknesses will do that.

Progressing onwards from Pewter, I cruised through the trainers on Rt. 3 and got myself some levels on my Pidgey and my Beedrill, before rounding out my party with my 6th member, “Rome” the Spearow, and entering Mt. Moon to find my 7th, Salt Lake the Geodude.  Deciding I no longer needed my Ratatta, Hamburg made his way to the box.

As I traveled Mt. Moon, leveling up my new recruits, a Rocket Grunt struck the first death of the run, with a one-hit-KO on Rome!

The state of my party was pretty dire for a few mons after the battle, but Sao Paulo, the newly evolved Ivysaur, cleaned up the Super Nerd.  One Helix Fossil later, I arrived on Rt. 4 and added Rome’s replacement to my party, and it’s a real doozy: Carthage, the Ekans!  In Gen 1, Wrap is utterly busted, and Carthage will be seeing lots of use throughout this segment of the run, maybe even into endgame.  For now, welcome to the team!

I spent the rest of the session grinding in Rt. 4 in preparation for the Nugget Bridge Rival, which I plan to fight with a full party at 17.  When I stopped for today, my party looked like this:

 So I’m not too far off! 

Next time on Hatelocke: Nugget Bridge, Misty, and maybe prepping for SS Anne if all goes well!

[elkchallenges]

Hate Red(1.1)

And we’re off!

I start with Sao Paulo the Bulbasaur, and get utterly decimated by two crits in the first rival battle in Oak’s lab - ouch!

Luckily, the run doesn’t officially start until I can buy balls.  I go and fetch the four early encounters: Rt. 1: Philly the Pidgey, Rt. 2: Hamburg the Rattata, Viridian Forest: Denver the Weedle, and Rt. 22: Seoul the Nidoran (M).  After a bit of training on Rt. 1 and fully evolving Denver to a Beedrill, I go and fight rival 1 on Rt. 22.  Rival’s Pidgey causes some issues with sand attack, but some careful swapping avoids any deaths, and charmander goes down as well to the power of poison sting.  Next up: Viridian Forest proper!

My team after the rival battle ended:

[elkchallenges]

Hatelocke Red Planning (HL 1.0)

So now it’s time to think about the first game in the series: Red.  Notably, I don’t want to use up any of the Kanto starters here because I’m going to need them in later games, though I can certainly use a starter to get through the early game and into midgame.  Starting with Bulba seems like the safest bet here, but I’ll want Bulba again in Yellow and in FR/LG, so I need to bail out before endgame.

Early Mankey is very nice for certain parts of the game, but is very important in Yellow so it can’t be part of my E4 team.  Starmie is a very valuable mon that I also don’t want to use up for future games.  Arcanine, Vileplume, and an Eeveelution will probably be on my final team if I get them, leaning towards Vaporeon to have a nice clean answer to Charizard.  Rival Fival is one of the scariest fights in this game, as is Sabrina.  Keeping a poison type alive and in the party for Lance is one of the most important AI-exploiting moves.  Early bug types at stage 3 is very useful, but I don’t want to keep them in late game because I want them still available in future games.  That’s the plan!

And now for a naming theme: I’m going to try to make an overarching theme for each “round”, with subthemes for each game.  I’m going to start with Geography as my theme for the RBY round, and Red will be cities.  Bulbasaur will be Sao Paulo!

[elkchallenges]

Intro (Plus, What is Hatelocke?)

Hi all! elk here!  I’m a longtime player of a number of different strategy games, but my favorites include Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, Elements the Game, the Godfather board game, and the first focus of this blog, the Pokemon series.

I certainly have my favorite pokemon - just name a grass type starter and odds are it’s on my favorites list - as well as a love for out of the box strategies, wacky cheese, gimmick teams and more - but with the challenges I’m planning to take on, I can’t afford to just play what I like, I’ll have to figure out what’s best.

I recently discovered the world of nuzlocking, and I absolutely adore it.  With careful preparation, I dove in headfirst, and completed the three most recent Nuzlocke Run of the Month competitions, getting a perfect run in UltraSun Champlocke and FireRed Stunted Growth, while earning a third place 4 death + 2 failed run in “Easy Mode” Shield.  Along the way, those who watched my runs probably think of me as a water type specialist, but honestly that’s just the way those particular runs played out rather than an overarching preference.

Learning from some of the best nuzlockers on Youtube and Twitch like PokemonChallenges, Aquablade11, and WolfieVGC, and combining what I’ve learned from them with some of the things I’ve learned from other games and podcasts like Limited Resources and Arena Decklists, I want to give some of the hardest challenges in the world of Pokemon a shot.

First up: Hatelocke!

The rules of Hatelocke are as simple to understand as they are hard to follow.

Base nuzlocke rules:

1. Only catch the first encounter per route.

2. If that encounter is a duplicate (or banned), it doesn’t count as your encounter.

3. Gift pokemon and static pokemon may be freely captured and used.

4.  When a pokemon faints, it’s dead.  That’s it.  Box it and never use it again.

5. HM use is permitted as needed to advance through the game

The hatelocke challenge adds the following rules:

6. Play through all 30 games in the mainline series.

7.  You must take a full party of 6 into the Elite 4.

8. Any mon that enters the Hall of Fame is banned from all remaining runs (and like duplicate mons, doesn’t count as your encounter).  If there are somehow no legal starters left, you use the first mon you catch as your starter and box the starter immediately. (Branched evolutions are treated as separate mons)

And finally, difficulty modifiers:

9.  X items are banned in all instances.

10.  Levels are capped to the highest level of the gym leader at the start of the leader battle, and to the champion’s level for the start of the E4.  

11. Rival battles may not be skipped.

12.  I will be playing on an emulator with trade evolutions patched out.

13.  Unlike other nuzlockes, legendaries are permitted in hatelocke - the unique mons restriction already does a good job of preventing the worst of the legendary abuse.

Those who complete the full gauntlet earn recognition on the r/nuzlocke server as Hatelocke Masochists - which is my goal!  Let’s go!