[Gen 4] Janp's Genlocke Adventures - Johto

[Janp]

The Genlocke Challenge - Johto

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Why am I so bad as posting? This run is a long overdue to be posted here. The continuation of my year long (or is it already two years) Genlocke is here! Sinnoh part was fun until it wasn't. That Lucian's battle left me scarred for life. But at least I have a room for new Pokémon. RIP Maui 2.

But first, what is a 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 continue on with this crazy adventure!

 

[Janp]

Note: This update was over a year and a half in making. I wanted to post it earlier, but then it fizzled out... So let's get this run done! Better late than never.

The Genlocke Challenge in Pokémon Heart Gold

UPDATE 1

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I bred my 4 Pokémon - Blastoise and Alakazam, whose heritage goes all the way to Kanto and Torterra and Weavile, who joined my team in Sinnoh. Sadly, my Pidgeot (Mau 2) and Luxray (Bokrug) didn't make it past Lucian.

It's time to move on. It's time to move on to Johto! As always, I rolled my starter and got Cyndaquil. That means I now have Grass, Water and Fire-type starter Pokémon on my team. Nice coincidence. For the nicknaming theme, I picked a music instruments. So, welcome Piano, the Cyndaquil on the team.

The start of the game was easy. My Squirtle (Oahu 3) inherited Ice Beam and Waterfall, which meant nothing at this point of the game could really touch me. I quickly got past the tutorial and encountered a Pidgey on one of the Routes. I was thinking about banning it, since on Pidgey died in my Genlocke, but caught it in the end. It will carry Maui's mission from now on. I then caught more Pokémon, but nothing to make me switch up my team.

The battle with Falkner was easy because of Oahu 3. I just one-shotted his whole team. I moved on, beat Team Rocket in Slowpoke Well, while trying to use Oahu 3 as little as possible to give them a chance, and finally got to Bugsy. Piano and Oahu 3 already evolved, so even Bugsy had no chance. I actually managed to take a screenshot after the battle this time:

After the battle, I beat my rival and got to Ilex Forest, where I picked up Headbutt and backtracked a little bit to get some tree encounters. I must be really lucky, because I encountered and caught Heracross in Azaela Town. I think I'll train it and replace my new Pidgey with him.

Team

Piano, Naive Male Quilava
lvl 17, Blaze
- Ember
- Quick Attack
- SmokeScreen
- Leer

Oahu 3, Lax Male Wartortle
lvl 18, Torrent
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Bite
- Waterfall

Hydra 2, Naive Male Turtwig
lvl 17, Overgrow @Miracle Seed
- Razor Leaf
- Withdraw
- Curse
- Headbutt

Luzon 3, Careful Male Kadabra
lvl 17, Inner Focus
- Teleport
- Confusion

Uvhash 2, Lax Male Sneasel
lvl 17, Inner Focus
- Faint Attack
- Cut
- Taunt
- Quick Attack

Harp, Sassy Female Pidgey
lvl 17, Tangled Feet
- Gust
- Sand-Attack
- Whirlwind
- Quick Attack​

 

[Janp]

The Genlocke Challenge in Pokémon Heart Gold

UPDATE 2

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It's so weird writing this update after almost 2 years.

Getting to Goldenrod City was a breeze. I caught a Drowzee right before entering Goldenrod. It will be a nice replacement for Luzon 3, if he dies. Which I hope won't happen.

Oahu 3 hit the level cap while clearing out the Gym. Luckily, I had Clarinet, my loyal Heracross, who learnt Brick Break just right before Whitney's cap. Yet, Whitney's Miltank tanked one hit and landed Attract on Clarinet. I barely managed to beat her with no loses after that. But I did and Clarinet left the battle with only 11 HP left.

I quickly moved to Ecruteak City, catching Pokémon I don't think I'll ever use in this run on my way there. This is honestly one aspect about Genlocke I don't like that much. I already have my team and there is little to no reason to change it, aside from losing Pokémon.

The battle with Morty was easy this time. I had Uvhash 2, who outsped all Morty's Pokémon and hit just hard enough to beat them all in one hit.

Team

Piano, Naive Male Quilava
lvl 19, Blaze
- Ember
- Quick Attack
- SmokeScreen
- Leer

Oahu 3, Lax Male Wartortle
lvl 23, Torrent
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Bite
- Waterfall

Hydra 2, Naive Male Grotle
lvl 19, Overgrow, Miracle Seed
- Razor Leaf
- Withdraw
- Curse
- Headbutt

Luzon 3, Careful Male Kadabra
lvl 19, Inner Focus
- Teleport
- Confusion
- Disable

Uvhash 2, Lax Male Sneasel
lvl 25, Inner Focus
- Faint Attack
- Cut
- Agility
- Quick Attack

Clarinet, Sassy Male Heracross
lvl 23, Swarm
- Aerial Ace
- Leer
- Brick Break
- Endure​

 

[Janp]

The Genlocke Challenge in Pokémon Heart Gold

UPDATE 3

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I quickly got past the Routes connecting Ecruteak City and Olivine City. I caught Magnemite on Route 38, which might come handy. And now that I think about it, I skipped Route 39 encounter altogether. Not that I would go in the grass there anyway. As I said last time, my team is fine right now, I have a handful of useful Pokémon in Box and can always return here. I continued on and caught Krabby on Route 40 and accidentally knocked out Tentacool on Route 41. That one would also be (tenta)cool to have.

I finally evolved Luzon 3 into Alakazam. Just in time for the next Gym. I was a little bit worried about getting overleveled a little bit down the road, since the level curve in this game is weird, so I expected this battle to be harsh. But, just like his ancestors, Luzon 3 was an unstoppable force. He easily took down both Chuck's Pokémon.

And since there is almost no content in between Chuck's and Jasmine's Gym, I went straight to fight her. I started with Piano and took down her first Magnemite, but had to switch to Oahu 3, because Jasmine brought out her big boy Steelix. Luckily, Oahu 3 could take a hit or two and beat Steelix using Surf. I switched to Clarinet on Jasmine's last Magnemite and took it down using Brick Break.

Team

Piano, Naive Male Quilava
lvl 28, Blaze
- Flame Wheel
- Quick Attack
- SmokeScreen
- Leer

Oahu 3, Lax Male Wartortle
lvl 28, Torrent
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Bite
- Waterfall

Hydra 2, Naive Male Grotle
lvl 28, Overgrow, Miracle Seed
- Razor Leaf
- Withdraw
- Curse
- Headbutt

Luzon 3, Careful Male Alakazam
lvl 30, Inner Focus
- Psybeam
- Reflect
- Disable
- Miracle Eye

Uvhash 2, Lax Male Sneasel
lvl 28, Inner Focus
- Faint Attack
- Cut
- Agility
- Icy Wind

Clarinet, Sassy Male Heracross
lvl 28, Swarm
- Aerial Ace
- Leer
- Brick Break
- Counter​

 

[Janp]

The Genlocke Challenge in Pokémon Heart Gold

UPDATE 4

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Okay, let's get back to this run. This part of the game, clearing Team Rocket hideout and the Radio Tower is my least favourite part of the game. To be honest, fighting the evil team is my least favourite part of any Pokémon game. There is just an endless wave of underleveled Rattata, Zubat, Koffing and sometimes Gloom or Grimer, and it's a chore to get past them.

So let's move on. I faced off against Pryce and Clarinet, my Heracross, took care of his whole team easily.

Which meant another round of boring Team Rocket fights. Well, boring until Archer, because I challenged him unprepared and underleveled (my Pokémon were around level 34), and his Houndoom surprised me. I managed to beat him without losing any Pokémon, but it was close.

But this fight got nothing on Claire's fight. Looking at my team, I knew it would be hard. It's a shame Sneasel can't evolve in this game prior to postgame, because that would make it a lot easier. But even Weavile wouldn't help against Gyarados. I had to do something! I scrambled for new encounters all around the region, but most of them were weak against one of Gyarados' attacks. In the end, I benched Typhlosion, since he's a Fire-type and wouldn't help with Clair at all. Instead, I put my Magnemite called Trumpet on the team and leveled it up a bit until it evolved into Magneton. That was my counter to Gyarados.And it worked! Magneton beat Gyarados, but sustained a lot of damage in doing so. I switched up to Sneasel on Claire's Dragonair and beat both of them with some help from Alakazam. Again, for quite a damage in return. When Kingdra came out, I wasn't sure on what to do. I foolishly switched to Trumpet, but it got knocked out immediately by a crit. I had to wear Kingdra down bit by bit. So I sent out Heracross and hoped to land one Close Combat and switch again. But... Kingdra landed another crit and knocked out Heracross before he could do anything. That surprised me.

I sent out Oahu 3 and tanked another (this time not-very-effective) crit. A bunch of Ice-Beams later, and the battle finally ended.

I was expecting to lose Trumpet, I don't think I could beat Claire any other way. But losing Heracross stinks a lot. Fighting-types are surprisingly rare in Johto, but are quite useful. And the worst part is that I wasn't sure who to use instead of Heracross. So I put a Pidgey with Fly on my team, flew all around the region again, picked up some good items, beat Kimono Girls and got to E4, while getting final wild encounters. But before E4, I had to pick my 6th team member. I was considering Zubat I caught in Dark Cave, Doduo I caught on my way to Victory Road and Donphan I caught inside Victory Road. In the end, I picked Zubat (called ) because I felt like Poison/Flying will be the most useful in the following regions.

With that out of the way, let's talk E4. Psychic expert Will was quite easy. I started the battle with Sneasel, but it wasn't that effective in beating the first Xatu, so I switched to Alakazam, who learnt Shadow Ball just before challenging E4, and it was all that was needed to beat the rest of his team. I occasionally used Recover to be safe from some unfortunate attacks. Thank God for Recover, because some attacks were way too close...

Next up is Koga. I started with Typhlosion and easily beat his Ariados, Forretress and Venomoth, but I had to switch to Alakazam for the rest of his team. Similarly, Bruno was just a pushover. I finally had an opportunity to use Crobat, who almost soloed the whole fight, except Onix. I switched to Blastoise against it and won.

The fight with Karen, on the other hand, was a little bit more interesting. If only I had my Heracross for her. I started with Blastoise and exchanged a few hits with her Umbreon, even forcing her to heal. After beating Umbreon, I kept Blastoise out and beat her Murkrow, Gengar and Houndoom. I got in a tight spot when fighting her Vileplume, so I had to switch to Alakazam and finish the battle.

And finally, the battle with Lance. I was just as afraid of his Gyarados as I was afraid of Claire's Gyarados. I started the battle with Alakazam and beat Gyarados quickly. I switched out Blastoise for Lance's Aerodactyl and Charizard and beat both of them. But then... Lance sent out his Dragonite. I managed to beat one with Ice-Beam, but the second one was his strongest, and I had to switch out. Several times, actually, because this Dragonite was a beast on Outrage. When it finally ended, I managed to slip in just enough hits with Blastoise to beat it. The final Dragonite was just a small pushover. What's funny is that Blastoise got paralyzed again in this fight. I feel bad for him.

And with that, this part of my Genlocke is done. With no deaths during E4.

Team

Piano, Naive Male Typhlosion
lvl 48, Blaze, Charcoal
- Flamethrower
- Quick Attack
- SmokeScreen
- Focus Blast

Oahu 3, Lax Male Wartortle
lvl 48, Torrent, Mystic Blastoise
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Bite
- Flash Cannon

Hydra 2, Naive Male Torterra
lvl 47, Overgrow, Miracle Seed
- Wood Hammer
- Leech Seed
- Curse
- Earthquake

Luzon 3, Careful Male Alakazam
lvl 49, Inner Focus, TwistedSpoon
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Calm Mind
- Recover

Uvhash 2, Lax Male Sneasel
lvl 48, Inner Focus, NeverMeltIce
- Faint Attack
- Ice Shard
- Shadow Claw
- Avalanche

Fiddle, Naive Male Crobat
lvl 47, Inner Focus, Poison Barb
- Cross Poison
- Pluck
- U-turn
- Confuse Ray​