Gotta catch... As few as possible?

[Hero in a half shell]

I recently thought of a new challenge for the pokemon games, to make it more of a challenge for people replaying, like the the Nuzlocke challenge does.

The first challenge is to go through the game without catching any pokemon, you are only allowed to use the ones that are given to you.

As an example, in Crystal that means I get my starter pokemon, then after the first gym I get Togepi, after the second I get the random egg from the daycare man, after the third I can get eevee and evolve it, and a Hoothoot from a gatehouse guard. etc. You get other pokemon as well, including Shuckle, Tyrogue, and even dratini

I'm not sure how well other generations do, but it would work well in Crystal.

The other challenge is to only catch and use pokemon of your favourite type. The challenge for this comes from there being certain pokemon types that will wipe the floor with your entire team, for example, My favourite pokemon are ground type, but they will be massacred by a grass user.
This is made slightly easier by being able to also use your starter and pokemon necessary for certain HMs (a water pokemon for surf etc.).

Have you seen either of these challenges ever being attempted or proposed before, and what do you think about them?

 

[Flare Phoenix]

I've heard of one where in when a Pokemon is knocked out, it is considered dead and you have to release it. The objective is to get as far as you can before you run out of Pokemon.

 

[L3m0n_L1m3]

Honestly, both of those challenges just sound unfairly difficult. If you were only using pokemon that were given to you in, say, Fire Red, you would only have 1 pokemon for a loooong time.

 

[iseko]

I thought this was going to be a topic about STD's...

 

[Lieju]

I've played both challenges since Red.

I played the whole game through just by using Squirtle in battle. (I had other pokemon for HM)

And played the game with just poison type, which is something I've done in every gen.

 

[Im Phelpsing It]

I remember seeing something like this where a guy made a whole video series on YouTube showing his journey through one of the 4th gen games with nothing but a Starly. He never evolved it, never used anything else, and during the champion and Elite 4 fights, he basically had to reset and pray for critical hits whenever he attacked.

 

[EvilGenius666]

Yellow shouldn't be too bad for using only given Pokemon as long as you can get past Brock. You get all the other starters after beating gyms, so that's a team of Pikachu, Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle. Can't remember if there are others.

 

[Shakomaru]

I tried Nuzlocke. It's really hard, But I did get a shiny. I got killed by smeone, I just don't remember who.. D: I might try again if I can find a game I can use for it.

 

[ModsDeleteThisAccountPlease]

Hm... I love the one pokemon challenge and madkip challenge. Beat Sapphire using nothing but mudkip loaded with HM's

 

[Anaklusmos]

I once did the game with only one type, my favorite type... it was kinda unfair because my favorite type is Dragon... not for me but for everyone else, in Platinum you get Garchomp pretty quickly and he wipes the floor against anything, pseudo legendarys are awesome.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

I've heard of one where in when a Pokemon is knocked out, it is considered dead and you have to release it. The objective is to get as far as you can before you run out of Pokemon.

That's the Nuzlocke challenge, other limits of it are you also can only heal your pokemon with items, and can't use pokemon centres, and are only allowed to try and capture the first pokemon that you come across in an area, so you can't just recatch all your pokemon if you lose one. It's a really hard challenge.

Honestly, both of those challenges just sound unfairly difficult. If you were only using pokemon that were given to you in, say, Fire Red, you would only have 1 pokemon for a loooong time.

Well, they're not really as hard (and a lot simpler to understand) as the nuzlocke challenge.

As I said, for the first challenge Gold, Silver and Crystal are pretty good for giving you pokemon, as is Yellow. ok, Red and Blue and their remakes may be a bit impossible, but if people have completed them with just one pokemon, then it's not impossible.

The second challenge will just mean you have to strategise better in battles, as you can't just switch to the pokemon that does double damage and waltz through every fight. If you choose the starter which complements your team, so if I was using only ground pokemon, I would have cyndaquil (typhlosion) to deal with grass pokemon, and can use wooper (ground/water) to deal with water types. It's just a little extra challenge for people who have already completed the game.

 

[StBishop]

The first challenge is to go through the game without catching any pokemon, you are only allowed to use the ones that are given to you.

*Boots up Pokemon Yellow*

We cool.

 

[Gxas]

Pssh. These are all nothing.

Try a solo run with something ridiculous.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I never try to go under set rules in Pokemon games, since I barely play them through to the end, what's the point of making it harder for myself?

I've heard of one where in when a Pokemon is knocked out, it is considered dead and you have to release it. The objective is to get as far as you can before you run out of Pokemon.

That's the Nuzlocke Challenge.

 

[AngelicSven]

I actually did this very recently. With a solo run with Venesaur on Fire Red. Caught no poke'mon and just used lapras and hitmonchan for HMs. it was interesting.

 

[xcgillx2]

I usually have pokemon to use the HM's and level up the one I get at the start and then only capture the legendary one's like zapdos etc.

 

[coldfrog]

I've followed one of the four Nuzlocke rules: Nickname every pokemon. I did this on SoulSilver, including nicknaming EVERY UNOWN, of which I caught every dagnabed one of them. I have an unlimited source of bad puns and pop-culture references, but pokemon never learns. They think I'll run out!