SpoonySage
N3DS Community Ghost Gym Leader
Lately, I have seen many people coming up with interesting challenge runs of various Pokemon games. I know that Nuzlockes got pretty popular on this forum, so here are a few extra challenge ideas for those of you who need something until BW2 come out.
3 Pokemon Challenge: pretty simple here. A friend of mine on Twitter came up with the rules and a bunch of us did it with earlier games. Basically, you pick 3 Pokemon (starter included) and use only them the entire game. You don't trade them over, but just catch them whenever you get to where they appear. If need be, you can have HM slaves (in BW, that means Watchog and Ducklett) but they can never be used in battle (not even as death fodder).
Mystery Egg: get through the first gym in the game and open up for trading. Then, you trade people for 6 eggs, which you will have to use for the rest of the game. Make sure your breeders know that you will need these 6 to be able to learn all HMs, so it might be best to get them all from one person. Its fun because you have no idea what you will get.
Monotype/Monotone: Either pick a type of Pokemon or a color and only use that for the entire game. The color thing is as difficult as you want it to be, as there are tons of some colors (I tend to pick blue/purple), but things like Black might give you some trouble. Picking just one type can be even more difficult unless you start out thinking of gym 2 and the Elite Four (this is because you will likely have to beat the first gym just to be able to trade over the first of your type if the game does not have them early on). HGSS was a good game for this, if memory serves, as I chose Ghost and did not have to go far to get a Ghastly to start out.
Little Cup: A.K.A. Not Fully Evolved. Just don't evolve anything. Not as hard as it sounds as long as you get good items and level grind for a while.
Idol Emulation: just kinda threw that name together. Basically, you pick a trainer from the anime or manga- even a previous champion or rival- and model your team after that. Most popular is Blue/Gary, but you can do it with most any of the characters. Either get the eggs traded in after the first gym or, if you are really up for a challenge, get the eggs in the order that trainer got them, at about the same points in the plot. If you pick a trainer from the same generation you are playing, then this works out perfectly as you can generally catch whatever they had around those times.
Ash Challenge: something I came up with. Similar to the Idol Emulation, but much harder. You must play the game like Ash plays the anime. By that, I mean you catch the first thing you see everywhere you go (kinda like Nuzlocke) and you don't really do any grinding. When you challenge gyms, you use Pokemon weak to whatever type they are using. Finally, when a Pokemon is fully evolved, you get rid of it. So yeah, you best be mashing B. How can you make this easier on yourself? Well, pay attention to what TM/HMs things can learn. Just as Ash taught Pikachu things like Iron Tail, you will likely need to teach your Pokemon odd moves to get around their weaknesses. Oh, and again, you may want to get some nifty items to make it easier.
Do you have any ideas for (reasonable) Pokemon Challenge Runs? Maybe something specific to a certain game in the franchise? Or would you consider trying one of the challenges I listed above?
3 Pokemon Challenge: pretty simple here. A friend of mine on Twitter came up with the rules and a bunch of us did it with earlier games. Basically, you pick 3 Pokemon (starter included) and use only them the entire game. You don't trade them over, but just catch them whenever you get to where they appear. If need be, you can have HM slaves (in BW, that means Watchog and Ducklett) but they can never be used in battle (not even as death fodder).
Mystery Egg: get through the first gym in the game and open up for trading. Then, you trade people for 6 eggs, which you will have to use for the rest of the game. Make sure your breeders know that you will need these 6 to be able to learn all HMs, so it might be best to get them all from one person. Its fun because you have no idea what you will get.
Monotype/Monotone: Either pick a type of Pokemon or a color and only use that for the entire game. The color thing is as difficult as you want it to be, as there are tons of some colors (I tend to pick blue/purple), but things like Black might give you some trouble. Picking just one type can be even more difficult unless you start out thinking of gym 2 and the Elite Four (this is because you will likely have to beat the first gym just to be able to trade over the first of your type if the game does not have them early on). HGSS was a good game for this, if memory serves, as I chose Ghost and did not have to go far to get a Ghastly to start out.
Little Cup: A.K.A. Not Fully Evolved. Just don't evolve anything. Not as hard as it sounds as long as you get good items and level grind for a while.
Idol Emulation: just kinda threw that name together. Basically, you pick a trainer from the anime or manga- even a previous champion or rival- and model your team after that. Most popular is Blue/Gary, but you can do it with most any of the characters. Either get the eggs traded in after the first gym or, if you are really up for a challenge, get the eggs in the order that trainer got them, at about the same points in the plot. If you pick a trainer from the same generation you are playing, then this works out perfectly as you can generally catch whatever they had around those times.
Ash Challenge: something I came up with. Similar to the Idol Emulation, but much harder. You must play the game like Ash plays the anime. By that, I mean you catch the first thing you see everywhere you go (kinda like Nuzlocke) and you don't really do any grinding. When you challenge gyms, you use Pokemon weak to whatever type they are using. Finally, when a Pokemon is fully evolved, you get rid of it. So yeah, you best be mashing B. How can you make this easier on yourself? Well, pay attention to what TM/HMs things can learn. Just as Ash taught Pikachu things like Iron Tail, you will likely need to teach your Pokemon odd moves to get around their weaknesses. Oh, and again, you may want to get some nifty items to make it easier.
Do you have any ideas for (reasonable) Pokemon Challenge Runs? Maybe something specific to a certain game in the franchise? Or would you consider trying one of the challenges I listed above?
