nuzlocke Ultra Calamity - A Pokemon Ultra Moon Nuzlocke: Episode 1 - Ultra Beginnings

[NyxAvatar69]

Yes, every episode title is going to have Ultra somewhere in it.  So, like with Episode 0, this was written several weeks earlier, so by this time, I'm already about halfway through the main story.  As with the first and pretty much every episode, I originally posted this on a site where I believe not many people have too much general knowledge on Pokemon, so please excuse me if my long winded explaining gets a little grating on the eyes.  Without further delay, let us begin.

 

You know, to be honest, I'm sort of worried.  I remember some details of how my casual playthrough went, and since we're doing a nuzlocke, I can't abuse revives on the more annoying lategame battles and postgame if we do it.  Well, this is the hole I dug.  Can't complain about it now, so let's get it started.

So naturally, I'm gonna play in English...because I'm American and I can only read and understand English fluently.  And now, somehow, the Alola region's professor has my number.  Seems legit.  He gives the usual opening game speech of "oh hey, welcome to the region, Pokemon, fun stuff."  You know, things like that.  Anyway, once he finishes the first half of his ramble marathon, it's trainer selection time.  Naturally, I'm going to use the female character because Nintendo has this habit of giving the female character the vastly superior customization options...and I like the Vacation Hat.  So yeah, we're doing it.

After that, Kukui goes on about Trop Kick or something, and we're on our way...is what I would say if there wasn't another cutscene right after at some place we aren't going to visit for a good half of the game, so the major details aren't important.  The important part is big chase scene, bags, and teleportation.  Oh, and people who weren't in the original games.  Then cue game title and three month time skip.

Gotta love that 12 hour time difference Ultra Moon has to real time.  It's nighttime in my game, my 3DS time is an hour ahead because I'm too lazy to change it, and it's 6 AM when I'm typing this.  So we get an intro to our mom, who will probably never unpack those dang boxes then get verbally assaulted by her Meowth.  Fun fact, it's a Kanto Meowth, not the variety will be seeing in the region.

Another fun fact, Vacation Hat as starting female character hat is vastly superior to that stupid chicken hat you got in the original games.  So after a little totally not tutorial talk with mom, we can go get our stuff and do some exploring.  I honestly just realized there's a Snorlax cushion in the main character's room.  Goes to show you how much I pay attention.  We get a warning about not walking in the tall grass (what is this, Sinnoh?) and we're on our way to Iki Town.

So up to Route 1 and without even walking into the grass ourselves, a thing comes.  A Yungoos, or as some people like to call it, mini Donald Trump.  I'm gonna keep any political comments out of this, but before this wild Yungoos can destroy our main character thirty ways to Thursday, our starter options come to the rescue and, I guess yell at him or something.  Hell if I know.  Whatever they did, it worked, and now Mr. "I don't wear a shirt and I'm a professor" shows up, AKA Kukui.  I prefer to call him the Sun Nuzlocke Cucklord, but for the sake of argument, I will from this point forth just call him by name.

He's going to give another speech and introduce our starter choices to us.  I won't always go super in depth here, but you never know if someone's following along who's playing these as their first Pokemon games, so I'd like to at least be a little informative instead of just blathering on for episodes on end.

So first up is Rowlet.  This Grass/Flying type eventually swaps it's Flying typing out for Ghost type, which can be useful long term if that's your path.  Unfortunately, it has good moves that don't come until you're around Lv. 45 outside it's signature move when it hits it's final evolution at 34.  Ultra Sun and Moon also gave it access to another priority move outside of one it gets at Lv. 38, but it's only available through a move relearner.  It'll be very weak to Ice for a while, but Ice is an uncommon type until mid to lategame.

Next is Litten, the only starter I never used.  Starts as a pure Fire type and then gains a Dark typing at it's final evolution.  It can learn Leech Life in this game, which got a massive buff from how bad it used to be.  This buff, however, leads to the Zubat line learning it later than at start.  If you want my honest opinion, this thing is going to suck for a while.  Weak to Water, a type that is very threatening pretty early, and it's early level movepool leaves a lot to be desired, especially since this game has a bad habit of locking out good Technical Machines behind postgame.  It's got potential, I guess, if you stick with it.  Not sure how it can do long term since I've never used it.

And then you got my personal favorite of this trio, Popplio.  I've used this thing in both my Moon and Ultra Sun casual runs.  When it reaches it's final evolution, it gets the addition of the Fairy type and eventual access to Moonblast.  However, I can't mindlessly sing praises about it's final evolution.  It's slow and can't handle physical attacks well.  Along with that, it's range of viable moves is...limited, for lack of a better term.  By the end of the game, you'll likely be running Moonblast, Ice Beam, a Water move like Scald, and your choice of Psychic, Energy Ball, or Shadow Ball.  It can slay dragons, but you need to avoid heavy physical hitters and strong Poison types who can swallow a hit.

Now, it's time for the moment of truth.  We get to choose one of these three as our starter.  To be honest, I thought over what I wanted to use ahead of time, and despite my earlier complaints, I may be digging a hole for this locke, but I have plans to use Litten as my starter.  Litten is the only Alola starter I've never used, and this is a prime chance for me to give it a try and see if it doesn't suck as much as I assume it does because of it's weak starting movepool.  Now let's just hope my game doesn't crash because I don't have the update installed and there's a bug where the game apparently crashes if you pick Litten.

We're in there, boys!  No crashes here.  So we got ourselves a male Litten because the gender ratio for starters is always pushed farther towards males even though a couple of starters should have a higher female ratio (Chikorita, Fennekin, Popplio).  Anyway, I'm gonna go with a Crash Bandicoot reference and nickname this Litten here Tiny.  You know, like Tiny Tiger.  Big guy, not very bright.  You know how it is.  Now let's have Kukui go on about how Tiny here is a gift from "the island kahuna."  To be honest, every time I hear the word kahuna, my mind immediately thinks of that one Scooby-Doo movie that took place in Hawaii.

Upon a single Google search, I found out the movie was called Aloha, Scooby-Doo.  Check it out if you got a couple of hours to kill and can find it on DVD or somewhere on the internet.  So before we go past the single round of tall grass to Iki Town, let's take a look at Tiny.  I have a curse of getting awful natures on my team members, so let's hope it's sunshine and rainbows for now.

...Quiet nature.  Less speed for more Special Attack.  For those who aren't sure what I'm talking about, it's bad.  It means that there will be chances that things can outspeed Tiny when normally, they shouldn't because he'll end up with overall lower Speed.  Welp, this is going off to a fantastic start.  But of course, we can't go to a town without some kid  showing up and talking to us.  At least he tells us his name is Hau after asking some stranger what Pokemon she's going to pick from Kukui.  Kinda sucks he was too late to the draw.  Now, any smart person would pick the Water starter knowing I have a Fire type.  Not Hau, though.  He's a special kind of kid who chooses to pick starters that mine can just obliterate in no time flat.  On another note, I swear this kid doesn't stop smiling.

And even after all of this, he wants to battle.  How cute.  He's doomed, so I don't think I need to explain how this is going to go.  We go to Fight, click Ember, watch Rowlet's HP decrease.  Rinse and repeat until I win.  His battle music is pretty ok, though.  Give it a listen if you want.

But it turns out that as a counter to getting a bad nature on Tiny, I just crush Hau's dreams even more by getting a burn on Rowlet turn 1 with Ember.  I said I was gonna destroy him, but geez, Tiny, it's the first trainer battle in the game, it's not that serious.  Anyway, apparently it's a universal law in the world of Pokemon that your opponents must give you their money when they lose.  I mean, I'm not complaining.  Money is money, right?  Anyway, Hau isn't the least bit sad after I just slaughtered his Rowlet, so let's slide on into Iki Town.

More like a village than a town.  There's only like, four houses.  Whatever, let's blow this town and go find a fun thing to do, like seeing guardian deities.  However, instead, we spot a girl who has something that spawned a meme, so she's instantly fine in my book.  Anyway, this is one of those rare earlygame differences from the original game.  The thing in the girl's bag is going to get out and go on the bridge while some Spearow conveniently show up and fly around it like jerks.  You didn't have a Pokemon yet in the original games, but this time, Tiny can show these Spearow how we did it back in Kanto even though Johto is the-

Damn this creaky old bridge!  Couldn't even take an explosion.  Luckily, some weird chicken Pokemon thing saved my character's life before she probably got killed by strong rapids.  Then again, this is an E rated game.  Only Gen 1 and X and Y were able to get away with talking about death and genocide respectively.  That's not the point, though.  The bridge is out, so it looks like we're not meeting with any deities today...or at all until postgame.  Although the girl, Lillie, hands over a Sparking Stone that is going to become an item I'm not allowed to use.  Anyway, after being sworn to secrecy about Nebby, who always gets out of the bag, let's go back to Iki Town.

I find it funny that Lillie thinks wild Pokemon will attack on a path where you can't run into any Pokemon.  She's so paranoid.  Apparently, this girl, who isn't a trainer and has a weird Pokemon who is also a meme, is Kukui's assistant.  Bro, you should honestly reconsider your choices in assistants.  With that little chat done, the guy we were waiting for, Kahuna Hala is here.  I swear, this game has tons of dialogue I would love to skip, just like the upcoming "forced tutorials because you clearly haven't played these games for almost 20 years."  Rambling aside, we get a Pokedex, which I am already dreading for reasons to be explained later, and an item that I don't need to explain.  On another note, Hala gets that Sparkling Stone because the chicken thing, Tapu Koko, left it behind, and we sure as hell can't do anything with it right now.  Nebby needs to learn how to stay in the bag, though.

So, skip back to home, where the grand Tiny vs. Mom's Meowth meetup takes place.  They're both cats...in a sense, so they should get along well.  I don't know.  I'm a dog person.  Dogs aside, we get our third free heal in the past hour of gameplay, and Kukui is walking inside without permission.  Dude, I know that the main character is allowed to do that, but just because you're not wearing a shirt under that lab coat doesn't give you permission to screw the rules too.  And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's time for everyone's favorite segment: learning how to catch a Pokemon for the 50,000th time even though you've been playing these games since Gold and Silver.  Well, at least I have.  Mom isn't going to unpack those boxes.

Tutorial, tutorial, and tutorial later, and now...the time has come.  Kukui has given us Poke Balls, so now the nuzlocke has officially begun.  At any earlier point, if Tiny died somehow in some incident, we'd be fine.  Now, though, if Tiny faints, that's it for him.  Same goes for whatever my Route 1 proper encounter will be, and let's pray it's something amazing.

Grubbin.  This is both a meh and a very bad encounter.  Early game Bug type with no real redeeming qualities until it gets close to evolution.  Luckily, it's an early game Bug type, so it evolves fairly early.  The very bad news is that it's final evolution is absolutely unavailable...until the fourth island.  I'll be running around with a semi average Bug/Electric type until lategame, and by then, he'll fall behind.  Gotta take what you can get in earlygame, though.

So, nicknames.  It's a Bug type that eventually becomes something that looks fast, but in reality got screwed in terms of base speed.  I'm gonna name him...Spark Plug.  Neutral nature with a currently useless ability because Swarm only affects Bug type moves when you're at low HP.  Welp.  Better than nothing, I guess.  I'm gonna do a little bit of grinding for Spark Plug real quick and I'll be just a moment.

So I just learned that your mom gives you a Poke Ball when you go to heal the first time.  On another note, I'm glad that Spark Plug started at Lv. 4.  I got him up to Lv. 7 so now he has a semi reliable move in the form of Mud-Slap.  It's something, right?  Let's just rush through this route and get to the "festival" in Iki Town.  On the way there, though, there are a couple of weirdos, one with quite the mustache.  They mentioned a Blinding One, but otherwise, a couple of weird people dressed weird.

I just noticed there was a dude walking with an Alolan Exeggutor when you walk into Iki Town.  That's a bit weird.  On another note, there's a real lack of people for a festival, but whatever.  We're going to have another chance to completely blow up Hau's team because a part of this festival is to have people battle to please Tapu Koko.  Whatever floats their boats, I guess.  Unrelated, but Lillie loves to be a contradictory little stizh.  "I don't like to see Pokemon get hurt, but I'll watch a battle where Pokemon are going to get hurt because it's Hau and Ruby."  Nice logic she has there.

For some reason, mom is here too.  It doesn't change how badly I'm going to blow up Hau's team again.  He has a Pichu now...which would be intimidating if I had Popplio, but I don't.  Rowlet is the same song and dance as last time.  Spam Ember and you win.  No turn 1 burn, though, so eh.  After making Hau look like a joke in front of everyone, Hala hands over the Z-Power Ring.  However, I already stated I can't use it, so it's just going to be a nice accessory.  I honestly prefer the Ultra Sun and Moon version over the original game's version...even though it's just a color difference, but whatever.

Now with our island challenge amulet that only me and Hau ever have.  So let's go home and listen to weirdos talk some more about aura and light and the Blinding One.  At least now we know they're the Ultra Recon Squad.  Once again, though, mom hasn't done a thing with those boxes.  Instead, she's going to sleep and we get our fifth free heal in the span of an hour or so of gameplay.

On the next in game day, though, we get someone at the door who knows proper respect.  Then again, all she came to say was that the professor wants to see us.  Mom slides us over some money because destroying people's Pokemon and taking their money just isn't enough.  Lillie says a very foreshadowy line and we're on our way.

So Route 1 is one of Alola's rare examples of being split into segments.  We're going into Hau'oli Outskirts, another place with encounters for the catching.  Although, my encounter is something I used in my Sun Nuzlocke and it lasted me to the very end.  A Slowpoke.  Naturally, I'm going to name him Master Derp.

On a very unrelated note, I have not saved my game once yet and my 3DS fell off my desk while I was typing.  Lucky for me, it didn't freeze because I'm using a digital copy of Ultra Moon.  Master Derp on the other hand is actually pretty good.  He doesn't really need Speed, so Sassy nature doesn't hurt much.  In fact, it's pretty helpful.  His moves do leave a little to be desired, though.  That will change with time, but for now, let's pay a visit to my least favorite shirtless professor.  I promise this will be the last time I mention that for a while.

The lab is a little...beaten up.  Speaking of beating up, it sounds like Kukui is getting beaten up by his Rockruff inside.  His body is ready.  Lillie proves once again that she's a terrible assistant who's just living in the loft in Kukui's lab and we take a look inside.  To be fair, he's got a nice place.  Now, here comes the part where our Pokedex gets the ability to talk.  No, I'm serious.  A Rotom lives in it (even though you can't catch a Rotom in Alola) and now it can talk because Kukui fixed the dex up.  If memory serves, the first thing it says is something along the lines of "hands off the goods."  A shame they replaced that and another line that comes up not very far from here.  Oh, we get a map too, so that's cool.

Now we have no choice but to go to the Trainer's School for tutorials nobody cares about.  All I care about over there is my encounter...and who turned out the lights for a sec?  That was a bit weird.  Whatever.  To the Trainer's School for an encounter!

However, on the way, we have to get our resident Pokemon Center tutorial.  I honestly did need a heal, though, so I had to go in either way.  Now, with that out of the way, we interrupt your short stroll to the Trainer's School for a Tauros roadblock.  Gotta love how they need to find ways to make the path as linear as possible.

So, let's cut to the chase here.  Trainer's School is a place for forced tutorials, but we also get one of the most overpowered items in the entire game.  This item is the Exp. Share, and this thing will make my life a little easier with level grinding.  Speaking of levels, let's go score ourselves an encounter.

Meowth.  The Alolan variety.  I used an Alolan Persian in my casual Moon run, but it kinda fell behind due to being frail.  Still, gotta take what we can get.  I'm gonna be unoriginal and give him the same nickname as my old Persian, Class Act.  He's another shining example of "Quiet nature strikes again."  At least Meowth and Persian already have boatloads of Speed to spare.  His Attack is kinda trash and he has no special attacks to take advantage of.  Raising him up is going to be a pain.

Anyway, we're gonna call it there.  I gotta do some grinding to raise up the party's levels so we'll be ready for the challenges ahead.  Suggest nicknames if that's what your heart desires and I'll see you all next time for Trainer's School and the road to our first trial.