u/PreparationSolid1083

As someone who has been attempting and completing nuzlockes of all kinds for well over half a decade now, I have come to the conclusion that (at least for me), nothing else compares to how engaged and excited I get when playing through a hardcore nuzlocke challenge.

Naturally, I started out with the mainline games (FR/LG is great for beginners, HG/SS is fun, Emerald, Platinum and the Gen 5 games are incredible games as is and are really well balanced for nuzlocking due to available encounters, reasonably difficult bosses, etc.).

However, it was not until I began nuzlocking ROM hacks that I realized just how much I was missing. Gaia was the first one I can remember beating, and it was not easy (the addition of Mega Evos made it so unique and interesting), and since I have moved on to harder hacks such as the Drayano hacks (I’ve beaten Firered Omega and Sacred Gold, currently almost done RenPlat and Blaze Black 2 Redux). And I must say, the added layer of difficulty, necessary resource management, and careful strategic fight planning make these games simply unreal to nuzlocke, they are not for the faint of heart however!

My point here is, the dopamine rushes I get from nuzlocking (in particular nuzlocking hard hacks) doesn’t compare to much else I’ve experienced in my many years of gaming, and I believe that is the main reason why I always come back to nuzlocking. I have so much fun with it and I can’t ever see myself stopping, would love to start streaming/creating content about it because I personally find learning new strategies from creators such as PChal, Squerk, and Drxx really helps me out a ton when it comes to my own runs.

Thanks for reading, I’m sure y’all have had similar experiences with nuzlockes and I would love to hear about how y’all got started with doing challenge runs, what games/hacks you are currently playing, and anything else nuzlocke related you’d like to share!

Happy nuzlocking,

- Lee

Hey y’all. First ever post in this community after actively viewing it consistently for years lol. And I just wanna say I finally (after about 8-10 attempts) beat my first ever Drayano hack w/ hardcore rules (I use PChal’s ruleset - he has a vid w/ a link to a doc outlining them I highly recommend). My furthest run prior to this was all the way up to the Silver fight pre-E4, with nearly an entire box full of dead mons, making this win all the more satisfying! Read on if you wanna hear some highlights from the run, and some tips for your own if you feel up to it! (Seriously, cannot recommend this hack enough - shoutout to Dray and team I had so much fun with it!)

1st pic - HOF Team (Dragonite did unfortunately die to a Stone Edge crit from Lance’s Aerodactyl, but he did pretty much solo Koga, Bruno, and Karen w/ Sub-DDance, Alakazam solo’d Will w/ Sub-Calm Mind-Shadow Ball, Lance was a team effort). MVP of the run was definitely Infernape for sticking around so long and how good fire/fighting STAB is in this hack.

2nd pic - Box of ‘live’ mons that I used throughout. In particular Raticate and Glaceon put in work early game, the gift eeveelution before the first gym is unreal sweeping falkner and raticate w/ Swords dance-Sub-Crunch sweeps Morty w/ ease.

3rd pic - A little embarrassed to post this but FUCK it lmao. This is my box of dead mons. 19 total, better than previous runs of this hack for sure but MY GOODNESS the amount of heartbreaking deaths due to crits and missing moves was unreal in this run, really put me in some tough spots and made me think, it is essentially a puzzle in this way. Regardless, of these encounters the most useful until their respective demises were Feraligatr, Blissey, Spiritomb, Charizard, Lucario, Aggron, Ninetales, Scizor and of course Gyarados.

General tips/tricks:

- Guaranteed encounters thru gifts, statics and encounter manipulation such as Spiritomb, Kanto/Sinnoh starters, Riolu, Rhyhorn (in-game trade for Gligar), Red Gyarados, Togekiss and the aforementioned pre-falkner eeveelution are all VERY good - do not feel guilty using them. Even the gift Pikachu in Cianwood w/ Surf and Fly is quite useful. Kadabra can also be manipulated on Route 34 along w/ other mons on other routes (docs and other posts detail these!)

- Sub/Setup is BROKEN in this game. Got me through some otherwise really tough fights w/ ease. Thief leftovers from Munchlax on Route 42 to make it even better!

- PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Do not enter a single boss fight without first optimizing your team, items, and movesets and leveling up to the cap. Use EVs. And do not blindly walk into an encounter on any route without first checking to see if there is any manipulation available! (Ex. Route 34, you could get Ditto if you blindly encounter instead of manipping for Kadabra, all the power to you if you want the randomness but in a hack this difficult I am doing whatever it takes to win without breaking the rules).

- If you read this far, gimme a shout. Maybe one day I’ll live out my childhood dream of being a Pokemon youtuber/streamer lol. Cheers and keep grinding folks! When your back is against the wall in any run of any game, adapt, overcome, and create legends! That is what this is all truly about!

OPINION: Nuzlocking is possibly the most fun gaming experience out there

Finally Beat Sacred Gold w/ HC Rules