pkmn black: water monolocke

after modding my new 2ds xl last year (2024), i asked myself: what's next? what am i going to do with this little guy now?
i downloaded all pokemon games and realized that i had actually never ever played black and white, and black and white 2. i had started it once, but just never played it through. (the same actually goes for ultra sun/moon, but first things first).

so i decided to start up black and white, choosing to play black to be specific. but i didn't just want to do a normal playthrough, and since i had recently started a soul-link nuzlocke with a friend of mine, and really enjoyed that, i started to browse other types of nuzlockes. this brought me to the monolocke, a playthrough where you can only use pokemon that have a specific type.
this instantly interested me because i'm such a big fan of water pokemon and was always kinda obsessed with the character of misty. so i opened up my 2ds, booted up pkmn black and called my protagonist Aqua.

what's a monolocke?

let me quote: "In the Monolocke variant of the Nuzlocke challenge, only Pokemon that have a specific type are allowed to be caught and used by the player. This is sometimes also referred to as the “Gym Leader challenge”." (source)

rules:

• Dual-typing is allowed in order to encourage variety. eg. Water/Flying-type.
• If a member of a Pokemon’s direct evolutionary line has the assigned type, its evolutions and pre-evolutions may be used.
• If the player’s starter (or one of its evolutions) has the assigned type, it may be used. Otherwise, the starter Pokemon must be boxed as soon as an eligible Pokemon has been obtained and trained to at least Level 5.

additional rules:

• Shiny Clause: If the player encounters a shiny wild Pokémon, they may catch it
• The player may not use items in battle. Pokémon may hold items, but no items from the bag (except for Balls) may be used.
• Custom: the first water pokemon encountered must be caught, BUT the first three encounters may be used to encounter a water pokemon. so if the first one isn't a water pokemon, i have two more opportunities to catch a water pokemon.

name: origo
named for "origin", a hint at the fact that it's my starter

name: milk
named after the garbage song.

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unova: first impressions

since i've never really traveled unova before, i saddled up for an entirely new experience in this playthrough.
the last game i was playing before i started this monolocke was heartgold, and so this wasn't as big a jump between graphics/generations, but i still admire how pretty unova is (so far).

• leaves blowing, water glittering, birds flying: unova feels wonderfully interactive
• i immediately loved the idea of seasons and am excited to see how that plays out
• nuvema town: the start of something big! - a cosy place, similar to what twinleaf town in sinnoh offered
• accumula town feels bigger than it is, and i think that's in part thanks to the levels; it reminded me a tiny bit of pokemon collusseums towns/cities.
• i love the pokecenter design, to be honest, although it does feel a bit big for these early towns.
• striaton city. a bit unremarkable for a first gym city, but i liked the concept of the gym.

time to go ahead and tell you what the first part of my journey was like.

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from nuvema to nacrene city gym

my first summer was spent traveling to striation city, leveling my oshawott against lillipups, patrats, and purrloins. i was warned against the fact that the gym leader of striaton city will use grass against my water pokemon, and since i hadn't had a chance to catch another pokemon (due to the lack of water pokemon up until here), i tried to get my oshawott up to level 17 to fight against Cilan. countless grindy wild pokemon battles latter, i was only at level 16, but the xp gain defeating these level 7-ish lillipups was too small to get me to 17 in a reasonable time, so i went in against Cilans level 14 pansage anyway and won by using focus energy and tackle.
impressive, i know.
by the time i came out of there, it had become auntumn.
so i traveled on, my oshawott evolved into dewott and i hurried across all obstracles into the pinwheel forest, where i could finally expect to encounter another water pokemon. i caught a female tympole at level 15 on my third encounter (phew), and named it "milk" after the garbage song. this is something i want to continue doing: naming my pokemon after songs i like.

so from here, i took origo and milk to the nacrene city gym.