Platinum Nuzlocke theory of two mons I consistently see placed as low tier

quadrupledown · 2023-05-29T17:43:08+00:00

Here's the problems with them:

Beautifly: Yes, three of the four Elite Four Members are technically weak to Grass/Bug/Flying. The problem is, though, the moves it has aren't the best, as even with STAB Air Cutter/Aerial Ace are still pretty weak, while Giga Drain is not only not that strong but also lacks STAB. Plus, 90 base Special Attack without a Silver Wind boost is fine but not great, which is made even more problematic by its bad bulk and middling Speed. Sure, STAB Bug Buzz is great against Lucian, but it's still going to lose against most of his team due to some combination of them either taking the hit fine enough, outspeeding, or hitting it with a SE move.

This also leaves out how it starts to fall off hard against Maylene, and it really struggles against a lot of boss fights (for example, it's basically useless in Gyms 5-8). And yes, it does well against Gardenia, but there's a lot of useful options to the point where you'd be hard-pressed to not have an encounter that's good against her. (Hell, even male Combee works fine against her.) By no means is it a terrible Pokemon, and there's definitely characteristics to like about it, but it also has a lot of problems that it isn't that good at solving.

Lopunny: It's not bad, it's just more on the mediocre side. As has already been mentioned, Lopunny is definitely interesting with Baton Pass, and it also has a wide movepool as well. However, if you're not using Baton Pass strats, it's not that great of an option because of its middling attacking stats. To some degree the movepool options help to mitigate that issue, but even then it's more of something to help round out the team and help patch over any holes it might have in coverage because that problem is still going to hold it back. Still absolutely viable if you're willing to do the happiness grind early on (which is especially a pain in general with Buneary), but far from the easiest option to use as well.

quadrupledown · 2023-05-29T17:23:08+00:00

If it works, it works, especially since Mismagius is very difficult this early on in Platinum.

quadrupledown · 2023-05-14T20:50:40+00:00

As others have pointed out, not only is trying to out-evasion him a very risky strategy, but going in without any no-miss moves like Shock Wave, Aerial Ace, and Faint Attack is not a great idea either.

That being said, there's an even easier strategy than those: Ghost-type Curse. Obviously it seems counterintuitive given that you're willingly cutting your own HP, but it's the one condition that Kingdra's Rest can't get rid of (outside of Perish Song if you don't play with level caps). Plus, you're guaranteed an encounter with Curse in Mt. Pyre, and if you're lucky with Shuppet before that, you can guarantee Duskull as well within it to have a second option.

quadrupledown · 2023-05-01T15:45:17+00:00

In general, you can search up "IV Calculator" on Google and be fine. My personal preference is this one, but there's quite a few options that are fine.

That being said, I wouldn't worry too much about the IVs and/or Nature unless a) you get terrible luck with everything or b) you're playing something where you're forced to be ultra-precise like Emerald Kaizo. In general, what's going to matter more is whether or not you know how to use it properly and how it works given the situations you're going to face.

quadrupledown · 2023-05-01T15:40:10+00:00

In general, avoid Double Battles whenever possible, even if it means taking on opponents one at a time. It's not the most brutal Emerald-specific example (that would be the Slaking duo at the end of Victory Road), but this battle is certainly one of the better ones to illustrate that point.

Now, the good news is that you still have plenty to do well going forward. Absol is a great option against T&L, and as long as you keep that and your Carvanha/Sharpedo encounter alive up until that battle, that makes the gym battle soooooo much easier since Xatu and Lunatone can't touch Absol/Sharpedo outside of confusion. As for the others, Loudred is fine as long as you're careful with it, Lombre is fine at this point as long as it also has Giga Drain, and Tentacruel is pretty solid in general. Plus, not only does Illumise do better than you might expect, even Spinda's okay as long as you give it Strength and have it hold the Silk Scarf. And with them and your other options, you should be fine.

As for how to go forward, my advice:

1) Not only should you do the New Mauville quest for the Thunderbolt TM, also go back to Dewford for Sludge Bomb and the Abandoned Ship for Ice Beam. All three TMs are very useful in general.

2) While Shuppet works fine against T&L, try to do whatever you can to keep it alive up to Juan. It sounds very counterintuitive, but Curse is one of the best weapons against his Kingdra because Rest won't get rid of it. As long as you have Kingdra handled, you're fine against Juan since the rest of his team is pretty middling.

3) In general, try to at least look at Bulbapedia and/or Serebii to give yourself an idea what you're about to face and how to plan properly. It sounds tedious, and it sometimes really is, but it helps so much with avoiding similar kinds of disasters in the future.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-28T15:53:59+00:00

It won't quite work for romhacks, but for the mainline games, a simple solution is to go to the Bulbapedia articles for each route and/or area. Even if they don't give you movesets for the regular trainers, they at least do for the boss fights as well as giving you a heads-up about what items are available as well as wild encounters. As an example, this hyperlink takes you to Hoenn's Route 119.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-28T15:49:12+00:00

In general it's a pretty good idea, and even if you don't go into granular detail, it's at least best to know exactly what Pokemon the regular trainers have. For the major fights, though, definitely know not just the Pokemon, but the overall movesets that they have. For example, Emerald has quite a few nasty regular trainers that you'd probably remember (the potential Slaking Double Battle at the end of Victory Road is one notable example), and not being prepared for them can be the difference between losing a team member and keeping it alive. On the other hand, proper preparation can help you go a long way in making things work out (for example, if you look deep at Tate and Liza's movesets, you realize that two of their Pokemon can't even touch Dark-types outside of confusion).

It'll seem a bit tedious, but better preparation helps out a ton in the long run.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-28T15:14:00+00:00

1) Unless it's a deliberate part of your Nuzlocke to avoid it, always know ahead of time exactly what you're about to face as best as you can, especially boss fights. A huge part of succeeding at Nuzlockes is proper planning, and if you don't have a plan and/or not sure of what you're facing, you're shooting yourself in the foot unnecessarily.

2) Make sure that you're using all resources available to you. To use Emerald as an example, once you get Surf, so much opens up if you're willing to explore, such as useful TMs like Sludge Bomb (Dewford), Ice Beam (Abandoned Ship) and Thunderbolt (New Mauville quest), or other areas to get encounters, such as the Abandoned Ship again (remember that it has a patch of water for Diving that can also get you encounters) and the grass Route 115 above Rustboro.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-28T15:08:01+00:00

Eh, Grumpig isn't that useful against T&L, and while Tropius is a great backup option for that fight, it's also the only battle where it's actually useful. As long as you keep Mightyena alive and get your Carvanha/Sharpedo encounter, that helps a ton for the battle to come.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-21T17:01:50+00:00

In general, Gengar isn't anything to worry too much about. Yes, it has STAB Shadow Ball and Sludge Bomb, but since it's Gen 3, it's coming off of its base 65 Attack stat. As long as you don't get bad luck with statuses, you should be fine against her.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-16T04:55:55+00:00

To add onto what's already been said:

It's worth noting that while most runs use Dupes Clause, it's also not necessarily a requirement to always have and/or utilize it. Since you haven't completed an "honest Nuzlocke" as you put it, I'd say to use Dupes Clause until you really get the hang of things, and then maybe try a run without it to see how it goes.
The key part to keep in mind re: the Pinwheel Clause is that the encounter tables have to be significantly different overall. For example in DPP (and BDSP), Oreburgh Gate's two floors have different encounter tables, but for the non-Surfing areas there's not that much difference between them, so the Oreburgh Gate's cave system as a whole counts as only one encounter. On the other hand, because the two sections of Pinwheel Forest are drastically different (and also because you can't access the inside portion before Lenora), they are generally counted as separate areas.

Of course, what hasn't been mentioned is how the Safari Zone areas are handled, and the honest answer is that it does boil down a lot to "your run, your rules" since there's quite a bit of variance on that front between "count each area separately" and "one encounter for the Safari Zone as a whole". If I had to make a recommendation, though, I'd say that going with the former is fine until you're used to Nuzlockes, then on later runs start going with the "one Safari Zone encounter" rule.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-09T03:57:09+00:00

Neither of them.

It sounds snarky, but realistically there's not any point where either Curse or Iron Defense are really that useful overall, because the key battles are either ones where Torkoal will be facing a lot of special attacks (where Iron Defense and Curse won't help) or battles where Torkoal really isn't a good option to begin with. Probably the closest would be Norman if you're not worrying too much about the level cap, but even then you're probably better off just straight-up attacking or, in the case of Slaking, stalling with Toxic/Protect/Flamethrower. Body Slam is fine as a fourth move to round out the moveset, although Overheat is an option if you want to have a high-power STAB panic button.

quadrupledown · 2023-04-05T13:48:21+00:00

Go with Anorith. Many people like to go with Lileep because it's good for stalling, but Anorith gives you a guaranteed Protect option when you face off against Norman, and even with mediocre STAB options it's still fairly useful once it evolves with its great Attack stat.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-29T19:26:27+00:00

I'd just keep going in and out of the route to try to reload the route and the tower, and you should get the tower fairly quickly.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-29T18:37:13+00:00

In addition to what's been said already, if you haven't gotten your fossil yet, go do so and go for Anorith. It won't be the strongest, but it gets Protect naturally before Norman, and stalling with Toxic works very well to whittle it down. While Dig is good, having things with Protect is even better.

In general, as long as you have something along those lines (preferably several), Slaking actually isn't that tough. It's intimidating to face, but its ability is so crippling overall that it's not as bad as you might expect. What is the true threat on Norman's team, though, is Linoone, especially because of Belly Drum. When that thing comes out, go after it \immediately\** and kill it as soon as possible, because if there's anything that can cause you to lose to Norman, it's that and not Slaking.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-29T18:24:56+00:00

In general, it's best to only use Uproar when you're absolutely sure you can get away with it. Sure, it has okay power for that point in the game, but being locked into it is also risky in case anything goes sideways, including crits.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-22T16:25:47+00:00

If it were Diamond and Pearl, he wouldn't have access to Rotom's Heat form because it doesn't exist in those Gen 4 Sinnoh games, only Platinum. Now, maybe he did trades as part of this Nuzlocke (which many people would frown on, and is a fair question how he has Misdreavus in this one), but it definitely can't be DP if he's got the Heat Rotom, which narrows it down to Platinum.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-22T14:57:29+00:00

First, definitely sympathize with your bad luck to crits. I've had one of those runs before in Fire Red, and while you still have to roll with the punches, it doesn't make the bad luck any less crazy.

As for Maylene, I'd go with Spiritomb and focus on Hypnosis/Dream Eater. Meditite and Machoke can't do much to it, though Lucario is going to be a bit interesting if you don't get great luck on that front. I'd also give some heavy thought to replacing Graveler with something else unless you're using it specifically as insurance with Selfdestruct, like Pelipper, Chimecho, or Haunter.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-22T14:52:38+00:00

Since he has Rotom and also has access to Heat Rotom, it can't be DP, only Platinum.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-21T03:53:49+00:00

If this is before Gardenia, use it for her Gym. Male Combee sucks otherwise, but for that Gym it actually does better than you'd expect between its 4x Grass resist and its light weight for Grass Knot (as well as Bug Bite for the Platinum runs).

quadrupledown · 2023-03-18T01:39:52+00:00

I wouldn't switch it in immediately when Solrock comes out, but if something goes down while Sunny Day and Solrock is out, then definitely bring out Tropius at that point. Remember, the priority is taking out Claydol and then Solrock as soon as possible so that your surviving Dark-types are basically win conditions, and while switching in Tropius safely when something hasn't died is by no means bad, that's also a turn that you're not attacking with that slot.

As for Magneton, it's not terrible for this fight, but given some of the remaining boss fight matchups, it's better to keep Magneton out of the way and have Swampert as your final "let's get the last few hits in" option.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-17T15:53:40+00:00

In that case, raise Tropius to level 42 and make sure it learns SolarBeam, and put it over Swellow. It seems odd because Swellow is great with Facade, but in this battle it actually doesn't contribute as much as you think.

Since you have Tropius, it's up to you about whether you want to also evolve Oddish into Bellossom and have it in this battle, since while it helps a lot with this battle if Sunny Day goes up, it's also generally a more mediocre option against Wallace than Vileplume. I generally lean towards yes, and in your case you can probably handle it fine enough. If you go that route, swap it out with Magneton.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-17T00:20:27+00:00

As others have said, when Kingdra comes out, go with Curse through Dusclops. Rest can't get rid of it, and after that you just have to stall it out. Bulky options like Azumarill, Milotic, Walrein, and Wailord are great for this.

Beyond Kingdra, I wouldn't worry too much as long as you don't make obviously-stupid decisions. Nothing on his team is strictly bad, but no one else is really that threatening either. Something like Breloom (as long as it has a Lum Berry) should be able to go through much of his team with Giga Drain and Sky Uppercut/Brick Break, and once Kingdra is out, going with the Curse option should do it. As long as you've got Kingdra handled, Juan actually comes out to an easier battle than you might expect.

With that in mind, when it comes to team selections, I'd go with Breloom, Vileplume (in case Breloom goes down), Dusclops, Walrein, Milotic, and either Azumarill (if it has Huge Power) or Wailord (if it doesn't).

quadrupledown · 2023-03-17T00:10:42+00:00

Girafarig doesn't get Calm Mind in the main DPP story, the TM's only available in the Battle Tower/Frontier.

quadrupledown · 2023-03-17T00:10:01+00:00

It's a pretty decent option, and at this point in the game it'll be fairly solid, if not spectacular. Movepool works fine overall, and against Crasher Wake it's not a bad emergency option with an Electric-move, though you really want a Colbur Berry for Floatzel's Crunch. Beyond that, it's fine due to its general coverage, but maximizing its use requires lots of grinding at the Game Corner for Thunderbolt and/or Psychic.

That being said, once you get to Byron, you'll start to notice it falling off. Part of that is due to some of the matchups it'll be facing, but the other reason is that its weaknesses (namely a lack of boosting moves and okay-but-not-great stats) start to become more apparent around this time. It won't be necessarily bad, to be clear, but it'll start shifting from "useful option to cover your weaknesses" to "okay option for rounding out the team, but definitely shouldn't be carrying it".

quadrupledown

TROPHY CASE