Pokemon Noob: Alpha Sapphire Nuzlocke Pt 1

I’m still quite a noob when it comes to playing Pokemon. I’m always learning something brand new about the series.

Not too long ago, I stumbled across the concept of the Nuzlocke Challenge, where players place specific rules on how they can progress through a Pokemon game, and see how far they can get. The most appealing part of this to me is that the idea is to forge strong bonds with your Pokemon, even though these are not Pokemon you would generally choose for your party.

I thought hard and long about how I wanted to approach this. Pokemon X was my first ever completed game in the series, and I still haven’t fully explored post-game content yet. So I didn’t want to delete my progress there. I’m still working through Pokemon Sun. I had a copy of Soul Silver that I’d never beat, but I’m spoiled by playing the more modern Pokemon games…

So I decided to pick up Pokemon Alpha Sapphire, which I have never played and know nothing about, and start a Nuzlocke of my very first attempt. I don’t know if this is a smart move, but I’ve begun, and I’m going to see it through (though it might go slowly since I’m still putting time into Sun).

My Rules

  • I may only catch the first Pokémon encountered in each area, and none else.
  • Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead, and must be put in the Pokémon Storage System permanently.
  • I must  must also nickname all of my Pokémon, for the sake of forming stronger emotional bonds.
  • I do not consider a black out/white out to be “game over.” I can keep playing as long as there are living Pokémon left in the PC.
  • Dupes Clause – I can keep fighting Pokémon in the area until one is encountered that has not been caught yet, which then immediately counts as the first encounter.
  • Name Theme: Stars and Constellations

Building My Team

I chose Mudkip as my starter, since I adore Mudkips, and named him Piscium. Probably just call him Pi for short.

Route 101 Catch: Poochyena

After going through the introduction and receiving my first Pokeballs, I head out to Route 101. There, my rival Brendan points out the tall moving grass, so I sneak up on it and catch myself a Poochyena. I name him Canis.

Route 103 Catch: Wingull

I then traveled back north, past Oldale Town, where my first catch was a Wingull named Gienah. I was happy to catch her because she provides a flying type to my team, which I hope will help round it out some.

Route 102 Catch: Zigzagoon

Since the rest of Route 103 is blocked by water for now, I headed west of Oldale Town to Route 102. There, I caught the inevitable Zigzagoon, whom I named Enif.

I spent some time on Route 102 leveling my team and battling the trainers there. Since it was so close to the Pokecenter, and some of my members, like Enif, were having trouble finishing fights, I thought it was a good time to strengthen up.

I didn’t want to level too much, however, because I only get one shot at capturing a Pokemon each time I find a new route. So, I wanted to keep some of my Pokemon within a lower range in order to not just obliterate everything by accident when I come across it.

I arrived in Petalburg City, where I was concerned I’d have to face my character’s Dad in a gym challenge. Surprisingly, though, he tells me to move along to another city first. So, after exploring the town a bit, that’s what I did.

Route 104 Catch: Wurmple

So my careful training paid off because I was able to catch the level 2 Wurmple I found on this route, rather than just slaughtering it.

Bug types have always been kinda meh to me, but the more variety I can get on my team, the better, I suppose. I named her Rischa.

So, here we have my team so far. I’m going into this game 100% blind and a complete noob at Nuzlocke. I think my next goal is to level Rischa a little and make my way through the battles on Route 104.

Thoughts So Far

Believe it or not, this might actually be a faster way for me to play a Pokemon game. I say that because I tend to always get distracted by hunting for and catching the new Pokemon on a Route because I itch to catch them all. If I’m limited to only catching one per route and not fretting about which ones are going to be the best on my team, then I can concentrate on just catching and leveling what I have instead of getting constantly sidetracked by tall grass.

I foresee this playthrough to be slow, and I’m not 100% sure how to document this in an interesting way. I’d like to do some art for it, but I’d have to scrounge up the time. We’ll see what comes of it.

Wish me luck!

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