Any tips for a first attempt at a nuzlocke?

Question

I've been thinking of attempting my first nuzlocke (either on alpha Sapphire or white idk yet) and I was wondering if there are some tips that I need to know to be successful in completing it?

Comments

Level grind your starter to level 100 before you go to the second route. Then you probably can't die.

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That would be super boring, you wouldn't have a nervous feeling of "I might die here" because you would have a level 100 starter.

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If you like that feeling, then you should catch Pokemon as much as possible and always keep your 6 lowest-level Pokemon in your party. Also never use medicine items or held items.

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If you want that nervous feeling do challenge nuzlockes, but for regular nuzlockes that's the amazing strat of a level 100 starter

Answer 1

• try not to spend your money on useless things and save it for medicine and stuff
• if you choose to play alpha sapphire, I think it would be a good idea to play Pokemon Amie a lot and get the affection raised so that Pokemon will be more likely to lands crits, dodge attacks more often and even sometimes heal themselves of a status effect like poison or paralysis
• turn off move animation if you want the battles to be quicker
• do not hesitate to bulk up on potions and stuff
• pay attention to type matchup; if you have a Pokemon that have a type advantage, use it
• grind. A lot. But not too much or else your Pokemon won't obey you if you don't have the right badges
• sell everything like pearls and stuff

Comments

Pokemon always obey you if its OT is you.

Answer 2

Choose a starter who is good defensively and handles many of the gyms well. you'll kick yourself if you lose a starter because it's weak to an early gym-leader.

Use a nuzlocke tracker such as THIS one to keep track of your Pokemon

Only apply the rules of the nuzlocke after receiving pokeballs

Apply the dupes clause and family clause, which mean that if you find a Pokemon that you already have, or one that's from a family you already have, it doesn't count as the first of the route

PUT THE TEXT SPEED ON FAST

If you want it to be brutal, put your battle style to set and never use items in battle. if you don't want it to be too hard, then just don't.

Have a plan for every gym, and underestimate no one.

Don't take unnecessary risks

If you catch a Pokemon that you'll never use, keep it as a sacrificial pawn for when you need a free switch-in in a tricky battle

Instead of releasing Pokemon when they die, have a graveyard box in your PC

Sell any revives you find

Look up where and when you'll be attacked by rivals in advance

Heal at every opportunity

Don't be afraid to grind

Don't use legendaries

Don't count gifts as your encounter for the route, but refuse them if they're too broken (Like Latios and Mega lucario)

when replacing a team member, consider type diversity

if you play a game with single-use TMs, consider how likely a Pokemon is to die if you use a TM on it

Comments

I started yesterday, I didn't play too much but so far I have
Poseidon the marshtomp(lvl 16)
Night fang the poochyena(lvl 14)
Peeko the wingull(lvl 14)
Caught a Zubat but I decided to make it interesting and use wingull instead.
Anyways, should I grind just a bit more or am I ok to take on brawly?
The one thing I'm worried about is nothing for dark types since I don't have a makuhita.

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His Makuhita is level 16, so I think you should use a level 17 Wingull. I don't think you need a fighting Pokemon. Your Marshtomp should be able to handle darks.

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Grind against makuhita in granite cave until you're at least lv18. make sure you know wing attack.

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Zubat is really good, you should swap out Peeko since it shares the Water typing with Poseidon, but has a 4X weakness to Electric instead of an immunity. Crobat is really - and I mean REALLY - good, and although it probably won't survive the entire game, you can get one basically right after Golbat, so its a good addition. Zubat's a bit painful to grind since it learns basically nothing good for ages but once you do Brawly should be smooth sailing.