I know I haven't finished my HG Nuzlocke, but since we're celebrating Unova, here comes Black Nuzlocke. The rules are all the same as in my previous Nuzlocke runs.

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 (14 for Cress, 20 for Lenora, ...). 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 Ghetsis battle, which is 52.
• My Starter depends on the last number of Trainer ID. 1-3 for Snivy, 4-6 for Tepig and 7-9 for Oshawott. 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 start right away. My ID ends with 4, which must now be some kind of sick joke. I start with Fire-type for the 4th time in a row in this Nuzlocke series. But Tepig is i my opinion the best starter out of the Unova trio, so it's okay. I think I'll go with latin nicknames, so welcome Ignis, which is latin for fire.

Route 1 encounter was Patrat and Ignis decided to show himself and killed Patrat with critical hit. That's really great start. But I was still able to beat N easily and got Tenebris the Purrloin on Route 2. So this run is as good as finished. If you don't know I did beat Black 2 with just Purrloin without fainting, so this should be the same.

But since I don't take gifts and can't level up to level 17 for Ignis to evolve, I had to invent new strategy for Cress. I started with Tenebris on level 14 and with Oran Berry and used as many Sand-Attacks as I could on his Lillipup and then beat it with Scratch and Fury Swipes. I was able to trigger Potion there, which was helpful. I then used the same strategy on Panpour and was lucky, since it used Work Up all the time and then couldn't hit Tenebris. Some more Scratches and Fury Swipes later and I got my first badge. I told you Tenebris will be my sole win condition of this run.

There was a Patrat waiting on my in Dreamyard. This time I caught it and named it Normalem. And after battle with Cheren, I caught Cornu the Pidove. Then, after beating Team Plasma, I used Repels to trigger encounter with Drilbur, since I need some more type coverage and Excadrill is really great Pokémon. It took me several Repels to finally get Talpa the Drilbur.

After that I quickly got to Nacrene, beat N and got decided not to catch something outside Pinwheel Forest. While Tympole would be nice, I didn't want to risk getting any of the other encounters there and would rather get one of bugs from inside of Pinwheel Forest.

N battle in front of Nacrene Gym was really close. His Tympole's Bubblebeam hit hard. And after that, that random Herdier in Nacrene Gym was also annoying. After clearing the lesser trainers, I trained my whole team to level 20. Ignis, Tenebris and Normalem evolved, which could mean a lot in following battle against Lenora. I was thinking about strategy for that battle for a long time. One possible strategy was to just send out Ignis and Arm Thrust everything, but I wasn't sure if Ignis is tanky enough to survive Retaliate from Watchog or fast enough to beat it. And I would hate losing Ignis. My other strategy was to use whatever I can to beat Herdier and then use Normalem's Confuse Ray and Tenebris's Sand-Attack to hinder her Watchog as much as I could so I could beat it.

And the battle was really a show! I went with Ignis strategy, only to be reminded that Intimidate exists. So I barely beat Herdier with Ignis. Then I decided to switch to Tenebris, who got hit by Watchog's Hypnosis. So I switched to Normalem and was able to put Lenora's Watchog under confusion. Going back to Ignis, Watchog hit itself several times. Watchog then hit Ignis once and it took majority of his HP. So I switched to Talpa and finished the battle after another powerful Retaliate.

So this run started pretty well. I'm really enjoying it. Can't wait for Clay battle. It will be fun battle with my current team.

After taking few days off, I decided to continue.

I was lucky and got Sewaddle in Pinwheel Forest. I named her Mater. She evolved pretty quickly into Swadloon.

Beating Team Plasma here was easy. I mostly used Cornu and made him evolve and I got to Castelia. After another small hsutle with Team Plasma, I challenged Burgh. My strategy was to use Ignis and boost his speed as much as possible with Flame Charge. It worked well against Whirlipede, but Dwebble stopped this strategy hard. I had to switch to Talpa to get rid of Dwebble. After that I sent out Ignis with about a half of HP, but he was still able to one-shot Leavanny with Flame Charge.

Now it's time to beat two rivals and for more encounters. Battle with Bianca was easy, I easily swept her with Ignis, but battle with Cheren was hard. Cornu beat his Pidove and then survived with just 2 HP in battle against Dewott. I switched to Mater and still had hard time beating Dewott. But the rest of Cheren's team was fine. I had Talpa to beat his Pansear and used Talpa and Normalem to take care of his Liepard.

And now for those encounters! Route 4 gave me Darumaka, which is probably the worst encounter on this route for me. Desert Resort rewarded me with Sandile, which is cool and I'm looking forward using instead of Tenebris. I hope boxing the best Pokémon out there won't result in me losing this Nuzlocke. And since I got Sandile in Desert Resort, I could get guaranteed Yamask in Relic Castle. I named Sandile Ocularia and Yamask Persona.

I switched around my team a little bit, since I felt like I wasn't using some of my Pokémon that much, trained them all to levels 25-27 and challenged Elesa expecting at least one death, since my team couldn't really handle her Emolga. Speaking of Emolga, let's return few moments before challenging Elesa. The very first Emolga I faced in this Gym proved to be strong opponent and killed Talpa. That's just great. I was really looking forward to use Excadrill.

Anyway, I started the fight with Elesa with Persona. I was able to put burn on both Emolga, but it was too much for Persona, who died because of that. Thanks to the burn, Emolga couldn't really hurt Ocularia, so I beat both of them with her. Ocularia survived with only few HP left, so I switched her for Normalem when Elesa sent out Zebstrika. I was able to use one Confuse Ray and one Sand-Attack, before being forced to retrieve because of low HP. I sent out Ignis to finish the job and got another badge.

Phew, this Gym was hard. And there is Clay coming up, who I have no strategy against. I could use Mater to take care of his Krokorok and Palpitoad, but I knew his Excadrill will kill at least one of my Pokémon. I could use Ignis against it, but didn't want to lose it. I had to come up with new strategy.

There is still more encounters to have before facing Clay. I got Sacerdos the Audino on Route 5 and Anas the Ducklett. I totally forgot about Ducklett. It might be exactly what I need to beat Clay. Especially with Scal that can be found in Cold Storage. Speaking of that location, I got Inutilia the Minccino. I think I'll stick with Normalem instead. But Mater finally evolved, so the journey here was worth it.

So I have Pretty nice team to fight against Clay. I started with Mater and easily beat his Krokorok. Clay then sent out Excadrill and I switched to Ocularia just as Excadrill used Hone Claws. I had to gamble and put Swagger on it, which didn't work at first and Ocularia got killed with Bulldoze. Great, now I lost all of my Ground-types. That's bad. But Ocularia's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Confused Excadrill hit itself from this point until it fainted. And Anas also helped it faint quickly. Clay's last Pokémon - Palpitoad, was then just a small pushover in my way for this badge.

Continuing on, I easily beat Bianca and got Boletus the Foongus on Route 6 and Mechanica the Klink in Chargestone Cave. I was really hoping for Joltik, Tynamo or even Boldore, to have a Pokémon with super-effective type against Skyla. Well, I'll have to beat her somehow with my current team. At least Mechanica knows some Electric-type moves.

Battle with N was easy and I got another chance to get Electric-type on Route 7. Which I failed and got Arietes the Deerling. Cornu died to a Seed Bomb from random Simisage. Wow, Pidove line is really useless. To be honest, I don't even remember using it aside from leveling him. And so I put Mechanica on my team and trained it a little bit.

Ignis got to level 35 on my way to Celestial Tower, so I boxed him to make sure he won't get overleveled. Not that I plan on using him against Skyla, but I just wanted not to use overleveled Pokémon at all. Anyway, I got Lucerna the Litwick in Celestial Tower and quickly went back to fight Skyla. I started with Tenebris and beat Swoobat, while also taking one huge hit from Acrobatics. I switched to Normalem and to disruption tactics with Confuse Ray and Sand-Attack to take on Unfezant. And for once confused Pokémon actually hit themselves. Unfezant went down quickly and I repeated this strategy with Swanna, only to realize that she knows Aerial Ace. But I was still able to switch safely into Mechanica and beat Swanna with few Charge Beams.

Battle with Cheren was harder than usual. His Unfezant was annoying and his Simisear almost beat Anas with a critical hit. But Anas evolved after this battle. But I got Surf and was able to go to Routes 17 and 18 to get Spectrum the Frilish and Cancer tscsssshe Dwebble. Returning back in track, I also got Musculus the Gurdurr. And this Mountain was full of really strong trainers. Thankfully I didn't lost any Pokémon, but my lack of healing items and repels made this location pain to get through. I knew I had to level up, so I spent some time here.

When I got to Icirrus City, I caught Captionem the Stunfisk and went straight to the Gym, where I beat Brycen easily with newly evolved Ignis.

Going to Dragonspiral Tower, Ignis accidentally killed Golett here. And then cleared the whole Team Plasma side quest without any deaths and continued on my journey. I caught Cochlea the Shelmet on Route 8, Bufonem the Palpitoad in Moor of Icirrus and Puella the Gothorita.

When I got to Opelucid City, I realized I had no Ice-type against Drayden. I tried to tackle the Gym anyway and Normalem died to a critical Dragon Claw powered by Dragon Dance by very first Fraxure in the Gym. So I had to check my Pokémon and found out Spectrum can learn Blizzard. So I grinded her until evolving and challenged the Gym again.

And it went really badly. Spectrum was able to beat Fraxure with Blizzard, but then missed few attacks against Druddigon, which was fatal and Spectrum died to super effective Night Slashes. I then sent out Anas. She beat Druddigon, but lost about half of her HP. Drayden's ace started with Dragon Dance, but then missed all Dragon Tails and so I was able to win with few Fly attacks.

I totally forgot to post this update last month, when I finished it on the same day as the previous update. I had so much going on that I wrote it down and then forgot to hit Post button.

So it's time to challenge E4.

But first, let me pick Captionem on my team, quickly beat Cheren again and get Canis the Herdier or Route 10 and Formica the Durant. After that I grinded my team to level 49, spent few minutes crafting my movesets and challenged the E4. Oh and I should also mention that I leveled up more of my Pokémon to level 49, since I was sure I'll lose Pokémon against E4, so I wanted to be prepared for N and Ghetsis.

First of is Shantaul, which I was pretty confident I could beat. I started with Tenebris, but had to switch to pretty much my whole team, since Tenebris is pretty squishy and I wasn't lucky enough to kill everything with critical hits. Almost hit Anas and Ignis here, but I was able to switch them out. Especially her Chandelure put many of my Pokémon in red HP before I could even attack with them.

Grimsley's battle started terribly. Ignis missed 5 Brick Breaks in a row against Scrafty, which put me in a really bad spot. Ignis beat Scrafty, but I had to switch him to Anas when Grimsley sent out Krookodile. That battle wasn't that interesting, but Anas was left with 4 HP left. I then switched in Mater against Liepard and after exchanging heavy hits, Mater won. Finally, Grimsley sent out Bisharp and I sent out Captionem. Bisharp landed a critical hit and it totally destroyed Captionem. I sent out Mechanica and was able to paralyze Bisharp twice, once before and once after Full Restore. But my whole team was in death range, so I couldn't safely switch to Ignis or something else. Mechanice tried its best, but Bisharp was still stronger and killed it. I sent out Ignis to avenge my two Pokémon and finally ended this fight.

Caitlin was pretty easy when compared to Grimsley. I started with Tenebris and swept half of her team, then switched to Mater and swept the rest of her team.

I don't want to talk about Marshal battle. It was true 2020 battle. Goodbye Tenebris. You know what that means. This run is over, now there is no way I can win.

Well, when I got to N's Castle, I put Puella, Cancer and Boletus on my team and went against N and Ghetsis. But it was all for nothing, since I didn't even get through Zekrom. I think I'll really have to get an Ice, Dragon or Ground-type for this battle.

It has been a while since I've done this challenge. This time, my ID picked Oshawott as my starter. It's fine starter. Not as great as Tepig, but not as bad as Snivy.

I had a better luck this run, out of 5 deaths happened in E4/N/Ghetsis battle. Sadly some of them were planned sacrifices, but I would wipe otherwise. My encounters were also pretty cool. And I'm glad some Pokémon like Audino and Garbodor survived all the way until the end.

The run went smooth until E4. My Krokorok died while fighting Team Plasma Grunts, which was sad, but I didn't plan on using it much. But E4... That was something else. I have to say that my team barely counter any of E4 members or Ghetsis and N, but I didn't expect it to went so badly. Luckily, Audino had bunch of HP and DEF EVs, making it bulky enough to survive bunch of hits. Plus, he could heal via Rest and deal damage via Toxic. Toxic and Attract stall was very helpful even tho I couldn't heal with items.

Shauntal, Grimsley and Caitlin went down relatively easily, but usually left all my Pokémon in red HP. While fighting Marshal, I was able to beat his Throh and Sawk with Samurott, but I did some thoughtless switching and ended up in the situation, where no matter what I do, someone would die. After some thinking, I picked Zebstrika as the victim. But thanks to it, I beat Marshal and could move on N.

Last time I wiped on Zekrom. Because of that, I put Beartic on my team. I also put Klinklang on the team as another wall. And this time, Zekrom was a pushover. Beartic beat it with 2 Icicle Crashes, but was left with 3 HP. I predicted Zoroark illusion and beat it with Samurott. But I wasn't prepared for N's Klinklang and had to sent my own Klinklang against it. Mine won, but also ended up in red HP. When N sent out Vanilluxe, I had no clear answer against it, so I made another hard choice and had to sacrifice Klinklang. I sent out Garbodor and set up Toxic Spikes and Toxic on Vanilluxe. I then did some switching between Garbodor and Audino to waste Blizzard's PP. In the end, Garbodor was almost unusable, but Audino had still enough HP to help with the rest of the battle. Actually, he beat Carrasosta on his own. N's Archeops was the final challenge. It didn't get poisoned by Toxic Spikes and Audino had not enough HP to survive any of Archeops' attacks. I knew I would still use Audino against Ghetsis, so I did another hard decision to swap in Beartic. He already outlived his purpose. I sent out Samurott and finally beat N.

The battle with Ghetsis was even more stressful. Garbodor set up Toxic Spikes right from the start, which helped dealing with few Pokémon. I once again used Garbodor and Audino stalling. I got past Cafagrigus and Bouffalant. But then came Hydreigon. Maybe sacrificing Beartic earlier wasn't a good idea. I sent out Leavanny and hoped it's faster, but one Fire Blast later, I found out Hydreigon is, in fact, faster. I wasn't sure what to do, so I sent out Samurott and barely beat it. I then had to go back to Audino stalling and somehow beat the rest of Ghetsis team.

Here's Hall of Fame:


So, this was hardest Hardcore Nuzlocke run so far. Especially because of the E4, N and Ghetsis battles. I think I'll have to tweak the level cap for E4 for the next games since I feel like using average of E4 isn't working that well. But otherwise, it was fun.