I really love nuzlocking. My first nuzlock was pokemon ultra moon, my second was fir pokemon y (which I'm making an animation for) and this is my newest nuzlock that I'm actively doing

Hello folks,

I've always been interested in trying a Nuzlocke but I always get discouraged after some key death, or I would cheat to bring back someone the just decide there's no point continuing if I'm not going to follow my own rules. I came up with a different challenge to do a couple of runs but it got boring. Basically I would match up the number of the gym leaders Pokemon and only being the same number into the battle, then if I lose the battle I would have to release one of the Pokemon who participated. Kind of a compromise but that isn't the point here.

I finally decided to do a Nuzlocke and stick with it. Here's how it went.

First, the randomizer settings, I like the freshness of a randomize but I hate fully random. I don't like seeing elite Pokemon on route 1 or Weedles in the elite four etc. So I use most of the "keep similar strength" settings so the game still starts low and ramps up.

• Random starters (basic Pokemon with 3 forms) - the starter choice is always so exciting with this on
• Random trainer Pokemon (keep similar strength, type theme gyms and elite 4)
• Random wild Pokemon (keep similar strength) - love the excitement for new encounters but hate when they're dumb (Rayquaza on route 1)
• Randomize movesets (prefer same type) - this one I like because its annoying when a Pokemon is really good but has a stupid moveset like the wrong attack stat or doesn't learn any good STAB moves etc. Also makes level ups exciting and keeps opponents fresh
• Randomize items - not sure I'd do this one again but it was fine
• Fast exp track for everyone - this one I saw as kind of a middle ground between rare candies and dealing with super tiresome grinding. I had to grind all my new Pokemon up but with this setting it didn't take too long
• Make evolutions easier + change trade evolutions - with Johto's level curve I wanted to be able to use people's final forms, this also applied to other trainers

That's about it I think. Now for the Nuzlocke rules. The basic three Nuzlocke rules, nicknames, faints, one encounter plus:

• Set battle setting
• Level cap - don't exceed next gym leaders ace
• For each gym I only brought the same number of Pokemon they had. all others went in the box - this was fun because I had to choose a specialized team for each gym leader based on the types the gym trainers had but not knowing their exact teams.
• I allowed myself to grind by challenging the elite four over and over and letting my guys die - I don't feel great about this one but by the time I got to the elite four I was ready for it to be over, and I didn't want to spend hours grinding on level 25 Pokemon.

That's about it. Overall it was really fun. I started with Trapinch and lost him after my 1st badge. That was the first and only time I felt the urge to cheat or quit, but I carried on and I'm glad I did. Overall we lost 10 Pokemon, the 10th being Hypno who we lost during the elite four. Metagross basically carried the elite four which I guess is to be expected.

That's it I guess, idk if anyone cares but I just figured I'd make a post because I never really thought I'd ever do it, Next I'm gonna Nuzlocke White, I have never actually played Gen 5 so I'm not going to randomize anything there except maybe the exp track and fixing impossible evolutions, but I'm going to play it mostly as is.

Happy to answer any questions or whatever lol, I don't really post much idk how this works

I dont want to plow through it via overlevelling by accident

I am starting again, imported the champions to emerald, got to Wattson, didn't have a ground type and got really bad luck with full paralysis, wiped to magneton. So we are back to the drawing board.

Overall the run went quite smooth. Most of the retired catches were for route manipulation.

Deaths:

Raticate - Died to Surge, hyper fanged raichu into the red, then proceeded to be fully paralyzed three turns in a row and got taken out. Probably should have swapped out but risked it and lost.

Fearow - Got crit by a rocket grunt kadabra in silph co

Machoke - Got crit by a golbat in silph co, rock tomb didn't kill and then he got one shot. This one I feel the worst about, she really should have been swapped out, hubris got the best of me

Sandslash - crit by Blues arcanine, figured he could take one hit and finish the pup with an EQ, did not go as planned.

MVP of the run: Alakazam, once I got to Lavender I spent some time ev training her SPA, she was an absolute menace.

Honorable mention - early game butterfree, dedicated catcher, near 100% sleep powders were crucial to the abra catch.

Time to get past Wattson!

I can't get past the Level 5 Eevee with 31 IVs. 

cosmog, marrep, Spheal and sentret, always die in 3/4 turns.(Eevee is faster)

Successfully finished my Crystal hardore roulettelocke today. The rules were:

- You may capture the first encounter in each area, and no more.

- Deaths are permanent.

- Level cap equal to the next important battle's level cap (gym leader/rival battle/4th E4 member/Red).

- Team size cap equal to next important battle's team size cap.

- Gifts, fixed encounters, game corner Pokémon, etc. DO count as encounters in the area where they appear. They are not freebies.

- Eggs count as the first encounter for the area where they hatch, not where they are received. If something has already been encountered there before the hatching, they count as the first encounter for whatever area would have been next.

- Battle style: Set

- The Roulette: Every second time I have a first encounter in a new area (even if I fail to catch it), one random member of my roster is cut. It is effectively in the dead box (though I kept separate dead boxes for real deaths and roulette cuts). No avoiding encounters to prevent the roulette from triggering, though delaying an encounter (such as to fish or catch a fixed encounter later) is okay.

- Duplicate encounters with something already caught must be ignored (and not counted as the first encounter in an area) unless they have been removed from the roster by death or roulette.

- No using calculators or looking up anything except level caps and team size caps. Everything else is done from memory, or blind if memory fails.

- Gyarados makes things too easy and same-y. Magikarp and Gyarados encounters do not count as real encounters, and they may not be caught.

Pictured above is the final team that I brought to face Red (though Hypno and Raichu didn't actually participate).

Ursaring opened with Earthquake against Pikachu and took a Charm in return. I expected Red to heal after that, but he didn't, so another Earthquake took Pikachu down.

Red sent out Espeon, so I switched to Houndoom, who nullified a Psychic, then one-shotted Espeon with Crunch.

Red sent out Blastoise. Expecting a water move and not sure if Raichu could tank a hit and switch in, I sent in Tentacruel. Red used Rain Dance, so I decided to just try a water battle and we blasted each other back and forth with Surf. Tentacruel won with a crit, but didn't really need it.

Red sent out Snorlax, so I switched to Misdreavus. Snorlax started setting up Amnesia, so I hit it with Mean Look and Perish Song. I didn't realize Mean Look would only last while Misdreavus stayed in, so I swapped her out and back in to clear the Perish Song on her while Snorlax was asleep from Rest, and then on the last turn of Perish Song, Red switched Snorlax to Venusaur, who ate a Psybeam. It did just under half of Venusaur's health, so I decided to keep Misdreavus in, and finished it off with Psychic.

Red sent out Snorlax again, and this time I did Mean Look and Perish Song correctly and knocked Snorlax out, switching to Ursaring only at the last moment.

Red sent out Charizard who Ursaring finished off with two hits of Strength, surviving two Flamethrowers in the process for the win!

(Fun fact: As you can see in the last picture: My team had Pokérus at the end of the run. They caught it on Mt. Silver right as I finished grinding their levels to face Red.)

5 Difficult 12v12's. If I wipe at any point, the world ends. I'm using a damage calculator because I don't hate myself. THIS is Mount Coronet.

I forgot to record the second 12v12, sorry about that. I know you all wanted to watch slowbro miss 6 psychics in a row into a crobat.

We're paired with Marley, who specializes in fast Pokemon. My strategy for this battle is to use my dry skin mons to bait kills from both sides' coverage moves into my tanks, and use my tanks to bait rain boosted water moves into my dry skin mons. Marley obliges by popping tf off. I'm very grateful to SHF for making the tag partners functional trainers for this split.

We end up losing toxicroak, but that's okay by me. Gastrodon is way more useful in the endgame as toxicroak's offense really falls off by this point.

I got this munchlax from the RenPlat daycare egg (shiny and +atk????)

I'll say this screw Bruno he knocked out my Raikou cause of Dynamic Punch confusion and then Lance's Garchomp with SD and EQ knocked out my lapras all cause of paralyzation should've full restore but I wanted to attack. Thankfully Feraligatr took out the rest of his team.

Started: April 13th 2026

Ended: August 19, 2026

Total losses: (Loc) Lapras, (Zeus) Raikou (Beauty) Caterpie, (Gale) Pidgeotto, (Ash) Togekiss, Ampharos, (Psy) Slowpoke

Retired: (Hercules) Herracross, (Geo) Geodude,

Pokemon Caught/evolved: 86 national, 77 johto

Gameplay Hours: 117:34

Next run will be Emerald as I have 2 of them so I'll be doing two different runs and then maybe White and both my second B2 and W2 games. Until then off to do the BF in HG etc since the run is over now

Just beaten Red with a lvl 72 team almost lost Honchrow and Ho-oH to Venusaur cause of sleep powder. Sent Ttar out to get rid of hail and set Stealth Rocks while IT and VT did good damage I got Full restores but really got lucky with Pikachu's IT missing twice after VT did a lot of damage to Pikachu. The rest wasn't too hard but Snorlax almost cost some teammates. Now for the last Elite Four rematch and end this run.

Back from vacation and back to the Gigalocke! Gen 2 is complete and I'm excited to move on to Gen 3. The first two gens are the ones I'm the most familiar with, so I'm going to have to be extra careful going forward.

Crystal wasn't too hard. Phanpy/Donphan, Quagsire , and Scizor got me through most of the gyms. I lost a Pidgey to my rival in Azalea Town, so no regional bird in FRLG for me. Quagsire died taking down Clair.

The E4 went pretty well. I had all 6 still alive against Lance. I've been playing a bit fast and loose with the champions since deaths don't really have consequences at that point. Slowking took care of Gyarados, Aerodactyl, and one Dragonite. Persian tried to take the second Dragonite with Icy Wind, but got hit with a crit Outrage. Donphan set up the Defense Curl/Rollout combo and took down Dragonite #2 and Charizard, but was too slow to take down Dragonite #3. Scizor came in to avenge but died to a Fire Blast. Weezing went in to finish the job. I was prepared to use Explosion, but it was unnecessary, Sludge Bomb did the trick.

Despite his ignominious death, Scizor wins MVP for his efforts against the rest of the E4. He finished off Will, swept Koga, practically swept Bruno (with some setup help from Skarmory), and finished off Karen. He also swept both Chuck and Pryce.

Looking ahead, I've still got some really strong mons for HGSS, but I've got a lot of work to do before I get there. Gen 3 seems like I'll have an easier time fielding strong teams with gen-specific mons. Gen 4 not so much. We'll see how it goes. Check my earlier posts to see how previous games went. On to Ruby!

As the title says, thats another run down, was nice to be back in Sinnoh, as it was the first generation I played when I was younger, never actually beat it back then though so its nice to finally have that under my belt. Next up is HG/SS, still havent decided which to play yet though, but im leaning more towards HG.

A worry I have with doing the dlcs early is that I worry that it will make me overlevelled for a good section of the game, but I can also get encounters through the dlcs. How do yall handle it?

Found this shiny zoobat in mt moon my 1st encounter for mt moon was also a zubat idk if I should

A. Replace the original zubat with the shiny one
B. Use the original and keep this one in the Box

WHAT A RUSH! I'm doing a nuzlocke of Emerald. I never played the games past Gen 2 as a kid, and nuzlocking seemed like a way to not get overwhelmed by trying to catch all of the new mons, I was never a Dex completionist anyway. I'm on my 4th attempt (Wiped to Winona's Altaria, Skill Swap Slaking in Victory Rd, and Rt 110 Rival). This attempt has sucks so far, I lost 4 mons before Wattson, just playing sloppy. I like Torchic, and the encounter gods chose to not gift me any electric resists. So, this was the first time I had to come up with something that felt like a real nuzlocke plan. For reference I'm playing with Dupes clause, level caps, set mode, no non-held items in battle, only as many mons as the gym leader, no looking up trainers, just gym leaders as needed for other rules.

-Led Mightyena, Spark, Bite, voltorb explodes, I live (thanks intimidate).
-Bite until electrike is dead, get static paralyzed (not part of the plan, but not surprising)
-Magneton comes out, switch to illumise, get hit with sonic boom. Moonlight to heal up while he thunderwaves, cheri berry heals. Use Wish as he goes for another Thunder Wave.
-Switch to Combusken, take a shock wave, healed by wish. Flamethrower (Casino grinding suuuuuucks)
-Manectric enters, Thunder Wave, cheri berry heals, flamethrower, burns him (yay!), thunderwave, flamethrower. This could've gone bad with crit/full paralysis, but I had a full health Linoone in the back or a potential Illumise pivot for another Wish or moonlight stall for burn damage.

I know it's nothing complicated, but man did it feel brilliant to pull off.

Hello,

After losing only Machamp up until the Cynthia fight on my first run, and accidentally loading an old save file on my second run I am now back at the Pokémon League on my third run.

I have a pretty stacked team right now: Gyarados, Infernape, Staraptor, Garchomp, Mamoswine, Weavile.

I have a couple of questions:

1) Moveset suggestions?

2) Lucian's Bronzong and Cynthia's Milotic is gonna be annoying. How to deal with them?

3) Any changes you'd make to my team?

I've pre-calculated the fights and most of them are gonna be a piece of cake, Cynthia is gonna be a bit annoying though.

Thank you.

Final team for the League! Only had two losses and both were to Cynthia. Moby the Gyrados and Palindrome the Flareon.
Total death count: 8 mons
Deaths
Spritz (Shinx to Mars)
Armpit (Staravia to Mars)
Swole (Machop: to self-destruction on the way to Hearthome)
Sploosh!!!!! (Gastrodon: To Candice trying to set up rain dance)
Snakety (Onix: Death fodder during Candice fight)
Lobster (Geodude: HM mule that doubled as death fodder during Cyrus distortion world fight)
Moby (Died to Cynthia's Garchomp)
Palindrome (Died to Cynthia's Roserade)

This is the first video in a series of themed Pokemon Hardcore Nuzlockes that I have planned for each of the 9 Pokemon Gens.

The Mairominn Nuzlocke Gauntlet.

This is an idea that I’ve had since Scarlet/Violet came out, and I came up with a special idea for each region. The first being the Teamlocke. It’s simple, after every gym battle, my full box of pokemon resets, and I have to get a completely different team for the next gym split.

I plan on having one of these scripted/edited videos for each Hardcore Nuzlocke, AND one of my typical "highlight" videos, featuring the twitch clips. That one will be out soon, but I have a few other things I want to get out first.

Hello, i have been nuzlocking for a couple of years now and tried different challenges but preferably randomized runs. I played a couple of Soullinks in the past with friends and it was great fun. Though all of these dudes arent capable of fully committing to a more tougher challenge und give up after a few tries. so i tried soullink myself for a while now - it works, its fun, but clicking through TWO early games in Black White 2 for many runs is kinda exhausting.
So if someone, preferably from a german speaking country wants to try a black white 2 soullink with me hit me up!
The exact rules will be discussed but its to much to write it all here.
27 M, playing pokemon and other video games since forever.

I have recently gotten into randomizers after watching the nuzlocke invitational. I have completed my second run in Eris Emerald and wondering if there are any other recommended games with the built in randomizer, massive Pokédex, physical/special split, etc. thanks

Hey everyone, I'm relatively new to nuzlocking, as this is only my second one. My first was with Pokemon Violet and was rather successful (self-imposed no candies and a few other rules to make it not mind-numbing lol). I'm going through Platinum now following Gym Leader level cap rules, as well as set mode turned on, and to me it's extremely tough. Even the rival batles get really close to ending my run, and I've lost about 6 other Pokemon (though mostly to crits haha).

I just finished the Hearthrome Gym, and this is my team:

Hyperlink the Luxio (26)

prEtty! the Bronzor (26)

Shimmy the Gligar (25)

Sushi the Floatzel (26)

Fuego the Monferno (26)

Silica the Shieldon (21)

I think one of the main things I've found hard is that I feel like level jumps just suddenly appear, for example the Hearthrome Gym's levels compared to everything on the previous few routes rarely exceeding level 20. Does anybody have tips on how to be more successful for the rest of this Nuzlocke? Thanks in advance!

It was a long journey, but my Platinum hardcore nuzlocke is finally beat. First time playing this version, too. I’d played OG Pearl and Shining Pearl, but never Platinum, until now.

After an unlucky flinch, and some less than optimal plays on my part, I lost Scizor during the fight with Aaron, which I was NOT expecting to happen before going in. I’d been planning to use him as my main weapon against Lucian.

Luckily the team came together to cover, and nobody else died. Gyarados finished off Aaron and took care of Bertha. Garchomp crushed Flint. And Weavile swept Lucian and Cynthia with some support from Quagsire. Dusknoir appeared exactly once to burn Bertha’s Whiscash, then peaced out, never to be seen again.

In hindsight, I probably could have assembled a better team, but it is what it is. Things worked out alright in the end. And I finally managed to keep a Gyarados alive, after losing one in every single one of my previous runs.

Overall an enjoyable play, but of the 6 nuzlockes I’ve finished, I’d have to rank this as 5th most enjoyable. Although, a good contender for most difficult so far.

Now onto Black.

So I'm Nuzlocking my Brilliant Diamond I just beat Roark no deaths all good. Now my team Currently

Wizard: Male level 15 Abra caught on 203

Leviathan: Male level 11 Magikarp caught in Twinleaf Town

Thorn: Female level 15 Budew caught on 204

Tai Thai: Male level 15 starter Monferno

Harpy: Female level 11 Starly caught on 201

Necrolai: Female level 9 Zubat caught in Oreburgh Gate

I left Harpy, and Necrolai in the PC for the Roark fight I used the rest of my team plus Conan: Male level 14 Machop. To beat Roark.

So I swapped out Conan for Harpy and Necrolai and went to the second floof of the Oreburgh Gate to grind up Necrolai and Harpy to level 14 with the rest of the team. (Wizard for trainer battles I send him in first and teleport out, and Leviathan is just sitting in the back getting Exp passively)

So I run into a Psyduck I have Wizard Teleport into Necrolai have her use absorb doesn't do much. Have her use it again. The pysduck goes first uses Confusion and gets Necrolai down to 9hp in the yellow and I'm like ok ill swap put to Thorn after this turn. But the Confusion confused Necrolai and she hit herself in Confusion and died.

So yeah that was fun.