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Hey guys. After a week off, I'm back and ready to deliver more of the adventures of Team Judi Drench in my Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke Challenge blog series. As always, if you're not familiar with what a Nuzlocke is or how it relates to this series of blogs, I suggest you stop reading this blog and substitute it with Part Zero. It covers everything you need to know in order to make sense of what's going on in these blogs. If you missed our last entry, or any of the previous instalments, they can all be accessed using the handy-dandy navigation links at the top and bottom of this post. To the rest of you, let's return to where we last left off, in Celadon City, having just obtained our fifth gym badge...
Part Ten - Keep Calm And Don't Carry On
Team Judi Drench is on one hell of a good run. Having picked up a new, much-needed Cutter in Barney the male Nidoran (now a Nidoking), the team ran re-invigorated into two back-to-back gym battles. Emerging victorious against both the Poison-type master Koga and the Grass-type leader Erika, our team of combative critters has been steeling itself for the next big challenge - the Saffron City gym, and its resident Psychic-type leader, Sabrina.
Despite us knocking Team Rocket's collective nose out of joint back in Celadon City and at the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town, it appears they're still very much in control of Saffron. Chatting to the residents makes the reason for this apparent - the Rockets have infiltrated the Silph Co. building, and are holding the company's president hostage. Because the Saffron City gym is one of the places Team Rocket currently has on lockdown, it looks like we can't make any more progress with our gym badge challenge until we've rescued Silph Co. and forced the evil team out of the city for good.
Silph Co. is essentially the Team Rocket Hideout Mk II - a large building full of fiendish floor traps and guarded by Rocket Grunts just itching for a fight, where progress is impeded by locked doors, and which culminates in a showdown with the Team Rocket head honcho, Giovanni. There are two key differences that set Silph Co. apart, though. First, it's a hell of a lot bigger - eleven floors as opposed to the Rocket Hideout's four. Second, the puzzles involve warp tiles, so rather than being able to follow the arrows on the ground to see where you'll end up, you just have to step on a diamond-shaped tile, cross your fingers and hope for the best. There are also electronic doors sealed by a Card Key, which is hidden somewhere in the building for the player to find.
So how is one supposed to navigate this seemingly impenetrable maze of warp zones? Well to start with, all of the floor tiles are 'paired' with another tile somewhere else in the building - step on one of a pair and it will take you to the other, and vice versa. This means that while it's still essentially a process of trial and error, there's at least an element of consistency to it. It all devolves into something resembling an old-school computer RPG scenario, where you have to keep a notepad full of handwritten reminders nearby to help keep you on course and save you from getting trapped in a repetitious loop...
'Solving' Silph Co. has become one of those gaming scenarios I could probably pull off blindfolded at this point. I spent so many hours of my childhood lost in this building in Pokémon Blue, and subsequently poring over the game's official guide book for the solution, that the fastest route through this maze-like building is probably physically ingrained into my brain. Tempting as it is just to grab the Card Key and make for the president's office, I decide to explore the building more thoroughly than I usually do. There are a ton of items to be recovered behind the complex's locked doors, and several members of Team Rocket to battle - the treasure and experience is sure to come in handy for what lies ahead. The extra battle time is enough to push Clownbat into evolution territory:
Oh boy, I've never had a Crobat before! All that speed and power, contained in one small Pokémon, is sure to make my team even stronger! I wonder if--
Oh shit, yeah. Because FireRed is deeply concerned with being a faithful recreation of the original Pokémon games, it actually prohibits Pokémon like Golbat and Chansey from evolving through Happiness until after you beat the Elite Four and get the National Pokédex. So it looks like Clownbat will be stuck in her original form for some time to come. And every time she levels up between now and then, we'll be rewarded with this pointless little sequence. Yay.
With the Card Key in our possession pretty much from the get-go, gutting Silph Co. of its treasure and defeating the Rocket Grunts incompetently guarding the place doesn't take long at all. When I'm certain I've picked up everything that isn't bolted down and beaten everyone who wants to fight, I head back down to the third floor and begin to follow the sequence of warp tiles to reach the president's office. En route, we bump into our rival Duncan, who's once again itching to have his ass whooped and handed back to him. I'm sure Team Judi Drench will be only too happy to oblige.
Duncan's team is started to get both pretty strong and nicely rounded out type-wise. I start off struggling a little against his Pidgeot, due to a lack of Electric- and Rock-type moves on my team, but Judi Drench manages to withstand its Wing Attack and drag it down to earth with Surf. Next up is Venusaur, which suffers a swift demise at the claws of our own Pidgeot, Bird Jesus. Duncan follows it with a Gyarados, which could well be a threat were it not for the incredible bulk of our Snorlax, PDT. A few Strengths are enough to get rid of it. Fourth in is a Growlithe, which stands no chance against Aunt Sue, our Flareon - it swallows up an Ember thanks to its Flash Fire ability, before one-hitting the helpless pup with Dig. Duncan's final Pokémon is an Alakazam, but although it's powerful it can't break through Snorlax's robust special defences, and it only takes one Strength to put an end to its Psychic onslaught. Dan 5, Duncan 0.
Nearby is a Silph Co. employee who thanks us for our attempts to save his workplace by way of gifting us a Lapras:
I accept the Lapras, which gets sent to Bill via PC, but its arrival within our ranks raises a potential dilemma. See, Lapras is one of two 'event' Pokémon I plan to encounter in this episode (the other being the choice between Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan in the Fighting Dojo). However, according to the rules of the Nuzlocke, we're only allowed to take a single encounter from each location. Which raises the question - do Silph Co. and the Fighting Dojo both come under the Saffron City umbrella? Or is Silph Co., due to its theoretical 'dungeon' status, a separate location in its own right? To settle the quandary, I pop open my bag and pull out an Escape Rope:
Having navigated our way out of this moral maze, we climb back up through Silph Co., this time making it all the way to the president's office on the eleventh floor. The president has some company in the form of - you guessed it - Team Rocket boss Giovanni. It seems he's been trying to strong-arm Silph Co. into giving up the technology for the Master Ball, a special type of Poké Ball that can catch any Pokémon without fail. Giovanni isn't too happy to see us, and engages us in another battle:
Giovanni is stronger than the last time we faced him, but he doesn't really have any new tricks up his sleeve. His biggest threat is an extremely defensive Kangaskhan, which causes all sorts of problems that even PDT's Brick Break has difficulty getting through. His other Pokémon are easy to deal with by comparison, quickly succumbing to either Aunt Sue's Dig and Judi Drench's Surf. Outraged at having lost to a kid once again, Giovanni makes his exit from Silph Co.. The president is grateful for our efforts, and rewards us with a very special item indeed:
With the Master Ball safely in our bag and the Silph Co. president's words of thanks still ringing in our ears, I pull out another Escape Rope and whizz out of the office quicker than you can say 'Aerodactyl'. After healing up at the Pokémon Center, our next stop is the city's Fighting Dojo, for a little more training and another free Pokémon to add to the roster.
The trainers inside are all packing powerful Fighting-type Pokémon on their teams, a scenario that would probably be pretty terrifying were it not for our party's prominent Flying-type presence. Clownbat and Bird Jesus tear through everything the resident Black Belts throw at us, and the Dojo's leader doesn't fare any better. To reward us for our comprehensive victory, he presents us with a choice of two powerful Fighting-type Pokémon - the speedy Hitmonlee, or the slightly more defensive Hitmonchan. After a bit of deliberation, this is the guy I opt for:
I went for Hitmonchan over Hitmonlee for two reasons - his slightly more defensive stat distribution would serve us better in a Nuzlocke, and so would the type coverage he gets due to his access to the elemental punches. As with Nessie the Lapras, he's boxed up and sent to Bill's PC right away. He's sure to be a useful potential addition to our team, if anything should happen to any of our established attackers.
With Silph Co. saved and the members of the Fighting Dojo licking their wounds, there's only one loose end left to tie up before we can move on from Saffron City - the small matter of a new gym badge. Saffron is home to the Psychic-type trainer Sabrina, who rewards victorious trainers with the Marshbadge. Sabrina also happens to be my biggest curse when it comes to the Pokémon games, as historically she's managed to shut down my progress through both the original Red and Blue and their third-generation remakes time and again with her powerful Psychic attacks.
Before entering the gym, I heal up my team at the Pokémon Center and try to develop some kind of strategy for the upcoming battle with Sabrina. After a bit of deliberation, I settle on leading with PDT - Psychic is a special attack type in this generation, and most Psychic-types are renowned for being physically frail, so I'm hoping that the Snorlax's combination of high HP, Attack and Special Defence will put us at a statistical advantage, if not a type advantage. Second in command will be Judi Drench, who also boasts impressive defensive stats and a type advantage in the move Bite, and third will be Aunt Sue the Flareon for similar reasons. Bird Jesus will bring up the rear as a last resort, while Clownbat and Barney will be kept well clear of the front line due to their disadvantageous Poison-typing. With that rough plan in place, we enter the gym.
Like the Silph Co. building, Sabrina's gym is also full of warp tiles, although these ones are nowhere near as frustrating. It takes about ten minutes of trial and error interspersed with trainer battles to actually reach the gym leader - unlike Silph Co., I never took the time to memorise the warp tile sequence for the Saffron City gym. Sabrina greets us calmly, and initiates battle.
She opens with her Kadabra, which uses its first turn of the battle to set up a Calm Mind, boosting its Special Attack and Special Defence. Thankfully that transpires to be its only turn, as the mighty PDT renders it pointless with a one-hit KO from Strength. It's followed by an unusually bulky Mr. Mime, causing PDT some problems. I switch out to Judi Drench and manage to subdue it with a couple of super-effective Bites. Next up is a Venomoth, an interesting addition to this Psychic-type team being a Poison/Bug type. Its presence is immediately justified, however, by a Psybeam attack that manages to confuse Judi. Thinking on my feet, I swap in Bird Jesus and hit it with a crippling Wing Attack, ending its threatening promise in a single blow. Sabrina is three Pokémon down, with one team member left to go.
And this is where it happens.
Sabrina's final Pokémon is a level 43 Alakazam, a Pokémon arguably second only to Mewtwo as first-generation Psychic attackers go. Knowing Bird Jesus won't stand much of a chance against it, I swap out to my planned mainstay for this battle, PDT the Snorlax.
Alakazam uses Calm Mind.
In a move that may well dictate the flow of the battle to come, I use the turn to restore PDT's PP on Strength, ready to hit the Alakazam hard next turn.
Alakazam uses a second Calm Mind.
This is the turn. I lock in Strength as my move, confident that PDT will eat up anything the Alakazam can throw at him and retaliate with a victorious one-hit KO.
Alakazam uses Psychic.
As impressive as PDT's HP and Special Defence stats were, they simply weren't high enough to eat up a Psychic from an Alakazam with two boosts to its Special Attack. PDT's vast HP reserves whittle away to nothing in the blink of an eye, and the rock I was relying on to carry us through this battle is no more. Suddenly I've been plunged into a terrifying scenario - if our most specially defensive Pokémon couldn't stand up to Alakazam, what chance do the rest of our team have?
Second in command, Judi Drench, is next to be sent out.
Alakazam uses a third Calm Mind.
Undeterred, Judi throws a powerful Bite Alakazam's way, but even with the boost from the Blackglasses he's holding, it barely makes a dent in Alakazam's armour - the three Special Defence boosts from all those Calm Minds have seen to that. I line up another Bite ready to go, hoping we'll be able to chip away slowly at its HP, but before the move is even executed,
Alakazam uses Psychic.
Shit. Two Pokémon down - my two most specially defensive Pokémon, at that - and this Alakazam is throwing Psychics at me with three boosts to its Special Attack. This is a nightmare scenario. Sticking to the plan, I throw Aunt Sue into the ring. She also has Bite in her moveset, but I instead opt for the physical attack Dig, knowing it's better than the super-effective option under these circumstances. Unfortunately, Aunt Sue doesn't even get a chance to start digging, because
Alakazam uses Psychic.
We're now three Pokémon down, and whereas before I was merely plagued by the idea of the situation we're in, I'm now hit like a gut punch by the grim reality of it. This Alakazam has boosted itself to the point where it can one-hit KO anything I send out against it, resist any super-effective move I can throw at it, and outspeed any Pokémon that tries to hit it first.
Next out, like a lamb to the slaughter, is Bird Jesus. With hindsight, I realise I could have at least guaranteed some damage on this turn with the priority of Quick Attack. Upon even greater reflection, I could have done the same thing with Aunt Sue. Perhaps then, the Alakazam might have been weakened enough to fall to Bird Jesus's priority move, sparing it the same fate as its preceding three team mates. But whereas hindsight is 20:20, in the moment I might as well have been wearing the Blackglasses Judi Drench was holding. I select Steel Wing, but before Bird Jesus can use it,
Alakazam uses Psychic.
Well, fuck. At this point, we're down to two Pokémon - Clownbat and Barney - both of which have weaknesses to the Psychic type and neither of which boasts a single move that could hit Alakazam before it hits them. I choose Barney next over Clownbat, for one reason only - he's holding a Quick Claw, which means there's a chance he could strike first. Having covered a lot of ground levelling up in Silph Co., there is a chance his Cut could be prioritised and strike Alakazam. I queue up the move...
Alakazam uses Psychic.
The Quick Claw doesn't pop, and Barney becomes another sitting duck in the Alakazam's relentless sweeping of my entire team. I have only Clownbat left, and at this point I know the battle (and the Nuzlocke) are all but over. However, there is still a chance - a chance the Alakazam might be foolish enough to alter its move choice, to try and stack up a fourth Calm Mind boost, or foresee an attack with Future Sight, to give us a much-needed opening to hit with a physical move. There is still a chance. Knowing my best bet is the never-miss Aerial Ace, I select the move. The split-second delay between hitting the A button and watching the action start to unfold seems to last an eternity, but in my heart I already know the words that will grace the screen before they appear, before I've even locked in my move.
Alakazam uses Psychic.
Defeated, I slump to the floor. The bodies of my beloved Pokémon litter the gym's battle arena. They will not see the Graveyard, at least not by my hand. Tears are in my eyes, but I fight them back, wipe them away with clenched fists, and look up. Behind the Alakazam that has dismantled us, Sabrina is smiling. She clicks her fingers, and in obedient response, her Pokémon raises the spoons in its hands. I close my eyes, tighten my balled fists even harder, and wait for the impact.
Alakazam uses Psychic...
Progress Report:
So here ends the Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke Challenge. It lasted longer than I expected, but not quite as long as I would have liked. I have to admit that I'm disappointed I didn't at least make it to the Elite Four, but I'm not surprised that Sabrina brought it to this premature end - she's always been the Kanto gym leader I've struggled against the most, and once her Alakazam got its third Calm Mind up and tore through PDT's defences I knew there was pretty much no chance of getting out of that battle alive. Still, it's been a fun project on several levels - it's been fun to write blogs in a slightly different way to my usual style, and playing through FireRed with this set of self-imposed, difficulty-enhancing rules has made for an enjoyable, challenging experience that's managed to set itself apart from all the Pokémon playthroughs I completed last year.
"So, in the absence of regular Nuzlocke updates, what's next for dankempster's blog?" I hear absolutely no one cry. Worry not, those of you thinking it but too ashamed to ask out loud - I shall answer anyway. I've got a couple of back-dated entries all planned out that I intend to write and post over the next couple of weeks, after which I shall probably just return to my (ir)regular schedule of blogging about whatever I've recently been playing, whenever I feel inspired to do so. I've played a lot of fun stuff recently, and have some great games on the go right now as well, so there's no shortage of inspiration. To be honest, it'll be nice to blog about something other than Pokémon again.
As for Nuzlocke Challenges, I definitely don't think this will be my last. As a matter of fact, I've already started my second Nuzlocke - a playthrough of Pokémon X, under a variant of the conventional Nuzlocke rules dubbed a 'Wonderlocke' (it plays more or less identically, except you have to Wonder Trade away every Pokémon you catch and use what you receive in return). I won't be documenting that in quite as much detail, but I plan to write a blog summarising the experience at the end of the playthrough. After that I plan to take a break from the format for a while, but I am keen to attempt another Nuzlocke Challenge blog series, most likely involving Pokémon HeartGold, towards the end of the year.
I'd like to close this blog by thanking everybody who's taken the time to read and leave feedback on this series. As I said, it's been a lot of fun putting it together, but the most rewarding part of the whole process has been seeing your reactions as you followed along with the adventures of Team Judi Drench. So to all of you who've read this series, whether in part or in its entirety, thank you. Take care guys, and I'll see you around.
Dan
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Currently playing - Pokémon FireRed Version (GBA)
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