Pokemon X Y Nuzlocke Challenge

So, I finally beat Pokemon X a while back and although there are a lot of things to do post-game, I read about something called a Nuzlocke Run and I’m incredibly intrigued.

Enough so that I’m going to start a new game (which deletes the old one, I’m told) and start afresh in something called the Nuzlocke Challenge.

The idea behind the Nuzlocke Challenge is to revisit old games and make them FRESH again. Pokemon is not a difficult game (though one could heavily argue that the UI is bad enough that it counts as infuriating enough) so only self-imposed rules turn the game into something that matters.

Most of this came up from Perry talking about his XCOM game, where if his characters died, they died forever, and how much that made him play differently and grieve when a pixel soldier named after a friend would die.

The Nuzlocke challenge is like that, with a few extra caveats (some of which I made up while chatting with Perry).

January 1st, I’m going to begin my Nuzlocke Run. The rules are as follows:

A fainted pokemon is “dead”. No takebacksies. Doesn’t matter if they’ve been with you since the very first forest and now they’re level 80. Dead. You may either release them or put them in a special memory box on the computer, but you can’t use them any more.

You have the opportunity to capture ONLY the first pokemon you encounter in a zone. If it faints or runs away, you have lost your chance. The first one you see is the only one that you can catch. This is done deliberately, to force you to use pokemon you might otherwise ignore. Really sick of Bunnelby? Too bad, he’s the only pokemon you’re getting from this zone. Do not pass go, do not sob quietly after that elusive Pikachu hiding in the bushes.

You must nickname every pokemon you capture.

You may use any pokemon gifted to you by an NPC, as well as any legendaries that cross your path. You can NOT, however, trade with friends.

WONDERTRADE RULE. Wondertrading is new in Pokemon XY, and I like the concept but don’t want to overdo it. Thus, my personal rule is that IMMEDIATELY after defeating a gym and getting a new badge, you may wondertrade ONE pokemon (captured using the Nuzlocke rules). Wondertrade is as close to gambling as this game gets. Most of the time, you get a useless pokemon, but every once in a while you catch someone breeding powerful pokemon and you get something INCREDIBLE. This gives you 8 lottery tickets during this game (nine if you count the final four, which I think is fair). If you choose not to wondertrade after getting a badge, you lose the chance to buy that lottery ticket forever.

If you black out, all pokemon in your party are “dead” but you may continue the game if you have any surviving pokemon in your box. (If you blacked out as a result of a sky battle, only the flying pokemon in your team are “dead”)

You may use both potions/item and Poke centers.

You may not reload a save game to try and rescue a now-dead pokemon.

You are allowed to run from battles.

No using the daycare to level up pokemon, but you CAN use the Exp Share.

Related posts:

Morality and Pokemon
Missing Pokemon? Meet Mino Monsters!
[Perry] The Bad Writing Challenge