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Challenge Playthroughs

CrashBash

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I'm sure everyone, or nearly everyone, has their own main playthrough of a Pokemon game where they just play normally, but what about playthroughs with different challenges? I know there are the Nuzlockes and the various spin-offs, but how about other playthroughs, that limit the Pokemon or even the types you can use?

For funzies, we could suggest various challenge playthroughs and see if anyone has ever tried them. I'll throw up an example.

NAME: The Endemic Playthrough
REGION: Alola (Kalos could work, but Alola is easier)
GUIDELINES: A player must pick one of the four islands. Then, upon starting the game, you must only use Pokemon that are native to that island. For example, Toucannon can be used across all islands, but Raichu is only usable on a Melemele playthrough.
For any playthrough that is not a Melemele playthrough, the starter can be used at first, but must be removed as soon as possible.

Has anyone ever tried anything like this, or have any of their own challenges?
 
Well, I'm trying an "only one Pokémon" challenge passing through all gens and using all Pokémon and meaningful (for me) alternate formes eventually (I would do one for each Rotom, but not one for each Sawsbuck, for example).

Since I don't have LGPE, the games I'm using are Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, Fire Red, Platinum, Heart Gold/Soul Silver, Black/White, Black 2/White 2, X/Y, Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Sun/Moon and Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon. I alternate between either version in the case it doesn't have a third version.

Right now, I'm using Beedrill in Omega Ruby and I'm finishing Routes 129 to 132 and beat the golems before fighting Wallace.
 
When I do challenge runs they tend to only be Nuzlockes since they have a solid set of rules that are easy for me to remember. I'm not very good at coming up with my own ideas for challenge runs though.
 
I also enjoy doing nuzlocke, although I feel like it's become tedious in the newer generations.

I one time played through firered using only my Blastoise. That was... Interesting, to say the least.

The one thing I did make up was because I wanted to "nuzlocke" Colosseum and/or xd, but since the encounter mechanics in that game are different, I am definitely up a new challenge. Basically every time I encounter a shadow Pokemon, I would flip a coin. Heads, you can catch it. Tails, sorry. Out of luck. And those results carry through to second encounters of the same Pokemon. So like, if you miss Lovrinna's Delcatty in the lab, you can catch it later at Cerise Island. But if you got tails for something and encounter it again, you still can't catch it. I called it (quite creatively) the "Coinlocke."

PokeSpots are treated like regular nuzlockes, so you get 3 freebies from there basically.

Oh, death after fainting rule still applies.
 
I was thinking of doing a run in which my Pokemon only use three moves instead of four. the fourth move, whatever it is, would be off-limits or would be deleted. If they use a newly learned fourth move, then another one must deleted or stopped being used. I'm unsure if a Pokemon that only learns one or two moves would be allowed on my team.
 
Oh man that actually gives me an idea for a challenge I could do. I have a bad habit of having only attacking moves on my pokemon. I could do a challenge where at least one of the 4 moves has to be a status move if possible.
 
Besides all the locke-versions (I particularly enjoy wonderlockes), I really enjoy monotype runs. I played through Moon with a mono-dark team and X with a mono-grass team.
 
Monotype run. I did each generation with 1 type except yellow because I started it out like a nuzlocke and gave up and just finsihed the game normally.

But heres what I did
Crystal water
Emerald grass
Platnuim fire
Black dragon
X fighting
Ultra moon fairy

I cheated a little and used giratina in platnuim and also gave myself fire types I wouldnt have access to normally like camerupt and chimchar with thunder punch. There was one particular fight in platnuim that was insane, on one route it started raining and There was a forced double battle. I lost and had to fight them separately.
 
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 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'll do it once I reach Johto in my hilariously long challenge.
 
Whenever I notice a certain type that doesn't have a notable specialist in some regions, I often get the urge to use that type in a monotype challenge throughout that region. Poison naturally comes to mind as a frequent thought for these sorts of things.
 
It isn't a playthrough, but I have been giving myself challenges on Battle Tree recently to make it more interesting. Mostly mono-type.

With an all Ice/Hail Team (Alolan Sandslash, Alolan Ninetales, Froslass, Glaceon), I got 16.

With an all Water/Rain Team (Pelipper, Mega Swampert, Blastoise, Kingdra), I am on a 32 streak and still going. Ironically, with this run, the computer has thrown several all water teams at me, which have been kind of difficult, though Shiinotic is my archnemesis at the moment.
 
I've done a Mono-type run for Black2 using only Water-types, and got up to the 6th badge, but gave up after that because I lost interest.
 

This is an interesting very versatile web space that i have found only recently! It could for example provide a specific team to work up to, even if some Pokemon were not available until much later in the playthrough!
 
I actually did what you call an Endemic play through on my re-run of Sun last year, it was more challenging, but not very fun I admit :/

What I did enjoy was a Cynthia-run: start wit ha gible and riolu lvl 1, and then barrel through the game like Cynthia barrelled through challengers :D of course, only pokémon from her various teams are allowed, which means having to do some transfers here and there. But it was fun :)
 
I personally believe Nuzlockes are hot garbage spawned from a meme and boil down to just keeping your Pokemon healed and not get wrecked by crits.

I was doing one on OR where I only use Pokemon that are under BST 300, just to try to make that game difficult. More notably though unseen, I was doing a classic Diablo style challenge called "Living Off The Land" on Yellow (choosing this specifically for a couple reasons) where town services such as Centers and Marts are unusable/limited. Mostly stopped because of lack of time at the time, but if anyone's interested, I could start these up again.
 
Atm I'm doing a modified Nuzlocke in Ultra Moon. Rules:

  • If a Pokemon dies, it must be released
  • You can only catch & keep one Pokemon from any one area (as defined by the map), but you can choose which one.
  • You can only use Pokemon introduced in the 7th gen (including Alola forms)
  • Breeding is allowed, but the hatched Pokemon counts as your Pokemon for the route it hatches on
  • Pokemon you haven't caught yourself can be used to find Pokemon, but not for battle/as part of the challenge e.g. you can transfer up a Synchronise Ralts to encounter Pokemon of specific natures, but that Ralts isn't allowed to battle; it's basically a ride Pokemon
 
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Atm I'm doing a modified Nuzlocke in Ultra Moon. Rules:

  • If a Pokemon dies, it must be released
  • You can only catch & keep one Pokemon from any one area (as defined by the map), but you can choose which one.
  • You can only use Pokemon introduced in the 7th gen (including Alola forms)
  • Breeding is allowed, but the hatched Pokemon counts as your Pokemon for the route it hatches on
  • Pokemon you haven't caught yourself can be used to find Pokemon, but not for battle/as part of the challenge e.g. you can transfer up a Synchronise Ralts to encounter Pokemon of specific natures, but that Ralts isn't allowed to battle; it's basiclaly a ride Pokemon
Can you use Cubone/Pikachu/Exeggcute because they evolve into Alolan Forms?
 
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