Pokemon FireRed (2)

And we are back!

Time to jump back into our current game: Pokemon FireRed!

Here's the team we left off with:

I know, not all that exciting. But just you wait! By the end of our story, our trainer will be standing at the top of the world, with Pokemon that can take on the gods themselves!

We left off right after defeating Brock and obtaining the Boulderbadge. With that badge, we are now able to get past Prof. Oak's assistant that block the way to route 3. We are also rewarded with the Running Shoes. No more walking here! *cough* I'm totally not using a fast speed hack in the emulator giving us the velocity of a speeding bullet*cough*. Route 3 is chock-full of trainers looking to make a name for themselves. More importantly, it also has new species of Pokemon for us to look at! Spearow, Nidoran(male), Nidoran(female), and Jigglypuff can all be found on Route 3 at different encounter rates.

Time for some rules!

Now, when I decided to use this game to practice my blogging skills, I thought about deciding on which Pokemon would join my game even began. But that doesn't sound like good content! From here on out, as much as possible without making the game play too difficult, we will be following Nuzlocke rules.

What are those? The short version is that they are a set of self-imposed rules created by the Pokemon community in order to add more difficulty and variety to the games.

Seasoned Pokemon veterans already know what surprises come when and what Pokemon all the important trainers use throughout the entirety of the games. Foreknowledge like this makes it incrediblly easy to form your team of Pocket Monsters with the appropriate counters for each situation. Game Freak did an excellent job of making sure that no matter which section of the game you are currently playing, there is always an option available to make it through. For example, say I had chosen Charmander as our starter. The first gym in the game uses rock-type Pokemon, which are resistant to both Normal and Fire attacks. So, Game Freak also put Mankey on Route 22. Mankey is a fighting-type, which is super effective against rock. Boom! Solution for the first gym. If you look closely at the Pokemon available in each area, you will find that this pattern continues in perpetuity throughout all the Pokemon games.

Hence, Nuzlocke rules. These rules are as followed:

1. The player may only catch the first wild Pokémon encountered in each area. Nothing else. If that first wild encounter faints, or flees, no second chances.

2. Any Pokemon that faints is considered "dead". That pokemon can no longer be used for the remainder of that run. Or else, you forfeit the challenge.

These two rules are essentially universal for all Nuzlock challengers. There are also many variations of the above rules as well as many, MANY, more optional rules. For the purposes of this playthrough however (or until I change my mind), we will only be following the two above rules. Starting with our current point in the game. I hadn't decided on this yet before, so our Squirtle is still going to be a valid contender.

With that out of the way, we can now move on through Route 3.

Three trainer battles in, I am already pressing my luck. A few of these trainers are using Weedles and one even has an Ekans. Both are Poison types which are resistant to Fighting. On top of that, in the 3rd gen of Pokemon, Weedle also gained the Poison Point ability. Poison Point is a passive ability that has a chance of poisoning any attacker that hits the wielder with a physical contact move. Think moves like Bite, or Low Kick. Mankey won't be putting in any work against these pokemon. The Ekans was almost lethal as well. Poor Squirtle had to deal with both a Poison affliction and residual Wrap damage! Luckily we had some potions on hand for this Route because man would I have been crazy mad if I lost Squirtle right after deciding on Nuzlocke! We haven't even made it to the first patch of tall grass!

What luck!

The first Nuzlock encounter of the game and we got one of the two best pokemon on this route! Ignoring the Quiet nature for a moment, Nidoran(M) is a real boon for us. That foreknowledge I talked about before? The third gym in the game is based on Electric-type Pokemon. "But Nidoran(M) is Poison, it doesn't do anything to Electric attacks!", you say. Shhhhhh, listen to your sensei. Nidoran(M) evolves into Nidorino, which then evolves into Nidoking. Nidoking is a Ground-type, and Ground has a complete immunity to Electric attacks. I say that it is a boon because, if you will recall, Squirtle is a pure Water Pokemon all the way through its evolution line. Electric > Water in this universe... Do not test this at home.

Working our way through the rest of Route 3 and into Mt. Moon is unremarkable. Sadly the first Pokemon we meet in Mt. Moon is Zubat. No new Pokemon for us here. Exploring for a bit nets us with our Moon Stone, which we can use later on to trigger Nidorino's evolution into the dreaded Nidoking. Nidoking was one of my favorite Pokemon when playing through the original games, and for the first gen pokemon it is still on my top 10. Brute forcing our way through the cave, and we are on the path to Cerulean City and our second gym badge!

Whew!

I never knew that I would have so much to say about Pokemon! This experience typing out the journey through FireRed is opening my eyes to how much I actually enjoy writing. I sincerely hope that anyone who reads this enjoys this as much as I am! Running out of time for today... Next time will be at least through the Cerulean Gym!

See'ya!