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How's it going everyone? Marriland here!
It's been over a year since I introduced the Wedlocke challenge to YouTube, inspiring people
to play their Pokémon games in a challenging new way, expanding on the ideas of the original
Nuzlocke rules.
Now I'm back, back in Black, you could say, ready to start up the second Wedlocke challenge
for my channel — the Black Wedlocke.
While the Wedlocke rules remain the same, I want to share them again with you in order
to remind you of the rules of the Wedlocke challenge, and, on top of that, I will be
clarifying some of the rules and situations that the previous Wedlocke Rules video did
not account for.
The first three rules are nearly identical to the main rules of a Nuzlocke challenge.
Rule #1: Fainted Pokémon are considered dead.
Part of what makes Nuzlocke challenges so difficult is that fainted Pokémon must forever
be removed from your party, since they are considered "dead" for storyline purposes.
They must be either released permanently or, optionally, may be placed in a dedicated box
in the PC. I personally release any fainted Pokémon on my video series, but either approach
is acceptable.
Rule #2: You can only catch the first Pokémon in any new area.
Whenever you enter a new route or area, you're only able to catch or receive the first Pokémon
you encounter on that route or area. You aren't FORCED to catch it, but you don't get any
other chances to get Pokémon there.
There are a few other important things to note about this rule in regards to the Wedlocke
challenge, though:
Genderless Pokémon cannot be caught, ever. They do not count as your first encounter
and you ignore them entirely. This includes genderless legendary Pokémon.
If you have 1, 3, or 5 Pokémon on your team, you ignore any encounters that are of the
gender you have the most of, meaning if you have two males and one female in your party,
you ignore any male Pokémon and do not count them as your encounter. If you have 2, 4,
or a full team of 6 Pokémon on your team, the encounter's gender doesn't matter. This
is referred to as Gender Clause.
Dupes Clause. To avoid having a team full of nothing but Rattata or Poochyena, some
players may choose to enable "Dupes Clause," which allows you to ignore any encounters
you've already caught, making it so they don't count as your first encounter. Some players
may choose to treat the whole evolution line as a duplicate, while others only go by the
"caught" symbol; it's your choice. Additionally, to keep yourself from exploiting this clause
to catch rare Pokémon, you may limit how many times per route or area Dupes Clause
is triggered, so, for instance, you set a limit of three and then run into three Pokémon
you already have, you hit your limit and don't get anything in that area. That's your choice,
though.
Evolution-line Dupes Clause is highly recommended in a Wedlocke, but not required.
Rule #3: All Pokémon must be nicknamed.
This is to increase the bond between you and your team and to allow their personalities
to shine, so giving your Pokémon names is a great way to bring your story to life. Some
people may choose to use a naming theme while others may name their Pokémon whatever comes
to mind; what you name your Pokémon doesn't matter, so long as you nickname them something.
Of course, in the case of Wonderwedlockes in Pokémon X or Y or in the case of traded
or gift Pokémon in-game, you have no control over this rule, and that's fine, but you should
nickname anything you're able to nickname.
Rule #4: Your Pokémon are "partnered" and fight together in pairs.
Yeah, this is where the Wedlocke part of the challenge rules truly begin. Instead of treating
your Pokémon party as one team of six Pokémon, it's essentially three teams of two Pokémon
— each team consisting of one male and one female Pokémon in the standard Wedlocke rules.
Imagine receiving your starter Pokémon and that it's male. According to Rule #2, you'd
only be able to catch the first female Pokémon you run into. Once you catch it, since you
have a male and a female Pokémon, they're paired. Once Pokémon are paired, they are
paired until one dies or is released.
Pokémon are only paired while they're in your party; Pokémon in the PC that you've
caught after your team is full are not paired until they are withdrawn. Additionally, while
it is possible for a "pair" to consist of a single Pokémon, which I refer to as "lone
wolves," they must be paired immediately with any compatible Pokémon in the PC, and, if
such a Pokémon isn't in the PC, they can still fight, but only on their own.
Each Pokémon on your team can battle only alongside its partner, if it has one. This
means that, during battle, you can only switch between the two Pokémon in the active pair
and can't switch to any of your other Pokémon pairs unless BOTH Pokémon in the pair die.
If one Pokémon in the pair dies, its partner is unable to switch out and will have to make
it through the fight on their own or join their fallen partner. If the surviving Pokémon
makes it through the fight, it must be paired with a new Pokémon from the PC as soon as
possible or, if there are no compatible Pokémon in the PC, it becomes a "lone wolf" until
a new compatible Pokémon is caught for it. Also, though rare, keep in mind that the party
always takes priority over the PC; if two "lone wolf" Pokémon CAN be paired in your
party, they must be paired.
The Exp. Share item is perfectly acceptable to use, even if held by a Pokémon outside
of the active pair; the switch training tactic, though, cannot be used to train Pokémon from
different pairs.
Lastly, you cannot swap partners around, meaning once two Pokémon are paired, they're paired
for good, unless they die or are willingly released. However, you can still switch your
active pair with a different one outside of battle; just not inside of battle.
Rule #5: You cannot deposit Pokémon to your PC.
To add to the challenge and force players to be creative in their strategies, Pokémon
cannot be deposited to the PC under the Wedlocke rules.
The only way to withdraw anything in your PC is to either have something die or to release
it for good. Should you choose to release a Pokémon that's alive, it isn't technically
considered "dead," but its heart will surely be broken and you'll feel like a jerk. However,
sometimes it may be necessary to do this for the greater good.
Pokémon that are caught and then sent to your PC are not counted as being "deposited"
in that way, so don't worry about them. Those Pokémon also aren't paired while they're
in there; think of them as bonus Pokémon to replace any fallen pairs.
There are a few exceptions to this rule.
Obviously, if you do not release your fainted Pokémon and store them in a "death" box,
you may still do so.
If you need to make room for a gift Pokémon, you may temporarily deposit a Pokémon from
one of your pairs in order to receive the gift Pokémon. The rules treat this Pokémon
as still "being in your PC," so make sure you make things right by depositing that Pokémon
and withdrawing the temporarily deposited Pokémon as quickly as possible.
HM moves must be taught to your party Pokémon if you want to use them, although if they
are REQUIRED for proceeding through the game, you may temporarily deposit one pair to withdraw
one or two dedicated HM Pokémon that may not participate in battle at all. They should
be deposited as soon as you have a Pokémon capable of using the HM move you need or as
soon as you are past wherever required the HM move.
Anyway, those are the main rules of the Wedlocke challenge! They should cover the majority
of what you need to know about attempting the Wedlocke challenge, and you may feel free
to include any other rules to affect the difficulty. You may also soften some of the rules should
you feel so inclined, but that's up to you.
That's all you should need to know while watching my Black Wedlocke series or most other Wedlocke
video series out there, but after my first Wedlocke series, there were several situations
that came up and questions that kept recurring, so I'm going to address some potential issues
in Wedlocke challenges.
What happens if something uses Roar or Whirlwind?
If you're in a battle and something uses Roar, Whirlwind, or a similar move forcing you to
switch to a new pair, you now use the new pair as your active pair in battle. That's
how it goes. However, this does not mean you can use Baton Pass or Volt Switch to switch
to one of your other pairs; you'd still only be able to switch to that Pokémon's partner.
What if a Pokémon dies in the middle of a Double Battle?
Let's say you have male A and female A in a Double Battle. Female A dies and you need
to send in a new Pokémon. The best way to resolve this is to send out male B and have
the two males fight. Why? They're not paired or anything, but that way, if either of them
die, you send out female B to replace the fallen Pokémon and you'll be guaranteed to
have at least one pair.
What do you do about Triple Battles?
Triple Battles are a toughie. Let's say you have Pokémon A and B on a team and C and
D on a team. You'd have to use A, B, and C in a Triple Battle. They can all fight together;
it's ok, don't worry. However, if any of those three die, D -MUST- be sent out to replace
the fallen Pokémon.
What about Rotation Battles?
They are essentially the same as Triple Battles as far as handling deaths and stuff goes,
except you are only able to rotate between the two Pokémon in the active pair. You can
rotate between A and B, but not to C. If A or B dies, you send out D. If that happens,
though, you must rotate between C and D, since they're the only valid pair. If the male from
A and B and the female from C and D dies, you'd pair the survivors on the spot and rotate
between them.
What do I do about gift Pokémon?
If you need to receive one, it is acceptable to deposit a Pokémon to your PC temporarily
in order to pick it up, though this process should be done as quickly as possible and
the gift Pokémon is considered as in your PC throughout the whole process.
However, early on, if your team contains 1, 3, or 5 Pokémon and receive a gift Pokémon
that is of the wrong gender, you must treat it as a second lone wolf pairing or deposit
it to your PC right away.
What about Pokémon that MUST be caught or received?
Things like Reshiram or Zekrom that absolutely must be caught in order to proceed through
the game, even though they cannot normally be caught per the Wedlocke rules, are permitted
to be caught, although cannot be used. These Pokémon should be sent to the PC and not
used in any battles; if they absolutely must be used, spam stat moves until they die.
What about a Gay/Lesbian/Bi/etc. variant?
If hearing about this kind of stuff bothers you, you should probably leave now, but I'm
personally all for of people loving rather than hating, and if players want to play Pokémon
that way as well in a Wedlocke variant, it's important to keep the following in mind: playing
with such pairings inherently changes the dynamic of the challenge.
There are several different ways to go about it, so let me explain the several different
ways and their pros and cons.
If you want to use only a single gender and pair, say, only female Pokémon together,
that's fine and dandy and all, but keep in mind that you miss out on one of the more
challenging parts of the Wedlocke — the restriction of which Pokémon can be paired
together — meaning you can form any pair you want from your selection.
If you want to mix straight pairings with gay or lesbian pairings, that's fine, too,
but that also then inherently assumes all boxed Pokémon are bi. A possible way to make
this more balanced is to assign, say, five or six natures as non-straight natures, and
Pokémon of those natures can only be paired with Pokémon of the same gender that is also
of a compatible nature. Don't want to do that? That's fine, it'll still work, but just consider
all of the boxed Pokémon and their preferences.
Lastly, the most balanced approach is to play through with no straight pairings — all
Pokémon must be paired with Pokémon of the same gender, but you catch both male and female
Pokémon. This keeps the integrity of the restriction part of the Wedlocke challenge
pairings. The downside is you might end up with a team consisting entirely of a single
gender, as after your first pair has been paired, you're at the mercy of whatever the
next encounter is, and then its partner must be of the same gender. Yeah, it's not the
end of the world, but it is still an issue to consider.
Hopefully this sheds some light as to why any of these variants weren't included in
the original Wedlocke Rules video, but if you want to play with any of these variants,
feel free to pick the one that sounds right for you.
Anyway, hopefully that clears up some of the most common questions regarding the Wedlocke
challenge. If you'd like to try a Wedlocke challenge for yourself, please, by all means,
feel free to! They're a lot of fun!
That being said, I hope you enjoyed this video, and I'll see ya on the first episode of Marriland's
Pokémon Black Wedlocke! See ya next time, Wedlockers!