The Pokemon Thread

[P_3]

I put that mission on hold until I find an Alpha. There's enough to be getting on with.

[igor_balis]

just started a platinum nuzlocke this morning, just got the 2nd badge then had my entire team swept by a random grunt's kadabra :drool:

[Baz]

If anyone's still playing Shield: Pokémon Shield Shiny Zacian

E110BJPD9QHXULD5

Expires today.

I can get Sword too if anyone wants one?

[Browning]

New game just announced, starters are floating around already.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1497943226942115840

Pokemon Purple :drool:

Annoyingly the water starter looks the best but I'm a fire boy.

[Gray Fox]

It's a Duck. With a hat on.

What more does a man want?!

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

A fire duck with a hat on.

[P_3]

Looks good. Seems like they took the open world elements of Legends Arceus and put towns in. Will be interesting to see what else they bring across.

Whilst I enjoyed the majority of my time with Legends Arceus, by the end of my playthrough I was bored of the catching to increase the pokedex loop. Got myself to Star Member Level 10 and got the shiny charm, then had enough.

[Browning]

I only got to Arcanine in legends before I got bored. Just not a lot of substance really.

[Browning]

I've just discovered Squirdle (Pokemon Wordle) and yea.... RIP my free time.

[Browning]

Decided to potentially try a Genlocke (Nuzlocking each game in order and any members of your winning league team get carried over to the new game as eggs) as I've been so bored lately after not getting on with Elden Ring at all. Was working through Fire Red slowly (about 1 gym per day) and finished it off tonight. It was.... eventful. The highlights:


- Rules are no items in battle, set mode and also no guaranteed encounters at all (so no Snorlax, no gift Pokemon, nothing from the game corner etc). also level caps to the highest level of the Gym Leader.
- Starter was chosen (and will be in every gen) by Random Number Generator.
- The RNG gave me.... Charmander. I was buzzing to begin with as he's my all time favourite Pokemon (yes, I'm that basic) but it soon became clear this was a bit of a curse. He's just not that useful at all in Kanto and Blastoise is a bit of a cunt to deal with. I wish I had got Bulbasaur as I feel like Gyarados/Charizard would be easier to plan around... but it is what it is.
- Fire Red is shit compared to Leaf Green and I would have chosen LG if I did my homework properly. Psychic types are just so good but FR not having Slowbro or Starmie makes the options very limited.

The first major losses came against Misty. I assumed my Level 21 Gloom was going to make light work of her and it would have done if she didn't get all the luck in the world. Confusion off Water pulse combined with me hitting myself every time.... I switch Gloom out and hit a Sand Attack with Pidgeotto before she left him on 1HP.... at which point I decided to sack off my Zubat and let it die. I then went back to Gloom knowing I was dead to Critical Swift but if she didn't get a Crit that exact turn I could heal up enough off Absorb..... of course she got a crit that exact turn and KOed Gloom. Butterfree also went down before she was weak enough for my 1HP Pidgeotto to Quick Attack her to death. Still, with Charmeleon and Pidgeotto in the team plus a Diglett to come from the cave, we were going to fine for the next 2 gyms at least...

I stressed a lot over Sabrina and Koga. In the end I decided to use Gengar who I used my 1 Psychic TM on to take out Koga with ease. Sabrina was harder to plan for but luckily I had a Poliwhirl I could In Game Trade for a Jynx. After buying her a Shadow Ball TM, she might light work of Sabrina, although it could have been a lot harder. Her Mr Mime set up +4 defense and then Baton Passed to Alakazam meaning Shadow Ball (fucking Physical/Special split...) did nothing. Somehow though, Ice Punch KOed it easily (I thought she would have good Special Defense but... I guess not).

Blaine should have been a pushover but he wasn't. His fucking Ponyta paralysed my Gyarados with Bounce after I set up rain.... and due to not moving so many times Gyarados wasn't going to last past the Arcanine. I swapped in Gengar thinking he could do some work with Psychic only to get one shot by fucking Fire Blast. One shot..... like... seriously? My best answer to Giovanni just gone. Charizard mopped it up with a couple of digs but that loss stung a lot.

Giovanni still proved easy as Gyarados swept him and we headed to the Elite 4 with:

Charizard, Pidgeot, Gyarados, Machamp, Jynx and Electrode

Lorelei was going about as easy as possible as Electrode just beat the shit out of her, until Lapras tanked a Thunderbolt and confused him. After hitting himself twice, Electrode was in bad shape but still had a roll to play to I swapped to Gyarados. She didn't really have an answer to that and we won the Surf Vs Ice Beam slog. She then had only Jynx left so I swapped to my own Jynx (because it had Shadow Ball) but she put me to sleep and then crit 3 fucking Ice Punches in a row. Jynx was still alive but was going to die if I kept her in so I swapped to Machamp who also fell asleep and I was worried at that point... but luckily he woke up after only 2 turns and one shot the bitch with Revenge.

We don't talk about Bruno (because he's shit) but Agatha was trolly as ever. I thought Charizard could do some work but after she Full Restored her Gengar he was definitely going to go down to Toxic if I didn't switch and she had set up 3 Double Teams. My only answer to that was Electrode as he had Shockwave and that proved enough to get rid of Gengar after 2-3 shots. Arbok and Golbat went down easily. Electrode nearly beat her 2nd Gengar but another Full Restore and her using sleep denied him the chance so I switch in Pidgeot who nailed her with 2 Sand Attacks before having to switch out as well. Gyarados comes in and takes some damage after Hypnosis/Nightmare/Sludge Bomb but is eventually able to surf her down and then 2 hit the Haunter.

Lance was relatively easy but not without our first casualty of the league. Electrode clipped down Gyarados easily and then I swapped in Gyarados to Ice Beam down the Dragonaire. In came Aerodactyl (the reason I went with Gyarados over Jynx) and 2 surfs took him out but he did do a lot of damage with Ancient Power. The second Dragonaire hit Outrage to leave Gyarados weak and we actually froze it with Ice Beam but it has fucking Shed Skin. I didn't fancy sending Jynx out to take an Outrage to the face and with no real use for him going forward, I sent in Machamp who was able to KO the Dragonaire but would have no shot against Dragonite. He did better than expected to be fair to him, getting Dragonite low on health with a Revenge and a Cross Chop.... but went down to a huge Wing Attack and an outrage. At this point it was safe to send in Jynx and Ice Beam him down. And then there were 5....

It was important to get Jynx to this stage as she had wrecked the rival so many times. One Ice Beam was easily enough to take out both Pidgeot and Rhydon to give us the numbers advantage. He then sent in Arcanine and after my experience with Blaine I figured Charizard could handle it with Dig.... but after taking a Flamethrower on the switch and 2 Extreme Speeds he was looking weak. I wasn't going to have my starter fall in the final battle so I swapped in Gyarados who finished off Arcanine with surf. Alakazam came in next and I wasn't fucking about..... Hyper Beam, bye. This however did let Exeggutor set up Light Screen while we recharged. With no moves that could do much through the light screen I sent in Pidgeot who almost got the KO with Fly but he Full Restored... and then put Pidgeot to sleep and he slept for SO LONG. By the time he woke up, I knew it was better to just let him die then it was to switch and lose momentum. He did hit one final Fly to deal serious damage but then went down. It was check mate at this point though. Jynx came in with Light Screen gone to finish it off with Ice Beam and then as his final Blastoise, who had been a pain in my arse all run came out..... there was only 1 thing for it. Perish Song. After that I put him to sleep and then switched to Electrode to hit some pointless Flashes.... and just let the cunt Perish. We make it and Charizard, Jynx, Electrode and Gyarados get to make some babies to join us in Heart Gold or Soul Silver.

Fuck me this would have been very different if I remembered there was still no physical/special split in this gen though. Gyarados is pretty fucking trash without it, there's no way he would struggle as much as that if they remade Kanto with an actual functioning battle system....

Still though, Jynx and Electrode were both relatively new experiences for me, and they were cool to use, although Jynx getting no STAB Psychic move was a bit shit.

Edit- Sadly, this has probably died after just the 1 game, so I guess it's just a Fire Red Nuzlocke for now. I just for the life of me can't figure out how to edit in eggs to a game. I downloaded "PKHex" which everyone recommends but it won't even open my HeartGold save data as the file is "too big" and when I tried to edit eggs into Fire Red as a test they were always illegal no matter how much I edited them because it kept saying you can't receive an egg at that location.... for every location. I can't figure out how to add the eggs and editing the encounters on a route doesn't seem to be any easier. RIP.

I could use actual hardware but I'm not even convinced they still have online trading support for HGSS, and if they do, I don't know if i'd find anyone who can breed what I need and trade them.

[P_3]

I've never bothered with anything beside traditional Nuzlockes, as it tends to be complicated and impractical. You could maybe try the opposite to Genlocke, not using Pokemon that have died/you used in previous games. That is much easier to administer.

[Browning]

I actually managed to get it working last night, somehow. So I was able to start Heart Gold with eggs of Charmander, Smoochum, Magikarp and Voltorb while the RNG gave me Chikorita. I was told by someone I discussed this challenge with that while starting with multiple mons sounds easy it isn't... and I didn't believe him, but after last night I see what he meant. While Faulkner was a piece of piss, the grinding needed to get a full team to the level cap was insane and very scary as they were all so frail. I haven't even bothered with Magikarp yet and I won't until the Level Cap is high enough for him to evolve. Charmeleon seems pretty broken though as he's just learned Dragon Rage.... so RIP my opponents for a while I guess.

[P_3]

Glad you've got it working. Its not like you have to use them all though, Voltorb can probably go and Chikorita is terrible against pretty much all the Gyms. Build around Charizard, Gyarados and Jynx and you're set.

[Browning]

Yea, that is true. That said I would feel bad binning off one of my Gen 1 Champions unless he dies at some point. We'll see what I encounter I guess. In hindsight it would have been better if Gengar/Machamp had made it in his place, but as I said it was a relatively new mon to me, and he did put in some decent work. That speed stat is incredibly useful.

But I agree on Chikorita, once the babies can all fight for themselves reliably I'm not sure it has a role. I need to refresh my memory on what the E4 are packing and plan around them I guess.

[Dan]

1507372506092556296

:drool:

The original Blaze Black/Volt White are top tier Tom hacks, so updates should be in the Radical Red tier of amazing.

[Browning]

Whitney is, as always, a massive cunt.

I didn't get a Drowzee to trade for Machop which wasn't ideal so I decided to train up both Onix and Geodude to resist her. I also taught Charmeleon protect in case he had to switch in while she had built up Rollouts, but I hoped it wouldn't come to that. I lead with Geodude purely because I'm bored of using them so if I lost him to a freak Metronome/Razor Leaf or something I wouldn't care as much. He was able to Rock Smash his way through Clefairy with no issue and then the Miltank came in. Rock Smash was doing enough combined with Defense drops that even after her Super Potion Geodude was on course to win but she Stomped him enough times that she got him into crit range. I could have risked it but with Onix in the back I figured it wasn't worth it so I switched in Onix to "finish" Miltank off, but between Attract immobilising him and Stomp flinches, plus a crit at the wrong moment, she dropped Onix to 1HP after he had attacked her once in 8 or 9 turns (1 more attack would have KOed for sure as she was on 1HP). I wasn't willing to lose Onix so I switched in Nidorino who I just got and he survived 2 stomps.... but of course he flinched on the 2nd one and still couldn't deliver the final blow. I then sent in Bayleef and she finally used RollOut.... which ended the match because she was locked in and therefore couldn't use Attract/Flinch BS. We finished it off, with no deaths, but fuck me she got as much luck as I've ever seen.

The reality is we were only ever going to lose 1 Pokemon maximum as if she had killed anyone I could have sent in Charmeleon, used protect to break RollOut if it was built up and then KOed with Dragon Rage.... which maybe should have just been Plan A... but oh well. It worked, but it was more stress than it should have been.

The team I used for Whitney was- Bayleef, Charmeleon, Onix, Geodude, Nidorino and Voltorb, but with Smoochum/Magikarp in the box both of those probably come in for Geodude and someone else.

[Baz]

I’m enjoying the concept and admire how quickly you smash through games.

Voltorb still going strong is fun. :cool:

[Browning]

Fuck me the Rival Fight before Gym 4 was nearly a disaster.

With Gym 4 being Ghost type and my team not having a real answer I made several changes at once, dropping Nidorino, Onix and Geodude from the above team to bring in Magikarp, Rattata and Zubat. The downside was of course that a ridiculous amount of grinding was needed to get them up to par as they were all Level 5. I focused on Karp and got him to 20 and then got bored so decided to carry on even though Rattata and Zubat were only level 14 and 15. I wasn't going to use them in the Rival Fight so it would be fine..... right? Well I underestimated his fucking Gastly, sending in Zubat to steal some EXP and then switching to Gyarados. He landed Confuse Ray on Gyarados and I hit myself in confusion twice while he used Mean Look and then cursed me and then hit lick and paralysed me. Thankfully I snapped out of confusion and one shot him with Bite just as the Curse dropped my returning champion to 7HP.... that was a real heart in mouth moment and I should have just one shot the cunt instead of trying to get EXP on the Bat...

Still.... there would be no issues now..... surely? In came his Magnemite and I switch to Voltorb and he hit Sonic Boom on the switch. No big deal, I have 45HP and it does 20 every time.... but next turn my Sonic Boom left him just under half and then he paralysed me with T-Wave. I then couldn't move 2 turns in a row but luckily the idiot used Supersonic which my ability blocks. He then hit me with another Sonic Boom as I did the same and KOed him. That one wasn't as scary as I was fairly sure nothing he could do could actually KO me... but still, that meant I survived the opening 2 exchanges on 7HP and then 5HP...

Charmeleon, who I could have used all along, then came in and ruined Quilava with Dig and Zubat with Dragon Rage. What a mon he is. :cool:

That grinding session has slowed progress a lot, but hopefully we can pick up again from here. The good news is that while Raticate can fuck off after this gym, Crobat and Gyarados should be worth it for the long haul.

Still need to work Smoochum back into the team... the gyms so far have just been too big of a risk for her.

[Browning]

2 more Gyms down but with a handful of casualties....

Firstly the Zubat I was grinding to take on the Ghost Gym died before we got there to a trainer's Fearow that used Pursuit when I tried to switch. It was my fault as the previous Spearow had also used the move, but I didn't think Zubat could take out Fearow anyway so I think he was lost at that point. It didn't end up mattering for the Ghost Gym as Raticate who was my Plan A 1 shot all of his Pokemon apart from Gengar who needed 2 hits from Crunch. Easy win.

We then started planning for the Fighting gym and it was a fucking train wreck. I focused my training on Smoochum, Bayleef and Gyarados. The plan was to use Bayleef holding a berry that made Natural Gift Flying type. This would hit the Primeape hard on turn 1 and then if he set up Double Team, which was my fear, we had Magical Leaf to guarantee we hit him. I thought Bayleef would then be able to solo the Poliwrath as he didn't really have much to hit us with, but I would have Gyarados (with intimidate/dragon rage) and Jynx in the back if required. I also bought along a useless Koffing just in case we needed to let something die to get a safe switch....

The plan didn't work. Primeape outsped Bayleef and Double Teamed first turn so our Flying Type Natural Gift missed, but this still consumed the berry. Bayleef was able to dispose of the Primeape easily enough though as it kept using Double Team (which wouldn't effect Magical Leaf) or Focus Punch which we kept breaking. When it did some damage with 2 Rock Slides I could use synthesis and go into the Poliwrath on a decent amount of health. The problem was Magical Leaf didn't really hurt Poliwrath and then he put us to sleep with Hypnosis. I should have then sacked off Koffing but I figured Gyarados was a safe switch thanks to Intimidate.... but he went for Focus Punch and the got a crit. Gyarados tanked it, but just barely. I switched to Koffing at that point and let him die to get Jynx in safely and Jynx would easily have solo'ed him with Confusion if not for his Hyper Potions. Eventually Jynx was put to sleep by Hypnosis as well so I switched to Voltorb hoping he could live one shot and outspeed the next turn... but of course he couldn't as Focus Punch came out again and ruined him. The Poliwrath was confused at that point too which was the main reason I had hope he could live.... but it wasn't to be. If I had bought 2 mons to sack.... we could have avoided this, but I had too much faith in Bayleef I think. Gyarados then came back in and finished him with Dragon Rage.

So Voltorb becomes our first champion to fall and while it did hurt to lose him, the RNG God's decided to bless me with a replacement electric type in the form of Chinchou. I don't think I've ever really used one before so that will be interesting. It's not ideal carrying 2 water types, but for at least the next gym (the Ice gym) he will be valuable.

Currently rocking with Bayleef, Charmeleon (who is under levelled now due to how much grinding I did against water types), Jynx, Gyarados and then the other 2 slots are kind of a rotating team. Main options include Chinchou who I just caught, Machop, Geodude and Raticate. Most likely Geodude and Raticate will be used to see off that bloke who fancies Suicune and then Chinchou/Machop will be bought in for the Ice Gym. The level caps are a bit of a bitch at this point of the game as you can't really train much between the gyms.

Fucking Bayleef.... not even being able to handle a Poliwrath.

[P_3]

How is it going Browning? Don't tell me Clair has got the better of your team. She was always a tough cookie to crack for me.

[Browning]

Nothing like that, just been a bit busy so not had much time to play it. Had a lot of grinding to do to catch various team members up, but being able to get the EXP Share made that a lot easier. Hopefully will make progress on it soon. That Kingdra is always a worry though.

The level cap is a bit of a bitch for the next 2 gyms though- 34 and then 35. If it was even one level higher I could get Charizard for the Steel Gym but no such luck.

Oh and you were totally right about Chikorita... what a useless piece of shit it is for pretty much all of Johto.

[P_3]

If only Chikorita learned Leech Seed, then it would have been amazing. Screens, Leech Seed and Body Slam, even Kingdra would die to that easily.

[Browning]

Yea, it's going to be a tough decision when I get there as to whether I include it in my final team. Logically, I wouldn't, but my concern is going into Hoenn and then RNG giving me Torchic which could make a rock gym super annoying. Chikorita almost seems more useful for that fight then it does for the whole of Johto.

[Browning]

Finally got back to this tonight, going to aim for 1 Gym per day again I think as the amount of grinding I need to do to get my teams in order for each fight seems pretty high and Gen 2 games are really, really bad for grinding spots. That still means we should be done in like 3 days though if I get to play every day.

Today's gym was Pryce and it was.... relatively routine. My Lanturn had ruined all the Seels and Dewgongs in the gym previously so I lead with him to 1 shot the Seel. He then went straight to his ace Piloswine which wasn't ideal but I should have seen it coming. I didn't know if he would waste a turn setting up Hail (for Snow Cloak) or if he would go for a Super Effective STAB Ground move.... in the end I couldn't risk it and swapped to Gyarados as he set up hail. I then misclicked and hit a tame Dragon Rage and he crit me with Blizzard to drop me to 44HP. I wasn't risking anything so I swapped to Spinarak who I bought to sack off and then into Jynx who finished him off with 2 of her own Blizzards after I bought the TM specifically to counter his Snow Cloak if Gyarados couldn't handle it. With that threat down it was easy to switch back to Lanturn and take out Dewgong.

Jasmine is next.... and doesn't look particularly easy. The Magnemite's aren't really a problem but I don't have a great answer to Steelix. I have my own Steelix and a potential Nidoking but no way to get a good move on them. I do also have Machamp so I could try and brute force it.... and Gyarados might be able to surf it down/get intimidate off on it... but there's nothing that feels fool proof.

[igor_balis]

anyone wanna kick my ass on pokemon showdown? any random formats work for me

[P_3]

Doing well Browning, shame about the Ariados. I would have thought Lanturn could survive an Earthquake from Piloswine and do a hefty amount with Surf. But I guess I'm not counting for Critical Hits.

As for Steelix, I can't see Gyarados struggling against it. Intimidate plus resistances to Steel and Ground, half the battle is won.

[P_3]

I'm going to be joining you on your cross generation Nuzlocking. Fired up Fire Red and going to go with same rules as you bar the bringing over your E4 winning team to the next gen game, instead I'll retire all Pokemon caught in the previous gen and give myself one free retry on a route if one of them appears.

Started with Bulbasaur, caught Mankey on the route west of Viridian, caught Pidgey on route 2, amazingly picked up a Pikachu in the forest, Nidoran Male on route 3 and a Zubat in Mt. Moon. With Bulbasaur, Brock was a doddle but unfortunately Gary's level 17 Pidgeotto was too much for the level 12 Pikachu, who got hit with a crit from a Quick Attack. Ah well, can always get myself a Voltorb later.

[Browning]

Very nice. :cool:

My game has stalled for a bit but I fully intend on returning to it shortly. Gen 2 has always been my least favourite so I’m not surprised I’m finding it dull but I will see it through having come this far.

Pikachu is a big loss but at least with dupes clause you have a decent shot at a Magnemite, so far the RNG Gods have denied my one at every turn.

[P_3]

Yeah Gen 2 is a slog, so much so I'm going to call it done after the Elite 4. Like heck am I doing Kanto afterwards.

[igor_balis]

P_3 Browning Baz can I not tempt any of you cunts with a quick game on pokemon showdown? If you've never played before, it's dead simple, you just play in browser. Just a random battle so you don't need to faff around making teams etc. You can pick the gen, cus I'm equally shit at all of them.

[P_3]

I've reactivated my Showdown account, so if you still fancy this, let me know. The name is P_3 on there too.

[igor_balis]

I've reactivated my Showdown account, so if you still fancy this, let me know. The name is P_3 on there too.

:cool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Going on holiday on Thursday and I'm thinking of doing my first ever nuzlocke on Pokemon Sword.

Not entirely sure what rules to do. I'm thinking no overworld Pokemon and only being able to get 1 random grass/fish/surf etc encounter per section of the wild area.

Going to limit the level of my Pokemon too (not sure what the restrictions will be) and I'll restrict the size of my party.

[Browning]

Going on holiday on Thursday and I'm thinking of doing my first ever nuzlocke on Pokemon Sword.

Not entirely sure what rules to do. I'm thinking no overworld Pokemon and only being able to get 1 random grass/fish/surf etc encounter per section of the wild area.

Going to limit the level of my Pokemon too (not sure what the restrictions will be) and I'll restrict the size of my party.

Sounds good.

My recommendations as it's your first time would be to consider the following:

- Set Battle Style.
- No Items/Heavy restrictions on items

Honestly not doing any of the above kind of kills so much of the challenge. Being able to switch to whatever beats your opponent without losing any momentum is broken and is the first thing that kills my interest if I'm watching a Nuzlocke on YouTube because it's just obvious they're going to breeze through. Items not being restricted in some way or banned also makes it miles too easy. All you need then is something that can tank 2-3 shots while you heal everyone else up.... it's insanely broken.

Capping your party numbers isn't really that essential but might add something to the challenge, especially in the early gyms when they only use 2-3 pokemon.

How I handled Sword/Shield encounters was to close my eyes until I found something, but for the most part you can also use the exclamation mark encounters if you want to. The only issue is they don't appear in caves IIRC, so you probably need to close your eyes or something for them.

Sword and Shield are pretty fun to Nuzlocke though and not a massive challenge for a first try, so you should be ok.

[igor_balis]

also Sir Andy Mahowry watch some pokemon challenges / flygon hg videos on youtube lol

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

also Sir Andy Mahowry watch some pokemon challenges / flygon hg videos on youtube lol

I watch SmallAnt (and sometimes CJYA) for Pokemon Challenges.

The Nuzlocke has been shelved for now as I realised that I had never done Isle of Armor (now finished) or Frozen Tundra. Plus I want to finish at least the main Pokedex.

I'll probably leave the Nuzlocke until just before Violet comes out.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Decided a while ago to go back and play some older gen stuff that I had never done.

Started with Platinum and I almost gave up because I've obviously recently played Brilliant Diamond and the story was too similar. I'm glad I stuck with it though because the Distortion World was awesome, it's a shame I never played it as a kid.

On to Black which I started years ago but never finished.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

And Black is done, that was fun.

Some really cool stuff added in that game.

[Dan]

Black/White is my favourite game in the series, to be honest. The Blaze Black/Volt White rom hacks are awesome too, and they've recently released Blaze Black 2 Redux, which I need to get around to playing.

Also, new info on Scarlet/Violet from the Pokemon Presents yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wd1MnB0phU

Maybe I'll bother to buying a Switch at some point & work my way through the last few games.

[igor_balis]

Pokémon challenges is amazing. Love Jan.

[Baz]

Anyone looking forward to Pokémon Scarlet/Violet? It’s already “out” on the high seas.

[Pepe]

I didn't care much for Sword/Shield (too easy) so I will probably skip this one.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've got it (Violet because purple is the best colour) on pre-order.

[P_3]

Pre-ordered Scarlet (because red innit).

[Dan]

Maybe I'll bother to buying a Switch at some point & work my way through the last few games.

It happened. Just ordered a Switch OLED & Scarlet bundle, so that’ll be my weekend sorted.

Who have people chosen as their starter?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Scarlet? Nonce.

Fuecoco for me as I'm a fire boy for life.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I've had some weird teleportation glitches already.

When fighting a pokemon at the start after the battle it put me on a nearby cliff ledge (thankfully it let me just walk down) and just now I started walking away from my friend and it teleported me into a cave and then dropped me into water.

[Dan]

Scarlet? Nonce.

Fuecoco for me as I'm a fire boy for life.

It was cheaper than the Violet bundle, which was enough to settle the issue of which one to get.

I think I’ll be going Quaxly as I know people who have each of the other two, but I think Fuecoco might still end up being my favourite of the three.

[Baz]

This is getting some bad press. Seems a game made only for the Switch is actually too resource intensive for the Switch to handle. :harold:

[P_3]

Who cares? Its Pokemon. :D

Going to stream a blind Nuzlocke of this. Spoilers beware.

https://www.twitch.tv/yegs88
(https://www.twitch.tv/yegs88)

[Lofty]

It actually appears the devs have fucked it more than the limitations of the hardware because even emulating it on more powerful hardware doesn't solve the problems.

[Browning]

So me and my brother restarted our BDSP Soul Link after the last one fizzled out (we didn't lose, but we got bored and didn't finish it). We made a rules amendment that we couldn't grind on wild Pokemon or on optional trainers unless we got to a Gym Leader/Elite Four member under the level cap, but mandatory trainers over levelling us wouldn't be counted against us, purely because kicking Pokemon out to stay under the level cap (thanks to the forced EXP share) leading to deaths because we didn't have full teams was bollocks. We did stay under the conventional caps for the most part, but not entirely.

Anyway, I absolutely murdered the Elite 4 and the champion tonight with only 1 minor issue. My strategy was simple- Substitute/Calm Mind/Minimize Blissey and Substitute/Dragon Dance/Double Team Gyarados. The game has zero answer to this. Blissey ruined the first trainer, Gyarados the next 2 and Blissey ruined Cynthia. The only problem.... was Lucian, and it was a problem of my own making. I had decided the attacking move I wanted for Blissey Vs Cynthia was Shadow Ball so I decided to use that for Lucian too.... of course I overlooked that fucking Girafarig cannot be hit by it. As a result I got to Girafarig fully set up but couldn't touch it. I also didn't have a good switch option as Torterra only had Earthquake as an attacking move which couldn't deal with his only other remaining Pokemon, Bronzong- whereas Gyarados wasn't coming in to take a Thunderbolt. My other 3 mons were all shit munchers paired with my brother's good Pokemon. As a result I..... stayed in and PP stalled Girafarig until it was safe to send in Gyarados and set up. Easy win after that but it was cunty as hell as a strategy and not how I planned it. Had I noticed Girafarig I would have just kept Flamethrower on and ruined them with that. As mentioned before, cynthia afterwards put up zero fight.

His Elite 4 run was a lot less planned out and it showed as he got into trouble a fair few times, but ultimately he got through the E4 unscathed. He did however lose 3 Pokemon to Cynthia.... including the ones paired with Blissey and Gyarados. This means technically I'm in the brilliant position of my surviving champions all being mons who contributed next to zero to the run..... but oh well. Personally even if he had whited to Cynthia I would have counted it as a win for me.

Final Teams: Blissey (Normal), Gyarados (Water), Torterra (Grass), Kricketune (Bug), Bronzong (Steel), Weavile (Dark)
His team: Mr Mime (Fairy), Crobat (Poison), Infernape (Fire), Luxray (Electric), Garchomp (Dragon), Abomosnow (Ice)

Surviving pairs were Torterra/Infernape, Kricketune (lol)/Luxray and Bronzong (Even more lol)/Garchomp.

On to Scarlet/Violet for us next which is blind so will be a glorious failure.

[Browning]

After having time to reflect on the run I will say this.... Diamond/Pearl are not good games for Nuzlockes. They are very good and fun games in general, but the encounters are SO FUCKING LAZY. Every single route seems to be Starly/Bidoof/Geodude/Zubat and then add one of Machop/Shellos/Pachirisu/Meditite. It's fucking tragic. We got to Victory Road excited to add something... and literally everything in there had been available about 8 times. They should have put Geodude on the fucking box because it's his world and everyone else is just living in it.

Still, the last gym and the E4 are a proper test, but that's better than a lot of games.

[Browning]

Scarlet and Violet are, to put it lightly, shit for a blind Nuzlocke/Soul Link. They seem like very good games, but they don't work for this purpose.

The problem is there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what trainers have and where they are. In our first attempt I was bossing all the trainers on a route who had like level 7 shit and them some cunt on the same route had 3 x level 15s all of which had a type advantage over my starter. My starter died, but I survived somehow despite being drastically under levelled. I then one shot all the Gym Leaders Pokemon other than her first (2 shots) with a defense curl/rollout Phanpy but my brother wiped as he only trained his now dead starter.

Attempt 2, same shit different place. Route of crap trainers with one guy who without warning had triple the levels of anyone else and 3 pokemon. This time my whole team apart from my starter wiped, which wasn't too tragic as our teams to that point were not great and we've been able to get a few more encounters, but still. I get that it's "open world" but that shouldn't mean a guy with a Level 5 bug followed by a guy with 3 hench level 15s and then a guy with a Level 7 Pichu. Fucking stupid.

We'll push on, maybe with some mercy rules of some kind, but yea.... if we wipe again to something stupid it might be time to reconsider the challenge because I'm not open to starting over a 3rd time and listening to 2 hours of dialogue in the school.

[Dan]

Yeah, it’s a bit janky. I’d love it if they could find a way to put in a scaling system like they do in some rom hacks where trainers are set to be x levels above/below the highest level Pokémon in your team, but that seems unlikely.

I do find it disappointing that the game is so low level throughout - even the elite four are basically just lv60, which is nowhere near high enough to me - and despite saying you can do what you like in whichever order there are still some quests that require certain others to be done before them to even be able to reach them etc.

Regardless, it’s a decent game so far. Just at the champion so will then hopefully get in to what I’ve heard is an amazing post-game story.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgcFIMAqAac

A guy has set up a bot to do a Professor Oak Living Shiny Dex challenge.



The Professor Oak's Challenge requires you to obtain one of every single Pokémon available to you before you can fight the next Gym leader(/the League) and continue with the game. This means catching one of each Pokémon available and evolving it as far as it can go - Pokémon that require items to evolve that we can’t get yet will be evolved as soon as the item becomes available.
A Living Dex means having one of every single Pokémon in your boxes - if a Pokémon can evolve, you will need one of each. For example, you will need 3 Ralts: one to stay as a Ralts, one to evolve into a Kirlia, and a third and final one to evolve into a Gardevoir. (Gallade doesn’t exist in Gen III, before anyone asks)
As this is a Shiny Dex, every single one of these Pokémon also has to be shiny. A shiny Pokémon is a rare version of a Pokémon with different colours than normal and a special sparkling animation when sent into battle.
In Emerald, there is a 1 in 8,192 chance for a Pokémon to be shiny.


It's been running for 235 days now and it needs 1 shiny Wingull and 1 shiny Seedot (the first took 109 days) before the first gym can be challenged.

Here's the FAQ:

https://github.com/40Cakes/pokebot-bizhawk/wiki/%E2%9C%A8-Shiny-Hunting-Bot-%E2%9C%A8-Stream-FAQ

[Baz]

I absolutely love everything about the concept and execution. Thanks for posting.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Piss dogs taking control :cool:

[Baz]

Anyone got a working Blaze Black 2 Redux ROM they can share? :eyemouth:

[Dan]

Anyone got a working Blaze Black 2 Redux ROM they can share? :eyemouth:

Have you tried the ones on Dray’s Twitter? ( https://twitter.com/drayano60)

[Baz]

Mikes sorted me out and done all the patching shenanigans for me.

In case anyone hasn’t seen Delta has been released for free on the iOS store, emulates Nintendo devices up to and including the DS. :youpi: I’ll give Blaze Black 2 a bash. Best starter?

[Gray Fox]

Nintendo have been going on a mad streak of cease and desisting anyone involved in emulating their devices lately so it'll be worth grabbing that before the inevitable.

[Mike]

Mikes sorted me out and done all the patching shenanigans for me.

In case anyone hasn’t seen Delta has been released for free on the iOS store, emulates Nintendo devices up to and including the DS. :youpi: I’ll give Blaze Black 2 a bash. Best starter?

What a guy