Nuzlocke General starter death thread

[PageEmperor]

So yeah, here’s the thread to discuss starter deaths if you’ve ever had any. If you don’t, feel free to share why you think you haven’t lost any startersso far.

I’ve personally had way too many starter deaths to count, but I think I’ll share my most recent cases. My Sword and Shield Expansion pass nuzruns. BOTH times the starter died, and shockingly, in their basic forms. That’s right, before they ever got a chance to evolve or get a badge, and they were my first deaths too.

In Sword, I picked Sobble, and she died in the Wild area while catching my Oddish. Shockingly, it was not a Grass attack that killed her but instead Acid. Can’t remember if it was a crit or not.

In Shield, I picked Scorbunny, and his death was a little more complicated. As soon as I was allowed onto the Isle, I went there and decided to immediately take on the dojo bfore continuing the main story. I knew Mr. Old led with Mienfoo so I led with my starter since I didn’t really have any Fighting counters. It hits Scorbunny with Force palm that paralysed him and when I healed Scorbunny in hopes to stall it out a bit, Mienfoo’s next Force palm crits, murdering Scorbunny.

 

[Arbitrary]

I've lost plenty of starters really early, like first gym early. I've also lost two Primarina literally right before the Elite Four. Snivy and Tepig lines tend to die a lot, but I have got a Serperior to the end and two Emboar, so there is that, while Samurott has literally never died on me - including the run where he was my only survivor. My first run had a Snivy death a level before evolving into Servine. Early starter deaths make the run more interesting since they're your crutch for the first half of the game.

I lost Rillaboom really late to Hop's asshole Inteleon, and two other members too, but on another run that Rillaboom actually survived, I instead lost Toxtricity to the same fucking thing.

 

[sky_]

Oh dear I have had bad luck with Starters. And by bad luck I mean I incorrectly assume that they're strong and they'll be safe from things, but they're not quite safe enough D:

My Starter in my first nuzlocke, an Oshawott, died to Riolu's Counter/Endure/Quick Attack combo that it had in Flocessy Ranch. I was honestly upset b/c I'd gotten attached to the little guy very quickly, and I was like "oh no everyone else's starters make it to the end I must be so bad at this" sdfhsdkjgfh thankfully I completed that run, and I had a Samurott which made it until the end in a White nuzlocke later. I just had to avenge the little guy xD

They also die a fair bit in blind runs! I had an Empoleon in my blind Rejuvenation nuzlocke who died to a crit Aura Sphere from the rival's Togekiss (it was a risk bringing him in there, but I was very scared that the Togekiss would wipe my team and so wanted a Steel type in against it). I honestly quit the run after that. I also had a Fire/Ground fakemon Starter called Flearoe in my Pokemon SLLD run who... also died to a crit Aura Sphere?? From this Fire/Flying bird that wouldn't die to a Rock attack? I think this move is out to get me haha dhgfdgjhd thankfully, I made it to the Hall of Fame though with another team xD

Edit: I forgot to mention but I knew I was forgetting one dgfkdjghk my Feraligatr also died, this time to a crit Dragon Pulse by Clair's Kingdra. My Starters seem to be crit magnets rip ;p so many Water ones die too!

 

[Pale smoke]

Honestly in every nuzlocke I've ever done my starter never survived.

The closest I've had to my starter surviving was in the first nuzlocke I ever did, a randomized run of sapphire, in which my starter, Thor the Raiku, survived until Steven, who killed him along with everyone else on my team except for 2 Pokemon.

 

[Trollkitten]

I just experienced starter death in a nuzlocke which I'm not going to name the run or the starter because I eventually plan to do a story about it, but let's just say that it lasted up until the last Elite Four battle before the champion.

Spoiler: More details

It was in an Alola run and I was up against Kahili. Her Toucannon used Screech and then Supersonic Skystrike, and my starter hung on through the power of affection bonuses, then used a priority move... just as Toucannon was heating up its beak. The mission was accomplished, but my poor starter died to burn damage.

 

[Mr Spaz]

In my first Shield Nuzlocke. Rillaboom vs Piers's Obstagoon. I wasn't expecting Obstagoon to tank a 4x effective Brick Break. I was also not expecting Counter.

 

[Arbitrary]

I lost my Monferno to Roark in Platinum because he had been Screeched and I thought Mach Punch would OHKO Cranidos. It didn't, and he wasn't at full health, so he died. The first of many deaths in that run which I finished only yesterday.

 

[JavierE64]

I lost a couple of starters during multiple runs: My Piplup died early on during a blind run of Platinum (Bad Idea) an Oshawott got crit by Cheren's Lillipup on B2, My precious Brionne got killed during the battle against Totem Aquaranid in Ultra Sun.

But the one that hurts me the most are the ones in X; on 3 different runs, I lost 3 different Braixen on different points of the game.
How's that even possible!!

 

[Heather]

I've lost a starter once: I had a Y Egglocke a long time back that I almost but not quite finished posting back on the old forum. In that, my Frogadier got the old 1-2 punch that is Endeavor at low health and Quick Attack from one of the Staravia outside of Reflection Cave. Poor Chael, he didn't deserve that blatant mechanics abuse, and that incident is why I have such a strong hate for the endeavor move. Others may have their grudges with the explosion moves, and indeed I gave up on one of my first serious runs because of a Geodude outside Solaceon murdering my Roselia, but the thing is, it's ultimately easier to give the explosions the wide berth they well deserve. Endeavor isn't so simple, because the nature of its danger only comes out once you've already committed to a course of action and doesn't go away. It's less controllable and massively cheap-just about the only thing cheaper is Counter/Mirror Coat on ANYTHING with Sturdy, and Wobbuffet if you don't have a Ghost handy.

fitting that, for you bnha fans out there, the move shares a name with a certain number poo hero that no one likes.

 

[NekoSuave]

Usually, whenever I lose a starter, it's early on in the game (Snivy, Scorbunny...whatever starter I get in the Ultra games...), but there are a few that happened later on in the game. And boy, did they hurt. A lot.

-That one time Wally killed my entire team (including Sceptile, who was the last to go) right when I was about to leave Victory Road.
-That one time I didn't know Feint was a thing and got my Braixen killed by Korrina's Lucario before I left Geosenge Town.
-That one time Lysandre killed my Chesnaught with a crit right as I finished setting up (that's probably on me for setting up against Mega Gyarados).
-That one time Totem Araquanid killed my poor Dartrix, right when he was on the cusp of winning.
-That one time Wattson got two crits in a row, resulting in my Combusken's death (and a near loss in general).
-That one time I gambled on Blastoise's Torrent-boosted Surf killing Koga's Weezing before the one-two punch of Sludge and Poison damage killed him...and lost.
-And finally, the worst of them all, that one time my precious Quilava died to Pryce's Dewgong after it hit Ice Shard despite being at -6 accuracy. That fight went on for so long, and because this happened in a Wedlocke, and I hit my healing item limit, there was nothing I could do to save him. He was so close to finishing the fight, if he hit one more time, he would've lived! Coincidentally, this is why I don't do Wedlockes anymore.

 

[THKS]

Roger the Servine. The hardest part wasn't that he died, it was how he died. Following the fourth Gym badge, a Herdier took him out so suddenly. It admittedly devastated me to the point that I almost considered stopping the Nuzlocke from there. Ultimately, I didn't, but it felt like a black day in that Nuzlocke.

Cuddles the Cinderace. I thought he was a shoo-in against Melony, and for a while it seemed to be the case here... until her Dynamax Lapras came along and took his life. For a while, it felt like my team had an identity crisis to the point that my Captain was Joy the Cherrim and the Vice Captain being Judy the Corviknight, and Joy wasn't even the Captain after Cuddles.