I agree about it mostly being about personal rules, which is why I'm advocating certain other rules to add to make it more challenging. Plus, it would hypothetically set up a way to compete against others, via speedrunning times. Impossible to verify and reliant on the honor code but still fun as hell.

That's what throttling is for

 

I'm so fucked... I literally have one pokemon left and its my starter, and I can't catch any anywhere... I'm at Vermillion...

My starter is Squirtle...

If I pull this off...

 

Well, ok. after reading though this thread long enough, i will give it a shot tomorrow. Have a four hour train ride before me and will use SoulSilver and probably the same rules as zenzao posted since that sounds pretty hard (with the thousand per pokemon instead of 1000 for all. might be fun to have to choose to which pokemon to heal and which not. But I guess that will make the first ten levels balls hard since you have to grind like crap to train the level 3 pokemon you capture

will post a log once I get playing.

 

Aha suck my dick Surge, type advantage? Thats no use when I OHKO before you attack.

(My wartortle was waaay overlevelled, to give you an idea it evolved into blastoise after the battle...)

(Also I taught it dig)

 

Good work DLG. And yeah, this is definitely hard having to choose Nemrut. I'm limiting myself to potions and berries to heal when I can to save up the PC healings.

Today:
Tank the Shroomish fainted to a Tailow under that punk kid on the beech. I thought I could take it and learned I couldn't when Stun Spore failed three times in a row. Anomaly barely edged out a victory through Quick Attack to avenge the fallen teammate.

Anomaly and Niobi dealt with the bugcatcher inside Petalburg fairly easily. Bested Magma grunt. Grinded to get Link up to level, using bait-and-switch method so Anomaly could Absorb when needed to replenish health. Avoided a potentially fatal encounter with a stupid poisoning Wurmple using the lone antidote on hand.

Cypher the Zigzagoon joined the team(stupid Zigzagoon) due to a miscalulation on the route distance. Will be Oblivion'd shortly. Healed at Rustboro pokecenter, caught Mouse the Whismur on route 116. Grinded all along Route 116.
Fought and defeated Joey with minimal fuss. Fucking Zigzagoons do anything but directly attack when Link is using Bide. Mouse nearly killed himself Uproaring against a Nincada.

Anomaly evolved into Grovyle! Link finally learned something useful. Beat up lass, bugcatcher, and hiker. Link evolved into Nuzleaf! Preparing to take on Rustboro Gym. Two youngsters handled easily. Leveled up Niobi a couple of times, smashed the Geodude Roxanne had with ease.

Absorb did a lot less damage than I had expected against Nosepass. She healed him twice before I could bring it down. Slapped Rock Tomb on Link to give him something to dish out better damage.

Killed the next stupid Whismur that cropped up in Rusturf Tunnel. One-shotted Magma Poochyena with a critical headbutt from Niobi, leveled again. Reached Dewford Town, deposited Mouse and... fuck! Niobi was killed by a poison stinging Tentacool thanks to that asshat fisherman. Link avenged her.

Repelled in Granite Cave until I got to a point I knew Aron's showed up, in battle with one... Morpheus joined the team. Link leveled up. Healed at PC before taking on Brawly.

Team:
Anomaly the Grovyle LV17
Link the Nuzleaf LV16
Morpheus the Aron LV11
Mouse the Whismur LV6.

 

Had a lot of time to continue on with my SoulSilver run.

I ran through Azela and Goldenrod City fairly well. I ran all the way back to Azela Town to headbutt a tree, hoping for a Heracross. I got lucky and managed to catch a level 5 Heracross, who was promptly named Sirius. He proved to be invaluable as a grinded him until he reached level 19. With Brick Break, he one shot Whitney and her gay ass Milktank.

After having fun in the Bug Contest by catching a Pinsir on my first move through, I spent quite a lot of time in the game corner getting coins. I managed to collect enough for a Dratini. I renamed him to Norbert.

I made it to Ecruteak City and did the whole Bill thing. I went back to Goldenrod, got my Eevee. Named him Tom. I spent most of the afternoon boosting its happiness until it evolved to an Espeon.

After the Burning Tower, I decided to try my luck at the Ecruteak City Gym. I fucking hate his Gengar. He damn near one shot my Gyarados with Shadow Ball. Crit hit took him to 1 fucking hp. I promptly switched him out and Flame Wheel'd Gengar to hell from my Quilava... which Gengar promptly one shotted with that god damn Shadowball.

Luckily, I managed to hurt Gengar enough than when I brought out Heracross, its Aerial Ace killed Gengar and both of its Haunters.

Now, I need to figure out which pokemon I'm going to use to replace Quilava. I've got a level 16 Magmar, a Level 15 Dratini and a Level 12 Nidoran(Female) that are all decent backups (Once trained).

Sadly, since this is an emu, I have no way of making that Magmar into a Magmortar. However, I guess just Magmar is a decent pokemon to use. Dratini are always a pain in the ass to level up to a Dragonite. Not sure I wanna exert the effort to raise one to level 55.

As for Nidoran, she'll blow until I get my hands on a Moonstone.

Anyways my current team:

Ron the Gyarados - Level 24
Tom the Espeon - Level 17
Padma the Pidgeotto - Level 20
Terry the Flaaffy - Level 21
Sirius the Heracross - Level 23

Possible Replacements:
Norbert the Dratini - Level 15
James the Magmar - Level 16
Daphne the Nidoran - Level 12
Neville the Weepinbell - Level 21

Dead:
Harry the Quilava - Level 22 (One Shotted by Gengar)

 

Well, we played a bit more today. I joined the ranks of those who were owned by Misty. Twice.

Charmeleon 21
Pidgeotto 21
Geodude 21
Oddish 19
Mankey 19
Rattata 14
Magikarp 5

Today's gameplay had practically no raising, except Oddish three levels (so we could win against Pokemon besides Geodude/Onix and the Gym trainers), and as the other four all needed <400exp for level ups after I'd fought all the trainers before Misty, I finished them off.

Starmie just ripped through my team. I used Pigeotto on Staryu both times and then Oddish on Starmie. First time I put Starmie to sleep, and then Absorbed it twice before Starmie woke up. Put it sleep again, two Absorbs and then Misty used a Super Potion. From there, Starmie woke up and one by one decimated my team. Pretty much the same thing the second time.

Can't be bothered starting again, so I'm heading south to Vermillion to fight everyone. I've had awful luck in wild Pokemon today. Three Pidgey's, a Rattata and an Oddish in the five routes I went to. Drowzee and Diglett won't help against Misty, but I hope to get them anyway. Stupid Misty.

 

Brawly can suck my balls. Machop's Low Kick is raping my team and the few times I critical through it his Makuhita finishes me off. Leveled Anomaly in Granite Cave on the third reset before heading off to Slateport so I can beat up some trainers and get a new pokemon or two, plus pay off the PC expense for the last healing.

Just caught Zee the Zigzagoon on route 110. Morpheus is terribly slow to level-- I'd forgotten just how slow until now. Grinded to bring Zee up some in place of Morpheus, got poisoned by a Gulpin and decided to buy an Antidote at a pokemart rather than use up my healing at the PC in Slateport just yet.

Handled the Magma grunts at the museum with just Zee, adorable little Zigzagoon. Beat up some more local trainers, just avoided a fatal poisoning again from a Roselia. Barely survived May after potioning up Zee and the team before battle. Sand-attack+Tail whip kept me alive long enough to swap in Anomaly and Quick-attack to a critical.

Worked my way through to Mauville and healed. Battled Wally and confirmed game swaps in new pokemon for rival. Shoved Mouse into daycare. Grinded some more against local trainers until Zee evolved into Linoone! Caught Switch the Illumise on route 117.

Stumbled through the Winstrate family without losing anyone though I had a couple close calls. Stopping for now.

Team:
Anomaly the Grovyle LV23
Link the Nuzleaf LV17(waiting on a leafstone)
Morpheus the Aron LV18
Switch the Illumise LV13
Mouse the Whismur LV6+(Daycare)

Dead:
Tank the Shroomish LV7
Niobi the Zigzagoon LV12(holding a Protein she had picked up )

 

Thanks to my long trips into uni, I've decided to give the Nuzlocke run a go. Am running through in HeartGold.

As it stands:
Choose Totodile and promptly named him Harry. Proceeded on my ways to Cherrygroove, then to Mr Pokemon's house, destroying all in my path. Continued on to best my red haired Rival, and finally got some free poke balls. I Proceeded to Route 31 where I managed to catch Thomas the Pidgy, and then on to the dark cave where I added Molly the Geodude to my party. After some time leveling them up, and a few close calls, Molly finally learned Rock throw meaning the first two gyms should be a walk in the park. I finished the hour and half session off by catching Mort the Gastly in sprout tower.

Things are looking up, though I doubt they will stay that way as I work my way though this impossible long game.

Current team:
Harry the Totodile level 12
Molly the Geodude level 11
Thomas the Pidgy level 11
Mort the Gastly level 10

 

That Geodude should totally have been Murphy . Otherwise awesome.

 

Running on SoulSilver:

Fair warning, mine has a massive amount of fail in it since I was trolled quite a bit from zubats throughout the game. had another run first but I rushed the second gym leader and he destroyed me, so I started again and this time will be better hopefully. Went quite similar to this, only slightly different pokemon and names.

Picked cyndaquil as a starter this time, naming her Melisandre , is currently lvl 14 and the strongest member of my team.

Also had a ratata named Arya (lvl14), and Robert my lvl 14 geodude but unfortunately both passed away, both being critted by low level pokemon in the grass, one of them self destructing thanks to confusion.

but those three pulled me easily through the first gym and through the minions in the second. I than started grinding to level up to fight that fucking lvl 17 Scyther but as I said, those two died due to both, my bad luck and incompetence.

caught an oddish, Zubat and ekans whom I now train to have some semblance of a team.

current team:
Melisandre the cnydaquil, lvl 14
Sansa the oddish, lvl 12
Cersei, the ekans, lvl 9
Rickon the zubat, lvl 8

dead members:
Robert the geodude
Arya the ratata

 

Quick update on how my HeartGold run is going.

As predicted Molly didn't break a even break a sweat as she tore Falkner to bits. Proceeding down onto route 32 I decided to try an avoid all confrontations till I got far enough down to where the Mareeps seem to have a better encounter rate. Naturally Larry Fowler the Bellsprout decided to be a dick and ruin my chances of getting a pretty good electric pokemon. Continuing down the route, and fighting the trainers gave me no real threat as all their pokemon seemed grossly under-leveled.

Upon my arrival at Union cave my party grew by two more as Margret the Togepi hatched, and I then added Marcone the Zubat. The cave proved almost as easy as route 32 with Harry and Larry beating up Geodude's and Sandshrew's as fast as they appeared. This made training within the cave an easy option and all of pokemon grew by a few levels.

Coming out of Union cave I went straight to slowpoke well to delivery the first of many ass kickings to Team Rocket. Of all the rocket's pokemon only a lone Ekans got close to caliming a kill, with the use of its sneaky poisoning. Proton proved incredible easy with Molly and Harry showing no mercy. Into the town, and after a quick heal I decided to face my rival before the Gym. With all my pokemon at level 15 and thinking that my rivals highest pokemon would be level 16 proved fatal. His Gastly was the first to come out, and was quickly put down by Harry, he chose Bayleaf next and I Thomas. Seeing his Bayleaf was level 18 instead of 16 I proceeded to rage as it critical hit my poor pidgy for a OHKO. Some quick thinking had me send out Mort, who managed to hit a hypnosis on the first try and then 3 consecutive night shade's put him down. His Zubat lasted all of one rock throw from Molly. The Gym was next, and Molly once again proved that she was the toughest bitch on the block with a OHKO on Bugsy's Scyther. This brought my adventures in Azalea town to an end and traveling quickly through Ilex forest brought me to route 34 and then Goldenrod where Miltank awaits.

Before stopping I managed to catch Susan the Drowzee, who sacrificed herself so I could have the much cooler Muscle the Machop.

Current team:
Harry the Totodile lvl 17
Larry the Bellsprout lvl 17
Mort the gastly lvl 17
Molly the Geodude lvl 17
Marcone the Zubat lvl 14
Muscle the Machop lvl 10
On standby:
Margret the Togepi lvl 9

RIP:
Thomas the Pidgy lvl 15

 

My Blue Version should be arriving in the mail sometime today, so I'll give it a shot then. I'd been hoping to try out the Mew glitch on my first run, but that's probably against the rules, huh? No big deal, as I'll have all the diversity I need in my Squirtle.

There have been a lot of different rules being flung around in this thread, but as I see it, you only need two for it to be a Nuzlocke run. Those two being that once a pokemon faints, it's gone for good, and you can only catch the first pokemon you encounter on a route, no exceptions.

I'd heard that you could slightly bend the second rule, by making it so that if you ran into a pokemon you've already caught, you could safely run away and try again. To keep a sort of diversity in your team. What are everybody else's thoughts on this?

The whole discard an amount of items to use the PokeCenter rule is a bit confusing, so I don't think I'll be doing that. However, I don't horrendously over-level my pokemon, so I don't see it becoming a problem.

I'm thinking of using the rule that you can't purchase pokeballs of any sort from the PokeMart, but I'm still unsure. Besides that I'll also be using the 'No purchasing healing items from the Mart' & 'No using healing items in battle' rules. I'll edit this post later if I get my Blue today. Sounds fun, I'm looking forward to it.

 

In my two runs, I've altered the second rule so you can only have one Pokemon of one species line at a time. But if that Pokemon dies, I can catch one from it later. So, for instance, if in route 2 I find a Rattata, and catch it, if I find a Rattata in route 4, then I can't catch it and it's tough luck. It was the first Pokemon I found in that route, and that's the end of that. Same applies if I catch a Rattata and evolve it into Raticate, but still find a Rattata. Same species line.

 

You could all follow my rules... You need to beat the Elite 4 with 4 different teams in order to win. And since I'm playing HG. That counts for Red as well.

 

I dug out my old Sapphire cart and tried to play through it. Ages since I last played Pokémon properly, so I was... a little rusty.

I eventually (after restarting countless times because I kept losing the Rival battle or getting crit to death before the forest) made it to Rustboro City with a Torchic (Kentucky), Wingull (Starbuck) and evolved Silcoon (B. King). Strolled up to the gym and OHKO'd the first two trainers with Water Gun. Hooray! Emboldened by my success I then challenged Roxanne, who thoughtfully reminded me that Fire, Flying and Bug types are all weak against Rock.

I got raped.

 

Pokemon Emerald - I got fucking Ralts, bitches!

Charmander players in Leaf Green -

For Misty, my approach is to level up Pidgeotto significantly, since it's basically a given you'll get a pidgey along the way. Sand-attack Starmie nonstop until the accuracy's been lowered 6 times, sustaining him with potions and neutraiizing water pulse. You have either bellsprout or oddish who should be leveled until they're durable enough to take a few Swifts, which never misses. I had a Butterfree, so I used sleep powder first so raise Pidgeotto's chances of survival and get two sand-attacks in free.

If you're lucky enough to catch Pikachu in Viridian forest, then it's even easier.

 

Got my Blue today, started the run about an hour ago. Named myself Red and my rival Blue. Here's my progress so far:

- Got a Squirtle. Named it Hydrun, after the Greek God of water.

- Managed to get to the Mart and back and then to the Mart again without a Wild Encounter.

- Bought two Pokeballs.

- Caught a Pidgey. Named it Gusty.

- Trained Hydrun and Gusty up to level 8.

- Tried to catch another Pokemon in that patch before the Pokemon League road. Crit killed the Ratatta I came across.

- Confronted Blue, scrapped by with a potion I got from behind that tree next to the Old Man.

- Saved.

Not much this time. Hoping to defeat Brock before my next update.

 

You didn't need to avoid the grass until you got your first pokeballs. It's generally agreed that since you can't catch things before this event then the normal rule of first encounter is silly.