An Introduction to Pokémon Nuzlockes and Challenges

By Band. Released: 2023/04/17.
« Previous Article Next Article »
Art by

Art by Kiwi.

Introduction: What's a Pokémon Challenge and why should I do it?

Let's face it: the Pokémon formula can get boring at times. You start your journey in a small town where the local Pokémon professor gives you and your rival your starter Pokémon and you both set on an adventure to become strong and fill the Pokedex as per the professor's request. Of course, every game has its variables at the start and along the way you'll meet a very diverse cast of characters and face the unique challenges of that specific region, but at the end of the day, the formula that worked back in 1996 is still used over 25 years later for one reason and one reason only: it works. But as I said before, it can get boring at times, and that's why Pokémon challenges exist! They bring a new twist or spice up that same old formula we've known for years and make the games actually interesting and engaging again. Be it only being able to use Pokémon that share a type, not being allowed to heal at the Pokémon Center and having to rely on items found on the overworld, or being forced to face Cynthia's Garchomp with a Wooper, Pokémon challenges range from casual to absolute insanity.

A very unique aspect of doing a Pokémon challenge is that you get attached to your team extremely easily, probably a lot more than in vanilla runs. In a normal run, if a Pokémon faints, then it's no big deal and you can just take them to Nurse Joy and they'll be in tiptop shape in no time. But here, if they faint, then they're gone, and your starter that you raised all the way from the start of the game or that really rare Pokémon you caught could be gone at any moment if you're not careful. You learn to cherish and appreciate your Pokémon way more; they really feel like part of a team, and you commemorate every hard-fought win and mourn every soul-crushing team loss by their side. This aspect makes the game really come alive and even makes for great stories!

What does "Nuzlocke" mean anyway?

You have probably seen the word "Nuzlocke" on countless YouTube videos or on forums online but never stopped to think about the actual etymology. The word originated from a web-comic created by Nick Franco, who after being bored of playing Pokémon Ruby for the same way time after time, decided to impose the rules of the Nuzlocke challenge most of us are familiar with. But he didn't create the word; the fans did. The comic was a huge success and eventually the challenge was dubbed Nuzlocke, stemming from the Nuzleaf on Nick's party and how he drew the Pokémon with the face of John Locke from the Lost TV series. It's a very bizarre combination, but hey, it works.

The story of the first Nuzlocke is a very important and interesting piece of Pokémon history for the internet and for us Pokémon fans and is definitely worth checking out. Nick has drawn installments of Pokémon Ruby, Pokémon FireRed, and Pokémon White (which seems to be either discontinued or still ongoing) and you can check them out here.

Types of Challenges

For the purpose of this article, I'll be grouping challenges into two main groups: Nuzlocke challenges and non-Nuzlocke challenges. The main difference between them is that in the former, Pokémon that faint (when their HP bar reaches 0) are considered dead and cannot be used anymore for the rest of the playthrough, whereas in the latter you can try as many times as you want no matter how many times your Pokémon team faints.

Nuzlocke (Recommended games: all)

Your "vanilla" so to say challenge, has only two simple rules that are mandatory for the challenge to truly be considered a Nuzlocke:

  1. You must only catch the first encounter in an area. This includes routes, cities, landmarks, anything! As long as it shows up in the Pokémon summary, it counts.
  2. Each Pokémon that faints is considered dead and must be boxed permanently or released.

A "third rule" is nicknaming your Pokémon. It's not mandatory at all, since it doesn't alter the core challenge in any way, but almost every single Nuzlocke player does it and it helps create a stronger bond between the trainer and their Pokémon. It also makes it hurt more when they die to a random crit.

You may also implement what we call "Dupes Clause": to encourage team variety, you may skip encounters with Pokémon that you have caught previously and instead keep running into wild Pokémon until you find one that you haven't caught before. For example, if you caught a Sandile at Route 4, and on Route 5 your first encounter is another Sandile, it does not count as your first encounter and you can catch the next Pokémon you see instead. That guarantees you'll have a more diverse and balanced team, and most players also agree it makes the experience more fun since this increases your chances of getting Pokémon that aren't used often. You could also implement this for the whole evolutionary line, so following that same example, you could skip every Sandile, Krokorok, and Krookodile encounter in the game. However, like most rules in a Nuzlocke challenge, this is optional, so if you want a more challenging experience, you can limit the amount of "dupes encounters" you're allowed to have until you have to catch whatever is the encounter after that limit. Or you can up the difficulty to the max and just not use "dupes clause" at all and have a box full of Rattata and Tentacool!

Similarly to the "Dupes Clause", the "Shiny Clause" may also be implemented. Basically, if the player finds a shiny Pokémon as their first encounter or in an area they have already gotten an encounter for, they are allowed to catch that Pokémon. Usually if the first encounter is already a shiny, then the player won't catch anything else for that area. Due to the rarity of shiny Pokémon, especially in earlier generations in which their odds of appearing are 1 in 8192 instead of the much forgiving 1 in 4096 from Generation 6 and onwards, shiny Pokémon found in Nuzlockes are considered a "free" encounter. This, of course, doesn't count for guaranteed shinies like the Red Gyarados from the Lake of Rage. Ultimately though, it's up to the player to decide if they allow it or not, but you can't deny how cool and rare shinies can be!

A question that comes up frequently regarding Nuzlockes pre-Gen 7 is "I need an HM to progress with the story but no one on my team or boxes can learn it! What do I do?". In this case, you are allowed to catch a Pokémon with the sole purpose of teaching it that HM. The Pokémon cannot be used in battle EVER and must be deposited as soon as you don't need the HM anymore or after you have a Pokémon in your team or boxes that can learn that HM. In the latter case, the Pokémon must then be released.

Another question, and a divisive one at that, is "I whited/blacked out! Is the challenge over?". To be direct, that's ultimately up to the player. It's YOUR playthrough, and as long as you follow the two main rules that make the Nuzlocke Challenge, then everything else is up to YOU. If you lost a battle but still have Pokémon in the box, feel free to continue the challenge with a fresh new team! Or you can consider it a fail and be forced to restart. Don't listen to people who want to enforce rules that were never there.

Hardcore Nuzlocke (Recommended games: all)

The Hardcore Nuzlocke is basically the same as the vanilla Nuzlocke, except the player imposes certain rules that make the challenge way harder. This is only advised for more experienced players! The extra rules are:

  1. No healing items in battle: the player must not use any kind of healing item in battle (Potions, Herbs, Berries, etc). The only items allowed during battle are held items (which do include held Berries) and Pokéballs.
  2. Set mode: the game must be played in Set mode (after you KO an opposing Pokémon, the game won't ask if you want to switch out your own Pokémon before the opponent brings out their next one). This requires good positioning and switch moves such as U-turn, Volt Switch, and Parting Shot become extremely good and integral parts of many Pokémon's movesets.
  3. Level caps: the player may not level any of their Pokémon past the level of the next "boss's" highest leveled Pokémon. "Bosses" include Gym Leaders, Trial Captains, Kahunas, Totem Pokémon, Titan Pokémon, Team Star Bosses, Elite Four, and Champions. If a Pokémon exceeds the level cap before the battle, it must then be boxed until the battle is over (some players even release their Pokémon!). Leveling up past that level cap during the battle, however, is allowe

Another brutal rule that is sometimes used in Hardcore Nuzlockes is being force to battle every single trainer in the game. Most games will have a lot of trainers to fight, and that of course just gets more dangerous the longer you advance in the game. Having to fight every Victory Road trainer in BW2 for example is a nightmare. But mid-game trainers and double battles can also be brutal!

Egglocke (Recommended games: RSE through SV)

The Egglocke variation of the Nuzlocke challenge has the player still catching the first encounter in an area; however, that's not the Pokémon they'll add to their team. Before the challenge starts and as soon as the player has access to the PC, they must fill their boxes with Pokémon Eggs given by friends, other users on Smogon or other Pokémon forums, or generated using a third-party software. What's important is that the player doesn't know which Egg has which Pokémon to maintain the randomness aspect of the Nuzlocke challenge.

They'll then replace their catch with an Egg in the box and by either grinding wild battles or using Rare Candies, get the newly hatched Pokémon to the original level of their catch. For example, if the player catches a level 18 Eevee, then the newly hatched Pokémon that was traded for that Eevee must be elevated to level 18. Rare Candies are usually the preferred method to minimize the time spent grinding (imagine losing a teammate at Victory Road and raising it all the way up to level 55 on nothing but wild Pokémon!).

What's fun about Egglockes is how you can use Pokémon that are not native to that specific region or how you can get Pokémon that only come late game as your first encounter. You could get a Hippopotas egg while playing through HGSS, or hatch a Druddigon egg right at the start of BW! Try to organize an Egglocke with your friends and see how it goes!

Wedlocke (Recommended games: GSC through SV; there are no genders in RBY)

Created and popularized by YouTuber Marriland, in this brutal iteration of the Nuzlocke challenge, Pokémon are paired based on their gender and can only battle switching between each other. For example, let's imagine I'm playing Pokémon Black and I choose Oshawott as my starter and it is male. This means my next encounter on Route 1 can ONLY be a female Pokémon. If I find a male Pokémon, I have to skip that encounter until I get a female one. Once I catch a female Pokémon, let's say a Lillipup, then Oshawott and Lillipup are now paired and they can ONLY switch between each other during battle. On my next encounter at Route 2, then there are no restrictions and I catch the first encounter like normal. Let's say that encounter is a female Purrloin. This means the next Pokémon I encounter MUST be a male so it can be paired with Purrloin. If for example I go to the Dreamyard and get the gift Pansear and it's a female, then Purrloin and Pansear cannot be paired with each other and have to fight alone until a male Pokémon can be encountered. That male Pokémon would then be paired with Purrloin, and so on and so forth until I have a team of six consisting of three pairs of male and female Pokémon.

Because the Wedlocke challenge has a lot of rules and specific situations may arise, to clarify some questions you might have, I've prepared a Q&A portion:

Can I box my team?
You cannot box Pokémon, doesn't matter if they're paired or not. Once they are part of your team, they stay until they die or become champions! You can, however, use the box to get gift Pokémon or if no one on your team can learn an HM mandatory for story progress. As per usual Nuzlocke rules, that Pokémon cannot be used in battles and has to deposited back into the box as soon as you don't need it anymore.
My Caterpie is paired with a Sunkern, can I really not get rid of one of them?
You can only get rid of a pair if you release one of the Pokémon. Then you could add another Pokémon to the pair, as long as they are of the same gender as the Pokémon that was released. But you wouldn't do such a cruel thing to their partner, would you?
What about genderless Pokémon?
Genderless Pokémon like Magnemite and Staryu can either not be allowed at all OR you can flip a coin and assign them a gender OR use them as a "joker" of sorts and make them able to be paired with any Pokémon of any gender. You choose how brutal it gets!
What happens if one Pokémon in a pair dies during battle?
Let's say my Samurott dies during battle. That means now Stoutland, his partner, has to finish the fight all on her own! This is especially brutal since Pokémon can die really early on the battle to a critical hit and battles can quickly become a 5v1!
What about Double battles?
In the case of a Double battle, if my male Samurott dies, then I should send one of the female Pokémon from the other two pairs I have available to me (Liepard, for example). Then I would have only female Pokémon (Stoutland from pair A and Liepard from pair B) fighting and that doesn't constitute as a pair in this case. Let's say then my female Stoutland dies. Then I should send Liepard's male partner and so on and so forth. The key is to only use the male and female pairs if they can fight together.

Monolocke (Recommended games: technically all, but ideally BW2 through SV)

In a Monolocke, more commonly called Monotype Nuzlocke, the player can only use Pokémon that share at least one type between all of the team. It's one of the more popular types of Nuzlocke because it's very intuitive, extremely fun and challenging, and it has insane replay value. You can do up to 18 runs in a game like USUM due to the sheer amount of encounters you have at your disposition, and they will all have their own spin, and you'll have to adapt your playstyle and strategy for every Gym, Totem, Kahuna, Elite Four and Champion fight!

Not every game and not every type work together, however. Games like RBY and GSC have a very limited pool of encounters if you're not doing a Normal- or Water-type run, with some types like Fighting and Psychic being quite hard to pull off while others won't even fill a team of six. And types like Ice and Dragon are really hard to do even in newer games like SM due to low availability and being generally exclusive to late-game. So here's a list of games and the best types for that game. Best types are bolded:

This list was made using this chart by Reddit user NidorinoTrainer.

Wonderlocke (Recommended games: XY through SV)

Wonderlockes have you catching the first encounter in an area and immediately using the Wonder Trade function (now dubbed Surprise Trade) to replace that encounter with a random one from across the world! The two main things to consider when doing this challenge are:

  1. Exp. Boosts: when Pokémon are traded between games, they gain an Exp. boost. This means every Pokémon on your team will gain Exp. at a faster rate than normal, and if you're not careful, that can lead to overleveling and make the challenge not very fun. Thankfully, since Wonderlockes can only be done from Generation 6 onwards, you can simply turn off the Exp. share function. Overleveling can still happen if you're not careful, but it is manageable. For Generations 8 and 9, where the Exp. share is mandatory, the best to do is to skip some trainers and rotate your team to prevent overleveling.
  2. Nicknames: since you're obtaining Pokémon from other trainers, you can't change their nicknames yourself and have to stick with what you get. Usually that isn't a problem and some even come with funny nicknames to boot, but you can always give them nicknames yourself, they just won't show up in-game. If a Pokémon comes without a nickname, however, then you can change it to one of your liking.

Soul Link (Recommended games: all)

The Soul Link challenge is a bit different than other challenges, as it requires two players for it to work. In this variant, Pokémon are "linked" across games and if one of them dies, the other one is as well. For example, me and my friend are both at Granite Cave; I catch a Mawile and my friend catches a Sableye. Both encounters were obtained from the same place, so they are now linked. If Mawile were to ever die, Sableye would also be considered dead, and both would have to be boxed permanently/released, and vice-versa. It's good to note that if you plan on doing this challenge, it's advised to always wait for your friend to catch up to you when it's time to catch a new encounter.

An extra rule that can be implemented, but is not mandatory, is not being allowed to repeat Pokémon or types across teams. If I have a Mawile, my friend can't have any Steel- or Fairy-type. Same for me, I can't have any Dark- or Ghost-type on my team because they have a Sableye. This rule can be implemented to encourage diversity when building teams. But it can also lead to fights when both of you want to use that really good Dragon-type! Another situation that can cause arguments and makes Soul Links really fun is pairing strong Pokémon that you or your friend want to use with weak Pokémon. Let's say I encounter a Skarmory on Route 113, but my friend finds a Spinda. Needless to say, my encounter is MILES better than theirs, but me using Skarmory forces them to use a very bad Pokémon. Do they compromise and have to rely on a really weak Pokémon that's sure to not be very useful, or do I compromise and let go of one of the best encounters in the game? That's something you and your friend will have to decide!

"Otherlockes"

While not as popular, these Nuzlocke challenges are just as fun.

Non-Nuzlocke Challenges

In this type of challenge, if your Pokémon faint, they won't be considered dead. It's a good option for players that want a lighter experience while still being challenged be it through extra rules, being limited to specific Pokémon, etc.

Stricter Rules

In a challenge with stricter rules, you can customize it to your liking and how hard you want it to be. Let's take a look at some of your options:

Solo Run (Recommended games: all)

If you really like a certain Pokémon or are looking for one of the most brutal challenges out there, then a Solo Run is the challenge for you! As the name suggests, this challenge has the player using only a single Pokémon to battle, which makes for a very interesting premise. You'll most likely have to adapt your four moveslots and item for major battles, but most of all, you'll have to grind. A lot. Doing a Solo Run with fully evolved Pokémon, even with relatively weaker ones like Girafarig, is quite simple and easy, but it gets tricky when you move to those with a very low BST and horrible movepools like Smeargle, Unown, baby Pokémon, and even just normal Pokémon like Wooper and Zubat. These will require some techs and good thinking from the player to make it work!

A variation of the Solo Run is the Baby/No Evolving Run. For this run, you can use a full team, but you just can't let them fully evolve. Players can choose to whether let their Pokémon evolve once or not evolve at all. The most brutal form of this challenge I've seen is doing a baby Pokémon-only run. Their stats are complete garbage and for the most part so are their movepools.

Getting Started

So, you've read this far and have decided you want to partake in a Pokémon Challenge. That's awesome! But where to start? Let's take a look on what's the best way to actually start playing!

Choosing a Game

The most logical first step is to pick your game of choice. If this is your first time doing a challenge like this, or if you're already a seasoned Nuzlocker looking for a challenge, here's a list with the top 3 hardest and easiest games to help you decide the best game for you!

Easiest

  1. Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire: access to powerful Pokémon like Gyarados, Latias or Latios, and a lot of Mega Stones for Pokémon like your starter, Altaria, Manectric, Mawile, and Medicham, make ORAS quite the easy games. The Exp. Share was also overhauled to make it so every Pokémon in your team gets Exp. after a battle, and most battles, even the final ones against Archie/Maxie where they use Mega Pokémon, are still pretty easy. It's a really good game to start if you're a beginner!
  2. Fire Red & Leaf Green: Generation 1 (or in this case 3 I guess?) are great games to start a first time Nuzlocke as well. They guide the player and are familiar enough to most fans, which helps when doing a Nuzlocke for the first time. As for the difficulty, a lot of amazing guaranteed encounters like Snorlax, Lapras, Jolteon/Vaporeon, and Gyarados, pretty easy Gym leaders for the most part, and Kanto as a whole make FRLG a great option to start!
  3. X & Y: The Pokémon selection is enormous and the areas are also plenty, meaning you'll never run out of good encounters; the Gym leaders and Elite Four all use between two and four Pokémon, none of them use Mega Evolution besides the Champion, and the Exp. Share is the same as ORAS. You're also gifted a lot of amazing Pokémon, most notably a Mega Lucario, which just shreds everything and makes the game laughably easy. Some stray trainers and Lysandre's 3rd fight can be hard, but the games are overall really really easy. Also a good option for a first-time Nuzlocker!

Intermediate

I won't go in too much detail about these titles, but they're a good midground and even a starting point for more adventurous players These are not in any particular order.

  1. Emerald: easy Gym leaders aside from the middle ones (Flannery, Norman, and Tate & Liza), good selection of Pokémon and good level curve!
  2. Black & White the start can be pretty hard, but as you get more options in encounters, it evens out. Some Gyms like Elesa and Clay are super scary, while others like Skyla and Brycen are pushovers. Most encounters are also really good: Emboar, Samurott, Stoutland, Excadrill, Darmanitan, Chandelure, Archeops, Haxorus, Galvantula, etc. The difficulty picks up by the end, though, with the Elite Four battles and the N + Ghetsis gauntlet.
  3. Heart Gold & Soul Silver: Trainers are laughable, but Gyms can go either way. Bugsy, Whitney, and Morty can either be run killers or pushovers depending on your team. But the rest aside from Claire and the Elite Four is not really a challenge as long as you're careful. Karen and especially Lance are hard though, so be prepared and bring Ice-type moves!

Hardest

  1. Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon: Oh, god, where do I begin? Totem Pokémon range from hard to insane, and most in the early game can only be dealt with if you have very specific Pokémon (looking at you, Alolan Raticate and Araquanid), not to mention their movesets are extremely annoying (Alolan Marowak, for example, has Detect to prevent a Turn 1 Hydro Vortex), and most partners are a total pain, especially in the Mimikyu fight. Battles against trainers are no slouch either, with most having either really strong Pokémon, diverse teams, or BOTH. Some even have Z-Moves! Of course, the cherry on top is Ultra Necrozma, dubbed The Nuzlocke Killer. This thing will murder every team member you have, and you better pray you get a Zorua, otherwise, good luck. Not recommended at all for beginners or even mildly experienced players, only play this if you want a real and brutal challenge!
  2. Black 2 & White 2: What makes BW2 stay consistently challenging until the endgame are the Gym leader battles. Cheren is very scary, Roxie can be as well if you don't get Magnemite (otherwise, she's pretty free), Burgh's Leavanny is super strong, Elesa is a nightmare, Clay's Excadrill is a famous run ender, so on and so forth. Every Gym has a threat you have to prepare for with at least 1 or 2 Pokémon. But the difficulty REALLY picks up in the endgame. Victory Road, the Elite Four, and Iris: the holy trinity of BW2 Nuzlocke enders. Every trainer in Victory Road is out for blood. The Elite Four is just as hard in BW if not harder, with Shauntal's Chandelure and Marshal's Mienshao being a terror, and Iris's team is also not easy at all. Not recommended for first-timers but is a really good challenge to intermediate players.
  3. Platinum: Platinum gets the third spot for its pretty scary Gym leader fights as well, but the outright amazing team selection you get can (and often does) balance it out. The main difference here is that only the Gym leader aces are really scary, while the other Pokémon from their teams are pretty easy to deal with. Cranidos, Roserade, Mismagius, Lucario, and Froslass are all extremely scary foes to face if you're not highly prepared. Team Galactic is really scary in the beginning, but they fizzle out after that, aside from Cyrus's Distortion World fight which can be really hard. The main event is of course the Elite Four and Cynthia. This is the last game where you can't choose what Elite Four member you'll fight first, and Cynthia's team is probably one of the best in the series in terms of diversity and synergy. But as stated before, what offsets a lot of Platinum's difficulty are the excellent encounters. Infernape, Staraptor, Gyarados, Magnezone, Weavile, and even Blissey, Garchomp, and Scizor are easily obtainable, and some are even guaranteed if you play smart.

An honorable mention goes out to Pokémon Black 2 & White 2's Challenge Mode: Higher levels, every Gym Leader has an extra Pokémon, they all hold items, Shauntal has a Choice Scarf Chandelure for god's sake! And I LOVE IT! This wasn't included as an official entry due to it being locked to the post game, but if you have the chance to try this mode, totally go for it!

Picking the Rules

You've picked a game, now we need to pick the rules! This is all very subjective and as you play more and more, you'll learn what works for you and what is a bit too much.

It's important to note that you don't have to follow these exact rule patterns. You can do a Hardcore Nuzlocke where you're still allowed to use Z-Moves, for example. It's all up to you, and remember this is all for fun. If it's stressing you out or you have to spend hours grinding because you lost 5 Pokémon in the last battle and it's starting to become a chore, it's okay to forfeit!

Final Thoughts

I hope this article has made you more interested in Pokémon Challenges and maybe even got you interested enough to try one! I can say for sure that if you feel like playing the normal way is getting stale, then doing one of the challenges in this article is sure to get you falling in love with the Pokémon series all over again. Thank you for reading!

HTML by Band.
« Previous Article Next Article »
]