Nuzlocke Unpopular Nuzlocke opinions

[NotAtAll]

I also like grinding - which I guess is not that much of an unpopular opinion in this thread :D

When I lose someone on my team I have to get someone else in shape, it's fun seeing them gradually get better at beating the mons they are grinding on. And only after a while can they become full members of the team. It makes a death more costly and thus more 'real' to me. If you can easily just rarecandy another mon in place of the fallen one, the death seems meaningless. It also makes the decision to grind a very low level mon unappealing, increasing diversity. When my levels are 40 for example and I have a lv 5 Magikarp in the box and a lv 35 Sharpedo - it makes much more sense to go with the Sharpedo, instead of another Gyarados.

 

[King Smorgascake]

oddly enough I'm kinda the reverse here? I'm not a huge fan of gen 5 grinding since the audinos can take a while to show up (and get diluted with other mons later in the game, especially in B2/W2) and makes it trickier to gain EVs that aren't HP. With D/P/Pt I almost always fall back on the four rich trainers on north route 212 for grinding since they give lots of money, or the triple gyarados trainer on route 222 in the endgame since it's three thunderbolts.
I think my order of grinding is probably FR/LG/D/P/Pt <- Swish <- B/W/B2/W2 <- R/S/E <- X/Y/OR/AS <- S/M/US/UM <- G/S/C <- HG/SS <- R/B/Y <- LGP/LGE (R/S/E has a similar rich refight thing with the lass on route 104 but you can possibly ruin it on the current file if you register either the two trainers on the top half of route 104, HG/SS got a lower tier because of pursuit raticates in the midgame)
but yea agreed with grinding being a time to catch up on streams/youtube vids/podcasts. I tend to save the rare candies for the endgame when the last few levels start getting tedious, or to catch up new party members with swish's EXP candy specifically.

I would say Emerald ranks above Ruby and Sapphire as the PokeNav makes it much easier to rebattle trainers, and they get stronger with every rematch too. The downside is that you can't re-battle at all until after Norman.

 

[Neotornado]

I would say Emerald ranks above Ruby and Sapphire as the PokeNav makes it much easier to rebattle trainers, and they get stronger with every rematch too. The downside is that you can't re-battle at all until after Norman.

I believe this also applies to ruby/sapphire as well? I recall I got my route 104 lass trick working in quartz (which is a ruby-based hack) so I feel like it'd work in vanilla R/S as well.

Swish is also kinda awkward because you have to know when to tackle raids to really get the lowest-risk, highest reward EXP candies. (ideally right before kabu is when there are only 1/2 star raids happening, and I think 4 stars are right after you beat either opal or melony/goldie)

 

[King Smorgascake]

I believe this also applies to ruby/sapphire as well? I recall I got my route 104 lass trick working in quartz (which is a ruby-based hack) so I feel like it'd work in vanilla R/S as well.

Swish is also kinda awkward because you have to know when to tackle raids to really get the lowest-risk, highest reward EXP candies. (ideally right before kabu is when there are only 1/2 star raids happening, and I think 4 stars are right after you beat either opal or melony/goldie)

Ruby and Sapphire's is considerably more limited. If memory serves, that is, as I haven't played either in a very long time.

 

[ABAP]

I like grinding against wild Pokémon, there’s something kind of therapeutic about it. Throw on some music and just get to work. I also think it helps me get a good feel for the relative power level of whatever Pokémon I’m using in a (relatively) controlled environment which is obviously useful later. I also have a minor obsession with keeping my team as close to the same level as possible at any given time, so that it’s almost a necessity that I don’t mind the grind given that.

On the subject of items I’m ambivalent, but I think they’re okay. Everyone knows where the line is crossed into pure cheese. I haven’t run in a while, but my rule of thumb is that for hacks, they’re especially fine given the wacky difficulty that usually comes with. I also don’t use X Items which probably are most able to spiral out of control IMO.

Speaking of which: I think legendaries are fine to catch as long as they’re legitimately your first capture in the area and you didn’t break the spirit of the rules with repel. If you get that lucky with your dupes clause or RNG, I say it’s earned.

Overall this is just a fun way to play a children’s JRPG, so all rulesets are more or less valid. Whatever gives you the most fun at the end of the day.

 

[Alan900900900]

Natures don't matter nearly as much as people think they do. For competitive? Yeah, sure. But as far as the base game goes, I'll be real, half the time I don't even pay attention to which stats get boosted and which get lowered. I just look at the numbers on my pokemon and go off that. So what if my Alakazam has a subpar Special Attack, it's still a goddamn Alakazam. It's gonna hit like a truck regardless.

Semi-related to the last point, and obviously no offense to those who like doing this, but... Playing optimally just ain't fun for me. Calculating everything beforehand, doing your best to increase the odds of getting a top tier team, making absolutely sure nothing can go wrong... That just sounds like homework to me. It's a big part of why I drifted away from the NWC and haven't really touched Nuzvivor. I don't wanna have to plan everything out to outsmart my competition.

Lastly, I honestly doubt this is an unpopular opinion, but I might as well put it out there. X items kinda suck? In the sense that they make the game too easy the vast majority of the time. If I'm using any items at all, it's gonna be heals before anything else.

 

[pikamewphlosion]

Natures don't matter nearly as much as people think they do. For competitive? Yeah, sure. But as far as the base game goes, I'll be real, half the time I don't even pay attention to which stats get boosted and which get lowered. I just look at the numbers on my pokemon and go off that. So what if my Alakazam has a subpar Special Attack, it's still a goddamn Alakazam. It's gonna hit like a truck regardless.

I’m very guilty of this. Had several circumstances where I wanted to try ditching my Cofagrigus in White 2 because he has a Jolly Nature, and his Speed IV is low enough that he actually STILL gets outspeed by neutral nature Cofagrigus

But no: being a Ghost Type with high defense is just too good in Unova, even with neutered Sp. Atk. ESPECIALLY if you’re willing to put in the work to max out those Hp EVs

Heck, even right now I’ve been messing around in the post game and uncomfortable with the idea of using a Mild Serene Grace Deerling (why, Gamefreak, why couldn’t you give it STAB Headbutt until Ultra Sun?!). I know it’s really not that big a deal, but it ends up irking me all the same

I would argue that the 10% boost or 10% drop CAN change what matchups a Pokémon can deal with, occasionally: in particular, a Minus Speed nature for Pokémon between base 70 and base 90 will often generally be finding itself outsped and needing to rely on its bulk, while a +speed nature in that same range makes the Pokémon surprisingly nippy. Of course, Alakazam is gonna move first even with -speed, and as mentioned, Grigus moves last even with +speed, but natures CAN make things easier. They just can’t complete destroy a Pokémon’s usefulness: 10% is well within the margins of things you can patch up. Abilities are FAR more important ingame

 

[Fullmental]

Natures don't matter nearly as much as people think they do. For competitive? Yeah, sure. But as far as the base game goes, I'll be real, half the time I don't even pay attention to which stats get boosted and which get lowered. I just look at the numbers on my pokemon and go off that. So what if my Alakazam has a subpar Special Attack, it's still a goddamn Alakazam. It's gonna hit like a truck regardless.

I feel like I'm one of the few that really just never even looks at the natures in a nuzlocke, unless I'm concerned about a defensive stat on a glass cannon. In that case it's informational only - I just want to know if it's a def-reducing nature so I can keep it in mind later.

But then again I don't even bother EV training most of the time, so clearly having an efficient stat spread is not high in my priority list.

 

[Trollkitten]

I don't even know what all the natures do, so I never really pay attention to them anyway.

 

[MixnMatch]

People just generally look into in-game stuff with competitive mindset. Personally I find it kind of limiting and boring?
Yeah, technically modest Alakazam is more optimal, but adamant nature still leave it with massive special attack and that +10% (probably also boosted with some vitamins and/or EV training) can turn some physical moves into agreeable fillers to use against enemies with massive special defense but paper-thin physical defense.

I remember once in Fire Red Nuzlocke I had Golbat that between modest nature, Giga Drain and some luck with Confuse Ray swept gym battle vs Giovanni. It was not "100% infallible, easy strategy" but it was fun and amusing and that's most important in all single player games.

 

[Neotornado]

I fully admit that I let natures dictate what mons I use but I kinda find that to be good for me? like sure I'm skipping over mons like lillipup constantly since they get bad natures, but I'd probably not be using mons I've taken to HoF before if they didn't roll good natures even if the mons themselves weren't good (timid delibird in B2/W2 most notably) I guess I tend to not so much go for good natures as avoid negative natures (so neutral ones are good as well)

Also I should note that the stats do matter a biiit more in gen 7, BDSP, and some romhacks that do have enemy EVs. The offense stats may not matter much but speed in particular can be important if you need to outpseed something and suddenly have far less wiggle room to do so. In other gens? Generally obeying the type chart and using what you have will carry you through most situations well enough. There are a few fights that require some pre-planning (most notably whitney's miltank, which will run you over if you try to brute force it but can be debuffed or outlasted with ground types) but otherwise you should be good to not worry about the raw stats you're using.

 

[King Smorgascake]

EVs I generally don't have a clue about. As in, I know what they are, but I haven't the foggiest idea as to what pokemon give what EVs. Natures I'm somewhat particular about, often depending on the pokemon (e.g. something like Quagsire, which is good but has relatively average stats outside of really low Speed, getting any kind of Speed-boosting nature really isn't good), but EVs...nah, too complicated, and in Gens I through V, there isn't even any way to track them.

Admittedly, referring to an Adamant-natured Abra a couple of pages back was probably not the best example.

 

[Skarmizard]

Natures aren't dealbreakers for me at all, since they don't necessarily have that much of an impact, which can be mitigated by EV training. I check them, but they don't determine if I use a 'mon or not. I also don't give a crap about IVs, since I have no idea how to calculate them and they again aren't dealbreakers.
If anything, a 'mon getting the worse of its abilities would make more of a difference whether I use it or not (although even those aren't total dealbreakers unless it's something totally detrimental i.e. Klutz).

 

[Garnet]

In my experience, I feel like natures are only usually make-or-break, most of the time, in runs where your available Pokemon are severely limited, like monotypes, and even then, you're still probably going to use the ones with subpar natures simply because you don't have any other options, and they're more good for planning purposes? Like knowing whether or not you'll be able to outspeed or oneshot with a given Pokemon taking into account their natures and all, stuff like that.

Having said that, I do like Neotornado's method of going about things, using Pokemon you wouldn't otherwise bother with because they've got worthwhile natures! Helps keep things fresh. And I am using natures to help determine whether or not to evolve Pokemon in a run I'm working on off and on right now, since I'm limited to only one particular line, which gains a type when it evolves - Considering the evolution is weak to types some bosses use down the line and its base form isn't, there's actually somewhat of a reason to keep some of them unevolved despite the stat difference, so looking at the natures of each of my catches to decide who benefits most from evolution and who's okay without it until the threats have passed is worthwhile in that regard! All about how you use the info you get from them, I guess :0

 

[King Smorgascake]

Natures aren't dealbreakers for me at all, since they don't necessarily have that much of an impact, which can be mitigated by EV training. I check them, but they don't determine if I use a 'mon or not. I also don't give a crap about IVs, since I have no idea how to calculate them and they again aren't dealbreakers.
If anything, a 'mon getting the worse of its abilities would make more of a difference whether I use it or not (although even those aren't total dealbreakers unless it's something totally detrimental i.e. Klutz).

Depends on the 'mon. It tends to negatively affect pokemon that rely on their best ability to actually be useful. Azumarill comes to mind - a good pokemon if it has Huge Power, but is nigh unusable with Thick Fat. That's more of an extreme case though, and very few pokemon face such a situation. Something like Lapras is invaluable in a Nuzlocke if it has Shell Armour, but is still a good pokemon with Water Absorb. I'm also using a Togekiss with Hustle in my current Platinum run, which is fine, as Hustle only affects Physical attacks and Togekiss is always going to stick to Special attacks.