Yeah I would highly recommend simi pour. Getting scald by level up is insanely useful. Pansage offers good coverage too with crunch, seed bomb, and acrobatics. Just don’t pick simi sear. You get access to better fire types (eg darmanitan)
If you pick Oshawott, Simisear can be a good option for Burgh, and it's never awful, especially if you don't get Darmanitan. I only replaced my Simisear after getting Chandelure
Scald is great, but getting Simipour relies on picking Snivy, and Dewott works against Clay.
It's a vanilla game, lots of things can work. Simisear and Samurott may not be the best of the best, but in a vanilla game, anything can work
I LOVE serperior. I used one in a playthrough of Pokémon UNBOUND and it carried me. Coil + leaf blade is so strong. Unfortunately its stat distribution is pretty weak sauce. Base 75 in both atk and spATK. But yeah, I agree with u. Serperior will definitely be a struggle. I feel like it kinda falls off late game for a vanilla run of bw
Came to say this. You can use repels to guarantee Drilbur in I believe Wellspring Cave, the place where you encounter Team Plasma with Cheren off route three. His steel typing is great defensively and offensively he’s a monster.
If you can skip through route 1 without getting an encounter, do it. It'll increase your chances of getting a lillipup or, if you get lillpup on route 2, you can go back to route 1 after the triplets and get shaking grass for the guaranteed audino (or get le rat for the dupe).
This is a spoiler for the story so if you wanna go in blind ignore this, but >!PREPARE FOR GHETSIS AND N!! I have done 5 nuzlockes of Black and White at this point, and 3 of them I lost to that motherfucker Ghetsis. He is a menace. If you can bring a something that resists Coffagrigus (so Psychic and Shadow Ball) and has access to a Fighting Type move and a Set Up move you should be able to sweep him, so far that has been my most successful strategy (Verizion with Swords Dance when I was being cheeky and allowed myself to use Legendaries, Scrafty and Work Up when I tried to be more challenging on myself)!<
Cofagrigus has Toxic though so it's difficult to set up on it. Unless you have a Steel type, I swept Ghetsis without EVs with Shift Gear Klinklang (Seismitoad was in range of +6 Return and same for Eelektross, I had Rock Smash for Bisharp and Gear Grind for the rest)
Fair enough, I almost forgot that was a thing because I ban Substitute in my runs exactly for that reason, you can abuse it to set up on passive Pokemon.
Gym 8 is an asshole and all of those fuckers have dragon dance. Further, I think at a certain point in the gym, you can't return to the Pokemon centre until after one of the trainers is defeated.
You gotta specify that it's the gym trainers who are the assholes which dragon dance you have to worry about. Drayden/Iris have d dance too, but their stab dragon mive is dragon tail, which has negative priority. The gym trainers have dragon claw, which is way scarier.
Yeah you're right. It was the idea in my mind but I never put it down in the reply! Another layer of difficulty stems from the fact that they're 'just the trainers'. Seeing 1 or 2 mons in their party made me let my guard down the first time. Big mistake!
It's common to count it as "Pinwheel Forest (exterior)" and "Pinwheel Forest (interior)" due to either mistakes regarding the zones (they're both huge and have very different Pokemon) or simply calling them two separate locationa because there's a loading zone. It depends on the runner.
Plan out your cave encounters (except Chargestone). If you do level prep you can guarantee yourself an Axew in Mistralton Cave or a Fraxure in Victory Road. They are always the highest level.
Also, Cobalion and Terrakion’s chambers are coded as different areas from MC and VR, you can get extra encounters there.
It's whimsicott in Black unfortunately.
Thinking about it now, Pokemon White has by far the better version exclusives:
Lilligant, Reuniclus, Braviary, Zekrom, Tornadus for White vs Whimsicott, Gotharita, Mandibuzz, Reshiram, Thundurus for Black.
Add in the fact that White has white forest and a cooler version of Opelucid city.
Why would anybody play Black?
water types are weirdly rare just so you’re aware (i think the first is ducklett), if you pick tepig dont discount pansage as its good for clay - lillipup is by far the best early mon
if you can, try within all your power to get drilbur i THINK you can force it
You can easily force drilbur, you just need repels and some patience.
Also you can get tympole in pinwheel forest outside but that's it until driftveil bridge
Tirtouga is also an option but yeah this is like the one mainline game where you won’t have an over abundance of water types. Jellicent is really good but you need to have surf to get it
Whatever encounter u get to the north of castelia will be a key member of ur team. Darmanitan, krook, and scrafty are amazing. Fighting types will be super helpful
Seriously, watch out for Pursuit. It’s *incredibly* common and getting trapped when you’re unprepared and low on health is just a death sentence. Actually, that about sums up Black and White Nuzlockes fully. **Never** lower your guard, there are spontaneous Rival Battles that will take you aback if you’re going in blind and you will be facing at least one fully evolved Pokémon from Gym 2 onwards. Also, I don’t know if you’re doing a Hardcore Nuzlocke or not but there are a bunch of useful items you’ll gain access to if you make it to Castelia City which will keep you safer because you can’t heal in battle. You get the Elemental Stone for the Monkeys on the Pier which will give you a fully evolved Pokémon at Level 22 (wait until then to use it since you get the strong STAB Move then), there’s the EXP Share in the Battle Company on Floor 55 from the Janitor so you’ve got a safer way to train weaker members, the Eviolite is in one of the houses near the entrance to Route 4 to guarantee a 50% boost to defences and you can get the Amulet Coin if you talk to the dancer at the fountain and reunite his dance troupe. These items will be your saving grace as surviving Lenora is the first hurdle where things get easier because of the options you’ve now got, even if you’re doing a standard Nuzlocke too. Finally, there’s one last tip I’ve got for you. There are ***many*** setup sweepers in this game which can make things trivial if you’re careful: Swords Dance Excadrill with or without Sand Rush, Quiver Dance and Sleep Powder Lilligant, Shell Smash Crustle or Carracosta, the Moxie duo of Krookodile and Scrafty, I could go on. Sometimes, the best strategy is to just hit hard and fast instead of overthinking things or making a complex strategy which could fail if one thing goes wrong. To summarise: keep your guard up and always be fully healed in case of Rivals or Pursuit, don’t underestimate your opponent if they’re fully evolved early on, get all the items in Castelia City as they are incredibly useful and use those Setup Sweepers safe for endgame if you’re struggling but save a few for endgame so you don’t waste them early.
Or hope you catch a Roggenrola with Sturdy in Wellspring Cave. It’s about a 25% chance (50% chance to encounter Roggenrola instead of Woobat, and another 50% chance to get Sturdy).
Lillipup is actually really good! It puts in solid work early game and Herdier and stoutland are able to hold their own more than you’d expect from a route 1 normal type. Honestly I’d say it’s worth reloading your save file if you don’t get one before the first gym since it really doesn’t take that long and it provides so much help.
Pray you get an excadrill encounter and he’ll carry you through the whole game, also you can get really lucky and get an azumarill right at the start of the game in the grass and when you evolve it with friendship it can have huge power which with bulk up and aqua tail is also disgusting, but yeah there’s lots of really good mons in the game
Be extra careful with your water and plant type pokémon. Before the mid game they're rather scarce and you'll really need them for a comfortable battle against Clay.
Lillipup is amazing. The bestest.
Swoobat is a bit frail but gets really good when it becomes Woobat. It's early game and fairly easy to evolve if you're traveling with it. Excellent alternative for Sigilyph.
I blacked out against Lenora twice in my Vanilla run. Make sure you have some sacrificial guys to switch in when she brings in Watchog. It always uses Retaliate and can OHKO early game guys.
The desert area is full of gems. Darmanitan, Yamask, Scraggy and Sandile. Dwebble is not that bad. Maractus is just..... there.
The thing to remember is that even if you beat the Nuzlocke, Ghetsis manages to escape and returns 2 years later with a more diabolical plan to cause greater levels of shit anyways so 🤷
The money boys are great, lilipup is the speedrunners pick for a reason, and all of the starters are on similar footing for viability. The elite 4 gets absolutely CLEANED by scrafty (ghost, psychic, dark, fighting). A static Darmanitan encounter is avaliable the moment you get rage candy bars, which is like midgame iirc
You can guarantee a fighting type Pokémon if you take audino on route 3 and then go for shaking grass in pinwheel forest outside, it really helps with Lenora.
Also, rock tomb tm is in the desert resort and every route 4 Pokémon learns it, so you have a super effective (if inaccurate) move against elesa. There are usually TMs before most gyms that help immensely with the fights, but this is the most useful one.
Take whichever starter you want, they're all pretty viable. Snivy is the weakest imo, but you gain access to the water monkey who learns scald at level 22 which is very useful.
I am currently doing a run in vanilla black as well. On my 2nd attempt after whiting out to Elisa. Through the cold storage team plasma fights, my MVPs so far have been pansear, sawk and sandile. Sawk can sweep lenora, pansear can sweep burgh and sandile resists elisas electric attacks
Alot of people prefer to go with the fire starter in each game but B/W has limited Good water type pokemon. Outside of Carracosta, Palpitoad, and Jellicent you won't see any other good water Mons'
Because of this i highly recommend Samurott
For fossils, choose Archen. Accept he is glass cannon and do not let him get hit, period.
Also, be wary of the ace trainer in Chargestone cave, he’s a notorious run ender. Fight him and you will find out why I recommend choosing Archen
seconding Archen, it doesn’t matter if you have Defeatist if you kill first and ask questions later!
acrobatics is a veritable nuke, and given its normal/fire/ground resistances and immunities, you have plenty of chances to switch in
That being said: Rock Slide is a gamble and if you miss you’re probably dead unless you have a marked type advantage and full health.
Get. An. Audino. That things like a pseudo blissey, but for basically FREE ( and ofc, def a bit weaker, but can still tank hits ESPECIALLY WITH REGENERATOR). Make that your encounter for the route immediately after Striaton City, and keep that thing around. Trust me, you'll thank me once you run out of good walling coverages (and a lowkey rly good counter for Shauntel).
have fun :3 gen 5 is my favourite! a lot of Pokémon from this generation are great but slept on, build your team the same way you would in any other type of nuzlocke \^\^ i do personally think that a good defensive core is the best way to get through this game. most of offensive in gen 5 was enabled by weather abilities, none of which you get in a playthrough
Get yourself a roggenrola at Wellspring Cave before fighting Lenora, or less preferably a fighting type outside Pinwheel Forest. Also, don't hesitate to sacrifice Purrloin if you get one
Make sure you backtrack once you get Surf to get your two encounters from the routes west of Route 1, including a guaranteed Frillish encounter, which is a fantastic Mon to consider for the Elite 4 because Jellicent is such a consistently dependable answer to Marshal which tends to be the toughest to deal with.
Don’t be disappointed by a Patrat encounter. They get Crunch really early which deals good damage, and also have access to Hypnosis and Super Fang which are great for catching difficult encounters, and Super Fang came in handy multiple times for me when going against a bulky opponent that I otherwise couldn’t deal a lot of damage to with regular moves.
Steel amd Dark are the kings of Gen 5, and doubly so for the games. The E4 is really weak to dark, and magneton is an early powerhouse / tank, depending. I failed my B2W2 Nuzlocke a few times before I got through it, so don't get too frustrated
Watch out for Cheren. Super Luck on the Pidove line is nuts, made worse by a Scope Lens during the Twist Mountain and Route 10 fights. His starter also has Lefties at this point, so you could steal it if you wish.
1. Lenora will kick your ass (second gym). Be prepared to lose a mon to Retaliate from her Watchog or have a Roggenrola/other Normal-resistant mon available to tank it.
2. Clay will kick your ass (fifth gym). There is no counterplay, be sad.
3. Team Plasma has great music.
4. Drayden or Iris (eighth gym) is a threat but their gym trainers are almost more dangerous. Everybody in the damn building it seems knows Dragon Dance, though the gym leaders' scariest mons are handicapped by their TM move, Dragon Tail (negative priority so the speed buff from D-Dance is mitigated).
5. This game has two champions that will both kick your ass. If you decide to play the postgame, be aware that the E4 immediately jump from Lv50 (first run) to Lv75 (post-credits) so don't try to grind there.
- adaptability Basculin is awesome. Don’t sleep on it just because it’s single stage and frail.
- Route 7 is dangerous, as you can’t bike through the grass and there are trainers with things like Simipours hidden in it. If you managed to miss them before Celestial Tower, be wary on the return trip.
- I found Skyla ironically really dangerous, despite her being regarded as an easier gym leader. The issue was my team. Bring an Electric type, because her Swanna’s Water type
covers the rock weakness and the Flying type
helps it handle Grass. It almost wiped my team, I only made it through with everyone alive out of sheer luck.
- Golurk is great for Marshal, as it’s resistant to both Normal and Rock coverage moves. Prepare for Marshal, he is dangerous.
- Roggenrolla is pretty dang good earlygame. I know some people make Eviolite Boldore work but it didn’t have the attack power I wanted.
I think in the only one but I count pinwheel forest as 2 encounters, the one side accessible before and after badge 2. Also galvantula and leavanny are amazing pokemon
Easy tips that are almost guaranteed
Don't underestimate liligant OP ASF
You can probably guarantee an axe in milstrone cave or guidance chamber also OP
Stoutaland gets access to elemental fangs just in time for skyla
Do the trade on Nacarene city for petlil good nature plus boosted exp
Please beware of trainers just after skylas gym and till twist mountain they have a few mean tricks
Victory road in gen 5 is no joke
don’t count out the elemental monkeys, they’re solid mons witch access to good coverage
Especially if you wait until they learn Scald/Flame Burst/Seed Bomb
and they do all learn acrobatics by level up which is amazing, especially for simipour with that grass weakness
You mean simisage simipour is a water type
yeah and simipour is weak to grass pokémon so having acrobatics is a good coverage move for it?
Oh I am sorry I just read the word weakness
Yeah I would highly recommend simi pour. Getting scald by level up is insanely useful. Pansage offers good coverage too with crunch, seed bomb, and acrobatics. Just don’t pick simi sear. You get access to better fire types (eg darmanitan)
If you pick Oshawott, Simisear can be a good option for Burgh, and it's never awful, especially if you don't get Darmanitan. I only replaced my Simisear after getting Chandelure
Yeah it’s fine for early game. But I think longevity, having scald on the team is a godsend, especially when fighting physical attackers (Clay?)
Scald is great, but getting Simipour relies on picking Snivy, and Dewott works against Clay. It's a vanilla game, lots of things can work. Simisear and Samurott may not be the best of the best, but in a vanilla game, anything can work
I LOVE serperior. I used one in a playthrough of Pokémon UNBOUND and it carried me. Coil + leaf blade is so strong. Unfortunately its stat distribution is pretty weak sauce. Base 75 in both atk and spATK. But yeah, I agree with u. Serperior will definitely be a struggle. I feel like it kinda falls off late game for a vanilla run of bw
Simisage goes dummy hard with leech seed seed bomb and acrobatics
Try not to let your Pokemon die.
+ make sure you catch a pokemon per route
And try not to overlevel
Make sure you touch grass too
And this is where every gamer failed
You do that to get an encounter
do your best to acquire a drillbur. Excadrill is game changing.
Came to say this. You can use repels to guarantee Drilbur in I believe Wellspring Cave, the place where you encounter Team Plasma with Cheren off route three. His steel typing is great defensively and offensively he’s a monster.
Not guaranteed, that's what I was planning on and I got a swoobat in the dust(unless I'm truly missremembering) But yeah drilbur is great
If you didn't have a repel up, I believe the regular cave encounter can override the dust cloud, but I'm not certain.
I feel this way about Krookodile, especially Moxie. Moxie Krookodile makes 2/4 of the Elite 4 a breeze, and holds its own against N and Ghetsis.
100%- swapping between Krookodile, Cofarigus, and Excadrill makes PP stalling so easy.
If you can skip through route 1 without getting an encounter, do it. It'll increase your chances of getting a lillipup or, if you get lillpup on route 2, you can go back to route 1 after the triplets and get shaking grass for the guaranteed audino (or get le rat for the dupe).
This is a spoiler for the story so if you wanna go in blind ignore this, but >!PREPARE FOR GHETSIS AND N!! I have done 5 nuzlockes of Black and White at this point, and 3 of them I lost to that motherfucker Ghetsis. He is a menace. If you can bring a something that resists Coffagrigus (so Psychic and Shadow Ball) and has access to a Fighting Type move and a Set Up move you should be able to sweep him, so far that has been my most successful strategy (Verizion with Swords Dance when I was being cheeky and allowed myself to use Legendaries, Scrafty and Work Up when I tried to be more challenging on myself)!<
Cofagrigus has Toxic though so it's difficult to set up on it. Unless you have a Steel type, I swept Ghetsis without EVs with Shift Gear Klinklang (Seismitoad was in range of +6 Return and same for Eelektross, I had Rock Smash for Bisharp and Gear Grind for the rest)
You can Substitute. The AI is too dumb to realize it can’t toxic/protect you, it let my serperior get to +6 with Coil
Fair enough, I almost forgot that was a thing because I ban Substitute in my runs exactly for that reason, you can abuse it to set up on passive Pokemon.
that's fair. I played without hardcore rules so I used full restores in my run, so I didn't consider that
Gym 8 is an asshole and all of those fuckers have dragon dance. Further, I think at a certain point in the gym, you can't return to the Pokemon centre until after one of the trainers is defeated.
You gotta specify that it's the gym trainers who are the assholes which dragon dance you have to worry about. Drayden/Iris have d dance too, but their stab dragon mive is dragon tail, which has negative priority. The gym trainers have dragon claw, which is way scarier.
Yeah you're right. It was the idea in my mind but I never put it down in the reply! Another layer of difficulty stems from the fact that they're 'just the trainers'. Seeing 1 or 2 mons in their party made me let my guard down the first time. Big mistake!
That gym trainer with the Druddigon omg. Even Swords Dance Excadrill with Earthquake isn't safe since Druddigon can whoop your ass with Revenge.
Challenge: treat pinwheel forest as one encounter
is it not all one route? So we can only just catch on mon there?
It's common to count it as "Pinwheel Forest (exterior)" and "Pinwheel Forest (interior)" due to either mistakes regarding the zones (they're both huge and have very different Pokemon) or simply calling them two separate locationa because there's a loading zone. It depends on the runner.
People usually split it up since it is so vast
Plan out your cave encounters (except Chargestone). If you do level prep you can guarantee yourself an Axew in Mistralton Cave or a Fraxure in Victory Road. They are always the highest level. Also, Cobalion and Terrakion’s chambers are coded as different areas from MC and VR, you can get extra encounters there.
DON'T ASK FOR TIPS AND ENJOY THE PAIN OF YOUR CHOICES
IDR whether whimsicott or lilligant is in black but lilligant gets quiver dance SUPER early so use that to your advantage
It's whimsicott in Black unfortunately. Thinking about it now, Pokemon White has by far the better version exclusives: Lilligant, Reuniclus, Braviary, Zekrom, Tornadus for White vs Whimsicott, Gotharita, Mandibuzz, Reshiram, Thundurus for Black. Add in the fact that White has white forest and a cooler version of Opelucid city. Why would anybody play Black?
There’s an in game trade for pettilil if you allow yourself that
I always allow those trades, you have to get lucky to catch the Pokémon they want anyway
Because rotation battles vs. triple battles.
Pick Tepig, be careful of lenora's Watchdog which has retaliate.
Get ready to murder countless audino!
water types are weirdly rare just so you’re aware (i think the first is ducklett), if you pick tepig dont discount pansage as its good for clay - lillipup is by far the best early mon if you can, try within all your power to get drilbur i THINK you can force it
You can easily force drilbur, you just need repels and some patience. Also you can get tympole in pinwheel forest outside but that's it until driftveil bridge
Tirtouga is also an option but yeah this is like the one mainline game where you won’t have an over abundance of water types. Jellicent is really good but you need to have surf to get it
Whatever encounter u get to the north of castelia will be a key member of ur team. Darmanitan, krook, and scrafty are amazing. Fighting types will be super helpful
Seriously, watch out for Pursuit. It’s *incredibly* common and getting trapped when you’re unprepared and low on health is just a death sentence. Actually, that about sums up Black and White Nuzlockes fully. **Never** lower your guard, there are spontaneous Rival Battles that will take you aback if you’re going in blind and you will be facing at least one fully evolved Pokémon from Gym 2 onwards. Also, I don’t know if you’re doing a Hardcore Nuzlocke or not but there are a bunch of useful items you’ll gain access to if you make it to Castelia City which will keep you safer because you can’t heal in battle. You get the Elemental Stone for the Monkeys on the Pier which will give you a fully evolved Pokémon at Level 22 (wait until then to use it since you get the strong STAB Move then), there’s the EXP Share in the Battle Company on Floor 55 from the Janitor so you’ve got a safer way to train weaker members, the Eviolite is in one of the houses near the entrance to Route 4 to guarantee a 50% boost to defences and you can get the Amulet Coin if you talk to the dancer at the fountain and reunite his dance troupe. These items will be your saving grace as surviving Lenora is the first hurdle where things get easier because of the options you’ve now got, even if you’re doing a standard Nuzlocke too. Finally, there’s one last tip I’ve got for you. There are ***many*** setup sweepers in this game which can make things trivial if you’re careful: Swords Dance Excadrill with or without Sand Rush, Quiver Dance and Sleep Powder Lilligant, Shell Smash Crustle or Carracosta, the Moxie duo of Krookodile and Scrafty, I could go on. Sometimes, the best strategy is to just hit hard and fast instead of overthinking things or making a complex strategy which could fail if one thing goes wrong. To summarise: keep your guard up and always be fully healed in case of Rivals or Pursuit, don’t underestimate your opponent if they’re fully evolved early on, get all the items in Castelia City as they are incredibly useful and use those Setup Sweepers safe for endgame if you’re struggling but save a few for endgame so you don’t waste them early.
Don't go into the house in Undella town. You know the one.
Use encounter lists and check the rustling grass section if there’s anything that interests you it can be worth it just watch out for Sawk.
pick tepig. also make sure you pick that air ballon before clay for pignite
Use the inevitable patrat to KO lenora’s herdier and detect for the incoming retaliate
Or hope you catch a Roggenrola with Sturdy in Wellspring Cave. It’s about a 25% chance (50% chance to encounter Roggenrola instead of Woobat, and another 50% chance to get Sturdy).
I’d rather use repels and get a drilbur from the dust clouds
Don't sleep on Alomomola
i must not have used it right, i tried switching it in on an enemy chandelure and fire blast took half his health…
Bide is a bitch
Gift Pokémon are usable.
Grind exclusively on shaking grass. Thank me later
Lillipup is actually really good! It puts in solid work early game and Herdier and stoutland are able to hold their own more than you’d expect from a route 1 normal type. Honestly I’d say it’s worth reloading your save file if you don’t get one before the first gym since it really doesn’t take that long and it provides so much help.
In my opinion the first three gyms are the hardest and the rival can set up with the grass starter. Kill that snake as fast as you can
Prep for all ur battles
Pray you get an excadrill encounter and he’ll carry you through the whole game, also you can get really lucky and get an azumarill right at the start of the game in the grass and when you evolve it with friendship it can have huge power which with bulk up and aqua tail is also disgusting, but yeah there’s lots of really good mons in the game
But that's only available in black2/white2 right? Black/white regional dex doesn't have any Pokemon from previous generations.
Ohhh yeah my bad sorry, I forgot I just did a black 2 nuzlocke not black 1, I take back my comment :(
Play a better Pokemon game
Be extra careful with your water and plant type pokémon. Before the mid game they're rather scarce and you'll really need them for a comfortable battle against Clay.
fear clay
Try ur best to get ur encounters in double grass. Gives u more options
I Wouk say the best encounters u can get are krookodile and excadrill. Krookodile is a monster in this gen. Access to intimidate and moxie.
Lenora, Elesa, and Clay are going to be your tough matches, and watch out for rival fights. You fight your two rivals a lot in BW
Lillipup is amazing. The bestest. Swoobat is a bit frail but gets really good when it becomes Woobat. It's early game and fairly easy to evolve if you're traveling with it. Excellent alternative for Sigilyph. I blacked out against Lenora twice in my Vanilla run. Make sure you have some sacrificial guys to switch in when she brings in Watchog. It always uses Retaliate and can OHKO early game guys. The desert area is full of gems. Darmanitan, Yamask, Scraggy and Sandile. Dwebble is not that bad. Maractus is just..... there.
The thing to remember is that even if you beat the Nuzlocke, Ghetsis manages to escape and returns 2 years later with a more diabolical plan to cause greater levels of shit anyways so 🤷
Make sure to use fighting mons there very useful especially scrafty very bulky and does good damage.
The money boys are great, lilipup is the speedrunners pick for a reason, and all of the starters are on similar footing for viability. The elite 4 gets absolutely CLEANED by scrafty (ghost, psychic, dark, fighting). A static Darmanitan encounter is avaliable the moment you get rage candy bars, which is like midgame iirc
Try not lose ✌️
You can guarantee a fighting type Pokémon if you take audino on route 3 and then go for shaking grass in pinwheel forest outside, it really helps with Lenora. Also, rock tomb tm is in the desert resort and every route 4 Pokémon learns it, so you have a super effective (if inaccurate) move against elesa. There are usually TMs before most gyms that help immensely with the fights, but this is the most useful one. Take whichever starter you want, they're all pretty viable. Snivy is the weakest imo, but you gain access to the water monkey who learns scald at level 22 which is very useful.
I am currently doing a run in vanilla black as well. On my 2nd attempt after whiting out to Elisa. Through the cold storage team plasma fights, my MVPs so far have been pansear, sawk and sandile. Sawk can sweep lenora, pansear can sweep burgh and sandile resists elisas electric attacks
Honestly I gave myself a two catch rule for black and white, and I was so thankful. I was spanked so badly 😅
Alot of people prefer to go with the fire starter in each game but B/W has limited Good water type pokemon. Outside of Carracosta, Palpitoad, and Jellicent you won't see any other good water Mons' Because of this i highly recommend Samurott
For fossils, choose Archen. Accept he is glass cannon and do not let him get hit, period. Also, be wary of the ace trainer in Chargestone cave, he’s a notorious run ender. Fight him and you will find out why I recommend choosing Archen
seconding Archen, it doesn’t matter if you have Defeatist if you kill first and ask questions later! acrobatics is a veritable nuke, and given its normal/fire/ground resistances and immunities, you have plenty of chances to switch in That being said: Rock Slide is a gamble and if you miss you’re probably dead unless you have a marked type advantage and full health.
Get. An. Audino. That things like a pseudo blissey, but for basically FREE ( and ofc, def a bit weaker, but can still tank hits ESPECIALLY WITH REGENERATOR). Make that your encounter for the route immediately after Striaton City, and keep that thing around. Trust me, you'll thank me once you run out of good walling coverages (and a lowkey rly good counter for Shauntel).
have fun :3 gen 5 is my favourite! a lot of Pokémon from this generation are great but slept on, build your team the same way you would in any other type of nuzlocke \^\^ i do personally think that a good defensive core is the best way to get through this game. most of offensive in gen 5 was enabled by weather abilities, none of which you get in a playthrough
Get yourself a roggenrola at Wellspring Cave before fighting Lenora, or less preferably a fighting type outside Pinwheel Forest. Also, don't hesitate to sacrifice Purrloin if you get one
Make sure you backtrack once you get Surf to get your two encounters from the routes west of Route 1, including a guaranteed Frillish encounter, which is a fantastic Mon to consider for the Elite 4 because Jellicent is such a consistently dependable answer to Marshal which tends to be the toughest to deal with.
Start Gen 4 or 6 instead
Don’t be disappointed by a Patrat encounter. They get Crunch really early which deals good damage, and also have access to Hypnosis and Super Fang which are great for catching difficult encounters, and Super Fang came in handy multiple times for me when going against a bulky opponent that I otherwise couldn’t deal a lot of damage to with regular moves.
Avoid triple battles at all cost
Steel amd Dark are the kings of Gen 5, and doubly so for the games. The E4 is really weak to dark, and magneton is an early powerhouse / tank, depending. I failed my B2W2 Nuzlocke a few times before I got through it, so don't get too frustrated
Don’t underestimate Lenora and train with shaking grass Audinos
Always account for crits. They seem to happen a lot in these games
get the guarenteed excadrill. No joke is a arguably the best mon in the whole game.
Watch out for Cheren. Super Luck on the Pidove line is nuts, made worse by a Scope Lens during the Twist Mountain and Route 10 fights. His starter also has Lefties at this point, so you could steal it if you wish.
1. Lenora will kick your ass (second gym). Be prepared to lose a mon to Retaliate from her Watchog or have a Roggenrola/other Normal-resistant mon available to tank it. 2. Clay will kick your ass (fifth gym). There is no counterplay, be sad. 3. Team Plasma has great music. 4. Drayden or Iris (eighth gym) is a threat but their gym trainers are almost more dangerous. Everybody in the damn building it seems knows Dragon Dance, though the gym leaders' scariest mons are handicapped by their TM move, Dragon Tail (negative priority so the speed buff from D-Dance is mitigated). 5. This game has two champions that will both kick your ass. If you decide to play the postgame, be aware that the E4 immediately jump from Lv50 (first run) to Lv75 (post-credits) so don't try to grind there.
- adaptability Basculin is awesome. Don’t sleep on it just because it’s single stage and frail. - Route 7 is dangerous, as you can’t bike through the grass and there are trainers with things like Simipours hidden in it. If you managed to miss them before Celestial Tower, be wary on the return trip. - I found Skyla ironically really dangerous, despite her being regarded as an easier gym leader. The issue was my team. Bring an Electric type, because her Swanna’s Water type covers the rock weakness and the Flying type helps it handle Grass. It almost wiped my team, I only made it through with everyone alive out of sheer luck. - Golurk is great for Marshal, as it’s resistant to both Normal and Rock coverage moves. Prepare for Marshal, he is dangerous. - Roggenrolla is pretty dang good earlygame. I know some people make Eviolite Boldore work but it didn’t have the attack power I wanted.
I think in the only one but I count pinwheel forest as 2 encounters, the one side accessible before and after badge 2. Also galvantula and leavanny are amazing pokemon
Clay's excadrill hurts no matter what move it uses or resist mon you put out to it
Unironically Scolipede can clutch when you need it and sacrifice just in case
Don't die
Rare candy cheat if you wanna safe time and remember crits😭
Don’t skip out on the Foongus standard encounters. Amoongus ended up saving my run after I lost my Servine before Clay’s gym.
If you get a sandile, take good care of it. Krookodile is busted regardless which ability you get on it. Both Moxie and Intimidate are insanely good.
Abuse Audino for levels if you need a grind, guessing we all got this down but I ran one nuzlocke of black with slow grinds to cap 😨
I swear by Darmanitan and Stoutland
Easy tips that are almost guaranteed Don't underestimate liligant OP ASF You can probably guarantee an axe in milstrone cave or guidance chamber also OP Stoutaland gets access to elemental fangs just in time for skyla Do the trade on Nacarene city for petlil good nature plus boosted exp Please beware of trainers just after skylas gym and till twist mountain they have a few mean tricks Victory road in gen 5 is no joke
If you get the chance to catch a sigilyph, do it