The Pokémon franchise has always had a dedicated fanbase, and fans’ love for these generally easy and one-note games has led to many fan-made challenges that help keep playthroughs interesting. Not only do these challenges make the Pokémon games more difficult by adding complex rulesets to the games’ existing framework, but they have also helped to build a sense of community among Pokémon players online – especially on Twitch and YouTube, where fans can connect over watching others play through the games in unique ways.
The most famous fan-created challenge is the Nuzlocke, which has two core rules: Any Pokémon that faints is considered “dead,” meaning the player needs to either release it or store it permanently for the rest of the run, and the player can only catch the first wild Pokémon encountered in each area, which adds a level of luck to the skill required for the challenge.
However, even though Nuzlockes are by far the most popular challenges, there are actually a variety of other Pokémon “hard modes” designed by fans to make the games more engaging.
Non-Nuzlocke Pokémon Challenge Modes
The No Faint Challenge
The No Faint challenge is exactly what it sounds like: the player tries to make it through the entire game without having any of their Pokémon faint. Otherwise, they need to restart the game. There’s another, much more difficult version of this called No Damage, in which the player completes the entire game without any of their Pokémon taking damage. This was completed successfully in Pokémon Platinum by streamer Smallant, but it’s definitely not something that can be easily replicated.
The One Gen Challenge
Another fun one, especially for players who find themselves playing with the same Pokémon over and over again, requires restricting one’s team to Pokémon from a specific generation. For most, this would mean playing Sun and Moon, for example, with only Pokémon introduced in Sun and Moon. However, it can also be done by only using older Pokémon in a newer game, like restricting a team to only Pokémon from the Hoenn region while playing Pokémon X and Y.
The No Evolution Challenge
This challenge lets players use only the base versions of their Pokémon. Their starter Pokémon can never be evolved, nor can any others they catch throughout their journey. Although this challenge can be difficult at first, it gets much easier as the player gets further into a game and can find more powerful unevolved Pokémon, including Legendaries.
The Monotype Challenge
As its name suggests, the Monotype Challenge requires the player to pick one Pokémon type (Fire, Water, Electric, etc.) and complete the entire game with only Pokémon of that type. Some types are more difficult than others, depending on how many weaknesses they have or how abundant they are in a particular game, which makes this a fun challenge to experiment with.
Of course, there are even more challenge modes than these four, and the Pokémon community is coming up with new ways to play the games all the time. However, if someone is itching for a Pokémon replay and looking to spice things up, hard modes are good ways to get started.
