Thread: Nuzlocke Challenge

The Nuzlocke challenge is a challenge designed to make the game harder, specifically it forces you to improvise and be very careful about not letting your pokémon faint. A basic set of rules is below, but they vary from place to place.

Definite Rules:
1 - If a pokémon faints IT IS DEAD. It must be taken to a pc and released, there are no exceptions to this.
2 - In line with the above rule, if all of your pokémon faint die its game over.
3 - Nickname your pokémon, making it all the more upsetting when they die.
4 - No out of battle healing AT ALL apart from pokecenters and other such npcs.
5 - You may only catch the first pokémon of each new route/city, new pokemon fainted? Tough shit. Wanted a pokémon that only shows up here but wasn't first? Tough shit.
6 - All legendaries must be killed or caught, stuffed in a box and never used.
7 - Battle Mode must be set to "Set" in the options. (No free switches when enemy switches)
8 - Record your journey, be it through a badly drawn mspaint comic (Which is the traditional medium) or through a story/log.

Optional rules for those who rule:
These are either not accepted by everyone, or are custom rules suggested in this thread and added to the list, pick and choose from these as you like.

9 - You may only have 6 pokémon at a time, if you see and catch one you like when your party is full you must sacrifice one of your current party for it, this is the same as normal death.
10 - You are limited to your first five pokéballs, what you find in the wild, and one bought from each town.
11 - No healing items at all. (replaces rule 4 which allows items to be used inside battles)
12 - No grinding. Improvise.

So there ya go, this thread is for the Nuzlocke challenge in general. Post your thoughts on it, post your logs/comics if you decide to try it, suggest new rules, go wild. If any especially good run-throughs are documented i'll link to the posts here.

Also obviously I take no credit for the Nuzlocke challenge or any of the rules above( apart from rule 9 ), I didn't make this, i'm just passing it on.

This is like the illegitimate child of fire emblem and Pokemon. I don't think I'll be trying it anytime soon. But interesting. I wonder if there is anyone crazy... I mean, brave enough to try this.

I'm gonna try to do this in SoulSilver one of these days...whenever I get around to actually beating the goddamn thing.

I tried this in I think LeafGreen...I gave up by the 3rd gym.

Bulbapedia's article says only your rules 1, 2 and 5 are definite, and number three is de facto standard.

Anyway, I'd never do this. D: This is fake difficulty to the extreme.

One of my college buddies is actually doing this. He says it's really tough. I just hope he doesn't have to release me! [He names pokemon after all of his friends, and I am a Ralts xD]

Originally Posted by Poltergeist

One of my college buddies is actually doing this. He says it's really tough. I just hope he doesn't have to release me! [He names pokemon after all of his friends, and I am a Ralts xD]

You're the fanservice pokemon? That's a compliment.

I wouldn't be able to make it through the first gym. At all.

I have no clue if that was sarcasm or not @_@
Pretty much he named me a green pokemon, because my favorite color is Green and my name is Jade. It makes sense in the end.

This is insane. I'm not doing this. Ever. But then again, I might, if I'm crazy/brave enough to do so.

Although it would be funny to try, I think I won't. Also revives.

Originally Posted by Ryuutakeshi

This is like the illegitimate child of fire emblem and Pokemon. I don't think I'll be trying it anytime soon. But interesting. I wonder if there is anyone crazy... I mean, brave enough to try this.

Meh, still differs pretty much. Although you just gave me a new idea to make nuzlocke harder, "all moves that get to 0 pp in battle must be replaced."

This worked in Fire Emblem...when no boss had an advantage to stop your full charge swarm tactics. In pokemon it's mano y mano, basically you're screwed

I might try this when I get HG, need to save some more money though :(

Just thinking of the league makes me shiver :D

Originally Posted by Battaman

Just thinking of the league makes me shiver :D

That's assuming you survive the horror that is Whitney's Miltank =p

Anyways i'm going to be starting one of these myself, currently i'm just finishing few things, then going through kanto. After that restart and Nuzlocke time =p

Originally Posted by Vayre

That's assuming you survive the horror that is Whitney's Miltank =p

No one would be able to get past Miltank.

I remember getting destroyed by that Miltank back in Silver, but I totally destroyed it in HG. I really wish I could remember what I did. I probably abused fly/sand-attack.

My friend is giving me his copy of Pearl when I visit him next month, and I'm currently debating whether to try this (minus permadeath rule) or just transfer over my HG team and steamroll the game.

tacotaskforce, the permadeath rule is pretty much what makes this challenge, well, challenging. Only catching the first pokémon of the first route is inconvenient, but easily overcomable.