Everything You Need To Know About Starting A Nuzlocke In Pokémon Scarlet & Violet
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- Опубликовано: 14 дек 2022
- This video is meant to be a resource for people who want to start a Nuzlocke in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet! Let me know what other types of videos would be helpful in the comments down below!
Edited by FiveToedSloth - / @fivetoedsloth
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While I wouldn't personally use the rule myself, I think an Interesting way to incorporate the Revival Blessing move would be to have it so that you can use it whenever you have it, but ONLY if the Pokemon died in the battle that you use it. That way, it requires you to potentially sacrifice a team slot in Pawmot or Rabsca just to save a teammate you want. And if you don't bring them, then whoever dies is gone for good. It also means only 1 Pokemon comes back, so if multiple members die, you have to choose who you want more
You could also rule that the Pawmot/Rabsca using the move exchanges itself for the revived Pokemon, counting as dead after the battle, even though Revival Blessing doesn't KO its user. A soul for a soul.
Can't you use a leppa berry or sleep talk to use Revival Blessing more than once per battle?
Another potentially fun rule could be that you can revival blessing a mon during battle but it’s still considered dead after the battle.
I'd also limit it to a once a playthrough type of deal. Pawmot and Rabsca aren't horrible Pokemon so it'd be fairly easy to keep them on you and used abuse it a lot.
@@sapphire5780 That could be a thing. Once you use the move (with the whole "Pokemon dies in battle thing"), you HAVE to delete the move.
@@peanutkix That's an interesting use for it, I also enjoy that. Works especially well for Typelockes in my opinion
I like how you keep emphasizing "Do what YOU enjoy" while giving the overall summary of a nuzlocke...because in the end, we're playing the game to enjoy it in some way.
The most important rule for playing that I learned here is to have fun. I like to play by self-imposed rules even if I am not doing nuzlockes, but sometimes I self-sabotage my fun by being too strict with them. It's good to watch these videos when I overcomplicate things, it reminds me of what's important 👍
For encounters, I think my favorite suggestion to increase them is "you get as many as there are pokecenters in the area" rather than "met location only" because it buffs it to a number more on par with previous main series games. You can further restrict yourself by forcing your encounter to be near the pokecenter, but in places like near the bug gym, there's a pokecenter on either side of the town, which doesn't widen the encounter pool there at all - if you're doing repeat playthroughs, maybe look at the encounter table for the given area and play around with Serebii's interactive map to see where certain pokemon spawn? I think it only shows where set spawns are, but it's fairly easy to guess what else spawns in the area based on what the set spawn is - you can use that as the "new area related to x pokecenter in y area".
I like this suggestion a lot!
Not only does it allow you to have a similar amount of pokemon you would have in another pokemon, but also uses the exploration that Scarlet and Violet encourages.
Going by the map markers you can fly to, not just Pokémon Centres, I counted 59 locations total. Without the big city in the centre. Some extremely close together. But this rule does sound amazing. I'd maybe even add an "one wild Tera per cardinal direction" and
While this increases the total number of Pokemon at your deposal even further, and with more power, this can come at a high risk. If you don't go deep on serebii and look for the most optimal you can manage, you might face off against one that counters your team. And yes, Titans do count as wild Tera in my book. Or don't catch them at all, your call.
You can even make the Tera Den method a bit more "hardcore", releasing a Pokémon for every time you faint in it. You still get to keep the Mon of the Den, but it might come at a cost.
Thats a great idea actually I think I'll use that when for a future nuzlock i have been planning.
Yeah i did something similar where i could get a new encounter when i walked by a new pokecenter since there are very few areas
He also forgot to mention the rule “You must name each Pokémon” it doesn’t make the game any harder, but it makes it hurt a little more when you loose a Pokémon. Very much recommend
loose
these pokemans are all just minions anyway
@@Anand70707you sound like the evil team in every pokemon game
Because that isn’t actually compulsory, and I have seen far too many content creators that clearly do not want to nickname their pokemon do it anyway because they think it is. Point is you are not obliged to.
One thing to consider when using the Tera raid method of choosing encounters is that you lose an encounter. Tera Raids have a met location of “a Crystal place” meaning that they are their own encounter slot.
Edit: Most of the Team Star bases also allow for encounters. Unlike towns, wild mons from the surrounding routes don’t despawn when you enter a base, so you can often bait wild mons into the base to get a met location matching the base. Personally that feels a bit cheesy, but it technically counts.
Hell yeah, that's free lmao
If I ever do a Nuzlocke, the one common rule that I would never use would be that if your party faints you have to restart. That would be way too tedious for me personally.
That's how I've done my nuzlockes, even ones with stricter limits approaching those of "hardcore mode." As long as I have pokemon in the box that are available, I keep going.
3 hours tutorial hits harder than it should
Your point is completely valid
I restart when I lose because if I were to lose six really good Pokémon in a hard gym battle the run is probably over anyway
You should do one! It’s the most rewarding way to play imo
Just do checkpoints. Like if you white out, you reset back to a predetermined point, like the last gym or something.
6:08- Also, if you’re using Dupes Clause, a strategy might be to attempt to get every encounter for a specific area in other areas, in hopes you can make it more likely you’ll get a specific Pokémon for that area. For example, in a Sinnoh title, you might try to get as many of the Wayward Cave spawns as possible in other areas to increase your odds of having a Gible as your encounter.
I used tf out of that in my BDSP nuzlocke attempts, not necessarily for Gible (no more than one overlapping type and I usually already had Torterra+Gastrodon), but for the Underground encounters (which I usually used the honor system on; I tried blindfold but I always ended up running into a wall, rock, or river without actually encountering anything).
I did this in my first Ruby nuzlocke to gurantee myself Groudon. I didn't rule out legendaries in this one, as long as they are the first legit encounter (which I often to, but only two times so far I really come to use the legendaries: In Platinum, where Giratina is the only one in the Distortion World and in said Ruby). Dind't help me a bit. Died to a random trainer in Victory Roaddue to accuracy shenanigans -.-
I think a hardcore nuzlocke of SV that does not include the Starfall street bosses does yourself a disservice - the fighting type Eri fight is actually a difficult fight if you’re not prepared
Going in blind, my Bramblin got demolished by a rage fist since I didn't know what Anihilape was about. Completely agree that Eri is a menace, that adorable creature
I did that one last just by chance. I didn't really follow a guide in terms of doing the gyms/titans/bases. When I fought Eri though, so much tougher than I was expecting. It was the only time I almost lost, she was a lot of harder than I was expecting.
I think if I ever do a hardcore nuzlocke of this game, I would use the level caps of the gym leaders and stipulate that I can't challenge the gym until I defeat all titans and team star bases that are lower levelled than that gym. So in other words, if I've beaten 2 gyms so far and my next gym is Iono, I can't challenge the gym until I've defeated the stork titan and the dark type star base. That way, I can have a slightly more natural flow of the game while still fighting the bosses in a relatively correct order.
Not sure yet how I'd handle encounters, though; that's still my main block. Well, that and not owning a switch.
Starfall street is insane, that car is f*cking broken. I also don't recommend facing the trainers, especially the black box ones in hardcore nuzlockes. I was completely annihilated by them on my first attempt.
I'm doing a blind hardcore soullink and team star bosses are the hardest by FAR. Because it was a blind run we allowed ourselves to continue after a wipe, dark team star was our first (and only so far) wipe and team star has been responsible for the majority of deaths.
Remember that for reruns you can always disable cut scenes in the options menu to save time. On another note, I think the path of legends and starfall street are an essential part of the game (one of them gives upgrades to your ride), so skipping them in a nuzlocke would feel like you are not completing the full game. Finally, I don’t think they add that much time to the game. This game isn’t really that long to complete. I think the first run just feels long because everyone spent so much time exploring the open world.
I'm nuzlocking right now and keeping the other paths adds decent challenge, too. I haven't lost a single team mate to a gym leader after 4 gyms, but nearly wiped to Giacomo because I underestimated the difficulty and still lost a couple mons to the second star fight. It definitely felt too easy just going for gyms, at least for the first half of the game.
The skip cutscenes option only skips the fully cinematic ones. The majority are still in the overworld and using text boxes. So it’s mostly useless.
I fully agree with this. The other paths are equivalent to the rocket hideout or team magma quests, the only difference is before they were mandatory and unskippable.
The first two crews of Team Star have barricades near their bases, making early-game traversal more difficult. You can bypass them but it does take work to navigate if you do so.
my first nuzlocke i will be doing all three paths, after that i’ll probs just do the nemona route and then do the bike upgrades as and when i choose
The route rule in SV is something quite difficult to implement a universal rule, but I like the roulette wheel that PKChal utilised, it's fun and stays true to the formula.
Did he create that or was there a site for it that others could use?
@@sdjgfujds there's a bunch of roulette websites online that you can just put the encounters in yourself
@@ax9583 yeah, I would rather not go through the effort of putting the encounters myself lol.
@@sdjgfujds Literally just count the encounters in an area and roll a wheel with that amount of numbers, takes a single minute.
A nuzlock using only Tera raids would be very cool, it would definitely be the most random and add a lot of diversity especially with the random Tera types. I’d love to see you play around that lol
That was something I was recommending to Poketubers as well. Seems like the easiest solution. Maybe 1-2 tera dens per area.
You get random tera types which allows for some fun totally cracked strategies. For example I got a ghost terra croagunk with the dry skin ability meaning it was completely immune to all the moves that the water type gym leader's Crabominable could use
@@chriscunningham6401 or just have it so its one random tera raid encounter after each badge/star base
This is honestly such a lovely video!! What a great approach you have to alternative rulesets and welcoming newcomers
one of my favorite ways to play nuzlockes is the surprise trade method, it's chaotic and you'll often come up and find things you cant use, but it's an enjoyable way to completely randomize your encounters
Always fun for a second playthrough! Shit had me raging in XY lol
But what do you do if the mons you get are leveled way too high?
@@Boosterboy1994
Fuck it
@@Boosterboy1994 I just started a run with this method and the rule I made for myself is that if it's over the current level cap, I'll keep trading until I get a Pokemon under the level cap. But to keep it fair, I have to take the first Pokemon under level cap, no matter how low level it is.
@@Boosterboy1994 Accept it as a failed encounter, or hold it until I'm at a point where I can use it
i was a big fan of the tera raid encounter idea. i already started one a couple days ago-plus it usually means interesting tera type combinations
My solution to the areas being to large for a diverse encounter was to ignore the area names and focus on the different environments. e.g, east province area three mines/desert and the grassy area are two different encounters
“Do what you think will be most fun”
I absolutely love that advice, and the best advice from any professional Pokemon commentator on RUclips. This was an excellent video. I’ve been in aw of your Nuzlocking skills for years, thanks for the guidance and insights. I was way too critical on myself during my first few nuzlocke.
A suggestion for your Nuzlocke resources please : you often mention using damage calculations… how? And any limitations or issues with using those calculations?
There’s a damage calculator on Smogon that you can use to do damage calcs using whatever levels, IVs, and EVs you have
I love videos like these! I always love when you make like these little nuzlocke guides to go about first time nuzlockers. As well as how to get the most out of your encounters early game. I wouldn't mind if you put out more vids like this on occasion. I was initiated to do a Nuzlocke run of Violet cus of how encounters would work, but I think this is a good start
my paldea rule of nuzlocking is that since everything is visable on the overworld, embrace the spirit of "choosing your partners" explore, find pokemon in weird places, find how they interact and in the case you accidentally run into one you didn't see, it chose you as it's partner. I've used pokemon like this from paldea that I never thought I'd like, I was hunting my favorite pokemon (a ralts) and ran into an UGLY bird. The bird ended up on my champion team.
I was also hunting a rockruff, because I loved the tough midnight form, ran into a completely different mon and was HEARTBROKEN when it died. I feel like embracing the "hunt" of paldea, while not fully saying "i will only catch ralts" allows for stories where a pokemon chose you out of the wild, you reluctantly agreed, and a bond stronger than diamond was formed and maintained. Gave a lot more heart to games where I entered grass saw a pidgey and was like "man screw this turd" and threw it in the box never to be heard from again.
I caught a sliggoo the pokemon I called "the ugly slime monster" absolutely HATED it's evolution. When I got goodra durring a rainstrom I was like "at least it's powerful"
When Larry brought my precious goodra low ( due to bad plays on my part) I seriously got concerned, this lil homie had trusted me, and I needed to show it that it meant as much to me as i meant to it. I played my heart out to keep all my party alive and we survived. Made me realize that pokemon I generally hated, meant more to me than I knew they could.
This was very useful because I just started mine 2 days ago. Great Video :)
I had a blast with Violet and I'm really pleased to see this video. You do a fantastic job of being open and inclusive instead of hard-lined and gatekeeping. I love your channel, and your rule 0 of "literally just have fun, it's a self-imposed challenge for your enjoyment and don't lose sight of that" just raises my respect for you. Thank you for being so awesome, Dr. Flygon!
BTW you can change your mon's terra type at a specific restaurant; you need 50 terra shards of the new type though, so it's not trivial but it could matter for late bosses. IMO defensive or offensive terra is really useful in a challenge run's strategy like a single-pokemon challenge or nuzlocke, and I love that added dimension. Maybe Violet should be my first nuzlocke try.
Damn flygon! happy to be hear
This is actually really good information. My brother and I were planning to do a nuzlocke on Pokemon SV so I appreciate this video a lot. Thanks!
I've been planning to make a nuzlock comic and I've been going between sword & sheid and scarlet & violet and you're videos have been really helpful in making my choices so thank you !
Great video! I learned about focus sash and throat spray being reusable. Will definitely use those in my scarlet nuzlocke (main is Violet).
An idea for more encounters: Players could (if they want to) use the “pinwheel forest” clause in casseroya lake. 1. On the coastal/outer land. 2. In the water. And 3. On the islands.
Yay a flygon hg video! The notification got me excited
Thanks! I was planning on doing one and I love ur stuff
I personally would:
-Do all three routes and go all the way up to the end, as that's when the credits roll and imo it would be way too easy just going for the gyms and nothing else (the hardest fights are mostly Team Star if you use level caps)
-Use a roulette or RNG to determine the encounters. Then, because you can lure nearby Pokémon into the team star bases and therefore catch one extra encounter per base and the game has relatively few encounters, instead of doing that I allow myself one random tera raid Pokémon per star boss defeated (which makes five extra encounters per run)
-If I use revival blessing, then I use it as a temporary "zombification" revive. That is, I can only use it when a Pokémon has died within the same battle, and the "revived" Pokémon dies again anyways when the battle ends. This is not the same as using revives because you have to waste a move slot and kind of go with the expectation that one of your Pokémon is going to die, and considering you should never want anything to die in nuzlockes, the move becomes more situational than optimal.
Thank you for this video bro
Very helpful video! My son and I are about to start a Nuzlocke together and we were wondering how to do encounters. I love the tera raid encounter idea! Thanks!
Also, the Flygon Facts were very helpful as well!
Also he didn’t mention this in the video, but another common nuzlocke rule is to name every Pokémon you catch to form stronger bonds with them
I’ve chosen the secret option four for my Nuzlocke encounters, where I ask my friends to choose my encounters for me lol. I’ve just asked them not to be intentionally cruel since I’ve never finished one before (not due to wiping, just the tediousness of grinding), so I’ve gotten a fun variety of encounters so far. Helps that most of my friends haven’t played gen 9 and are just choosing based on vibes.
Thanks for the great talk Dr. Flygon!
Well this video couldn't have come out at a more perfect time for me. I've been wondering what I should do with Pokemon scarlet after finishing the postgame and Pokedex. I was debating whether or not to do a nuzlocke, but I think it's decided that I shall! :D 💜✨
Awesome video!
Was curious how to nuzlocke these games. Nice going FlygonHG
I think the encounter method I like most is the random number generator. Everything having an equal chance makes it feel like I'm still hunting for a cool Pokemon if I end up landing on a rare one, plus the rare encounters and less used ones are more interesting for nuzlockes
Omg another flygonhg video! 🤩
I can see using revival blessing in the same battle you've "saved" the Pokemon, but if the battle ends the Pokemon is dead. That way if you want the Pokemon back, you have to get pawmot in and safe, which may be hard depending on the fight, and I think would make bringing back the Pokemon really tense
I’m in the middle of a steel type hardcore nuzlocke of scarlet and that tip of reusable air balloons is gonna be a life saver, thanks dude this video rocks.
Great video!!
I played a Violet Nuzlocke blind for my first playthrough, and though I always play on easy mode (using items), I got around the lower number of potential encounters with an extra optional rule: For each badge I got (from any storyline), I could do the nearest Tera Raid for an extra catch. I didn't even end up using most of them, but it was good to have some extra options.
fantastic!
I’m gonna start a hardcore nuzlocke of violet raid den mons only. My first ever project on RUclips. This video is a huge help. Love your content and would love to see you do your own raid den mon only run!
This is such a nice video resource for nuzlockes in this game. I’m ready to start my Tera Raid-Locke!
Great video and a big help, I think I've got the rules down for my first nuzlocke. Really appreciated the anti-gatekeeping at the end, very well said.
I really like the combination of the raid dens supplemented by a wheel spin for areas that don't get them or have any active. You have the potential to get some good tera typings while still having near complete randomness.
Really appreciate the video as I've been considering doing a Nuzlocke but not sure how to make the encounters work with this one, so the Terra raid info was actually really handy. Think once I get it sorted emulator side to avoid how bad it runs on Switch I'll give it a go.
I like the encounter rules that you put forward, I think personally I’m going to do one natural encounter and one raid encounter to help with the more random aspect of the nuzlocke while giving me more options
something that could also be done for encounters is go into a new area and just run straight through the area (either that or wildly zigzag through), and whatever pokemon you run into first is your new team mate, that's something i did for my pokemon Shield run.
Your the man thank you
It's worth noting that the Team Star Bases are distinct locations, which start before you enter the base itself. Entering these areas doesn't despawn nearby pokemon, so chucking a ball at whatever pokemon is nearest when you're in one of them gives another 5 encounters which can help a ton
Love the video
The Tera Raid method was what I had been personally planning on using when I do another run (for my first blind run of the game, I wanted to specifically only use new pokemon, as I always do in new generations, so I just caught the first new pokemon/new form I found in each area). I play with randomizers a lot more than I play through the games the normal way though, so the randomness of it isn't a problem for me.
As a brazilian fan of your chanel I love that you used the “math lady meme” or whatever it is called. She is a very famous villain from a soap opera from the 2000’s in Brazil lol. I always love to see this meme hahaha, loved the video as well as always Flygon
An idea: a mono-color run (like your pink run) of Scarlet or Violet, with ONLY red or purple pokemon (obviously whichever fits the game). Maybe Violet so it doesn’t turn into a mono-fire run?
This was exactly what I was looking for.
Good video and much needed information for the discussion on how to nuzlock these games. Wh”Would you do a video on what you think are some of the better encounters to try and get in SV for a nuzlock? I think some of the more obvious early game ones are Flamigo, Riolu, and Tandamause (sp?).
Thanks for listing all the encounters
This guide is helping me do my own scarlet nuzlocke which at this point I'm 8/8 in gym badges, 5/5 in titans, and 4/5 in star badges. I'm currently preparing for the elite 4, but when I was doing the team star questline I noticed that if you stand near the edge of the team star bases and encounter a pokemon or throw a ball triggering a battle it counts as meet in the team star base. SO this adds 5 more areas to catch pokemon if you know what your doing.
For encounters, it might be fun to set a timer, then allow yourself to roam around the area. So like you give yourself one minute to zoom across Cassaroya Lake, for example, looking for a specific Pokemon. If you spend all your time looking for a low-rate encounter, you might squander it and have to catch something undesirable before time runs out.
I thought of doing the Tera Den method too. Definitely going with that when I Nuzlocke.
You make me wish I was a gamer, I love your passion for Pokemon
Thank you for making this, been wanting a good way to approach nuzlockes but gen 9 is so different it's hard to figure out how
Thank you, I am going to do my first Nuzlocke with Violet, but I really didn't know how to make the first encounter rule work, so the the Tera Den method is exactly what I'm going to do, wish me luck!
great video
You have good taste in dragon types. Flygon is also my favorite by far!
I use a lot of random number generators just in general, flipping coins or the like in order to choose the next show I'm gonna watch, next comic I'm gonna read, etc. So pulling up that list and giving it a whirl would be really fun for sure!
With the method number 2 of RNG manip, making a Sandwich/buying some meals can be a pretty good option if you allow yourself to use the Camp feature!
Since the encounter chance boost is pretty noticeable even at level 1, you can kinda force a spawn on even some rarer Pokemon like with Charcadet or the different formes of Tauros :)
I love the idea of the tera raid den. But i also think challenge type encounters are another super fun way. I'm doing a flying type right now
I haven't played any Pokemon besides PoGo for years and years. Got my partner Violet version for Christmas, she absolutely loves it, I find it just ok.
But after watching your video, I really want to give it a proper go, as a Nuzlocke. It seems like a new and exciting way to play! Thank you ^^
I think I'd combine the pin and tera methods thusly: One pin per area, and one den as a reward after each story milestone. Although I feel like getting eighteen extra encounters that way might be a bit generous, so maybe just have one Tera raid per completed story section, with the nuzlocke ending as soon as the credits roll after the big final battle at the very end. But I have yet to try, and since difficulty isn't always trivial, maybe starting softer and then upping the difficulty going forward.
My personal rule is that revival blessing can only be used the battle that the revived pokemon fainted. Pawmot and Rabsca aren't exceptionally powerful without it, so there is considerable downside to using it. I would limit it to one revival blessing per team though, as having a Pawmot AND a Rabsca might be a bit much. I also don't use Leppa berry on it cuz that's also quite a bit
Regarding “Revival Blessing,” here are a few interesting ideas to incorporate it into a run:
Idea 1: You can use it to revive any Pokémon that used a “sacrifice” type move in that battle (e.g. Explosion).
Idea 2: You can use it to revive any Pokémon as that fainted in that same battle.
The first opens up the use of various “sacrifice” moves that would otherwise have to be saved for one time use. Both idea 1 and idea 2 would require the revival be done in the same battle as the fainting. This introduces the risk that your Revival Blessing user might be taken out and takes up a move slot. Most people who ban Items in Battle allow for moves that mimic those items (e.g. you can’t use X Attack, but you can use Swords Dance). This does break the basic rule of all Nuzlockes (fainting = death), but it opens up some interesting battle strategies without breaking the challenge wide open, so I think it would be good content to allow it.
You probably know that using the Picnic will despawn all currently spawned Pokémon, and will now spawn new Pokémon around you when you pack up.
I intend to incorporate this in my Nuzlocke. I'll decide where I want to go (like Pin Drop, but with less blind folding), and I'll catch one of the first Pokémon that spawns after I leave a picnic.
Edit: I also believe all stories could/should be at least partially completed during a Nuzlocke.
Victory Road should be the final goal (with the Nemona battle being the official end imo), but the other stories offer great rewards that would help any Nuzlocke (IE: newly unlocked TMs from Starfall, and the dashing/swimming/climbing abilities from Titans at least).
Evil Teams and other plot devices exist in other games, so it wouldn't hurt to do a few for the rewards you get BUT STILL under the stipulation that it's a nuzlocke and if a Pokémon dies in the Starfall or Titans stories, then it's still dead. It's not like you would just say "well my Emboar died to Ghetsis who isn't a Gym Leader, so it doesn't count".
All three stories should be mandatory, so far the Team Star bosses have been significantly harder than the gym leaders for me (I'm still on my first run, got a bit distracted with exploration and then other games, but i plan to finish it). And the titan's unlock powerups for your ride legendary that i view as the equivalent of HMs. (Just as you wouldn't ignore Giovanni you wouldn't not get surf, admittedly both of those are mandatory in kanto)
What I did was a random number generator but if I landed on a Pokémon I already caught then I could do a terra raid den. That way the rare raid den Pokémon I could find felt special as well as getting those rare terra types
I think a good explanation of your thought process for replacing a fainted team member would be good for a video. Oftentimes I struggle with figuring out what Pokemon will work best on a team and what needs to go back in the box when I've lost a core team member.
LOVE the Fearow cosplay
For your big nuzlocke resource guide plz include a section on how you run calculations!
A variation on the terra-raid encounter rule I've been trying is to also allow myself to catch an pokemon near the terra-raid I chose as my encounter, giving me 2 encounters per area. Since this gen has fewer "areas" but just as many boss battles I feel it doesn't break the rules of a standard nuzlocke and gives me a chance to play with new pokemon. Plus, as you learn what pokemon spawn in what sections of an area, you can start deciding which terra-raid (if there's multiple) to go for based on what wild encounters are around it.
You make a compelling case to only include the victory road story in a gen 9 nuzlocke. I was originally going to go through the whole thing again but I’m probably going to rethink that!
I wanted to play blind, and I kind of hate the "blindfold walking" methods, so I have my own encounter method. It seems complicated, but I find it way more fun, as it encourages exploration:
DRAFT BOX METHOD:
1. Using your starter and some burner Pokémon, catch every Pokémon you see up until the first badge, either by exploring or raiding, and put them into a box.
2. Use a random number generator or die to pick your first Pokémon (besides your starter, if you're using it).
3. All Pokémon that have a final evolution that shares any type with the Pokémon you picked in Step 2 are removed from the box.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have a team of six.
5. Continue to fill the box as your adventure continues, and any time a Pokémon faints, roll for a new Pokémon that does not have a final typing that overlaps with any of the final typings already on the team.
6. You cannot use any Pokémon in the same evolution line more than once, and you can't have repeats in your draft box.
7. You must aim to have 2-3 Pokémon of each type in your draft box to ensure randomness and a full team. This won't be easy at first with some rare types like Dragon. But Paldea has more than enough Pokémon to make this workable before the first gym.
OPTIONAL RULE: After each badge, you can "re-roll" any Pokémon on your team for something that doesn't share final typings with the other Pokémon on your team, but the Pokémon you replace is permanently boxed as if it fainted. You can tweak this as you like; the purpose is to avoid players purposefully letting Pokémon they don't like faint.
My personal favorite rule is catching only one Pokémon before each gym and the E4. So, in most games with the addition of your starter that gives you a total of 10 encounters. I was actually inspired by John a.k.a PM7's old gamblelocke series, although he did it for a randomizer and I try to do it in regular games.
And to make it a little more rewarding you can count all the star bases and titans too
I had some ideas for how to make nuzlocke encounters work for SV.
1) Do your best to avoid all wild Pokémon until you get to the first Pokémon center. Once you do, close your eyes and then spin the camera around and start walking forward until you find a Pokémon. If you accidentally run into a Pokémon before you get to the Pokémon Center, that’s your encounter.
2) Each named location has an additional available encounter. The reasoning behind this is twofold: SV has fewer “routes” than any other Pokémon game, and due to the fact that every area has multiple spawn pools determined by the type of terrain/biome and/or location within an area. For the encounter method, if an area has multiple Pokémon Centers, go to one of the other Centers and repeat the encounter method from before. Alternatively, the pin drop method could be used.
With this game in general I do a Mono type nuzlock. I allow myself to get any pokemon of that type but only one of that line. I additionally made a new rule for my play through that I call the 'Wild Card' which is I can catch and use any shiny pokemon in my game regardless of any previous rules (though I can not use dupes of shiny pokemon, like if I caught a pawmi that was shiny and found another pawmi that was shiny I can't use the second on..still gonna catch it though). I add added this rule because of how often i found shiny pokemon while playing, and while I don't go out and hunt for them (its not really an effective use of your time in a nuzlock anyway) it added that bit of added 'random' element to the game and felt rewarding to run across them.
My tip is that, once you get the ride pokemon, get a pokemon off the coast of Cabo Poco and return to the cave where the Houndoom attacks for great items and a high chance for a fire type.
what ive done to enact actual randomness is that I will do choose a tera raid in the area, and whatever pokemon it is is my encounter (provided species clause is not taken into consideration). This both gets me my random friend, and also gives more varied tera types, disallowing (usually) the ability to just terastylize my pokemon for bonus stab to steamroll the game. EDIT: commented before i got to the part where you acknowledged it
Here's my take on Nuzlockes and what works for me:
- I follow similar hardcore rules to increase the difficulty of fights with set mode, level caps, no items, anime rules, etc.
- I still only allow the first unique eligible encounter of each area
- However, I do not abide by death=release or reset unless I choose to do so
For me, the challenge of all the other rules keeps things incredibly fresh for each playthrough and I love the diversity of each run. I just simply don't have the free time to constantly restart runs and dump pokemon. If I did, it would probably take me weeks or months to finish one run with the limited time I have for the game.
To me, this is an example of doing what's most fun and best for you, not caring about what others think. Is it a traditional nuzlocke? Of course not, but the games are still challenging and level caps severely limit my flexibility enough to still be fun. I still have to reset occasionally if I mess up and overlevel key pokemon, but that's entirely avoidable and a punishment that feels suitable to the crime. At least imo.
I think the rule I'd choose for encounters is to set a pin and walk in a straight line (as much as possible) and the first pokemon to get in your line of sight is your encounter
I really liked this video, I'm going to restart my violet run and do a nuzlocke this time
You don’t have to reset your run , you can just make an alt account on your switch
Beautifly is that mon for me. I was lucky and got one with the Modest nature in ORAS a few years back, and it certainly did more work than I would’ve thought.
I've been using the mini map to help limit the pokemon I can catch. Combining that with the random pin drop mentioned in the video should get you pretty close to fully random encounters.
Oh yeah cuz the minimap will show nearby Pokémon and then you can randomize those. That’s a good idea honestly
A fourth encounter method I saw suggested by a user on the Nuzforums was something we'll call the "Mark Method" - Basically, you know how Pokémon have a small chance of having marks that give your Pokémon little titles, right? This user's suggestion was that you catch every Pokémon you see in an area, until one of them has a mark (excepting ones that are guaranteed or are granted by player actions after being caught, like the Titan, Mightiest, Partner, and Gourmand marks), and then whatever the first Pokémon with a mark was, that's your actual catch for the area, and the rest get released. This does mean you'll probably be going through a lot of Poké Balls, but it adds some neat extra flavor to your encounters, giving them a bit more personality with their unique marks and titles and all, which can be especially helpful for the Attachment aspect of Nuzlockes, or if you're documenting it as a comic or written story like a lot of us over there do. Helps me stand out from the countless other Pokémon of the same species just that little bit more, yknow?
thanks fopr the video so i can start my own nuzlock(wonderlock) on gen 9 finaly
The nuzlockes I’ve attempted so far have been monotype, and I pick my encounters. It’s not random, but there’s always been less Pokémon available than valid encounters anyway, so I’d be getting around to most of them, if not all, anyways.
And there’s more than just Tera Raids available in those higher level areas! There’s so many good TMs all over the place!
If you’re playing with type restriction or something else that limits the ‘legal’ Pokémon, I’d recommend still grabbing Pokémon you can’t use in battle. The Mirror Herb item lets you copy Egg Moves without needing to breed a whole new Pokémon! It’s like trading an encounter for a fancy TM or something.
Also, EV training it super easy in these games! As soon as you hit Mesagoza you can buy at least one Power item, and once you leave you can get access to easy things to grind EVs out on. There’s a small island just south of your home that you can jump down to and everything that spawns there gives Speed EVs. Poco Path has Lechonk, Tarountula, and Hoppip for HP, Defense, and Special Defense, respectively. And the cave you follow Koraidon/Miraidon into at the beginning has Yungoos and Houndour for Attack and Special Attack!
That cave also has the TMs for Dragon Dance and Phantom Force, as well as the exit up top having Pollen Puff nearby, which are all great moves if you have anything that can learn them as early on as they’re available.
I’ve been having a lot of fun so far, even if I haven’t got past Team Star’s Fire Base yet on any of my attempts.
5:46 for encounter in this game i use a roulette with the possible encounter of that area and wherever it lands on is the thing i catch
I am doing one I've been calling a favlocke, where instead of the first encounter of a route, I've generated a list of my favorite pokemon that are in the game, and then whenever I beat a major battle in the game (gym, rival, titan etc) I award myself one of the ones from my list based off what type that fight was (eg and ice pokemon for beating the ice gym). Sure you loose the appreciation for pokemon you wouldn't normally use, but instead it makes it extra painful when one dies because its amongst your favorites.
If I ever get the courage to Nuzlocke Scarlet (I just finished Violet, so I at least know what I'm getting into), I'll probably use your described mix of "Blindfold Pin Drop" and "Random Number Generator"; though I think Pokemon can eventually despawn if you wait long enough, so I might just set up the RNG early on and just count my encounters clockwise from where I'm facing when I look around just to minimize the odds of losing a good encounter.
Also a common rule of mine is to avoid using Pokemon from previous generations, just to avoid falling back on old staples like Crobat (like you said, part of the appeal is using Pokemon I wouldn't otherwise give a second thought to). In the past, if my first Nuzlocke encounter was an older Pokemon I was just screwed for that route. It didn't occur to me until I saw your "X Pokemon Only" Nuzlockes that I could just...not count those unusable encounters any more than I count dupes. Got halfway through Nuzlocking every generation before I learned that was a possibility.
If you decide to do Tera raids for your encounters, I hope you like taking notes. The summary says you met in a crystal cavern which means you have to recall which area you did raids . I am attempting a hardcore nuzlocke of violet using tera raids. I also consider a raid encounter a fail if I totally lose the raid and if I lose the raid, I also lose the Pokémon I used.
A good way to help with encounters is to do one normal one then a raid for every new route
A method I've seen proposed is that since Paldea is cut up into squares, each square is an encounter. This gives you closer to 50, like other games, and let's you look around for a good "first" encounter. But there's still risk; you can't decide beyond what you encounter. If a Tauros charges you or a Tarountula hides behind a bush ... Well there's your teammate! Just like a normal nuzlocke. Sure you KNOW Abra is in this grass, but it won't matter if an Oddish pops out first.
In all other Pokémon games, you have to defeat the evil team as part of the main story, so I think you have to include the Team Star bases in standard Nuzlocke rules. All mainline games through generation 7, LGPE, and PLA required unlocking field moves either via the Hidden Move (HM) system, techniques (HMs for your starter), or via the ride Pokémon system. They all required you beat a gym or some part of the island trial to progress. For this reason, The Path of Legends story, where you search for Herba Mystica (HMs , lol), should also be considered part of the standard rules.
In terms of story beats, Area Zero does feels like more of a traditional post game activity, similar to the Mewtwo fight in Red and Blue. While most traditional players might hold that going to the credits is required, I think going to the Nemona battle in the middle of the main city is an appropriate “championship” fight in line with past games. While you can do any order, it feels more like a final fight than the other two stories and has the correct level cap to be the end (i.e. level 66 is in line with past Champions such as Cynthia). This wouldn’t be the first time ignoring the credit timing works out better. For example, I would argue that PLA doesn’t end until you do the last human boss fight, since that literally concludes the original story and gives closure as to why you are in the region in the first place. Some could argue that defeating Arceus should be the end, but I have a hard time supporting the idea that the last battle of a Nuzlocke could be won with no Pokémon battle at all (not to mention the huge increase in time commitment). I suppose someone with a living dex in Home might consider just dropping them in to activate the Arceus fight as a capstone, but making it part of the standard rules is likely asking too much of an average Nuzlocke player.