Nuzlocke General Frustrating Things in Nuzlockes

[Mr Spaz]

Well, you can always have it have a different name in your documentation of the run, if you'd prefer it that way (and if you're documenting the run, for that matter).

I'm not documenting the run (the Tepig was the trade for Xerneas and I have taken no pictures and made no logs). I just refuse to look at it more than absolutely necessary (read: ever)

 

[pinkshellos]

I just caught my first legal encounter that can actually learn Fly... after the 8th gym. Every single encounter up until then either 1. Couldn’t learn fly or 2. I failed.

 

[sky_]

so i love n's zoroark, but i don't think white 2 does dsj;fkdsjkv mine died to the shadow triad's swords dancing absol because of course they had to use that. what was worse is that i'd just spent 10 Blue Shards (and had to run around looking for them in places like the Relic Passage also) to get Dark Pulse on him because the alternative was waiting until somewhere past Level 60 for the poor thing to get a Special STAB that was not Snarl D: i miss messing with the AI with my fun Illusion 'mon

 

[NotAtAll]

Criiiits.

Just wiped on my SoulSilver Nuzlocke at Lance. I thought I was clever setting up three Stockpiles and Resting with Lanturn on his Gyarados, but then he brought his ace Dragonite who promptly crit Outraged right through my setup. Didn't have a good plan B from that point on.

I also just didn't have enough firepower for him as my strongest pokemon - Typhlosion couldn't do much to him due to poor coverage and Magneton just couldn't handle that much without any way of healing himself.

I also had an Arbok, who actually managed to kill one of the Dragonites while maiming the other with Ice Fang and a Graveler who, outside of handling Charizard was just useless.

My Fearow had died before, leaving Bruno's Machamp on single-digit HP and being OHKOed by Rock Slide crit.

Anyway, it was a fun run and I am quite proud of my not so strong team for leaving only a single Aerodactyl left standing.

 

[THKS]

Having to sacrifice your own Pokemon to win.

I have a handful of examples, but the one that arguably hurts the most was from my recent Fire Red Omega Nuzlocke, where I lost Oscar the Gardevoir to Sabrina's dreaded Alakazam.

Let me explain. Beatrice went up against Espeon at a severe disadvantage on low health and being paralysed, so after paralysing Espeon and healing poor Beatrice, she was set to take down the lavender cat. Until the Espeon - after setting up plenty of Calm Minds - used Baton Pass to Alakazam. At that point, my run was on make-or-break mode, as I had no other choice but to send in Oscar.

Although he took a near fatal blow, Oscar managed to hypnotise the Alakazam into falling asleep. As I was contemplating on what to do, there was one option that would give me the best chance to beat Sabrina. Healing Franklin and Beatrice. So after spending three turns in healing the duo, Sabrina's Alakazam finally woke up and killed Oscar.

While the run is completed and history now, I still feel gutted in losing Oscar in that situation. While he became a counterpart to Franklin when he learned Ice Punch (keep in mind, this is Fire Red Omega), he was still a valuable member to the team who would've been beneficial towards the end of the run. Yes, Sabrina is one of the most feared Gym Leaders notwithstanding Omega, but I was very lucky to walk away against her with the run to be continuing at that point.

 

[mewstein]

Having to sacrifice your own Pokemon to win.

I have a handful of examples, but the one that arguably hurts the most was from my recent Fire Red Omega Nuzlocke, where I lost Oscar the Gardevoir to Sabrina's dreaded Alakazam.

Let me explain. Beatrice went up against Espeon at a severe disadvantage on low health and being paralysed, so after paralysing Espeon and healing poor Beatrice, she was set to take down the lavender cat. Until the Espeon - after setting up plenty of Calm Minds - used Baton Pass to Alakazam. At that point, my run was on make-or-break mode, as I had no other choice but to send in Oscar.

Although he took a near fatal blow, Oscar managed to hypnotise the Alakazam into falling asleep. As I was contemplating on what to do, there was one option that would give me the best chance to beat Sabrina. Healing Franklin and Beatrice. So after spending three turns in healing the duo, Sabrina's Alakazam finally woke up and killed Oscar.

While the run is completed and history now, I still feel gutted in losing Oscar in that situation. While he became a counterpart to Franklin when he learned Ice Punch (keep in mind, this is Fire Red Omega), he was still a valuable member to the team who would've been beneficial towards the end of the run. Yes, Sabrina is one of the most feared Gym Leaders notwithstanding Omega, but I was very lucky to walk away against her with the run to be continuing at that point.

Frustrating Things In Other People's Nuzlockes: What species of Pokemon was Beatrice?!

 

[THKS]

Frustrating Things In Other People's Nuzlockes: What species of Pokemon was Beatrice?!

Oh. Dragonite.

 

[Zorua3]

Sword and Shield Nuzlocke, Rose Tower, one of the Double Battles with Hop against the Macro Cosmos Grunts.

Hop’s Dubwool is dead bc it’s useless so his Corviknight is out.

I killed one of the Grunts with A-Wak but then had to switch out to Flapple on an incoming Dig from the remaining Pokémon, a Cufant.

And my chronic screwup of a teammate uses Swagger on the Cufant.

As I’m panicking and praying for a confuse hit, the Cufant then pulls up a Play Rough out of nowhere and obliterates Flapple with a very convenient +2 Attack- which, and I calculated this, would not have killed even on a crit if I hadn’t been actively sabotaged.

I think this is easily the most ridiculous Nuzlocke death I’ve ever had.

I definitely expected to be in a 2v1 for all of the Rose Tower double battles because a certain moron uses his Normal and Steel types to battle opposing Steels instead of his Water type... but I didn’t expect a 3v1. This cements Hop as my least favorite character in the series, for sure.

 

[PageEmperor]

Not quite Nuzlocke-relevant other than the fact that it happened in one, but in Expansion pass Shield, Zamazenta escapes from at least 5/6ths of my Ultra balls and all my maximum power Timer balls... and stays in a regular ball.

 

[War Anvil]

I feel like I have an impostor syndrome thing going on. Clefairy turned out to be my Mt. Moon encounter in Blue (Spoilers!) and I actually swear that I encountered a Geodude just beforehand. Think of it this way: Clefairy is 1% on floor 1F of Mt. Moon, but Geodude is 15% likely to appear. Aside from that, I was still missing my previous Golem from Red, who got critted while facing Sabrina's infamous Alakazam.

Know how I feel now? It's like, "Please tell me if I was doing something wrong! I can't believe this!"

 

[Neotornado]

So my grass + electric run of shield has ran into a bit of an issue with overleveling, mostly because of isle of armor giving you the EXP charm as soon as I walked into the dojo. Combined with most of my mons being traded (due to how I'm randomizing the run), I'm getting 225% experience on each battle without even using a lucky egg. Its gotten bad enough that I'm pretty sure my average team level would be in the mid to late 70's by the time I got to leon if I didn't swap out my team for an entirley new one just to soak EXP from trainer fights (which I've had to do at least twice now)

 

[PageEmperor]

^ Did you try avoiding certain trainers? I did in some of my runs (namely in around route 5, you can skip a bunch of trainers by going straight to the city.)

 

[sky_]

I love the safety blanket that comes with using dual screens, they make things so much easier, but they also seem to come with a big arrow above my head saying "hey folks, come and give my team nice big crits from full health, see if you can OHKO"

honestly i think i am a crit magnet in general, it comes with nuzlocking dkjfhasdjk

 

[Neotornado]

^ Did you try avoiding certain trainers? I did in some of my runs (namely in around route 5, you can skip a bunch of trainers by going straight to the city.)

I am avoiding most trainers, its the plot-required trainers that are giving upwards of 2,500-3,500 EXP per pokemon, though I did mess up on route 10 and not use an EXP sponging team there, which is what prompted the second team swap

 

[RevenantArcan]

Golurk is one of my all-time favourite Pokemon, and I'm always happy to get a shot at using one.

Of course, every time I get said shot, the it always has Klutz, an "ability" that has literally no reason to exist.

Generally, I tend to ignore EVs and IVs and suchlike when I'm playing the game, because I'm well aware that they literally do not matter 99.9% of the time in game. I can take a Pokemon with 0 IVs, a nature that reduces its best stat, level it up entirely on Rare Candies, give it four damaging moves, and I'll probably still win, because the games are not hard.

But I kinda have to draw the line at an "ability" which is just... actively detrimental.

 

[Arbitrary]

Golurk is one of my all-time favourite Pokemon, and I'm always happy to get a shot at using one.

Of course, every time I get said shot, the it always has Klutz, an "ability" that has literally no reason to exist.

Generally, I tend to ignore EVs and IVs and suchlike when I'm playing the game, because I'm well aware that they literally do not matter 99.9% of the time in game. I can take a Pokemon with 0 IVs, a nature that reduces its best stat, level it up entirely on Rare Candies, give it four damaging moves, and I'll probably still win, because the games are not hard.

But I kinda have to draw the line at an "ability" which is just... actively detrimental.

The problem is with Klutz is that the things that get it get other abilities. It's not like Slaking or Archeops where they're designed around those abilities and are still good Pokemon despite having these abilities. Golurk with Klutz is sad, I was so glad in my first ever nuzlocke that mine had Iron Fist, even though in BW1 that basically only affects Shadow Punch in terms of viable moves (Mega Punch is pointless with Shadow Punch and STAB Earthquake, while Dynamicpunch needs the hidden No Guard ability).

The other thing about Golurk is that it's a massive beast yet is deceptively frail. Lots of weaknesses and average defensive stats. 89/80/80 is worse than Machamp, which has slowly went from "slightly bulky" to "borderline frail" due to power creep.

 

[RadiantBeam]

Kind of a lowkey personal whine but eh.

I recently successfully finished a Blue nuzlocke with a Gyarados on my team. No complaints there, I had him since before Mt. Moon and he was an insanely solid team member. After finishing I decided to restart my Alpha Sapphire nuzlocke, and remembering my past difficulties with finding a Grass type, I pick Treecko. Up until Wattson’s gym, my primary water type was my Wingull and I was actually pretty excited to use him for all of the HM moves.... but of course he dies to a Meditate that knew Thunder Punch.

Cue me sighing heavily and digging a Magikarp out of my box. It’s still early yet so we’ll see if she lasts, but the same Pokemon twice in a row in a nuzlocke is... eh.

 

[KirbySSU]

Every time I attempt to run Unova, I wonder if this is finally the run where Stinky the Pansear doesn't live up to his name and get to level 22 deathless so he can learn a decent fire type move. It never is.

 

[Trollkitten]

I could probably count on one hand how many of the elemental monkeys have ever survived long enough to be on the final team of an Unova nuzlocke.

 

[Honey Badger]

the gym leaders in vega have items like brightpowder and focus band and i've had to deal with both of them aaaa

and then i completely mishandled the ghost ace and lost more mons than i should've

it doesn't matter that it's part dark; high jump kick is still useless