What Are Your Favourite "Challenge Modes" For Replaying Games?

I have been playing pokemon for a good ten, maybe twelve years, and while the first playthrough of new games always gives the best feeling, redoing the game as a challenge is always fun. I want to know what your favourite challenge runs are, and if you recommend anything. This could range from a simple nuzlocke, to a solo run with a lackluster pokemon, or maybe something hardcore like no pokemon center healing.

I love a good nuzlocke here and there if I wanna tear my hair apart lmao. Really spices up the games and makes me use mons I'd normally never go for.

Aside from that, I also like delving deep into nuzlocke variants. I remember trying out an N-locke years ago (same rules + after a Gym is beaten you release all your Pokemon then catch another set wherever available for the next gym). Dicelockes are great too for testing your luck (rolling a 6 sided die every time you enter a new route to see what you do; they can range from being able to catch anything you want in that route to outright having to release a Pokemon when you reach the next PokeCenter oof). Games got a lot more interesting but I raged too much though, so these days I'll spare my sanity hahaha.

i tried an unevolved challenge run in X with only first stage Pokémon and that was brutal. not sure if i even ended up getting the third gym badge yet haha, it was getting tough earlier than i expected. but still fun!

Monotypes, of course being from gen 3 onwards bc of variety

I think I did a monotype once, but generally I don't go for the 'official' challenges (by which I mean all these ones with their own threads). Instead I just try to limit myself - pretty easy as I'm quite weird and obsessive - in a lot of small ways that add up to make it more challenging, such as: only using Pokémon introduced in that region (only really a limitation in Diamond / Pearl tbh); only using Poké Balls introduced in that region and the standard one (great fun in Johto, but only with a lot[/I} of clock manipulation); only using items introduced in that region; and finally - one I won't repeat - forbidding myself from grinding, only battling trainers, which led me to attack Hoenn's Elite Four something like 20 times before my team were tough enough.

I recently lost a nuzlocke at the elite four so that killed my mood with them for a while.

I might try a monotype though.