I wanted to do this challenge for a while, but it always felt like a huge commitment. So, let's see if I can actually finish all the way to Alola.

But what is Genlocke about? It's regular Nuzlocke. Well, Hardcore Nuzlocke in my case. But after finishing one region, I'll breed my HoF team and send their offsprings to the next region. This also means that if I wipe somewhere, I have to start from Kanto again.

I'll do regions in following order:
Kanto - Sinnoh - Johto - Unova - Kalos - Hoenn - Alola

Rules

1. Any Pokémon that faints is considered dead and must be released (or permanently put in PC).
2. I can only catch the first wild Pokémon encountered in each area, and none else. If the first wild Pokémon encountered faints or flees, there are no second chances.
3. All Pokémon must be nicknamed.
4. The region is completed, when I first see credits roll.
5. Starter Pokémon must be randomly chosen. If the last digit of the player's Trainer ID number is 1-3, I must choose the Grass-type starter; if it is 4-6, the Fire-type starter; if it is 7-9, the Water-type starter; if it is 0, it's re-roll.
6. A black out is considered as game over.
7. I have to play with SET battle style.
8. Each Gym battle has a level cap - the level of the last Pokémon of each Gym Leader. For E4 and Champion, I'll go with the last Pokémon of the Champion, but I'll put a softlock on how much I'll grind each Pokémon for the Elite Four.
9. I can't use healing items in battle.

With that, let's start this crazy adventure!

And there isn't any reason not to start right away.

For this run, I decided to go with following nicknaming theme: Islands. I might as well find my next vacation destination while I'm losing my mind over this Nuzlocke.

When I got to Oak's lab to get my starter, I looked at my ID and the last digit was 9, meaning I'll use Squirtle for this run. It's great, haven't used Squirtle in Nuzlocke for a while. I always got Charmander. A quick look through some available destinations and Oahu, the Squirtle is my very first Pokémon of this challenge. Oahu is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. I hope my Oahu can make it all the way to Alola. That would be awesome.

Now, one of the best thing about starting the Nuzlocke was waiting on me - catching fresh new Pokémon. I got Java, which is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia and also Rattata I caught on Route 1. I also got Maui, the Pidgey, who is also another Hawaiian Island. I have another target that I would love to bring to Alola.

But I wasn't that lucky and lost an encounter on Route 22. Java felt especially powerful and decided to crit a Mankey. And I encountered Metapod in Viridian Forest. You can imagine my pain, when I tried to level it up to level 10. I named her Shikoku, after one of main Japanese islands.

I was glad I didn't forget to buy few Antidotes, otherwise some of my Pokémon would die in the forest. I made it out and went straight against Brock, since Oahu was slowly approaching level cap for this segment. And the battle was "surprisingly" short and one-sided. Did anyone expect anything else?

Let's continue with the run.

And let's start with a grim news. I lost Java pretty much right after leaving Pewter City. She was underleveled, so I wanted to train her, but some random trainer's Rattata was stronger and faster. But I caught Sakhalin, the Spearow. Which isn't really a replacement. I think I'll rather use Pidgey for now. I, once again, skipped free Magikarp on Route 4, because I don't really like using Gyarados in Gen III.

I cleared Mt. Moon and got Luzon, the Zubat on my way out. I had to switch my Pokémon more often to make sure none of them get close to Misty's level cap of level 21. I also caught Funen, the Sandshrew as my Route 4 encounter and decided to put it on my team.

I knew I couldn't beat Misty with my current team, so I made my way up the Cerulean City and hoped for Grass-type Pokémon. The battle with Rival was suprisingly close on some occasions. His Pidgeotto did quite a lot damage and his Bulbasaur put annoying statuses on all my Pokémon. I was lucky to have enough Antidotes in bag, otherwise, this would result in another death.

My plan to get Grass-type luckily not only worked and I caught Tenerife, the Bellsprout, but I also caught Luzon, the Abra. I quickly leveled both of them up and even evolved Luzon all the way to Alakazam. Now, Misty has no chance.

The battle with her was in fact, fast. I sent out Tenerife and put her Staryu to sleep. I managed to set up 2 Growths, before Staryu woke up. Then, the Vine Whip spam started. I one-shot Staryu, but had pretty hard time with Starmie. Starmie even pulled some scary moves and Tenerife ended up with only 11 HP left in the end. One more turn and I don't think I would solve this battle without deaths. Tenerife evolved after this battle.


Continuing on, Route 5 encounter was standard - Meowth. I named her Mallorca and let her be sent to PC. I couldn't catch anything on Route 6, so I run away from the encounter here.

I quickly made it to Vermilion City, but didn't stay there for long enough to get Bike Voucher and Old Rod. Instead, I went to Route 11 and caught Madura, the Drowzee and then to Diglett's Cave and caught Bioko, the Diglett. I realized way too late that I need Cut to get Flash, so I had to make it back to Vermilion empty-handed. Diglett's Arena Trap really shaked my team and since I barely had any healing as usual, I return back with full team of red HP.

I had to skip some parts of S.S. Anne, because my Pokémon were getting close to level cap. I only picked up Brick Break, some berries and Great Balls. This Rival battle was trivial. I decided to use Luzon, since she was on the lowest level and she single handedly beat his whole team without taking any damage. I got Cut and rushed to the Gym.

Luzon was still few levels under the rest of the team, so I decided to use her. And she is beast. She took down Lt. Surge without much trouble. It could go wrong if Luzon's paralyze kicked in, but it luckily didn't happen.

I started this part with backtracking through Diglett's Cave again and finally got Flash. I didn't want to go in Rock Tunnel blind and since I already had enough Pokémon to get Flash...

I caught Panay, the Machop and quickly got past Rock Tunnel. I challenged Rival inside Pokémon Tower and almost lost Luzon to Rival's Gyarados. It caught me completely off-guard. I had to switch in Shikoku to put Gyarados to sleep and to confuse it, then switch back to Luzon, since Shikoku could barely hurt Gyarados.

With nothing more to do, I went through Route 8 and caught Alor, the Vulpix. While the Fire-type would be nice to have, I didn't want to box any of my current Pokémon, so I put Alor in the box. Since I didn't want to hit the level cap, I went straight to Erika. I started with Maui and even when he got paralyzed instantly, he was faster than all of Erika's Pokémon. In the end, the battle was pretty close. In the highsight, I should have probably switch Maui for someone else and not risk it.

Continuing on, I swept Team Rocket's hideout with no problems. I continued with the TR storyline, caught Fyn, the Gastly in the process, and got back to the Gym challenge fairly easily. Both Rival and Giovanni battles were pretty close at some points, but otherwise, it was a breeze.

I was afraid of Sabrina, because I had no counter against her, aside from Luzon. And I wanted to use Luzon against Koga too, so I went in a little bit underleveled. I didn't want to risk anything tho, so I went in with Luzon and easily beat her, because Alakazam is just plain OP. I should probably box it, but it has been a while, since I've used Alakazam in Nuzlocke and it's just nice to know I have a safe option that could beat anything in Kanto.

Anyway, I caught Sulawesi, the Snorlax. One of my favourite Pokémon and that's the reason it went straight to the box. I also caught Leyte, the Venonat and was really tempted to put it on my team. And in the end put it in instead of Funen, because I barely used him. It was also a way to give myself a small disadvantage to balance Luzon.

I decided to go straight to Koga and easily navigated his maze. To add a little bit of a challenge, I did the whole maze blind and only opened my eyes each time I got challenged to the battle. It was fun little experiment. Koga's battle was another Luzon sweep, so nothing to write home about.

I quickly got everything I needed in Safari Zone. But my encounter - Nidorina - fled. That's 2nd Pokémon from this run.

I've used Repel to skip some encounters for now, because I was slowly running out of islands names. I got to Cinnabar Island and explored local Mansion. I caught Marajo, the Grimer and once again considered putting it on my team. But there wasn't room for her. So for now, I put it on a bench.

Battle with Blaine was extra one-sided. Oahu had chance to shine again, which was nice.

I flew to Viridian City and challenge Giovanni. And the battle was the same as with Blaine. Oahu just destroyed everything with powerful Surfs. Not even a scratch.

Before the battle with Rival, I grinded a little bit and also went on item hunting journey around Kanto. I spent some time in Celadon to finally get TMs and items in Game Corner.

Because of that, the battle with Rival was fairly easy. I once again used Luzon as my main Pokémon and swept Rival out of existence.

Now, the final planning for the E4 started. I could go around Kanto again, catch new Pokémon in locations I've skipped like Power Plant, but I felt like using Butterfree and Venomoth's powder shenanigans is something I can't say no to. I also kept Luzon as my plan B. Oh and I caught Timor, the Geodude, but that's not important at this point.

Now, let's talk about E4.

I was afraid of Lorelei's Ice-types, because I had no clear counter to Ice-types and had to rely on weaknesses of their secondary typings. I started with Tenerife, hoping to put everything out with Sleep Powder. And surprisingly, it worked. I set up few Growths to make things even smoother and Tenerife swept down Dewgong, Slowbro and Lapras. I didn't want to risk anything, so I switched to Oahu once Jynx appeared and beat her with Bite. Her final Pokémon - Cloyster, was just a final pushover of this battle

Bruno had no chance. And I didn't even have to use Luzon. Oahu took care of his Onix and then Maui beat his Fighting-types. I was lucky. Maui couldn't one-shot Hitmonchan and Hitmonchan missed several Rock Tombs in a row. Then, Maui beat Machamp with critical hit. I think this battle could end up pretty badly for me if it wasn't for all the misses and crit.

Agatha had some nasty surprises, but the battle still went well. I started with Leyte and used Sleep Powder and Psychic to beat gengar, Golbat and Haunter. Agatha's second Gengar was faster and landed an Hypnosis. I quickly switched to Shikoku. Gergar was lucky and his Sludge Bomb poisoned Shikoku. But I was able to put Gengar to sleep. I finally switched to Luzon and quickly and safely beat Gengar.
(I forgot to take the screenshot after the battle)

I really screw up at the start of Lance's battle. For some reason I thought he opens up with Aerodactyl, so I put Oahu in the first spot in my party. You can imagine my surprise, when Lance started with Gyarados. Oahu tanked few hits, but there wasn't really anything he could do, so I switched to Leyte and put Gyarados to sleep and beat it with Psychic attacks. Lance then sent out Dragonite, so I switched back to Oahu. And while Oahu beat Dragonite with Ice Beam, he also ended up with 2 HP. Which made the rest of the battle harder and more stressful, since I didn't want to risk Oahu. I'm taking him to Alola! And so, I pulled Oahu back and sent out Luzon. Thanks god Alakazam can learn Recover, because Luzon was about pixel short of one-shotting both Dragonair. And Aerodactyl needed whole 2 Psychics and precise timing of using them right after Aerodactyl's Hyper Beam.

I wasn't really sure how to go about the Rival battle, so I did the same as the previous time. I started with Shikoku, put his Pidgeot to sleep, switched to Luzon, set up few Calm Minds and swept through his whole team. A little bit anti-climatic, but I didn't want to risk a death.

Here's the Hall of Fame.

Overall, it was pretty cool run. I had only one unfortunate death, which is maybe the least I had in Hardcore Nuzlockes so far. Now, I'll breed all my Pokémon and send all the eggs to the next game - Platinum.