r/nuzlocke

I'll go first: The number of badges you receive increases confusion damage power when boosting your Pokémon’s Attack or Defense. That happened in Emerald when Breloom got killed by a Swagger Mightyena while fighting Aqua Admin Matt.

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

Just wanted to share something that happened to me today.

Volt White 2 Hardcore Nuzlocke. Marlon, normal mode. I have a setup sweep planned with Rotom fan and a layer of spikes.

The lead Politoed uses Perish Song. No problem. Put it to sleep with Lovely kiss from my Gorebyss, She'll Smash on turn 2, then Baton Pass to Rotom.

My Rotom dies instantly.

I went to go check and see and yes this is intended behavior. Wild thing to happen. I steered out of it but wanted to share with this subreddit in case I could maybe save a run or two from passing the Perish Song bomb to their sweeper.

I'd imagine unless you've been directly punished by this, you'd have no idea, so enjoy my fun fact at the cost of my Rotom.

View Poll

I like the stakes of Nuzlockes, especially permanent death, but I’ve never really liked how restrictive the catch rules can be.
I still want to catch Pokémon I like and actually build my own team. So I came up with a simpler challenge that keeps the tension of permanent death while putting the restriction on party size instead of which Pokémon you’re allowed to catch.

I’m calling it the 3-to-4 Death Run.

Rules
-Battle Style must be SET.
-You have 3 dedicated party members.
-Every dedicated party member must have a nickname.
-If a dedicated Pokémon faints, it is permanently dead and must be boxed or released.
-If your entire dedicated party wipes in a battle, the run is over. You cannot rebuild your team from Pokémon in the PC.
-Whenever you leave a Pokémon Center, you must leave with exactly 3 dedicated Pokémon.
-Whenever you visit a Poké Mart, you must also return to 3 dedicated Pokémon if there is a Pokémon Center available in the same area. If there isn’t one nearby, ignore this rule until your next Pokémon Center.
-You can catch any Pokémon you want. There are no encounter or route restrictions.
-Pokémon caught while you’re away from a Pokémon Center can travel with you, even if that temporarily puts you above 3. The next time you visit a Pokémon Center or applicable Poké Mart, you have to choose your 3 again.
-Every Gym must be challenged with exactly 3 dedicated Pokémon.
-Items, grinding, switching, held items, evolutions, etc. are all allowed.

The Elite Four Rule
Once you reach the Pokémon League, you finally get to choose 4 dedicated Pokémon.
Those four take on the Elite Four and Champion, with all normal death rules still active.
If you defeat the Elite Four and Champion, you’ve earned your fourth party slot permanently. For the rest of the save, your dedicated party can contain 4 Pokémon instead of 3.

So the challenge progresses with you:
Three for the journey.
Four for the Elite Four.
Survive the League. Earn your fourth.

That’s basically it.

I wanted something with the stakes and attachment of a Nuzlocke without having to follow a giant list of restrictions or being told I can’t use a Pokémon I actually want because it wasn’t my first encounter on Route 6.
I’m starting one in FireRed now. Curious what other Pokémon players think of the rules. ☠️🔥

So I'm currently playing Heart Gold, and just started the post-game, planning to go beat Red. As I've already played Fire Red - I've caught pokémon in most of the Kanto routes before. However there are different pokémon available, and plenty of time have passed if we follow lore, as I bring over the offspring of the champions to the second leg.

I know it's my run my rules, just wanted to hear how you handle this?

Hey, Kai again. I’m the guy who’s spent way too many years making Pokémon Platinum multiplayer.

The response to my last post was way bigger than I expected, so thank you. I read pretty much everything people had to say.

There was also a lot I couldn’t fit into the first trailer, so I made another one.

New trailer!!
https://youtu.be/UqJLrp0AjTY

Every window you see in the trailer is a separate copy of the game running at the same time, so you’re actually seeing each player’s own screen. (RIP my pc)

This one shows a lot more of what Platinum Together actually has now: trading, trade evolutions, trainer selection, multiplayer Nuzlocke modes, and the Online city where you can run into other players.

Beta signups are open now
The closed beta starts October 19, and there are only a limited number of spots.

You can sign up through the Discord here:
https://platinumtogether.online/

The whole point of the beta is to find the stuff I missed before a wider release, so I’m fully expecting people to break things.

Also, since people asked about this a lot on the last post: around 40% of the code was made/discovered with LOCAL LLM AI, same as before.

Small note: I am looking for community helpers and moderators, feel free to join and ask.

I’ll be in the comments if anyone has questions.

I know the rules of soul links. However a friend told me that you're also supposed to generally play with no repeated primary typing(for example if I catch a primary water type, he can't have a primary water type) and that the gender has to be different on the pairs(if theres is a male mine has to be female) obv my nuzlocke my rules, im just wondering if thats how its "supposed to be done"

Also you're also supposed to lick the same starter in a row?(if they pick the middle I also pick the middle) in randomisers anyway.

That is all