Well, let's continue with Johto, while I'm going strong. The rules are all the same as in previous Nuzlocke run.

There is the holy trinity:

• I can only catch 1st Pokémon in each new area
• Every Pokémon must be nicknamed
• When Pokémon faints, it must be permanently put in a box

And I'll also be using few more rules:

• I'll be using SET Battle Style
• Dupes and shiny clause
• Black out is game over
• The Nuzlocke starts when I get Poké Balls
• My Pokémon can't have higher level than the strongest Pokémon of the next Gym Leader (13 for Falkner, 17 for Bugsy, ...). Should this happen, they have to be boxed until that Gym is beaten. I'm not sure how I'll do E4, but I'll probably get to the average level of final Rival battle, which is 48.
• My Starter depends on the last number of Trainer ID. 1-3 for Chikorita, 4-6 for Cyndaquil and 7-9 for Totodile. If the last number is 0, I'll just look ath the second last number.
• Healing items in battle are banned. Held items are still okay though.

And let's not waste any more time. My ID ends with 4, so I'll be picking up Cyndaquil. I wonder if I ever get non Fire-type starter. Anyway, Ohnik joins my team. I got so sucked in the whole tutorial part, that Ohnik ended up on level 10 before I could even catch someone else. Well, I hope I won't overlevel him before Falkner.

And it's time for encounters. It's currently night, so there should be at least one Hoothoot. And it's right on the Route 29. Awesome, Noctowl is probably my most favourite early bird Pokémon. Now I hope Sovak will survive all the way to being Noctowl. Route 46 gave me Zoubek the Rattata and Route 30 gave me the only possible Pokémon - Pritelka the Spinarak. She poisoned Sovak and I barely made it to Pokecentre to heal. This could be really early death.

Continuing on, I got Zravka the Bellsprout on Route 31 and Boubelka the Geodude. Yes, that's the one I've been looking for. Now there is no way I will lose against Falkner. And after getting Duchna the Gastly in Sprout Tower, I think this is really solid team to start a Nuzlocke.

So after beating Sprout Tower, I went straight to Falkner with my team just below his Pidgeotto's level. And Boubelka took care of his birds pretty easily. I was so glad I got Boubelka.

Now this run starts just right. It has been a while since I had a team of 6 Pokémon before even facing 1st Gym.

It's been a while since I played this run.

I caught Ampa the Mareep and put him on my team. Union Cave gave me Zubak the Zubat. Ohnik evolved here after a long battle with Onix, who was super-effective against my whole team. Almost lost Duchna there.

When I got to Azalea Town and made a short trip to Ilex Forest for another encounter, hetting Motylka the Caterpie. I then went back and swept the whole Slowpoke Well with just Boubelka. That put her pretty close to level cap, so I had to use other Pokémon to clear Azalea Gym's trainers. Ampa evolved right before facing Bugsy.

The battle with Bugsy himself was pretty easy. I've started with Boubelka and one-shotted everything Bugsy sent against me. I never really paid attention to Geodude in Johto, but I'm beginning to like it.

Then I got challenged by Rival and easily beat him with combination of Boubelka and Ampa. I got through Ilex Forest once again, taught Headbutt to Ohnik and got to Route 34. There I headbutted some trees, but couldn't get anything. Then I accidentally jumped into tall grass and encountered Uchyl the Drowzee. That's pretty cool Pokémon, so I put it on my team instead of Pritelka. And Hypno was one of my surviving Pokémon from Fire Red Hardcore Nuzlocke.

I went straight to Goldenrod Gym and challenged Whitney, after getting Radio Card of course. I also got PokéRus at this point. I have no idea how, but Ampa, Ohnik and Sovak were already infected when I noticed it. It helped with leveling up and I was ready to challenge Whitney. I once again planned on using Boubelka, since she could tank all Miltank's attacks pretty well. Or at least that's what I thought. Her Clefairy got extremally lucky and pulled out Roar of Time and Fire Blast, before Ampa put it down with Thunder Wave and Thundershock. Ampa was also able to put paralyzation on Miltank twice - once via Static and once with Thunder Wave. I then switched in Sovak to set up Reflect and then finally used Boubelka. It was still long battle and I was afraid of losing Boubelka, since she had maybe half of HP after tanking Roar of Time. After series of Magnitude 4 that Miltank negated with her healing, I hit jackpot and landed Magnitude 10 and beat Miltank in one single hit. That was harder than I expected.

Anyway, I got male Nidoran as encounter on Route 35, which would be nice Pokémon if only I had access to Moon Stone right at the moment. National Park gave me Pinda the Pidgey and Route 36 let me pick Klada the Sudowoodo. Route 37 surprised me with Vanocnak the Stantler, something I never used in Nuzlocke.

I also backtracked to Route 32 and obtained Old Rod, which I used in Ecruteak City to finally get a Water-type - Magikarp. Yeah, not really a Pokémon that I like. I hoped to get Poliwag. Finally, the last encounter of this update was Pach the Koffing in Burned Tower.

After some more boring events in Ectreak City, I got to challenge Morty. Boubelka and Duchna evolved right in time to face his ghosts. I even evolved them twice to have even better chances against Gengar. I also went back to Goldenrod to get some Game Corner's TMs and taught Flamethrower to Ohnik and Thunderbolt to Ampa.

Anyway, the battle wasn't that hard, but I had luck on my side. I started with Boubelka equiped with Quick Claw and set up Rock Polish just to make sure I can outspeed Morty's Gengar. Boubelka easily beat first Gastly and then landed 5 hits via Rock Blast on Gengar, putting it in orange HP even after Sitrus Berry heal. Gengar decided to go for Mean Look, which meant I was just given a free turn to inflict more damage. Morty didn't heal Gengar, so I was able to put it down with another Rock Blast. Rest of his team couldn't really hurt Boubelka, but one of his Haunter put Curse on her, so I had to switch to Ampa.

Let's continue.

I caught Ufounek the Magnemite and Vul the Tauros on Routes 38 and 39.

It did long for the first dead of this run. I was leveling up Uchyl in Olivine's lighthouse when one trainer sent out Fearow with Pursuit. There was nothing I could do. I'm sad that this Drowzee won't see Hall of Fame.

I went to Route 40 and caught Krabik the Krabby to replace it. I also got Chapadlice the Tentacool on Route 41.

I wasn't really feeling optimistic about facing Chuck. My only super-effective move against Fighting-types at this point was Peck, which did almost no damage to all the trainers in the Gym. And I even almost lost Sovak multiple times. Anyway, I started with Sovak and was able to hit his Primeape thanks to Focus Punch, but then Primeape used Rock Slide, which almost took Sovak down. Sovak then missed one Peck and Primeape landed Focus Punch, killing Sovak. I sent out Ampa and quickly beat Primeape. Chuck's Poliwrath wasn't that hard. Ampa, who evolved right before facing Chuck, didn't let Poliwrath to move at all.

After a long grinding session with Zubak that I decided to put on team, I was pretty much ready to challenge Jasmine. Ohnik decimated her whole team with Flamethrowers.

I tried my luck again and headbutted some trees to get Heracross on Route 42. Ended up with Spearow that got killed my Zubak's crit. I also got Zirafa the Girafarig on Route 43. I'm starting to get enough Pokémon, so I might skip some encounters from boring Routes for now. I also got Bumba the Voltorb in Team Rocket HQ.

After taking care of Team Rocket, I found out something horrible. Pryce's Pokémon are on lower level than Olivine. That's bullshit. And I didn't really feel like training whole new team just because of this old dude. Pryce is stupid character anyway, he doesn't deserve special treatment. As you can imagine, he was just a pushover.

After finishing Team Rocket, I was really close to Clair' level cap. What's wrong with this games' levels?

Anyway, I got Cumak the Spearow on Route 44 and Cunik the Swinub on Ice Path. I decided to swap Zubak for Cunik to have at least small chance against Clair and evolved him all the way to Mamoswine. I equiped Ampa with Quick Claw and Cunik with NeverMeltIce and challenged Clair. Cunik took care of her Gyarados. Duchna then put her Kingdra asleep and under confusion and Ampa took care of it. Her Dragonair were easy and both of them fell to Cunik.

After beating Clair, I caught Korba the Gligar on Route 45. Then I realized I haven't pick Clair's badge yet, so I returned back and caught Nediky the Dratini.

After I finished Kimono Girl quest and caught Ho-oh. Not that I plan on using it, but I just felt like catching it.

I skipped some encounters for now using Repel, since I already had enough Pokémon in Box. I easily beat Silver and started preparing for E4. It took some time to get all the items and TMs, but in the end I had pretty nice team. I had two Ground-types, but I thought it would be okay. I leveled up to level 48 and challenged Will.

As you can imagine, Will wasn't an obstacle at all. I had extremally fast Duchna, who just Shadow Balled everything Will threw at her. Koga wasn't much harder. His Forretress set up Toxic Spikes and then his Crobat put Toxic on Boubelka, who was able to beat everything to that point. I had to switch to Ampa, who couldn't hit Crobat, so I had to switch again, this time to Cunik, who finally hit Crobat with Ice Beam. Bruno was another tale. I had no Pokémon that could counter his Fighting-types well, so I had to switch to various Pokémon and make a great use of Duchna's Hypnosis and Confuse Ray. And the fact that she is Ghost-type, so most attacks didn't hit her. I was expecting to lose Pokémon on Karen, but I got lucky and beat her Umbreon with Boubelka's critical Earthquake and survived her Houndoom's attacks with only 11 HP, so I could swap her.

I started with Ampa and easily beat Gyarados. Lance then sent out his first Dragonite and I decided to hinder it with Thunder Wave. Ampa survived one Outrage with only few HP, so I switched to Cunik, who was able to tank next Outrage better and beat Dragonite with Ice Beam. Next up was Charizard, so I switched to Boubelka. I used one Rock Polish to be faster, since I was sure I can survive one hit from Charizard. Taking Charizard down with Stone Edge, Lance sent out another Dragonite, who survived one Stone Edge and killed Boubelka with Blizzard. That wasn't nice. Especially since Boubelka was with me from the very beginning.

Duchna went out and took a revenge on Dragonite. She then put Aerodactyl asleep and almost beat it, but Aerodactyl woke up and Crunched Duchna to red HP. I had to switch to Cunik, who was able to move first thanks to Ice Shards. I was ready to lose Cunik too to the last Dragonite, but while my Ice Shards put Dragonite on 1 HP, Dragonite missed his attack It took few more turns to beat it with Ice Shards, because Lance was spamming Full Restores.

And that's it. I'm surprised this run went so smoothly. I'm thinking about doing a post-game and beating Kanto and Red. Anyway, here's the Hall of Fame:

I started with putting Boubelka in the RIP box and replacing her with Zirafa. I went to Kanto after short training session and easily beat local Gyms. There isn't really much to say about them. I was prepared for everything they threw at me. I also once again skipped most of the encounters here with Repels.

Battle with Red was pretty interesting. I leveled up all the way to level 84, since I wanted to make sure I can handle this legendary trainer. I began with Cunik. Pikachu missed Cunik with Iron Tail and was defeated by powerful Earthquake. Red then sent out Blastoise and I switched to Ampa, while taking hit from Focus Blast. Quick Claw activated and let Ampa atack first, beating Blastoise with Thunderbolt. Coming next was Snorlax and I didn't really had a way to deal with him. Ampa used Thunder Wave and survived Crunch. I went back to Cunik and tanked 2 Blizzards, while also beating Snorlax with 2 Earthquakes. I switched to Krabik when Red sent out Lapras, but he got frozen by Lapras' Blizzard. So I had to switch to Duchna and got in pretty hard situation. At one point Duchna had 3 HP and Red's Lapras was in yellow HP. One Shadow Ball could end it, but it would also kill Duchna. Otherwise I would have to risk Blizzard on switching. I went with that option and sent out Zirafa, expecting Blizzard. But Lapras decided to go with Brine, allowing Zirafa to easily beat it. Red sent out Venusaur and I had to switch to Ohnik to deal with it. This left me with not a great chances against Charizard. I had no chance but to switch to Krabik and let him die, since I wanted to keep Ohnik alive. I then sent out Duchna and put Charizard to sleep, which cost me Duchna. Finally, I sent out Ampa and destroyed Charizard with Thunderbolt.

So this was my Hardcore Nuzlocke run in Heart Gold. This was actually pretty easy run, since the levels of everything in Johto is just screwed up, so I almost always had advantage. I'm glad I was able to keep my starter through the whole game. I'm looking forward Hoenn run.