Moss

When I got to the Elite Four, I knew that some of my team, as much as I loved them, just didn't have the stuff to carry me through. I swapped out Stalin and Tango for Bumbler the Rapidash and Preston the Togetic. The Elite Four started well, as Grungus and Cracker ploughed through Will, but tragedy struck against Koga. I wasn't taking his Ariados seriously because its a very weak mon, so I went to setup with Grungus to sweep through his team - and Ariados killed Grungus in one shot with a giga drain. That really hurt. Grungus had always been a reliable tank and damage dealer, and he went down in such an unexpected way.

The rest of my team pulled through to Lance without issue, thanks to a lot of support from Preston,but I wasn't feeling great about going into the flying-type leader wihtout my bulky rock type. My main answers were Jesse with choice specs thunderbolt, Cracker with swords dance and ice fang, and Boojum with ice beam. Charizard, Gyarados and Aerodactyl went down easily enough, but against Lance's final Dragonite I needed to get Jesse in cleanly. Bumble the Rapidash was unfortunately my sacrifical pony. She did some decent damage and I sent Jesse in to finish the fight - but somehow, Dragonite managed to live on what must have been 1 hp and killed Jesse. I was devestated. Jesse had put in so much work for the team as my premier fast special attacker, and had been the win condition to so many fights. Cracker was able to come in and finish the job, but it wasn't without sacrifice.

Losing Grungus and Jesse was painful. I had become so attached to these fictional animals, who had been mainstays of my team and pulled me through so much of Johto. Bumbler was a late addition to the team but she put in some great work in the Elite Four and I couldn't have made it through without her.

I took a long break over summer, and just yesterday I returned to run through Kanto. Stalin the Dunsparce and Tango the Victreebell rejoined the team, alongside new additions in Zoop the Magneton, Cow the Mamoswine and Jacob the Steelix, who all rotated in and out of the team as needed. Preston, now a Togekiss, was a great special tank with really useful wish support, and Cracker and Boojum remained as a strong physical attacker and a bulky sleep supporter respectively. Things were pretty easy all the way up until Blue, who I could tell had a strong team. I brought two of my three elite four survivors along with Cow, Jacob and Zoop, who had all proved really reliable. Cow especially was so useful as a strong earthquake spammer with a choice scarf.

The fight opened with Exeggutor and my choice of lead, a Pinsir named bum who I had caught ages ago and never used once. bum had exactly one job: to kill Exeggutor, and she did it. Arcanine came in and burned bum to a crisp. Cow was able to dispatch the Arcanine, but this brought in Blue's Machamp, which has perfect coverage and No Guard to ensure that his moves never miss. Tango the Victreebell was supposed to face off against him, but she ended up getting confused and fell to the Machamp. I didn't have anything that could come in and kill the Machamp on its own, so I had to send in Cow to hit one final earthquake before being punched to death. Cracker and Jacob were able to clean up the fight, but losing Cow and Tango really sucked. Tango was one of my first Pokemon and had been with me for so long, and Cow had carried me through Kanto and I was planning on bringing him to fight Red.

I had to build up my final team for the fight on Mt Silver. I changed movesets, items and team members until I had the best team I could think of.

Jacob the Steelix went out first to match Red's level 88 Pikachu. Pikachu could barely touch Jacob, who started by setting up a sandstorm to clear the permanent hail, and them killed Pikachu with an earthquake. This brought in Charizard, who was answered by Boojum the Slowbro. With yawn, protect, slack off and surf, Boojum was able to finish off Charizard with a lot of health remaining. But Venusaur replaced Charizard, and Boojum had to be switched out to Preston the Togekiss. Preston was able to spam flamethrower against the leafy frog, but got poisoned in the process. In came Lapras, who went down easily to Zoop the Magneton with choice specs, as did Blastoise. This left only Snorlax, who was easily walled by Jacob - but Jacob got frozen by Snorlax's blizzard immediately. That was really bad. I brought in a new addition to the team: Victor the Nidoking, who had been sitting in the box since day 1. Victor hit Snorlax with a brick break, but didn't even do a third of Snorlax's health before going down to a blizzard. I brought in Zorp to paralyse Snorlax, but he hit Zorp with a massive giga impact which killed it. What's more, Red used a full restore to heal the paralysis. I sent Jacob back in, who was still frozen, but he had massive defense and was able to tank crunches and giga impacts. Even so, he didn't thaw in time and was killed by Snorlax's shadow ball.

This thing was monstrous. It had killed half of my team and my remaining mons would really struggle against it. I decided that my best bet was to send in Preston and use encore to lock Snorlax into shadow ball. It worked, and Preston was a normal type so couldn't be touched by shadow ball - but the encore was Preston's last act before he succumbed to Venusaur's lingering poison. In the back I only had a half dead Boojum, and Cracker the Feraligatr. I sent in Cracker, who was able to tank shadow balls, but waterfall was doing a bit under half of Snorlax's health. He got Snorlax down to red health, but Red used his last full restore to heal the monster back to full health again. I was able to take the turn that Red used healing to set up a swords dance, which was my only shot to kill Snorlax - I had to one shot it, because it's encore ended and it was about to demolish Cracker with a giga impact. Cracker attacked with a boosted waterfall.

Snorlax's health fell

slowly

from green to yellow to red

and stopped on 1 hp.

Snorlax survived Cracker's last desperate attack.

And flinched.

Cracker hit one final return, a move powered by the bond between Pokemon and trainer and ended the monstrous Snorlax, and beat the most powerful trainer in the world.

Atop Mt Silver, my first companion had brought my battered team to victory.

I returned to New Bark Town with Cracker and Boojum, and reunited with Stalin for one final photo. They were the only survivors of an incredible team.

My journey through Johto was an incredible experience. It was my first time playing any Johto game, and only the second Nuzlocke I've ever finished. I have a lot of thoughts about the game itself - the visuals are gorgeous, so far beyond Sinnoh's with such a pleasing and warm colour pallete. The Johto region is interesting, with how strong the theme of tradition is, and does set it apart from Hoenn, Kanto and Sinnoh. The gameplay kinda leaves a lot to be desired, the level curve is wack, Johto pokemon aren't very strong, HMs aren't a fun mechanic, the gym leaders are generally too easy and don't use enough Johto mons. The game was only really challenging in the Whitney fight and the Elite Four, and Team Rocket are really just an annoyance. Kanto is pretty bare and the gym leaders are all very easy except for Blue.

All that said, I really enjoyed playing this Nuzlocke. I'd become genuinely attached to the pixels on my screen, to the point that losing them was actually upsetting - Jesse, Grungus, Preston, Jacob and Cow all felt like valued members of my team and watching them faint really got to me. I felt so proud of my mons when they did well and so devestated when they died. I really think a Nuzlocke is the best way to enjoy Pokemon, because you actually do develop a bond with your Pokemon, which is the entire point of the games. Knowing they can die makes it so much more heartbreaking when they do, and so much more inspiring when they live. Here's to Stalin, Boojum and Cracker, and all the friends that we left behind.

Island nations, petrostates and west Africa continue to be a bane on this game