The word “Pokémon” is a household name due to its massive television and video game success, but what the heck is a Nuzlocke?
If you’re bored of the mainstream Pokémon games, a lot of people look up ways to challenge themselves in the games. One of the more common challenges to go through is the Nuzlocke.
The Nuzlocke challenge has a few basic rules for completing a Pokémon game (and even has its own subreddit for sharing your Nuzlocke stories). The main rules are as follows. If your Pokémon faints, it is dead and you have to release it the next chance you get, no reviving. This is a huge deal if you have that Pokémon for a long time and you lose to a one-hit KO or from poison. The next main rule is that you can only catch the first Pokémon you see on a route, and only one per route. This rule keeps it so you don’t just stock up on hundreds of backup Pokémon so that you never lose, and keeps it a solid challenge.
The general consensus of this challenge also includes that if you black out/white out, it’s game over. Even if you have a box full in the PC, your game is over. There are some other optional rules but the only other “main” rule that people follow is that traded Pokémon and mystery gifts are not allowed; you must play with Pokémon that you capture and the only exception is your starter.
The thing is I've never done a randomized nuzlocke before so I want some advice on what the best settings are for a randomizer beginner. I want a bit of a challenge but not too much of a challenge. FYI, I'm not going to randomize abilities and types. I just want a nuzlocke I can have a good time with and post on my channel. RULES AT BOTTOMEpisode 1 of the new nuzlocke series I hope we can actually beat this lol.If you would like to join the team then think about starting channel. Pokemon Platinum Nuzlocke Extreme Randomizer is just a simple hack ROM where there are randomized pickup items, wild encounters, pokemon starter, and increase the difficulty of trainers & more. You can play this game on Android, Pc, and Nintendo 3DS!!! The Randomizer Nuzlocke Challenge Started by Snableye August 7th, 2012 4:47 AM. 298278 views 50 replies This thread is closed. It will not accept new replies.
Of course, there are clauses/exceptions for shiny Pokemon. It is widely accepted that if you encounter a shiny Pokémon, you are able to catch it even if you have already caught a Pokémon in that route.
You are also encouraged to nickname each Pokémon you obtain in order to strengthen your bond with them and make it much more horrifying if they faint and you are forced to release them.
Now, of course, there’s no one stopping you from cheating and keeping a fainted Pokémon with you if you grow attached to them, but it is a lot more interesting to honour the Nuzlocke rules and see how far you can make it.
That sounds hard enough, right? Especially considering some of the harder early gyms in certain games. What’s a Randomizer Nuzlocke, then?
A Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge follows the same rules of a normal Nuzlocke challenge, but literally everything is random. The items you find are random, the Pokémon you encounter are random, their types are random, their moves are random, the NPC teams are random, and so on and so forth. This makes the Nuzlocke exponentially harder.
I decided to play through my own Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge in Pokémon Emerald (my personal favourite generation) in order to help explain what sort of random events can happen in one of these playthroughs.
Oct 25, 2019 The Wickersnatch. Friday, October 25th, 2019. Blog; Fiction; Just in time for Halloween, I’ve got something spooky for ya: “The Wickersnatch” I recently got together with some people to put together a short horror film for @JakobOwens Short Horror Film Contest 2019, and this is the result!
As stated earlier, everything is randomized during the game. The Pokémon Professor Birch shows you can be anything; I was shown a Totodile, Zangoose, and Ursaring while he told me what a Pokémon was.
Your starter choices in Pokémon can also be wildly different, my first time trying I was given the options of either Aipom, Azurill, and Caterpie. After choosing Azurill, I saw he had Tri Attack and Poison Tail as his first two moves so I nicknamed him “Spell.” I lost him and had to restart early on because Brendan’s Caterpie had Dynamic Punch and almost killed Spell, and then Spell died trying to run from an Elekid with Brick Break.
Pokemon Randomizer
So far, this isn’t a very hard-selling example of why you should try the Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge, but I didn’t give up just there, I wanted to see how cool the starter Pokémon could be and this time was given the choices of Jynx, Kecleon, or Pidgey.
Now another thing to note is that when a Pokémon evolves, it also evolves into something completely random. With this in mind, I thought Pidgey would be the best choice as it could potentially evolve into a Kyogre or Umbreon if I was lucky, but it lost to a Zigzagoon with Dragon Rage and I had to start again.
I’m not going to sit here and detail a shot-for-shot story of what my own experience with the Randomizer Nuzlocke was like, but I’ll add that my actual playthrough began with a Nidoking as my starter Pokémon that knew Selfdestruct, Wing Attack, Milk Drink, and Psychic. Due to his ironic game-ending first move, I named him “Boom” and went on my way.
While attempting a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough, anything bad that you think can happen, will. Though it is also really entertaining to see normal events play out vastly differently and this continues to keep the game fresh and engaging.
For example, in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, a trainer named Wally normally teaches you to catch a Pokémon by battling a wild Ralts with a Zigzagoon, but for me he ran into a Salamence with Giga Drain and sent out a Jumpluff to battle it.
The thing that is most challenging about the Randomizer Nuzlocke is your inability to prepare for what you normally could. For example, in Emerald, your first gym to battle is a rock-type gym full of rock Pokémon. But in a Randomizer playthrough, it can and will be anything. I fought the gym leader Roxanne (who now went by Cop Lawrence) who used a Skitty, Noctowl, and Kakuna instead of her normal team of rock Pokemon.
After seeing Roxanne was now Cop Lawrence, I kept my eye out for other interesting name changes. My favourite was that all fisherman were now Champions, and usually didn’t have any fish.
Speaking of fishing, you can also get anything on the end of your fishing rod. It’s exciting to know an Old Rod could land you a Golem or Ivysaur perhaps, instead of it only ever being a Magikarp. (Though, when I went fishing, I still found a Feebas).
Once you start making it through the game, you’re going to start losing Pokémon for some dumb reasons. When I challenged the next gym leader Brawley (aka Cop Mike) who normally has a fighting-type based team, his Octillery was the first to kill one of my team. Despite being only at the second gym, it was still painful to release a comrade that had helped me make it that far.
One of the best parts of the Randomizer version of the Nuzlocke challenge is seeing legendary Pokémon in different places. For example, I met a Regirock in Granite Cave, an Entei on Route 110, a trainer had a Moltres, another had a Zapdos, a different trainer had a Jirachi, three different Gym Trainers had a Mew, a Zapdos, and a Kyogre, more trainers had a Moltres, another with a Jirachi, I encountered a wild Latias, a trainer with Raikou, ANOTHER trainer with a Moltres AND a Groudon, another with Ho-Oh, one with a Kyogre, one with a Regirock, a wild Rayquaza in the desert, a trainer with an Entei, a wild Zapdos, trainers with Regirock and one with Raikou.
Phew. That is a lot of legendary Pokemon to see in one game!
Another wild thing to come across is set items. What would maybe be a Paralyze Heal would be a random TM (which also is a random move, not what it is supposed to be) or the Master Ball. And what normally is the Master Ball could end up being a berry. For myself, I ended up having more than one EXP Share because I found one shortly after being given one during the story.
On top of scripted items, are also the randomness of scripted Pokémon encounters. In generation three, you are gifted a Castform when you get to the Weather Institution near Fortree City, but for me I was actually given an Electrode with Karate Chop and Encore (it had other moves but a Pokémon with no limbs using those moves is amusing). Also, eggs can be anything, so the egg I was gifted hatched to be a Staryu instead of what it was meant to be.
Making it to the Pokémon League and beating the game in a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough is one of the hardest things you can do in a Pokémon game, and is still something I haven’t done. At the end of the playthrough I went through, I lost to the double battle Gym Leaders in Mossdeep City, with 6 badges, 24 caught Pokémon, and just about 12 hours of game time. I blacked out, and deleted my save file.
On top of the Randomizer Nuzlocke being one of the hardest things to do, it is also one of the most fun and rewarding things to do in a Pokémon game as well. If you find yourself with some free time, or if you’ve done the most you can do in your Pokemon games, you can try out the Nuzlocke challenge or a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough and see how far you can get!
In love with writing, and every kind of video game. Looking to mix them up a little.
Ariana Grande follows me on Twitter, you should too ;)
The word “Pokémon” is a household name due to its massive television and video game success, but what the heck is a Nuzlocke?
If you’re bored of the mainstream Pokémon games, a lot of people look up ways to challenge themselves in the games. One of the more common challenges to go through is the Nuzlocke.
The Nuzlocke challenge has a few basic rules for completing a Pokémon game (and even has its own subreddit for sharing your Nuzlocke stories). The main rules are as follows. If your Pokémon faints, it is dead and you have to release it the next chance you get, no reviving. This is a huge deal if you have that Pokémon for a long time and you lose to a one-hit KO or from poison. The next main rule is that you can only catch the first Pokémon you see on a route, and only one per route. This rule keeps it so you don’t just stock up on hundreds of backup Pokémon so that you never lose, and keeps it a solid challenge.
The general consensus of this challenge also includes that if you black out/white out, it’s game over. Even if you have a box full in the PC, your game is over. There are some other optional rules but the only other “main” rule that people follow is that traded Pokémon and mystery gifts are not allowed; you must play with Pokémon that you capture and the only exception is your starter.
Of course, there are clauses/exceptions for shiny Pokemon. It is widely accepted that if you encounter a shiny Pokémon, you are able to catch it even if you have already caught a Pokémon in that route.
You are also encouraged to nickname each Pokémon you obtain in order to strengthen your bond with them and make it much more horrifying if they faint and you are forced to release them.
Now, of course, there’s no one stopping you from cheating and keeping a fainted Pokémon with you if you grow attached to them, but it is a lot more interesting to honour the Nuzlocke rules and see how far you can make it.
That sounds hard enough, right? Especially considering some of the harder early gyms in certain games. What’s a Randomizer Nuzlocke, then?
A Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge follows the same rules of a normal Nuzlocke challenge, but literally everything is random. The items you find are random, the Pokémon you encounter are random, their types are random, their moves are random, the NPC teams are random, and so on and so forth. This makes the Nuzlocke exponentially harder.
I decided to play through my own Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge in Pokémon Emerald (my personal favourite generation) in order to help explain what sort of random events can happen in one of these playthroughs.
As stated earlier, everything is randomized during the game. The Pokémon Professor Birch shows you can be anything; I was shown a Totodile, Zangoose, and Ursaring while he told me what a Pokémon was.
Your starter choices in Pokémon can also be wildly different, my first time trying I was given the options of either Aipom, Azurill, and Caterpie. After choosing Azurill, I saw he had Tri Attack and Poison Tail as his first two moves so I nicknamed him “Spell.” I lost him and had to restart early on because Brendan’s Caterpie had Dynamic Punch and almost killed Spell, and then Spell died trying to run from an Elekid with Brick Break.
So far, this isn’t a very hard-selling example of why you should try the Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge, but I didn’t give up just there, I wanted to see how cool the starter Pokémon could be and this time was given the choices of Jynx, Kecleon, or Pidgey.
Now another thing to note is that when a Pokémon evolves, it also evolves into something completely random. With this in mind, I thought Pidgey would be the best choice as it could potentially evolve into a Kyogre or Umbreon if I was lucky, but it lost to a Zigzagoon with Dragon Rage and I had to start again.
I’m not going to sit here and detail a shot-for-shot story of what my own experience with the Randomizer Nuzlocke was like, but I’ll add that my actual playthrough began with a Nidoking as my starter Pokémon that knew Selfdestruct, Wing Attack, Milk Drink, and Psychic. Due to his ironic game-ending first move, I named him “Boom” and went on my way.
While attempting a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough, anything bad that you think can happen, will. Though it is also really entertaining to see normal events play out vastly differently and this continues to keep the game fresh and engaging.
For example, in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, a trainer named Wally normally teaches you to catch a Pokémon by battling a wild Ralts with a Zigzagoon, but for me he ran into a Salamence with Giga Drain and sent out a Jumpluff to battle it.
The thing that is most challenging about the Randomizer Nuzlocke is your inability to prepare for what you normally could. For example, in Emerald, your first gym to battle is a rock-type gym full of rock Pokémon. But in a Randomizer playthrough, it can and will be anything. I fought the gym leader Roxanne (who now went by Cop Lawrence) who used a Skitty, Noctowl, and Kakuna instead of her normal team of rock Pokemon.
After seeing Roxanne was now Cop Lawrence, I kept my eye out for other interesting name changes. My favourite was that all fisherman were now Champions, and usually didn’t have any fish.
Speaking of fishing, you can also get anything on the end of your fishing rod. It’s exciting to know an Old Rod could land you a Golem or Ivysaur perhaps, instead of it only ever being a Magikarp. (Though, when I went fishing, I still found a Feebas).
Once you start making it through the game, you’re going to start losing Pokémon for some dumb reasons. When I challenged the next gym leader Brawley (aka Cop Mike) who normally has a fighting-type based team, his Octillery was the first to kill one of my team. Despite being only at the second gym, it was still painful to release a comrade that had helped me make it that far.
One of the best parts of the Randomizer version of the Nuzlocke challenge is seeing legendary Pokémon in different places. For example, I met a Regirock in Granite Cave, an Entei on Route 110, a trainer had a Moltres, another had a Zapdos, a different trainer had a Jirachi, three different Gym Trainers had a Mew, a Zapdos, and a Kyogre, more trainers had a Moltres, another with a Jirachi, I encountered a wild Latias, a trainer with Raikou, ANOTHER trainer with a Moltres AND a Groudon, another with Ho-Oh, one with a Kyogre, one with a Regirock, a wild Rayquaza in the desert, a trainer with an Entei, a wild Zapdos, trainers with Regirock and one with Raikou.
The general consensus of this challenge also includes that if you black out/white out, it’s game over. Even if you have a box full in the PC, your game is over. There are some other optional rules but the only other “main” rule that people follow is that traded Pokémon and mystery gifts are not allowed; you must play with Pokémon that you capture and the only exception is your starter.
The thing is I've never done a randomized nuzlocke before so I want some advice on what the best settings are for a randomizer beginner. I want a bit of a challenge but not too much of a challenge. FYI, I'm not going to randomize abilities and types. I just want a nuzlocke I can have a good time with and post on my channel. RULES AT BOTTOMEpisode 1 of the new nuzlocke series I hope we can actually beat this lol.If you would like to join the team then think about starting channel. Pokemon Platinum Nuzlocke Extreme Randomizer is just a simple hack ROM where there are randomized pickup items, wild encounters, pokemon starter, and increase the difficulty of trainers & more. You can play this game on Android, Pc, and Nintendo 3DS!!! The Randomizer Nuzlocke Challenge Started by Snableye August 7th, 2012 4:47 AM. 298278 views 50 replies This thread is closed. It will not accept new replies.
Of course, there are clauses/exceptions for shiny Pokemon. It is widely accepted that if you encounter a shiny Pokémon, you are able to catch it even if you have already caught a Pokémon in that route.
You are also encouraged to nickname each Pokémon you obtain in order to strengthen your bond with them and make it much more horrifying if they faint and you are forced to release them.
Now, of course, there’s no one stopping you from cheating and keeping a fainted Pokémon with you if you grow attached to them, but it is a lot more interesting to honour the Nuzlocke rules and see how far you can make it.
That sounds hard enough, right? Especially considering some of the harder early gyms in certain games. What’s a Randomizer Nuzlocke, then?
A Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge follows the same rules of a normal Nuzlocke challenge, but literally everything is random. The items you find are random, the Pokémon you encounter are random, their types are random, their moves are random, the NPC teams are random, and so on and so forth. This makes the Nuzlocke exponentially harder.
I decided to play through my own Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge in Pokémon Emerald (my personal favourite generation) in order to help explain what sort of random events can happen in one of these playthroughs.
Oct 25, 2019 The Wickersnatch. Friday, October 25th, 2019. Blog; Fiction; Just in time for Halloween, I’ve got something spooky for ya: “The Wickersnatch” I recently got together with some people to put together a short horror film for @JakobOwens Short Horror Film Contest 2019, and this is the result!
As stated earlier, everything is randomized during the game. The Pokémon Professor Birch shows you can be anything; I was shown a Totodile, Zangoose, and Ursaring while he told me what a Pokémon was.
Your starter choices in Pokémon can also be wildly different, my first time trying I was given the options of either Aipom, Azurill, and Caterpie. After choosing Azurill, I saw he had Tri Attack and Poison Tail as his first two moves so I nicknamed him “Spell.” I lost him and had to restart early on because Brendan’s Caterpie had Dynamic Punch and almost killed Spell, and then Spell died trying to run from an Elekid with Brick Break.
Pokemon Randomizer
So far, this isn’t a very hard-selling example of why you should try the Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge, but I didn’t give up just there, I wanted to see how cool the starter Pokémon could be and this time was given the choices of Jynx, Kecleon, or Pidgey.
Now another thing to note is that when a Pokémon evolves, it also evolves into something completely random. With this in mind, I thought Pidgey would be the best choice as it could potentially evolve into a Kyogre or Umbreon if I was lucky, but it lost to a Zigzagoon with Dragon Rage and I had to start again.
I’m not going to sit here and detail a shot-for-shot story of what my own experience with the Randomizer Nuzlocke was like, but I’ll add that my actual playthrough began with a Nidoking as my starter Pokémon that knew Selfdestruct, Wing Attack, Milk Drink, and Psychic. Due to his ironic game-ending first move, I named him “Boom” and went on my way.
While attempting a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough, anything bad that you think can happen, will. Though it is also really entertaining to see normal events play out vastly differently and this continues to keep the game fresh and engaging.
For example, in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, a trainer named Wally normally teaches you to catch a Pokémon by battling a wild Ralts with a Zigzagoon, but for me he ran into a Salamence with Giga Drain and sent out a Jumpluff to battle it.
The thing that is most challenging about the Randomizer Nuzlocke is your inability to prepare for what you normally could. For example, in Emerald, your first gym to battle is a rock-type gym full of rock Pokémon. But in a Randomizer playthrough, it can and will be anything. I fought the gym leader Roxanne (who now went by Cop Lawrence) who used a Skitty, Noctowl, and Kakuna instead of her normal team of rock Pokemon.
After seeing Roxanne was now Cop Lawrence, I kept my eye out for other interesting name changes. My favourite was that all fisherman were now Champions, and usually didn’t have any fish.
Speaking of fishing, you can also get anything on the end of your fishing rod. It’s exciting to know an Old Rod could land you a Golem or Ivysaur perhaps, instead of it only ever being a Magikarp. (Though, when I went fishing, I still found a Feebas).
Once you start making it through the game, you’re going to start losing Pokémon for some dumb reasons. When I challenged the next gym leader Brawley (aka Cop Mike) who normally has a fighting-type based team, his Octillery was the first to kill one of my team. Despite being only at the second gym, it was still painful to release a comrade that had helped me make it that far.
One of the best parts of the Randomizer version of the Nuzlocke challenge is seeing legendary Pokémon in different places. For example, I met a Regirock in Granite Cave, an Entei on Route 110, a trainer had a Moltres, another had a Zapdos, a different trainer had a Jirachi, three different Gym Trainers had a Mew, a Zapdos, and a Kyogre, more trainers had a Moltres, another with a Jirachi, I encountered a wild Latias, a trainer with Raikou, ANOTHER trainer with a Moltres AND a Groudon, another with Ho-Oh, one with a Kyogre, one with a Regirock, a wild Rayquaza in the desert, a trainer with an Entei, a wild Zapdos, trainers with Regirock and one with Raikou.
Phew. That is a lot of legendary Pokemon to see in one game!
Another wild thing to come across is set items. What would maybe be a Paralyze Heal would be a random TM (which also is a random move, not what it is supposed to be) or the Master Ball. And what normally is the Master Ball could end up being a berry. For myself, I ended up having more than one EXP Share because I found one shortly after being given one during the story.
On top of scripted items, are also the randomness of scripted Pokémon encounters. In generation three, you are gifted a Castform when you get to the Weather Institution near Fortree City, but for me I was actually given an Electrode with Karate Chop and Encore (it had other moves but a Pokémon with no limbs using those moves is amusing). Also, eggs can be anything, so the egg I was gifted hatched to be a Staryu instead of what it was meant to be.
Making it to the Pokémon League and beating the game in a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough is one of the hardest things you can do in a Pokémon game, and is still something I haven’t done. At the end of the playthrough I went through, I lost to the double battle Gym Leaders in Mossdeep City, with 6 badges, 24 caught Pokémon, and just about 12 hours of game time. I blacked out, and deleted my save file.
On top of the Randomizer Nuzlocke being one of the hardest things to do, it is also one of the most fun and rewarding things to do in a Pokémon game as well. If you find yourself with some free time, or if you’ve done the most you can do in your Pokemon games, you can try out the Nuzlocke challenge or a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough and see how far you can get!
In love with writing, and every kind of video game. Looking to mix them up a little.
Ariana Grande follows me on Twitter, you should too ;)
The word “Pokémon” is a household name due to its massive television and video game success, but what the heck is a Nuzlocke?
If you’re bored of the mainstream Pokémon games, a lot of people look up ways to challenge themselves in the games. One of the more common challenges to go through is the Nuzlocke.
The Nuzlocke challenge has a few basic rules for completing a Pokémon game (and even has its own subreddit for sharing your Nuzlocke stories). The main rules are as follows. If your Pokémon faints, it is dead and you have to release it the next chance you get, no reviving. This is a huge deal if you have that Pokémon for a long time and you lose to a one-hit KO or from poison. The next main rule is that you can only catch the first Pokémon you see on a route, and only one per route. This rule keeps it so you don’t just stock up on hundreds of backup Pokémon so that you never lose, and keeps it a solid challenge.
The general consensus of this challenge also includes that if you black out/white out, it’s game over. Even if you have a box full in the PC, your game is over. There are some other optional rules but the only other “main” rule that people follow is that traded Pokémon and mystery gifts are not allowed; you must play with Pokémon that you capture and the only exception is your starter.
Of course, there are clauses/exceptions for shiny Pokemon. It is widely accepted that if you encounter a shiny Pokémon, you are able to catch it even if you have already caught a Pokémon in that route.
You are also encouraged to nickname each Pokémon you obtain in order to strengthen your bond with them and make it much more horrifying if they faint and you are forced to release them.
Now, of course, there’s no one stopping you from cheating and keeping a fainted Pokémon with you if you grow attached to them, but it is a lot more interesting to honour the Nuzlocke rules and see how far you can make it.
That sounds hard enough, right? Especially considering some of the harder early gyms in certain games. What’s a Randomizer Nuzlocke, then?
A Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge follows the same rules of a normal Nuzlocke challenge, but literally everything is random. The items you find are random, the Pokémon you encounter are random, their types are random, their moves are random, the NPC teams are random, and so on and so forth. This makes the Nuzlocke exponentially harder.
I decided to play through my own Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge in Pokémon Emerald (my personal favourite generation) in order to help explain what sort of random events can happen in one of these playthroughs.
As stated earlier, everything is randomized during the game. The Pokémon Professor Birch shows you can be anything; I was shown a Totodile, Zangoose, and Ursaring while he told me what a Pokémon was.
Your starter choices in Pokémon can also be wildly different, my first time trying I was given the options of either Aipom, Azurill, and Caterpie. After choosing Azurill, I saw he had Tri Attack and Poison Tail as his first two moves so I nicknamed him “Spell.” I lost him and had to restart early on because Brendan’s Caterpie had Dynamic Punch and almost killed Spell, and then Spell died trying to run from an Elekid with Brick Break.
So far, this isn’t a very hard-selling example of why you should try the Randomizer Nuzlocke challenge, but I didn’t give up just there, I wanted to see how cool the starter Pokémon could be and this time was given the choices of Jynx, Kecleon, or Pidgey.
Now another thing to note is that when a Pokémon evolves, it also evolves into something completely random. With this in mind, I thought Pidgey would be the best choice as it could potentially evolve into a Kyogre or Umbreon if I was lucky, but it lost to a Zigzagoon with Dragon Rage and I had to start again.
I’m not going to sit here and detail a shot-for-shot story of what my own experience with the Randomizer Nuzlocke was like, but I’ll add that my actual playthrough began with a Nidoking as my starter Pokémon that knew Selfdestruct, Wing Attack, Milk Drink, and Psychic. Due to his ironic game-ending first move, I named him “Boom” and went on my way.
While attempting a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough, anything bad that you think can happen, will. Though it is also really entertaining to see normal events play out vastly differently and this continues to keep the game fresh and engaging.
For example, in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, a trainer named Wally normally teaches you to catch a Pokémon by battling a wild Ralts with a Zigzagoon, but for me he ran into a Salamence with Giga Drain and sent out a Jumpluff to battle it.
The thing that is most challenging about the Randomizer Nuzlocke is your inability to prepare for what you normally could. For example, in Emerald, your first gym to battle is a rock-type gym full of rock Pokémon. But in a Randomizer playthrough, it can and will be anything. I fought the gym leader Roxanne (who now went by Cop Lawrence) who used a Skitty, Noctowl, and Kakuna instead of her normal team of rock Pokemon.
After seeing Roxanne was now Cop Lawrence, I kept my eye out for other interesting name changes. My favourite was that all fisherman were now Champions, and usually didn’t have any fish.
Speaking of fishing, you can also get anything on the end of your fishing rod. It’s exciting to know an Old Rod could land you a Golem or Ivysaur perhaps, instead of it only ever being a Magikarp. (Though, when I went fishing, I still found a Feebas).
Once you start making it through the game, you’re going to start losing Pokémon for some dumb reasons. When I challenged the next gym leader Brawley (aka Cop Mike) who normally has a fighting-type based team, his Octillery was the first to kill one of my team. Despite being only at the second gym, it was still painful to release a comrade that had helped me make it that far.
One of the best parts of the Randomizer version of the Nuzlocke challenge is seeing legendary Pokémon in different places. For example, I met a Regirock in Granite Cave, an Entei on Route 110, a trainer had a Moltres, another had a Zapdos, a different trainer had a Jirachi, three different Gym Trainers had a Mew, a Zapdos, and a Kyogre, more trainers had a Moltres, another with a Jirachi, I encountered a wild Latias, a trainer with Raikou, ANOTHER trainer with a Moltres AND a Groudon, another with Ho-Oh, one with a Kyogre, one with a Regirock, a wild Rayquaza in the desert, a trainer with an Entei, a wild Zapdos, trainers with Regirock and one with Raikou.
Phew. That is a lot of legendary Pokemon to see in one game!
Another wild thing to come across is set items. What would maybe be a Paralyze Heal would be a random TM (which also is a random move, not what it is supposed to be) or the Master Ball. And what normally is the Master Ball could end up being a berry. For myself, I ended up having more than one EXP Share because I found one shortly after being given one during the story.
On top of scripted items, are also the randomness of scripted Pokémon encounters. In generation three, you are gifted a Castform when you get to the Weather Institution near Fortree City, but for me I was actually given an Electrode with Karate Chop and Encore (it had other moves but a Pokémon with no limbs using those moves is amusing). Also, eggs can be anything, so the egg I was gifted hatched to be a Staryu instead of what it was meant to be.
Nuzlocke Randomizer Challenge
Making it to the Pokémon League and beating the game in a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough is one of the hardest things you can do in a Pokémon game, and is still something I haven’t done. At the end of the playthrough I went through, I lost to the double battle Gym Leaders in Mossdeep City, with 6 badges, 24 caught Pokémon, and just about 12 hours of game time. I blacked out, and deleted my save file.
On top of the Randomizer Nuzlocke being one of the hardest things to do, it is also one of the most fun and rewarding things to do in a Pokémon game as well. If you find yourself with some free time, or if you’ve done the most you can do in your Pokemon games, you can try out the Nuzlocke challenge or a Randomizer Nuzlocke playthrough and see how far you can get!
Play Pokemon Nuzlocke Randomizer Online
In love with writing, and every kind of video game. Looking to mix them up a little.
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