Darkie Does Nuzlocke: FireRed Edition - Chapter 1: The Beginning (Covering: Beginning of game -> Pewter City)

There comes a day in every veteran Pokemon player’s life where they decide to challenge themselves and do a Nuzlocke style run of a Pokemon game. If you don’t, you’re casual scum.

Ahem. So in case the title (And the picture) weren’t dead giveaways, I’ll be doing a FireRed Nuzlocke run. The rules for this run will be as follows:

• If a pokemon faints, it is considered dead, and must be released.
  i. Beginner’s Luck Clause: I do not game over if I lose on the first rival battle.
• I may only catch the first pokemon found in each area (for more detail on this, read my route information below.). If the pokemon faints or flees, I have no more chances to capture any pokemon on that route.
  i. Fisherman’s Clause: If I have not encountered a pokemon in a specific area, I may fish up one pokemon on that route, and that counts as my encounter for that route. This clause does not apply to areas where wild pokemon cannot be found in the grass.
  ii. Selfdestruct is fucking bullshit clause: If the first pokemon encountered on a route dies via selfdestruct or explosion, one do-over will be allowed for that route. All other recoil-based deaths count as normal deaths. Regardless of how the pokemon dies on the second encounter, I may no longer attempt to catch a pokemon on that route.
  iii. HM bitch clause: If no pokemon obtained can learn an HM move necessary to continue in the game, an appropriate pokemon may be caught with unlimited attempts. However, standard rules regarding death still apply. Furthermore, the pokemon caught this way may not be used in battles.
• All pokemon must be nicknamed.
• A blackout/whiteout is game over.
• No trades allowed.
• Items may not be used during battle, Pokeballs and items being held by pokemon not included.
• Legendary pokemon must be killed if encountered.

For the sake of encounters, the following will be the individual routes:

• The area between Pallet Town and Viridian City
• The area west of Viridian City and south of the Pokemon League Badge checking place
• The area between the previously mentioned place and the actual Pokemon League Building (This includes the water area, any grass patches, and Victory Road)
• The area between Viridian City and Pewter City (Including Viridian Forest)
• The area between Pewter City and Mt. Moon
• Mt. Moon
• The area between Mt. Moon and Cerulean City
• The area between Cerulean City and Bill’s house
• The area between Cerulean City and Vermilion City
• Diglett Cave
• The area between Vermilion City and the sleeping Snorlax
• The area between Cerulean City and Rock Tunnel
• Rock Tunnel
• The area between Lavender Town and Celadon City
• The area between Celadon City and Fuchsia City (Including both miniroutes and the bike path)
• The entire route between Lavender Town and Fuchsia City
• The area between Fuchsia City and Pallet Town (Not including the Ice Cave)
• The Ice Cave
• The Power Plant

So with all of that out of the way, let’s get this party started, shall we?

Suppose we can glimpse over the introductory stuff quickly. First and foremost, selecting a name. At first, I was going to go with Darkie (as per usual), but I stopped myself right before I hit continue. I had another idea, and that was to shamelessly steal from Game Grumps, so I proceeded to use the idea that was used in their Pokemon Emerald game (they’re not going to finish it anyway).



So now we get to the rival name. My initial impulse was to name him “DICKS”, but that’s literally been done a million times already. So I did a little variation.



So with that out of the way, let’s (actually) begin!

First and foremost, might as well get the potion out of my PC. Not that I’ll actually use it in battle, but I’m still free to use healing items outside of battle, and since it’s there...



So now we head out of the house, head towards the grass... Yeah, you guys know the drill. So we end up in the lab to choose the starting pokemon.



So in good Darkie tradition (and because I’m a masochist), I choose the fire pokemon. Since I always bet on fire.



So now we get to nickname selection. Angrydragn joins the party.



And now we get to the rival battle. As indicated by the Beginner’s Luck Clause, I will continue the game, win or lose, since the first fight is 100% RNG bullshit anyway.

...Not that it matters, since I won.

So now I begin my actual journey. Finally. So first destination. Viridian City. I tiptoe my way through route 1, hoping to not encounter any pokemon so I can actually catch something once I can acquire Pokeballs. With 2 grass patches remaining, I encounter a Pidgey. Then in the next one I encounter a Rattata. So hopefully I can get at least one of them in a later route. But that will have to wait, my fetch quest awaits!



So grab the parcel from the Viridian Pokemart, walk back to Pallet (and encounter another Pidgey along the way, because GameFreak likes taunting me), deliver the parcel, grab the Pokedex. Moving right along.

Now on to Route 22, AKA that area that’s west of Viridian City. After all, I need a new Pokemon, and the experience that I’ll get from the rival battle will come in Handy, since FireRed is a bitch to Nuzlocke with a fire starter.

So what pokemon shall I (hopefully) get here?



...Well, it’s something. And at this point, I can’t be too picky about what Pokemon I get. Thankfully, I don’t get a badly timed crit on scratch.



...Damn this character limit. Oh well, ChuckEChiz (Pronouced Chuck E Cheese, not Chuck E Chizz) joins the party.

So now that I have a second pokemon, do you know what time it is? That’s right, TIME FOR GRINDAN.



…

Actually, scratch what I said earlier. A Mankey would have been REAL nice to get past the first gym. Oh, well. Beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose.



And I probably also did some overkill on my party, which will likely bite me in the ass when it comes to trying to capture wild pokemon later on. Oh, well, didn’t want to risk dying on the second rival battle.

And speaking of rival battle, I burned through it virtually unscathed. The most damage I retained was Chuck losing less than half of his health. So now to stock up on Antidotes, Viridian Forest beckons!



...After this brief interruption.

So now that THAT’s taken care of too...



So let’s see what I’m trying to catch in here...



Hm, this would have been much nicer in the original version of this game, since Onix didn’t know rock attacks back then, and Butterfree’s Confusion did passable damage to both Geodude and Onix. However, I lack that luxury in this remake. So I can either risk OHKOing Caterpie or throwing Pokeballs at it at full health in hopes of capturing it, since I have no limited attempt clause in the rules. Since Caterpie is easy to capture, I decide to chuck shit at it till it comes with me (or I run out of pokeballs, one of the two).



Two balls? I’ll take it.

...Wait, that didn’t come out right.

So let’s poke some fun at everyone’s favorite Pokemon Bugaphobe (There’s probably a word for it, but I’m too lazy to go to Google).



Sup Misty joins the party.
So now that I have an underleveled pokemon, you know what time it is...

I decide to not level Caterpie (now Metapod) as much as I would ideally like to, since leveling one is a bitch due to piss poor stats. Instead, I rely on the trainers in the forest for experience, watching out for poison along the way.

So burning through the trainers (not literally, for the most part. I refrain from using Charmander with the exception of one or two trainer battles), I make my way to Pewter City, still going strong.



So with that, I conclude this chapter of my journey. I shall continue it Soon™ (Seriously, though, I should have the next part up in a week or less). So now for obligatory post-chapter stats:

Badges: 0
Casualties: 0
Current Pokemon: 3
Sup Misty (L10 Butterfree)
ChuckEChiz (L11 Rattata)
AngryDragn (L13 Charmander)