Darkie Does Nuzlocke: FireRed Edition - Chapter 3: Clearing the Mist(y) (Covering: Nugget Bridge -> Cerulean Gym)

NOTE: The rules regarding this Nuzlocke run can be found in Chapter 1.

In this part, I tackle the second major obstacle in my Nuzlocke run: The Cerulean Gym. If I can get past this part, the rest of the game should be much, much easier.

Badges: 1
Casualties: 0
Current Pokemon: 6
Sup Misty (L15 Butterfree)
ChuckEChiz (L20 Raticate)
AngryDragn (L20 Charmeleon)
Sup Ash (L18 Spearow)
Batwoman?? (L17 Zubat)
Dilos (L6 Ekans)

When I last left off, I just caught an Ekans from the route right before Cerulean City, so I’m going to get him up to speed real quick. Insert your own grinding/montage music here.

And I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to evolve my Spearow either. So now that my entire team sans Sup Misty is level 20+, I think it’s safe to move on.

So I might as well get this rival battle out of the way. Thankfully, I have a much stronger roster than him, which makes up for my total absence of type counters. I lead with Sup Ash.



I take out Pidgeotto with about half health remaining. He switches out to Rattata. I decide to take a minor risk and use AngryDragn, since he needs the XP anyway, and he won’t be useful against Squirtle.



I’m not sure what I was worried about. Maybe I’m so used to my Raticate being a powerhouse, that I forgot how weak a rattata 6 levels below my Charmeleon was. He sends out Squirtle, as I expected. I lead with Chuck, since he’s my strongest pokemon in the group right now (Unfortunately, he doesn’t really get terribly better from here).



Even with Torrent up the entire time, Squirtle was no match for Chuck. Thankfully, Dongles’s last pokemon is literally a punching bag, since its only move is teleport. Since AngryDragn is the only pokemon in my group that I know I want to keep the entire run, I use him on Abra. So an easy win for me here.

Suppose it’s worth noting what pokemon are and aren’t on the chopping block right now. Odds are either Sup Misty or Dilos will be the first to go, since the former has poor stats and the latter never gets a decent moveset. The one I don’t choose first will leave the group second. The third to leave will most likely be Chuck, since as mentioned before, he doesn’t really get any amazing moves past this point in the game. Sup Ash will probably be on the chopping block much later on, potentially followed by Batwoman??, provided I get amazing pokemon later in the game.
While we’re on the Nugget Bridge, I might as well take care of the XP the trainers here give (I also was able to clear the first 4 trainers without breaking a sweat using Batwoman?? alone, overleveled much?). However, I almost lose Dilos due to Trainer 5’s Mankey getting 5 hits on Fury Swipes.



So with trainer 5 and the Grunt at the end of the bridge out of the way, let’s see what pokemon we can fish up (not literally, of course) from this route.



...Well, I think we all know how this will end.

I COULD try to land a sleep powder with Sup Misty, but A. I’m not sure if it would outspeed Abra, and B. it has a chance of missing, meaning Abra would be allowed an easy escape. So I take a gamble.



...And it paid off, surprisingly. So I’ll celebrate this victory by giving her a fitting nickname...



So with that, RNGsus joins the party. Too bad I have no way of evolving it into an Alakazam. If I get a better psychic type down the road, I’ll probably use it instead of this guy. If not, I’ll keep him boxed for a while, since I don’t feel like trying to get him to evolve quite yet.

So after burning through the trainers between Nugget Bridge and Bill’s House (although I almost lost Dilos again in the process), I decide to play it safe once more and grind. While grinding, I come to realize that I lucked out with getting Abra. While Oddish would have been better for me, the majority of pokemon available are ones that would have been little help to me, e.g. Pidgey, Caterpie, and Weedle. So now that my pokemon seem properly leveled, I can advance to the Cerulean Gym. I’m not terribly worried about it. Although the pokemon themselves are more challenging than the ones in the Pewter Gym, water types aren’t as strong against my group as rock types were back in the Pewter Gym.

While I burn through the trainers before Misty, a thought pops up in my mind: Starmie, the primary threat on Misty’s team, is part psychic. Two of my pokemon know bite, and one knows pursuit. After this epiphany, I realize that this fight should be a walk in the park. So on I go to Misty.




She opens with Staryu, while I start with Sup Ash. As amusing as it would be to open with Sup Misty, I don’t want to risk losing him. I open with peck, which takes out almost his entire health bar, while he opens with harden. Predictably, Misty responds by using her Super Potion, which heals Staryu to full. I continue my peck barrage, bringing him to half health. At this point, taking out Staryu is all but assured. And with one more peck, he goes down for the count. Sup Ash escapes the match unscathed.




So with that out of the way, Misty switches to Starmie, while I switch to Batwoman??. I open with bite, which takes out half of Starmie’s health, while Starmie opens with Water Pulse, which takes out about a third of mine. Thankfully, Batwoman?? doesn’t get confused, so I roll through the match with little issue.




So with Starmie out of commission, the Cascade Badge is mine for the taking. So I go to heal my pokemon, and camp out outside of the Cerulean City pokemon center, where I close out this chapter.



The next gym should prove to be a bit more challenging, since half of my team is weak to electric attacks. Will I be able to prevail? Will I end up continuing to overlevel my pokemon to the point where the entire game becomes trivial for me? See for yourself next time, on Darkie Does Nuzlocke!

Badges: 2
Casualties: 0
Current Pokemon: 7 (1 in PC)
Sup Misty (L18 Butterfree)
ChuckEChiz (L23 Raticate)
AngryDragn (L24 Charmeleon)
Sup Ash (L23 Fearow)
Batwoman?? (L25 Golbat)
Dilos (L23 Arbok)