[Gen 7] LA's Johlolocke Adventure

Recently I've been finding it hard to complete playthroughs of the main series of games and was trying to come up with a new way of playing them. Having gone through each generation's offerings a number of times I set about collecting Pokemon on Island Scan and was struck with the idea: How about bringing Johto to Alola?

Trawling through various online databases, I cobbled together a rough route-for-route equivalence list and decided to run a Nuzlocke where one region's Pokemon were made available in another! To complete the 'locke I'll have to transfer in Pokemon from PokeBank matching whatever comes up from the random calculator that I made, linked to the equivalence table. To try and keep things fair I've attempted to include all offerings between all games linked to a particular region and the prevalence of Pokemon in those areas. For example, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Heart Gold, and Soul Silver all might vary on what is available on a given Route/area so I've averaged it out as best possible for use in the calculator so that everything present has a chance of being selected.

Other rules for this Nuzlocke:
Cannot exceed level of next Kahuna's ace Pokemon.
Species clause.
Shiny clause.

Here goes… LA's Johlola-locke Adventure!

After button-mashing through the introduction to Moon, I checked out my trainer card to see which starter from the Johto region would be joining my journey. For trainer numbers ending 1-3 Chikorita, 4-6 Cyndaquil and 7-9 Totodile. If the trainer number ends in a 0, I just move one digit to the right and restart the process. So, for my first Pokemon, my trainer number ended with a…3! Which meant Chikorita would be the first to join the group.

Playing through Route 1 was relatively uneventful other than picking up my next Pokemon: Rattata, Spearow, Spinarak and Ledyba. It really sucked that I got Spearow instead of the Phanpy from Pokemon Crystal but that's the joy of a Nuzlocke, I guess! Problems hit when the squad reached the Trainer School; the principal gave me some serious issues!!! Who knew Magnemite and Meowth could hit so hard?!?! This battle we so crazily close to wiping my team and if I'm completely honest we only won because my Chikorita's egg move of Leech Seed was in play. Without that, I have no doubt this Nuzlocke would have been laughably short.

Moving on, Ilima's Smeargle gave us a close call by bringing Chikorita down to just 2 HP (thanks for missing, Razor Leaf!) but thankfully we out-sped the stupid painting dog and were able to move on without a casualty. Ready to continue, here's the vital statistics:

Current Team:
Chikorita Lvl 14
Rattata Lvl 11
Spearow Lvl 9
Spinarak Lvl 9
Ledyba Lvl 9

Captures:
Iki Town: Route 1 (East): Route 1 (North): Route 1 (West): Hau'oli City:

Level limit: 15
Deaths: 0
Trials Complete: 0
Kahunas Defeated: 0

We left Hau'oli City and scooped up new Pokemon in the forms of Zubat, Gastly and Mareep on the way to the first Trial. I really didn't expect anything to give us much of a challenge in these early Routes but Gentleman Stanley in the cemetery had other ideas… His Makuhita's Arm Thrust took my Spearow's health from full to 1 HP in a single round of 5 hits! Luckily Chikorita is quite bulky and she was able to fight him off right after. However, this meant our starter reached level 15 and we had to box her right away since I want to save her for the Grand Trial with Kahuna Hala.

On the way to Verdant Cavern, Mareep evolved and got boxed along with Spinarak who also reached level 15. At this point I started to become concerned that the level limit was going to be a big problem for the game but it should work out OK soon – although I'm using the Exp Share to prevent grinding, the number of Pokemon that I have available should be so many that working to the level constraints shouldn't be an issue forever. I could always turn it off in a pinch, too.

I had completely forgotten that you can't leave a Trial once it has started and decided to bite the bullet when it came to accidentally over-levelling any Pokemon inside as they could be boxed straight after. Plus, since the Totem Pokemon was coming up I didn't want to put myself at a gross disadvantage.

Making my way through the Cavern I had Zubat take the lead with his powerful Leech Life but decided to change tactics when discovering that Ledyba could learn Brick Break!!! With the bug in the lead, we took on the Totem Raticate with relative ease but this did push our adorable Ladybird over the edge into level 16 and so he will not be able to take part in our match against Hala. This is really annoying since I intended on using that Reflect attack to save us from the Z move All-Out Pummelling but a different strategy will have to be put together now… In addition to Ledyba, Spearow and Rattata also reached level 15 and made their way to the PC as soon as we exited the cave.

We nipped back into Verdant Cavern to pick up our final new team member, a Natu, and headed onto Route 3. Here's the vital statistics:

Current Team:
Zubat level 13
Gastly level 12
Natu level 11

Captures:
Route 2 (South): Hau'oli Cemetery: Route 2 (North): Verdant Cavern: Route 3: Melemele Meadow:
Evolutions:


Level limit: 15
Deaths: 0
Trials Complete: 1
Kahunas Defeated: 0

Route 3 didn't pose much of a problem as we travelled through with our small team but it was a big surprise having to fight Hau outside Melemele Meadow. We weren't ready for his Pikachu at all, despite bringing on board our two new captures, Ekans and Sandshrew, which were at fairly low levels. It was a close call but Gastly's Clear Smog was powerful enough to get us through and get him up to level 16.

I re-arranged the party and started the cleanup of all trainers on Route 3 so that I could battle the Ace Trainer at the end of the Route. I've never really paid attention to what the Red Card item does but DAMN did it catch me off guard. The trainer's Rockruff had already set up Stealth Rocks and my Sandshrew didn't have the much needed Rapid Spin to counter it. As a result we had some extremely close calls in the match but managed to get through unscathed.

Back in Iki Town I switched up the team ready to face Hala and took with me: Zubat, Spinarak, Chikorita, Spearow, Natu and Flaaffy who were all at level 15. I had completely forgotten that Hala had 3 Pokemon but that didn't matter too much as Zubat and Spearow easily took care of his Mankey and Makuhita respectively. Then, onto Crabrawler, I decided to send my bulky Chikorita with the highest defence stats in the squad which was my first massive error of the playthrough. Although she managed to land her Leech Seed attack, our little grass-type fell foul of the Z-move All-Out Pummeling and was claimed with a OHKO move right off the bat. This was so massively disappointing for me since using Chikorita was something I hadn't done in a very long time and I was looking forward to it taking me all of the way to the E4… Not anymore, I guess!

As the first death, Chikorita has been perma-boxed in the Death box.

A bit miffed at our first loss, I've continued with a new haircut and outfit to Akala island, picking up the next two captures (Slowpoke and Psyduck) and setting my team straight for the next stint. Here's the vital statistics:

Current Team:
Flaaffy level 18
Sandshrew level 14
Natu level 16
Zubat level 16
Gastly level 17
Psyduck level 1

Captures:
Ten Carat Hill:Route 4:

Deaths:


Level limit: 27
Deaths: 1
Trials Complete: 1
Kahunas Defeated: 1

A bit of a shorter update this time around. Spent some time trying to level up most of my captures evenly while progressing along Route 4, Paniola Ranch and Route 5. It was all going fairly smoothly until we arrived at Route 5 and went into battle with a wild Pikipek. I figured that the bird was a fairly easy defeat for my Sandshrew and let it battle without much worry. The Pikipek summoned an ally through S.O.S. calling and I still figured that my powerful Sandshrew would take out the two birds with his Rollout attack? Bad move. I hadn?t been paying attention and it turned out that the wild Pikipek?s last move was Echoed Voice and that both of our opponents were faster than my poor Sandshrew. Two Echoed Voices later and my Sandshrew was dead!!!

Focusing on the trainers through Route 5 was simple enough after that and my Zubat evolved after the battle with Gladion. Then, moments later, disaster struck AGAIN.

In the double battle with the Ace Trainers right before the Pokemon Center my poor Spearow fell afoul of the other two birds (Rufflet and Vullaby) while they both ganged up on her and finished her off in a single round. I hadn?t expected the need for healing and my partly-injured Spearow was a lethal casualty from that mode of thinking :/

I?ve just arrived at Brooklet Hill to prepare for the next Trial and here?s the vital statistics:

Current Team:
Flaaffy level 22
Golbat level 22
Gastly level 22
Slowpoke level 20
Raticate level 20
Drowzee level 17

Captures:
Paniola Ranch: Route 5: (my odds for this were extremely low so I?m pleased this was brought up with my random number generator :D)

Evolutions:


Deaths:


Level limit: 27
Deaths: 3
Trials Complete: 1
Kahunas Defeated: 1

This challenge has been put on hold almost indefinitely. Due to the Ash Cap Pikachu event I used this cartridge to reset to obtain each of the different versions of the event which meant this save file had to be removed. All captured Pokemon, however, have been stored in Bank so I could pick this up in the future if it takes my fancy (however unlikely this is).