Chit-Chat: Challenges Ideas & Discussion

Forgive me if I'm late to the party on this, but what happened to the Hall of Fame thread that was in Challenge Logs?

I haven't been around for quite a while (read: months and months), so I have no way of knowing if its disappearance was a result of the forum overhaul or if it was gone before that. I know Necrum was the one who started the thread, did they maybe delete it a while ago and I just haven't checked in a while?

I was able to find a snapshot of it through the Wayback Machine, so all is not lost if it's gone on purpose. I would be sad if this was intentional though, I took pride in keeping my post in it updated and it was nice to have after the completed challenges part of profiles was taken out.

Halfcadence said:

Forgive me if I'm late to the party on this, but what happened to the Hall of Fame thread that was in Challenge Logs?

I haven't been around for quite a while (read: months and months), so I have no way of knowing if its disappearance was a result of the forum overhaul or if it was gone before that. I know Necrum was the one who started the thread, did they maybe delete it a while ago and I just haven't checked in a while?

I was able to find a snapshot of it through the Wayback Machine, so all is not lost if it's gone on purpose. I would be sad if this was intentional though, I took pride in keeping my post in it updated and it was nice to have after the completed challenges part of profiles was taken out.

Click to expand...

It wasn't removed on purpose. It must have been lost somewhere during the transfer alongside few other threads and posts. As far as I know admins are working on bringing everything back, but I'll let them know about it. Thanks for pointing that out.

EDIT: Looks like Hall of Fame is up again and it should be up to date.

Raichu said:

Welcome to the Challenges DCC!

Here you can brainstorm around ideas for new challenges, discuss how your current challenges are going, and suggest new things for the forum in general. Have fun :)


★ Be nice~

★ Don't post logs here - that's what the other threads in this forum and its Challenge Logs subforum are for~​

post by 11wildy:
Maybe it'd be possible to do a challenge competition of some kind? Possibly with small fun prizes to win? Got the idea from reddit, where I've also joined in a competition. It was basically a Nuzlocke, where you could earn points for doing certain tasks in-game (Like defeating a gym without type advantage). Another competition is ongoing right now and is more like a cagelocke, where everyone plays through the game simultaneously, has some battles on the way and at the end a tournament with the team everyone has created (also with nuzlocke rules)

I think it'd bring people together against each other quite well :)

Click to expand...

Nuzloke?
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showt...+PokeCommunity+Forums)&utm_content=FeedBurner

A list of ideas:

1. A challenge based of Pokken Tournament could work, where you can only use pokemon in that game and their moveset must be completely special or completely physical... idk. It'd be a cool run if it could be expanded upon more.

2. How about the Ranger Challenge? Once one of your pokemon runs out of health it dies, and no healing items are allowed meaning that it will most likely inevitably die. You can catch as many pokemon as you want, but only one of each species, even if you've had that species die in the past. In the games with a large amount of pokemon there could be a limit to each route.

3. A challenge where your pokemon hate each other! It could be a nuzlocke but when one of your pokemon levels up past your max pokemon's level, they fight. You roll a die: 1-3 the higher level pokemon kills the pokemon it just surpassed, 4-5 the previous level-setter kills the new one, and 6 they end up in a tie but cannot ever switch into each other.

Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee nuzocke

I can expand more on challenge difficulty if this gets accepted if the basic nuzlocke is too easy for some

rules:
-The first pokemon you encounter on each route is the only one you can keep for that route. If it flees, too bad. A harder challenge would be to limit the amount of pokeballs you can use per encounter. To keep it random, the first pokemon that shows up that is either swirling red or blue is the one that is considered your first encounter.
-Nickname all pokemon
-When a pokemon faints, it dies forever- send it to Oak and force feed the carcass(candies) to your pokemon and MAKE THEM SUFFER FROM YOUR FAILURE TO PROTECT THEIR FRIEND (or get a boost in stats...)
-any pokemon can be caught, but any aside from your first encounter must be sent to the professor or boxed. Note that you cannot use the candy from them if you send them to the prof.
-no gift pokemon. Yes, this includes your starter. They are OP. Besides, if your starter faints, it kinda breaks the fourth wall and stays with you. Just think of it as a companion that doesn't want to fight.

There's not much more I can think of other than creating additional rulesets for the hardcore players such as only two pokeball throws per encounter or something.

edit: Another completely different challenge: Sudden Deathlocke. After catching a full team with standard nuzlocke rules you cannot catch any more for the rest of the game.

slyfox198 said:

Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee nuzocke

I can expand more on challenge difficulty if this gets accepted if the basic nuzlocke is too easy for some

rules:
-The first pokemon you encounter on each route is the only one you can keep for that route. If it flees, too bad. A harder challenge would be to limit the amount of pokeballs you can use per encounter. To keep it random, the first pokemon that shows up that is either swirling red or blue is the one that is considered your first encounter.
-Nickname all pokemon
-When a pokemon faints, it dies forever- send it to Oak and force feed the carcass(candies) to your pokemon and MAKE THEM SUFFER FROM YOUR FAILURE TO PROTECT THEIR FRIEND (or get a boost in stats...)
-any pokemon can be caught, but any aside from your first encounter must be sent to the professor or boxed. Note that you cannot use the candy from them if you send them to the prof.
-no gift pokemon. Yes, this includes your starter. They are OP. Besides, if your starter faints, it kinda breaks the fourth wall and stays with you. Just think of it as a companion that doesn't want to fight.

There's not much more I can think of other than creating additional rulesets for the hardcore players such as only two pokeball throws per encounter or something.

edit: Another completely different challenge: Sudden Deathlocke. After catching a full team with standard nuzlocke rules you cannot catch any more for the rest of the game.

Click to expand...

Sounds like these could just be added to the normal Nuzlocke thread since I don't see enough interest in just those for a separate thread. Also don't see the point to a) catching more pokemon than your first encounter, and b) no starter. They may be good but they don't have stats through the roof or anything.

Just some thoughts. I know the LP games are a but different than the standard games so I understand it will take some adjustment to the normal ruleset to make it viable.

Speaking of challenge ideas, I do have one, but it's still unknown whether it has been taken by someone else or not. This challenge is called String Hexalocke (a.k.a. String Hexad-locke / Sextet-locke, as sextet and hexad are the same thing). A string sextet in real life is a group of six people playing string instruments, especially from the violin family. This challenge tries to emulate the typical string sextet which consists of two violins, two violas, and two cellos.

Rules:
1. Only first encounter per area can be caught.

• Exception: in the case of Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee, only first catch per area can be used instead. Subsequent catches are only allowed for grinding due to the game mechanics and they must be released ASAP.
• Dupes clause is recommended here, but with another exception in Let's Go: since your starter can't evolve, a second Pikachu/Eevee (depending on your game) counts for the first encounter, but a third one no longer counts.

2. You must name everything useable (as mentioned in rule #1).
3. Just like the real-life string sextet, the maximum capacity of your party is six: 2 violinists (violin players), 2 violists (viola players), and 2 cellists (cello players). And no, this isn't a Wedlocke, so you're allowed to shuffle the members around as long as they don't break the formation. As for which Pokemon is which, see here:

• The types used in this classification can be either primary or secondary or Shuffle-style (as in Pokemon types in Pokemon Shuffle). Whichever you use, just be consistent throughout the whole game.
• Groupings may change depending on evolution (e.g. Eevee) or item-induced type change (e.g. Arceus and Silvally) or form change (e.g. Oricorio).
• That being said, unless you either play Let's Go Eevee or randomize your game, your starter is guaranteed to be a violinist. Eevee will be a violist instead and your starting instrument for randomizers matches whatever Pokemon you get.
• This is why I recommend dupes clause; you don't want to get too many violists from catching too many local birds and/or rodents, do you? :wink-right-eye: (no viola jokes intended for orchestral musicians out there, don't worry :wink-right-eye:)

Examples (colour-coded for your convenience) :
4. A Pokemon breaks its instrument upon fainting. If that happens, it must be retired. (this is basically the "death" rule in a regular Nuzlocke, just worded differently)

• Exception: Said Pokemon gets a new instrument (read: revived) when auto-heal ensues with no access to PC box (perhaps in a cutscene or something).

5. Gifts and eggs given by NPCs may or may not be used. Just do how you see fit.
6. Shiny and legendary Pokemon can be considered as virtuosos, so they can be caught regardless of rule #1. However, only a virtuoso per instrument can be in the party at the same time (total up to 3 virtuosos).

• Optional: The legendary part may be omitted, thus making this rule a limited shiny clause.
• Example: If you happened to have a shiny Slurpuff as the violist virtuoso in your party, you can't use Xerneas (another violist virtuoso) alongside the shiny Slurpuff. Yveltal still can be used though, because it's a cellist virtuoso, not violist.

7. HM buddies can be caught only if you absolutely have to. Their placement must follow rule #3 and must not be used for battles if they break rule #1 and/or #4.
8. All these rules only kick in after receiving your first Pokeballs.

• Exception: rule #3, it kicks in as soon as you get your starter instead

I've been thinking of something new and interesting to spice things up, and I think I have a promising lead with the Lottery Challenge.

You start the game without any specific rules. Of course, things that make the game too easy (mainly using Legendary Pokemon, trades for anything other than evolution, and Gen 6/7 Exp Share) are heavily frowned upon. Also no hacks and no glitches, of course.

Every time you beat a Gym, you get an extra restriction – a Challenge Element. Every time you reach a new city with a Gym, you have to beat the Gym before moving on to anything else. If you fail to do so, you can only train on routes you have visited before. For example, in Kanto, you can choose whether you go to Saffron or Fuchsia first after beating Erika, but once you reach either of those cities you have to beat the Gym there before visiting the other city.

Which Elements you get is random (use the number generator on random.org). There are two modes, Planning Mode (easy) and Full Random Mode (hard). In Planning Mode, you generate 8 numbers before you start and you can plan a strategy immediately. In Full Random Mode, you generate a new number every time you beat a Gym (no duplicate numbers), so you will get unpleasant surprises!

I've thought of a number of Challenge Elements:

1. Can only use normal Poke Balls
2. Can no longer use items in battle to heal your Pokemon (Held items are fair game)
3. Can no longer use held items
4. Can no longer use X Items and similar battle items (Dire Hit etc)
5. Can no longer use items outside of battle to heal your Pokemon
6. Can only use each Pokemon Center you haven't visited once (and no PC you have)
7. Can no longer use Grass, Fire or Water type Pokemon
8. Can no longer use Psychic, Ghost or Dark type Pokemon
9. Can no longer use Electric, Ice, Dragon or Fairy type Pokemon
10. Can no longer use Flying, Fighting, Bug or Poison type Pokemon
11. Can no longer use Rock, Ground or Steel type Pokemon
12. Can no longer evolve Pokemon
13. Can no longer use gift Pokemon (including starters and prizes), ingame trades or stationaries
14. Must use SET mode
15. Can only capture one Pokemon per route you haven't done so (and none anywhere else)
16. Must release/permanently box a Pokemon when it faints
17. Can no longer capture duplicate Pokemon
18. Can no longer buy items at Poke Marts
19. Can no longer run from wild encounters or buy Repels (finding and using Repels is fair game)
20. Can no longer use TMs or move tutors (including the relearner)
21. Can no longer use Normal type moves
22. Can no longer use status moves such as Toxic and Spore (secondary effects are fair game)
23. Can no longer use stat changing moves such as Growth and Growl
24. Can no longer use moves with less than 100% accuracy
25. Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power
26. Can no longer use moves with more than 90 Base Power
27. Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion

Of course, many elements come from existing challenges such as Nuzlocke, Time Warp, Scramble et cetera. Do you guys have any suggestions on Challenge Elements to add? Or maybe alterations to existing ones?

Aleimon Thimble said:

Stiff

Click to expand...

This sounds a lot like few of our last events and I love it. I think few more rules could be something like this:

• Can only use Gift Pokémon (including Starters)
• Can only use Pokémon that weight more than X
• Can only use Pokémon higher than X
• Any Pokémon that is put asleep/paralyzed must be permanently boxed
• Can only use Pokémon with the same Body Style
• Can only use Pokémon of the same color
• Can only use Pokémon from the same Egg Group

In the said events, players also rolled 1 rule at the start of the game, which imho makes the game interesting right from the start.

Janp said:

This sounds a lot like few of our last events and I love it. I think few more rules could be something like this:

• Can only use Gift Pokémon (including Starters)
• Can only use Pokémon that weight more than X
• Can only use Pokémon higher than X
• Any Pokémon that is put asleep/paralyzed must be permanently boxed
• Can only use Pokémon with the same Body Style
• Can only use Pokémon of the same color
• Can only use Pokémon from the same Egg Group

In the said events, players also rolled 1 rule at the start of the game, which imho makes the game interesting right from the start.

Click to expand...

I agree, I think players should start out with a rule right away.
You could also try making the rules more general, and have the player roll again to make the rule more specific, to get greater variety without adding a bunch more rules (e.g., for Janp's suggestion of "Can only use Pokemon that weigh more than X" the player could roll again (with max and min set to a reasonable range) to determine the weight)

Janp said:

This sounds a lot like few of our last events and I love it.

Click to expand...

Can you give me a link to those events?

I think few more rules could be something like this:

• Can only use Gift Pokémon (including Starters)
• Can only use Pokémon that weight more than X
• Can only use Pokémon higher than X
• Any Pokémon that is put asleep/paralyzed must be permanently boxed
• Can only use Pokémon with the same Body Style
• Can only use Pokémon of the same color
• Can only use Pokémon from the same Egg Group

Click to expand...

'Can only use Gift Pokemon' wouldn't work, since I already have a challenge element that forbids it, so there's a decent chance the challenge becomes impossible. I think 'Any Pokemon asleep/paralyzed must be permanently boxed' is too harsh - unlike fainting, there's not always a way of knowing that something is coming your way, and even if there is, how do you prevent it?

The other five could work. :) Maybe I'll reword the last three so it says 'Can't use two Pokemon of the same X' so that they're not too restrictive.

In the said events, players also rolled 1 rule at the start of the game, which imho makes the game interesting right from the start.

Click to expand...

I agree, that's better. The only (small) downside is that you end up with 9 rules instead of a more even 8 rules, but that's fine.

Aleimon Thimble said:

Can you give me a link to those events?

Click to expand...

Sure. There were 2 of them. Halloween one was really popular. The other one was Christmas Event, that sadly wasn't that popular. But we didn't reveal rule list in neither of them. I hope ddrox won't mind if I reveal them here:

Aleimon Thimble said:

'Can only use Gift Pokemon' wouldn't work, since I already have a challenge element that forbids it, so there's a decent chance the challenge becomes impossible.

Click to expand...

Maybe adding rule that forbids players rolling both could work.

Aleimon Thimble said:

I think 'Any Pokemon asleep/paralyzed must be permanently boxed' is too harsh - unlike fainting, there's not always a way of knowing that something is coming your way, and even if there is, how do you prevent it?

Click to expand...

I meant it as 2 rules. One with sleep and one with paralyzation. I remember having the sleeping one during my Halloween Event run and it wasn't that bad as one would though. I would say it forces you to plan ahead and use Pokémon with abilities that prevent these statuses, when opponent's Pokémon could inflict them on you.

For the "no gift" and "only gift" rule you can either forbade both of them from being in play or make it so if one rule conflicts with another rule the latter rule can overide it idk. Whichever works better.

Either way this sounds like a really fun challenge!!

Janp, thanks for the input! I really like these two from the Halloween one, so I'll add those.

Janp said:

[*]No-Slot Hex - Your maximum party size is reduced by 1.
[*]Too scared to move - Your Pokémon can now only have 3 damaging moves

Click to expand...

I also like the idea of giving each element a unique name, but I'll think of some names that are not as much connected to Halloween or Christmas :)

Maybe adding rule that forbids players rolling both could work.

Click to expand...

Meh. To be honest I'm still not convinced that it's a good idea. 'Only gift Pokemon' can range from pretty doable (Kanto with the Game Corner) to 'have fun only playing with your starter since Wynaut and Castform suck' on R/S/E, which is pretty boring if you ask me. It should be more fun if you get restrictions, not less..

I meant it as 2 rules. One with sleep and one with paralyzation. I remember having the sleeping one during my Halloween Event run and it wasn't that bad as one would though. I would say it forces you to plan ahead and use Pokémon with abilities that prevent these statuses, when opponent's Pokémon could inflict them on you.

Click to expand...

Alright, that's a little bit better. I still think Paralysis is too harsh, but Sleep only could be okay.

New list:

1. Can only use normal Poke Balls
2. Can no longer use items in battle to heal your Pokemon (Held items are fair game)
3. Can no longer use held items
4. Can no longer use X Items and similar battle items (Dire Hit etc)
5. Can no longer use items outside of battle to heal your Pokemon
6. Can only use each Pokemon Center you haven't visited once (and no PC you have)
7. Can no longer use Grass, Fire or Water type Pokemon
8. Can no longer use Psychic, Ghost or Dark type Pokemon
9. Can no longer use Electric, Ice, Dragon or Fairy type Pokemon
10. Can no longer use Flying, Fighting, Bug or Poison type Pokemon
11. Can no longer use Rock, Ground or Steel type Pokemon
12. Can no longer evolve Pokemon
13. Can no longer use gift Pokemon (including starters and prizes), ingame trades or stationaries
14. Must use SET mode
15. Can only capture one Pokemon per route you haven't done so (and none anywhere else)
16. Must release/permanently box a Pokemon when it faints
17. Can no longer capture duplicate Pokemon
18. Can no longer buy items at Poke Marts
19. Can no longer run from wild encounters or buy Repels (finding and using Repels is fair game)
20. Can no longer use TMs or move tutors (including the relearner)
21. Can no longer use Normal type moves
22. Can no longer use status moves such as Toxic and Spore (secondary effects are fair game)
23. Can no longer use stat changing moves such as Growth and Growl
24. Can no longer use moves with less than 100% accuracy
25. Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power
26. Can no longer use moves with more than 90 Base Power
27. Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion
28. Can only use Pokemon with a height above 3 feet
29. Can only use Pokemon with a weight below 220 lbs
30. Can no longer use two or more Pokemon from the same Egg Group
31. Can no longer use two or more Pokemon with the same Body Style
32. Can no longer use two or more Pokemon with the same color
33. Must release/permanently box a Pokemon when it falls asleep
34. Can no longer use four direct damaging moves on a single Pokemon
35. Can only use five Pokemon on a team instead of six

Lottery Challenge - playtesting report

I have been playtesting the Lottery Challenge with the 35 challenge elements in my previous post. I decided on Soul Silver, since I haven't played it in a while. The first number I got was number 5, which means I could not heal outside of battle during the entire game.

Since the first rule was probably one of the easier ones, I was a bit scared of the next rule that might come up, so I decided to just catch as many different usable Pokemon as possible before the first Gym. I caught Hoothoot, Geodude, Gastly, Wooper, Bellsprout and Mareep, trained Gastly a bit in Sprout Tower, also trained Geodude until it learned Rock Throw, and went to Falkner. Geodude destroyed him, so the first badge was mine. The second number I got was number 8, outlawing Ghost, Dark and Psychic type Pokemon. Sadly, I had to box the Gastly.

I decided to train Mareep and Bellsprout, since my remaining team of Cyndaquil and Geodude was pretty weak to Water. With these four and the Togepi egg I traversed Union Cave. The 'no healing outside of battle' rule didn't really bother me too much. With Mareep, Cyndaquil and Geodude in my team the second Gym was pretty easy, so I defeated Bugsy and got my third challenge element, number 23. Now I could no longer use stat changing moves, so I had to overwrite Growth on Bellsprout, Smokescreen on Quilava and a couple of others as quickly as possible. Luckily, I didn't make the mistake of actually using the moves until I could delete them not much later.

I got through Ilex Forest and reached Goldenrod, where I sadly could not capture Abra or Drowzee since they were outlawed by Element 8. I did capture a Poliwag and a Zubat in Ilex Forest, and I decided to train them both, first with the Day Care and then on their own. I added them to my team and challenged and defeated Whitney when everyone was around level 20 (Quilava, Flaaffy, Geodude, Bellsprout, Poliwag, Zubat). Geodude was the MVP here with Selfdestruct finishing off Miltank. I got element number 17 after this Gym, one of the more forgiving ones – no more duplicate Pokemon. No problem.

After this I managed to get one of the rarest encounters in the game, a Yanma on the route above Goldenrod. Naturally I captured it, as well as a Scyther in the Bug Catching Contest. They were both put in the Day Care before I continued my journey. Bellsprout and Zubat evolved around the time I captured Sudowoodo. Upon reaching Ecruteak, I was going to train a bit in Mt Mortar before challenging the Gym, but after beating one or two trainers there I decided that it was against the spirit of the challenge, so I challenged Morty with a slightly underleveled team. Golbat did a lot of work with Bite, but still fell to Gengar. Eventually Flaaffy's Thunder Wave combined with slowly whittling down its HP was successful. I rolled element number 22, outlawing status inducing moves, so that was the last time I used Thunder Wave. Poliwag's Hypnosis also had to go. Since Weepinbell was now almost completely useless, I just dropped it completely and continued with my team of 5.

I tried to check if I could somehow enter Blackthorn early to reach the Move Deleter, but got stuck in Mahogany (I didn't remember the exact storyline tbh). The Red Gyarados was also still off-limits. Naturally, I went west to Olivine and then Cianwood, trained my team a bit in the Lighthouse and around the Whirl Islands, and challenged the Cianwood Gym. After beating Chuck, the game dropped the bomb on me. Element 12: can no longer evolve Pokemon. That's not something you want to see with a level 29 Flaaffy, a Poliwhirl that longs for a Water Stone, a Graveler that wants to be traded and a Golbat holding a Soothe Bell on your team. In fact, since my fifth member was Quilava, I was either going to be stuck with all middle evolutions or I would need to overhaul my team completely. Interestingly, with elements 8 and 12 now active, this is almost a full Christian Challenge, except I can still use Ghost/Dark/Psychic moves and I don't have to care about the more obscure rules.

The first thing I did was Fly back to Goldenrod and pick up Scyther from the Day Care. Scyther without Swords Dance was going to be a bit sad, but Technician-boosted moves could still do some damage even without stat-ups. It had Agility, which was illegal, so I gave it U-Turn with a TM instead. I also picked up Yanma, even though it kind of sucks without evolving, but I didn't really have anything better at that point. I decided to drop Flaaffy and Quilava, since they were going to be useless without evolving and they were my weakest team members already, having almost no good moves.

When I was grinding Scyther on the water routes near Cianwood, it occurred to me that I had captured Tentacool, but not Tentacruel, so I could add one of those to my team without having to evolve it. The highest leveled ones could be obtained south of Violet, with a maximum of 36, so I Repelled with my Golbat (level 28) in front. It took some time, but I found a lv 36 Tentacruel eventually. I removed Poliwhirl from my team for it. Tentacruel had one illegal move, Barrier, which I replaced with Surf right away.

With Tentacruel now on my team, I figured Jasmine should be doable. She was. Graveler destroyed both Magnemite, and Tentacruel killed Steelix who would have been problematic otherwise. I rolled Element 27, so I must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion. Fair enough. Sadly, I can't use my Tentacruel right now until I get another Gym Badge, since Mahogany's Gym only goes up to level 34. Afterwards, I can use it again as long as it doesn't reach level 41, the level of Clair's Kingdra. For the League, I can go up to level 49, since Lance has a level 50 Dragonite.

With Tentacruel temporarily illegal, I decided to capture some new potential team members in the new area near the Safari Zone. Steelix is a very rare encounter in the cave there, but I decided to try it anyway, and it appeared after 30 encounters, which is pretty nice. Tauros showed up pretty much immediately in the grass. I couldn't actually enter the Safari Zone, since Baoba wants me to catch a Geodude, which is illegal due to Element 17, so I continued with the storyline.

I captured the Red Gyarados in Lake of Rage and an Electrode in Rocket Hideout, which was easy. My new team now looked like Scyther/Gyarados/Steelix/Electrode/Tauros/Golbat. With this team I decided to take on Pryce, which wasn't easy but I succeeded. The thing was that I had been grinding Electrode a bit, but forgot I wasn't allowed to used Screech, so I had to reset to a point before I ever used the move. Afterwards, I couldn't be bothered grinding again, so I beat Pryce with a slightly underleveled team. I got Element 28, which means I could no longer use Pokemon below 3 feet. This was inconsequential, since all of my Pokemon were pretty tall.

After the seventh Gym, it was time for some Team Rocket pounding. Steelix started to level like a madman, being resistant or immune to almost everything the Rocket grunts could throw at him, and somewhere in Goldenrod he caught up with Scyther at level 34. Tentacruel rejoined the team instead of Tauros, who had been underwhelming and underleveled, and Scyther and Steelix caught up with him at level 37 by the time I had destroyed the Rocket bosses. I traversed the Ice Path and beat the final Gym, the only battle in the game I struggled with since I had neither the best answer to Gyarados nor to Kingdra. In the end, I beat Clair third try using my Electrode with Charge Beam, who could two-shot Gyarados even while underleveled. My final Challenge Element was number 25, Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power.

Since Charge Beam was now illegal and Electrode was already underleveled, I dropped him in the box. I caught a decently leveled Miltank (lv 35) on Route 47, in the waterfall area to replace him. I replaced Rock Throw with Rest on Steelix and removed Pursuit for Roost on Scyther, both to remove illegal moves and to make element 5 (no items outside of battle) a bit easier on me for the League. I traversed the route to Kanto and Victory Road, grinded a bit, taught the final moves (Hidden Power Fire for Tentacruel, Focus Punch for Miltank, and Ice Fang and Earthquake for Steelix, not bad) and started the League with Tentacruel, Steelix, Scyther and Miltank at level 44. I hadn't trained Gyarados after the last Gym fight, partially because he's not that great if Dragon Dance is illegal and partially because he provided a lot of redundancy type-wise and Tentacruel is a better fit for my team since it's Special Attack oriented. Still, he entered the League alongside my main team, just like Golbat who had been demoted to Fly slave some time ago.

The League was actually surprisingly easy, I didn't have as much trouble with it as with the final two Gyms and beat it first try. I did have to be a bit creative with healing since I couldn't heal between battles, but I had 5 Max Revives (exactly enough) to use during battles. I also had healing moves on Scyther, Steelix and Miltank, allowing me to start battling Lance at almost full health. Both Tentacruel and Steelix carried multiple Super Effective moves to make short work of Lance.

Rule list for this challenge (in order of appearance):

5. Can no longer use items outside of battle to heal your Pokemon
8. Can no longer use Psychic, Ghost or Dark type Pokemon
23. Can no longer use stat changing moves such as Growth and Growl
17. Can no longer capture duplicate Pokemon
22. Can no longer use status moves such as Toxic and Spore (secondary effects are fair game)
12. Can no longer evolve Pokemon
27. Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion
28. Can only use Pokemon with a height above 3 feet
25. Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power

Final team:

Scyther (Christian) lv 46 @ Shell Bell – Wing Attack, X-Scissor, Night Slash, Roost
Steelix (Styro) lv 45 @ Wide Lens – Earthquake, Iron Tail, Ice Fang, Rest
Tentacruel (JellyBelly) lv 45 @ Choice Specs – Surf, Blizzard, Poison Jab, Hidden Power [Fire]
Miltank (Queen Moo) lv 44 @ Silk Scarf – Body Slam, Zen Headbutt, Focus Punch, Milk Drink
Gyarados (Albinodos) lv 33 @ Wacan Berry – Strength, Waterfall, Ice Fang, Rock Smash [illegal]
Golbat (Sonia) lv 28 @ Yache Berry – Confuse Ray, Fly, Bite, Wing Attack

Evaluation of the challenge:

+ Lots of suspense after each Gym battle
+ Challenging, but not too ridiculous
+ Rewards variety and creativity when team building
- Sometimes difficult to track which rules to follow, making mistakes fairly likely
- Not all Elements are equal and some combinations could be almost impossible (but I guess that's why it's a Lottery)

All in all, I had a lot of fun. I might tweak some rules a little bit before I open an official topic here, but overall I feel that it works well enough. If anyone else wants to try it already, feel free to do so. :)

I am looking for a challenge to play against a friend. So basically both of us are playing under the same rules (which may or may not interact with each other) and occasionally do a battle.

Anyone got a fun idea that's not like a nuzlocke?

11wildy said:

I am looking for a challenge to play against a friend. So basically both of us are playing under the same rules (which may or may not interact with each other) and occasionally do a battle.

Anyone got a fun idea that's not like a nuzlocke?

Click to expand...

You could do a randomized challenge - look up the Universal Pokemon Game Randomizer. You can use it to randomize the pokemon that will appear in the wild, but also to randomize gift and starter pokemon, opponent pokemon, pokemon moves and types, items, and change a bunch of settings (like making it possible to complete the pokedex, getting rid of legendaries, get rid of time-of-day-based encounters, use running shoes indoors, etc.). You can then send a code to your friend that they can put into the randomizer (or just send them a copy of your randomized ROM) so that they will have the exact same randomizations as you, and race to see who can complete the game first, or complete the pokedex first, or if you want to battle with them maybe have a rule where you can only use the first 6 pokemon you encounter and have an epic showdown at the end of the game, whatever you want (or apply some other challenge on top of the randomization)

11wildy said:

I am looking for a challenge to play against a friend. So basically both of us are playing under the same rules (which may or may not interact with each other) and occasionally do a battle.

Anyone got a fun idea that's not like a nuzlocke?

Click to expand...

I'll pitch my own challenge here. Do a Lottery Challenge. (Full topic: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=418787)

Your first element should be number 37, Strategic Victory: Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion. That way you can keep fair battles after every Gym, neither of you will be overleveled.

The 8 elements you get after every Gym battle can be randomized, and they apply to both of you.

Aleimon Thimble said:

I'll pitch my own challenge here. Do a Lottery Challenge. (Full topic: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=418787)

Your first element should be number 37, Strategic Victory: Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion. That way you can keep fair battles after every Gym, neither of you will be overleveled.

The 8 elements you get after every Gym battle can be randomized, and they apply to both of you.

Click to expand...

Well, we've already taken inspriation from the lottery challenge for another event we are going to do, with multiple people!

Good suggestion though.

The idea we went with is... We're gonna swap save files a few times. So we shouldnt pick too strong pokemon, because then the other also gets to use em!

11wildy said:

Well, we've already taken inspriation from the lottery challenge for another event we are going to do, with multiple people!

Click to expand...

I want to give you a Like for this, but the website won't let me, so I'll just state my thumbs-up for this verbally :)

Can you elaborate some more (here or in the Lottery Challenge topic) about what it is exactly you're going to do? I'm very curious!