In the world of Pokémon, player-made challenge runs have become a focal point of the franchise, and a growing scene as the series went on thanks to content creators like Alpharad. While he is popular thanks to a passion for Pokémon and a comedic nature, he constantly highlights his own mistakes after making them thanks to his experience in competitive Pokémon. Yet, his first attempt at a Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Nuzlocke run, detailed in a YouTube video posted on April 19, shifted both what he, and his fans, expected from his inaugural attempt in the latest Pokémon game.
A Nuzlocke is a challenge run where players can only capture the first Pokémon they encounter for each route in the game. When any Pokémon faints, they’re considered dead and can no longer be used for that run. Considering the open-world aspect of Scarlet and Violet, Alpharad had to change his method to keep the challenge enjoyably difficult.
Using a wheel to randomly select a Pokémon from a corresponding area, the Pokémon content-creating veteran had to rely on nothing but his brains and RNG to get through every gym and come out victorious.
However, as the run went on and Alpharad started to get gym badge after gym badge, a realization came thanks to his chat. Instead of playing with his characteristic brevity and comedy, he was playing as calculated as possible, leading to a deathless run a majority of the way through the game. This was very much against where his personality usually led him in previous Pokémon challenges, always making the best choices for content, not for victory. Now, the run had one focus: to end with no deaths from his team. The content brain had to be turned off.
Thanks to that shift in thought, Alpharad easily got to the Elite Four and swept through them, albeit with some close calls along the way. Heading to Top Champion Geeta, he was one trainer battle away from the deathless run. That moment was where the hubris crept in, suddenly making the run much harder.
Some key swaps instead of just going for the kill ended up spiraling into a pit that the streamer couldn’t get out of. It led to the first deaths of the run, but Alpharad couldn’t even escape with the win. As Geeta’s closer Glimmora came in, she swept the rest of his party. Alpharad had snatched defeat from the jaws of a perfect victory.
At least, until he redid the run for his second attempt and swept her entire party (including Glimmora) with a single move: Torch Song from Skeledirge. Cheesy, but extremely effective.
In the end, what was the moral of this near-perfect debut run? As Alpharad stated at the end of the video, “It’s better content to lose by being reckless than to win by being smart.” Also, picking Fuecoco is just too broken in Scarlet, whether you do a Nuzlocke or not, so just go for that.
