Back during my Omega Ruby days, I enjoyed training up Eevee. I’d have a team of them, with all six staying as Eevee for as long as I trained them. From that point on, I would always try to get an Eevee within the first run, even if I didn’t use it within my team. Done with the main adventure of Ultra Sun, I again turned to training a team of Eevee. But this time, I put a few rules on it, to make it feel like a second adventure.
I would train them all to level fifty, starting from Route 1 and Lv:1 with set level markers of when it was time to move to the next island. Alola being designed as it is, I was pretty loose with those markers, and didn’t want to restrict myself too much in moving around. I wandered around Alola looking for tough wild Pokémon fights, confident in the Eevee I had beside me.
With Shield’s release, I completed the main game, and spent time wandering the Wild Area with Lv:100 Umbreon and Espeon beside me. But the Wild Area’s a bit small to really feel like I’m on an adventure. So what else was I to do but start another Run to Fifty, as I call it. The last run was a bit easy, though. While it is an adventure, a bit of challenge provides just a bit more fun and a bit of consequence for actions taken.
With just ten routes within Galar, it was easy to mark out what level I had to be to progress to the next route, but a change from the previous time is I had to move on once just one ‘mon hit the level marker rather than all of them. That change makes it harder, forcing switches more often and keeping both team and wild Pokémon at roughly the same levels throughout.
The harder part is keeping the Pokémon active long enough to train them. See, taking the idea from Nuzlockes (or even the Nuzlites Lydia and Harry of the Yogscast are currently running), once one of the team faints, it has to be boxed. But because this is a run with just one team, no replacements can be made. Your team is down a number and you have to manage with that.
By being a team member down, that’s one less member to switch out to in tough times. No items are allowed, so no improving stats out of battle, or increasing a ‘mon’s level with candies. And no healing – whether in battle or out. The only healing you’re allowed is it at a Poké Centre, but only if all of your team is at less than half health. The same goes for running from battles, too.
As it stands, my team of Eevee have already failed with these new restrictions in place. Eevee are weak, so don’t do all that well in battle. They gain strength from evolving, but I wasn’t allowing that. If half the evolutions were unavailable to me (I wasn’t breaking the no items rule to evolve them right at the start), then I didn’t want to find myself with a team of either Umbreons or Espeons. My loss, really, as I could really have used such a power boost.
I’d lost an Eevee very early on. So early, it was still at Lv:1. The second Eevee I lost at Route 2. It had been the weakest of the lot. Having lost two of my team by Route 3, I was being more careful, but at the same time risking a lot by being within the Galar Mine (which I marked as an extension of Route 3 for this ruleset). However, it was at Route 4 where I lost the third. The fourth was lost to an Electrike that got in a lucky hit, then on Route 5, more lucky hits from Stuffuls ended both Eevee five and six.
This ruleset of Run to Fifty is one I can see myself returning to, perhaps after exploring the Isle of Armor and after seeing what sort of creatures I can add to a second team from there. I would also allow evolutions, since it would make things somewhat easier. Though I’m sure even without doing so, any Pokémon other than Eevee would stand a greater chance of surviving a Lv:3 Wooloo using Headbutt.
With this article, I’ve outlined my ruleset and my experiences in using it. Anyone else interested in doing so? And what would your team be if you were doing so?
Images Taken From:
Pokémon Shield (Original Screenshots)
