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Challenge Playthroughs

My last playthrough of Moon, I did only Ice-types. A-Sandslash, A-Ninetales, Froslass, and Glaceon.
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I plan on doing a Continuous Journey Playthrough, which is more of a challenge of transferring pokemon around. But other than that I am currently doing
Platinum Nuzlocke - Current Team: Gabite, Lopunny, Gardevoir, Roselia, Togekiss, and Luxray
Y Wonderlocke - Current Team: Grumpig, Pikachu, Azumarill, Linoone, Gloom, and Lapras
Black Bug Monotype - Current Team: Volcarona (Traded in to be starter), Leavanny, Scolipede, Escavalier
Crystal Gift/Trade Run (Can only use in game gift or in game trade pokemon) - Current Team: Quilava, Togepi, Onix
 
I rarely do run playthroughs with more than 2-3 Pokémon, but I plan them out so they counter each others strengths and weaknesses pretty well. The Elite Fours can be challenging with limited teams (and I don't ever use Legendary Pokémon in my playthroughs), but the levels tend to be much higher since I am using limited Pokémon.

I also came up with a challenge I am going to try on either GSC or HGSS. Defeat the entire game with only Unown. Obviously, you can use your starter to get to the Ruins of Alph, but, once there, fill your team with six Unown and have fun. There stats suck, but Hidden Power has some versatility to it, so it might be possible. For some reason I have always liked Unown (I used Unown G on my original playthrough waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day. I got him to Lv50 before realizing he woulnd't learn more moves. Oo to be 11 again.)

Takers?
I'd suggest using X/Y. Easier games to beat. And you can either use Bank or trade off OR/AS to get your team very near the start of the run. These games are also very generous in terms of level caps for outsider Pokémon.
 
I've done a few different themed runs, did a Nuzlocke of Black 2 that I only just managed to beat after Iris's Archeops went ballistic, and I've done a mono. But my current fixation is the Metronome Run. It started out as an attempt to make Y more fun, and I kinda got hooked. First rule is obvious, but I've added a little extra spice for myself:
  • Pokémon are only allowed to use the move Metronome during battle
  • Battle style must be on set mode
  • No fleeing from any battles
  • No healing during battle (with the exception of restoring PP)
  • No EXP share
  • Gym Leaders/Trial Captains/Kahunas and rival battles must be fought using the same number of Pokémon (evil teams and the Elite Four may be challenged with a full team)
  • Held items are allowed
Since you have to prep the team you use, you also have to deal with level caps, which in some particular scenarios can be rather annoying. I try and buff PP to 16 so I don't have to reload. I've achieved success with Y and Ultra Sun (25 attempts to topple Necrozma), and I'm halfway through an attempt on Red version. My initial attempt used a team that could learn Metronome through level-up or breeding, including a level 5 Mew I scored off the GTS (that one time in Gen 6 when it was so easy to trade for mythicals...) and I've used a fresh team each time, there are actually a lot of Pokémon that learn the move.
 
I came up with this run idea a while back I call the Badge Challenge
  • Until you attain the first badge/beat the first trial you can only catch 1 pokemon (Other than your starter)
  • After defeating each Gym Leader/Trial Captain you gain the ability to catch an additional pokemon
  • Whenever you face a Gym Leader/Captain/Kahuna you must use the same number of pokemon as them.
  • No Pokemon on your team can share a type (AKA if you have a Fire/Flying you cannot have any other Fire or Flying pokemon)
  • Battle Style must be Set
  • You can Release a Pokemon to regain a Pokemon Slot
  • Pokemon can only reach an evolutionary level equal to 1/3 the amount of badges/beaten trials (AKA your pokemon can only evolve after attaining the 3rd badge and they can only reach final stage after attaining the 6th badge)
  • Mega Evolutions can only be used at the Elite 4
  • You can only catch 1 Mythical/Legendary Pokemon
 
I've done a few different themed runs, did a Nuzlocke of Black 2 that I only just managed to beat after Iris's Archeops went ballistic, and I've done a mono. But my current fixation is the Metronome Run. It started out as an attempt to make Y more fun, and I kinda got hooked. First rule is obvious, but I've added a little extra spice for myself:
  • Pokémon are only allowed to use the move Metronome during battle
  • Battle style must be on set mode
  • No fleeing from any battles
  • No healing during battle (with the exception of restoring PP)
  • No EXP share
  • Gym Leaders/Trial Captains/Kahunas and rival battles must be fought using the same number of Pokémon (evil teams and the Elite Four may be challenged with a full team)
  • Held items are allowed
Since you have to prep the team you use, you also have to deal with level caps, which in some particular scenarios can be rather annoying. I try and buff PP to 16 so I don't have to reload. I've achieved success with Y and Ultra Sun (25 attempts to topple Necrozma), and I'm halfway through an attempt on Red version. My initial attempt used a team that could learn Metronome through level-up or breeding, including a level 5 Mew I scored off the GTS (that one time in Gen 6 when it was so easy to trade for mythicals...) and I've used a fresh team each time, there are actually a lot of Pokémon that learn the move.
After easing through Red, I figure I may as well go all out and finish what I've started.

Universal Metronome Challenge: Clear all 8 regions using 8 unique teams, each one abiding by the rules aforementioned. In addition, no Pokémon are to be used solely as HM slaves, every team member must know Metronome.

Checkpoint for each game:
  • Red/Blue/Yellow – Defeat/catch Mewtwo
  • Gold/Silver/Crystal – Defeat Red
  • Ruby/Sapphire – Defeat Champion Steven
  • Emerald – Defeat Steven (Post)
  • FireRed/LeafGreen – Defeat/catch Mewtwo AND Defeat Gary (rematch)
  • Diamond/Pearl – Defeat Champion Cynthia AND Defeat Barry (rematch)
  • Platinum – Defeat Champion Cynthia (rematch) AND Defeat Barry (rematch)
  • HeartGold/SoulSilver – Defeat Red AND Complete all rival battles
  • Black/White – Defeat Champion Alder
  • Black 2/White 2 – Defeat Champion Iris (rematch) AND Defeat Benga
  • X/Y – Complete Looker Episode
  • OR/AS – Complete Delta Episode AND Defeat Champion Steven (rematch)
  • Sun/Moon – Complete Looker Sidequest AND Defend Championship
  • US/UM – Defeat Giovanni AND Defend Championship
  • Sword/Shield - ???
 
A challenge I did once was what I call the "Retro Challenge"

See, I was a latecomer to Pokemon, and I never played Red and Blue as a kid. So when I picked up an old secondhand copy of Red at a comic con, I was psyched. I wanted to have the experience that I'd missed out on. So I set a self-imposed challenge for myself. I would play through the game, but without using any modern-day guides to help me if I got stuck. I would be using only resources that would have been available in 1998, when the game was first released in the US. Here are the rules I set for myself.
  • Only resources that were available when the game was released can be used to help play it. That means no using guides on Bulbapedia, for example.
  • Asking a friend to help is OK, so long as you do not specifically ask that friend to use a resource you can't use.
  • Only use web sites that would have existed when the game came out (Google's time-restricting search tool came in handy for this)
  • If you use books to help, the older they are the better.
  • If you see information on the internet that ends up helping you, but you aren't deliberately looking for it, that's OK.

    Because of these limitations I placed on myself, it took my two years to play through the game. My final team consisted of Blastoise, Flareon, Pidgeot, Zapdos, Nidoking, and Venomoth.
 
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I've recently finished my Water monotype playthrough of Diamond. In the end, my team was Empoleon, Gyarados, Floatzel, Octillery, Pelipper and Quagsire. I only had trouble dealing with Cynthia's Milotic, otherwise it was smooth sailing, pun intended.
 
I've tried a couple nuzlockes in the past, but neither of them have ever actually been completed.

I started a Grass monotype for HeartGold, but I decided to drop it because it wasn't too interesting, and I decided to just play through HG normally first, and then maybe go back and do a nuzlocke later after I did the initial playthrough.

I also started a Naturelocke on White 2. Basically, I limited myself to Fire, Water, Psychic, Rock, and Ground type Pokemon for the game. I got pretty far in it, but I stopped around the time of Drayden's gym. I was getting kinda bored of it and lost the motivation to continue with it.

With both nuzlockes, I was kinda playing till I hit a checkpoint, then I'd stop playing till I wrote out the story, so I think that helped contribute to the loss of interest. I'm sharing my HeartGold adventure right now on the forums, and I've been a lot more interested in it since I've been writing out my story on paper and just playing through without stopping to type it all out on the forums; I basically just haven't stopped progressing to share my story online. I've found that's been working out a lot better for me, so maybe it'll inspire me to actually fully complete a nuzlocke one day.
 
Here is one I thought of.

I call it the Nlocke

What that is would be where you can only use pokemon that are in certain areas for a trial. Like how N did.

Meaning if you have just unlocked the area for the trial, you can use pokemon there.

There are 3 exceptions

1 rival battle, 2 Minas trial as you have to go around Alola, and 3 the Pokemon League.

How the pokemon league will work is that you can use any pokemon you have obtained, and you are allowed to grind.

And since you are N, you have to have a Zorua/Zoroark on you at all times.
 
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