A Pokemon Hatelocke sounds very angry. When I first heard of the challenge, I assumed you’d have to shout at your little monsters or name them curse words or something. But the reality is far nicer, a Nuzlocke designed to shine a light on unloved (or ‘hated’) Pokemon by stretching the regular ruleset over a whole𒆙 series.
Hatelockes start out noꩲrmally enough, although the idea is you start at the beginning of the series. W🎶hether you opt for Red & Blue, FireRed & LeafGreen, or Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee, your Gen 1 Hatelocke will run exactly like a regular Nuzlocke.
Tip: In case you need a quick reminder🍎, here are the regular Nuzlocke rules:
- You must catch the first Pokemon each route
- If a Pokemon faints, you can no longer use it
However,♍ things change when you move to Gen 2. Your list of Pokemon caught in Gen 1 carries over, so any duplicate encounters cannot be used. Whether you reencounter or skip that route is up to you, depending on how hardcore you want to be. The point here is to highlight Pokemon you wouldn’t usually use on a playthrough, so that Gyarados that carried you through Blaine’s Gym won’t be there to bail you out against Chuck or Flannery. Okay, Gen 3’s abundance of Water-types means that you’ll likely fly past Flannery anyway, but by the time you’re facing off against Kabu, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for decent Water-types.
Obviously the getaround for this is to use Pokemon native to the region you’re in. But that’s not so mu🎶ch cheating as understanding the point of the ruleset. I usually use a party full of new ‘mons every time a new Pokemon game drops, but I still don’t see the full breadth of what the region has to show me. Did anyone use Smoliv or Spidops? Be honest.
You can add in as many additional rules as you want, just like a regular Nuzlocke. I’m starting mine now (LeafGreen, by the way), and opting for set style, no healing in battle, and most importantly, nicknaming every Pokemon so I feel real heartbreak when they faint. I’ll accept gift Pokemon but won’t use Legendaries, and I’m capping my team’s levelsജ to the ace of the next Gym Leader.
I’ve not got up to the exciting part of the Hatelocke yet, I assume that comes in later Gens when the limitations start hitting, but I’m looking forward to the future. Black & White in particular are criminally underrated games, but will be pretty easy to Hatelocke due to the fact they use an all-new PokeDex until the postgame. I’m less looking forward to Gens 4🍌 and 7, thanks to Brilliant Diamond being awful and Moon 50 percent tutorial. At least the monster designs in Alola make up for the glacial pace – maybe I’ll ♔use Oranguru or Lurantis for once.
A Hatelocke sounds horrible, and to be honest it’s not a great name for the run. But then Nuzlocke itself is a highly outdated reference to the TV show Lost, so who cares? The reality is that it helps you use Pokemon that you may have overlooked, form bonds with them, and maybe grow to love them in their own right. I’ve never been so happy to encounter a Geodude in Rock Tunnel (Zubat was a dupe f🌌rom Mt. Moon), because it means Machamp and Steelix are both viable encounters in future games. I’m looking at the big picture, planning out my teams with the utmost care, and even skipping optional encounters if my team is ꦆlooking healthy, just to potentially save the run seven generations down the line.
A Hat♒elocke is about care, caution, and hopefully giving unloꦅved Pokemon the spotlight. It’s kind of like adopting a pet from a shelter in that sense. Except you then make little Fido fight to the death.
