Chapter 4 - Rustboro or bust(boro)

I’ve decided to carry on in prose rather than bullet points. Much nicer on the eye, y’know.

Anyway, I bumped into a Shroomish while grinding Crash for the Gym. Really, really wanted it – a Breloom would be amazing – but I couldn’t catch her, having already picked up Jabs in Petalburg Woods! I realised then the real difficulty of the Nuzlocke challenge; there really is no guarantee I’ll ever catch any of the Pokemon I actually want or need.

Crash hit lv.15 against the Gym trainers, and tried to learn Bide. I decided against learning what is essentially a high-risk suicide move on my Nuzlocke challenge… Imagine if I got Encored… the thought makes me slightly nauseous…

Anyway, Crash carved a Water Gun OHKO (one-hit knock-out) path through the residents of Petalburg Woods and hit lv.16, evolving into a Marshtomp and learning Mud Shot. Hoo-rah. Suddenly I felt a little more confident about taking on Roxane. So that’s where I headed – with Pepper, at lv.11, my only real backup! All or bust…

After all that buildup, Roxane was a cinch. OHKO’d Geodude, then set Nosepass up with a Mud Shot, expecting that A) Water Gun wouldn’t OHKO him, and B) it’d reduce his Speed to counter his inevitable Rock Tomb reducing Crash’s. Water Gun finished him off in style, and Crash hit lv.17. One Gym down, 7 to go!

Got Rock Tomb, didn’t teach it to anyone – only Crash could learn it, and it’s not much use to him, seeing as it sucks against Grass, his only weakness. Left the Gym and saw a Team Aqua member run off with that tool’s “goods.” The same tool that I defended in Petalburg woods. Ho hum. Best follow him…

…Or not. Instead I left the moron to his crying and went back to get Swift some easy levels in the woods. She hit lv.13 and learned… Wing Attack?

Oh yes.

While levelling Jabs, who evolved into a Silcoon at lv.7, I came across a Shroomish. I got the Shroomish down to within one hit of fainting, but Jabs herself was also just 2 hits – or 1 critical hit – away from death. I could have switched Jabs out, or run away, but I decided to gamble and hope that Shroomish didn’t crit me. As I pressed the button, though, on Poison Sting, I realised I wished I hadn’t. I wasn’t just risking fainting, which is usually easily repaired at a Pokemon Centre. I was gambling with Jabs’ very life.

As it happened, Shroomish didn’t crit Jabs, it was fainted by Poison Sting, and Jabs hit lv.8. But I learned me a valuable lesson – not to gamble with my Pokemon’s lives. Not even with Jabs, by some distance my weakest Pokemon.

Then the unthinkable happened. Grinding happily away, 1 level away from a Beautifly… Poisoned by a rogue Wurmple. I didn’t make it to the Pokemon Centre in time (and I’m playing with no healing items at all, in or out of battle). Jabs died.

Wow, that was unexpected. Killed by one of her own. I really have to make sure I keep grinding throughout this challenge, or the same fate may befall any of my other Pokemon. With that in mind, I set to grinding Pepper. First Pokemon she came up against was another Wurmple… was this the same Wurmple that killed Jabs? Probably not. Kicked its ass regardless.

Onto Route 106. First Pokemon was a Taillow. Caught her, and on auto-pilot (I never usually nickname my Pokemon) forgot to give her a name. Boxed her away, will have to remember to name her later.

Phew, this is a time-consuming challenge, what with having to keep running back to the Pokemon Centre every time I want to heal (poisoned by three consecutive Poison Stings… I lost my sense of humour at this point). Finally, Pepper hit lv.13 and learned… Bite?

Oh yes.


-Samwise