Chit-Chat: Challenges Ideas & Discussion

[Anarchic Torchic]

Destiny bond(co-op pokemon adventure)

Anyone ever heard of a soul link?
Its a multiplayer nuzlocke challenge...

The first pokemon encountered in a area shares a "destiny bond" with the one the other player encounters in the same area

If one fails capture the other is to be considered dead aswell and cant be used
If it is caught and one of them dies, so does the other and the other person must cease using it immediately and forfeit that pokemon
Only soul linked pokemon are allowed on both teams(with the exception of hm slaves)
If one deposits a soul linked poke, so must the other do so for its counterpart

The fun thing about this is that both players are responsible for each others pokemon, and success
Should you catch a weedle, and your partner a starmie you will have to debate wether its worth keeping a weedle on your team to support your partners starmie
... But is it worth it? Weedle is only going to last that long
Its a whole lotta trouble thats for sure, but so, so much fun

When are you going to soul link?

 

[Janp]

Anyone ever heard of a soul link?
Its a multiplayer nuzlocke challenge...

The first pokemon encountered in a area shares a "destiny bond" with the one the other player encounters in the same area

If one fails capture the other is to be considered dead aswell and cant be used
If it is caught and one of them dies, so does the other and the other person must cease using it immediately and forfeit that pokemon
Only soul linked pokemon are allowed on both teams(with the exception of hm slaves)
If one deposits a soul linked poke, so must the other do so for its counterpart

The fun thing about this is that both players are responsible for each others pokemon, and success
Should you catch a weedle, and your partner a starmie you will have to debate wether its worth keeping a weedle on your team to support your partners starmie
... But is it worth it? Weedle is only going to last that long
Its a whole lotta trouble thats for sure, but so, so much fun

When are you going to soul link?

I moved your thread to the Challenges Chit-chat.

Personally, I've never done Soul Link and probably never will, because that would mean playing at the same pace as someone else and at the same time. And I prefer to either not play at all or run through the big chunk of the game in one go.

 

[Sydian]

I feel like that kind of stuff can't work well unless like...you do that with your roommate or SO or someone you see almost daily and they have to be just as invested as you are, but even then, everyone plays at different paces, so that's still hard to match. It's fun in theory, but in practice when you actually try to make it work? It just gets too complicated, I feel.

 

[moon]

I think Soul Link challenge sounds intriguing but probably is too hard to orchestrate unless you basically live together, yeah.

It's been ages since I did a simple Nuzlocke, hmm...

 

[Janp]

It's been ages since I did a simple Nuzlocke, hmm...

You should do one. I find the "vanilla" Nuzlockes the enjoyable, but it has been ages since I did one too. IIRC the last locke Challenge I did was Rainbow Wedlocke on Diamond, which was fun too, but it was really limiting at times.

 

[slyfox198]

Due to my ADHD creative thoughts go through my head frequently so I wanted to write this challenge down before it gets lost in the sea of thoughts, aka my mind.
This one will require a bit of playtesting to perfect. I'm already playing three pokemon games as well as FE: Shadows of Valentia and Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, so I personally don't think I can take on another game ATM but if enough people like this idea I can get around to testing it once I'm done with one of the games. Anyways, enough of my ranting...
In this challenge, you are an illegal pokemon dealer!
Essentially, my idea is that your playthrough is by default limited thoroughly. As previously mentioned, it will require playtesting and honestly more intense thought than I am giving it now, but here are some ideas. Keep in mind this is only how you start the game.
1. Only two pokemon on your team
2. Your money is limited, I don't know how much yet
3.1 trip to pokemon center after you get pokeballs
4. you are default on set mode
etc.
Keep in mind you can always catch any amount of pokemon, but you must move them to your unspent or undealed or whatever-you-want-to-call-them-boxes if your team spaces are limited ATM.
As you can see it won't really be a fun challenge ATM. But this is where your illegal dealing helps you! If only you could get into that slowpoke tail dealing, you could make a ton...
By converting pokemon you catch to a box titled "dealed" or something or releasing them, you can slowly gain overall perks or temporary boosts. For instance, you could release, let's say, two pokemon for a trip to the pokemon center (I know the amount of pokemon you normall catch differs by game- right now I'm mainly playing gen 1-2 so that's where my mind naturally goes) or release eight to gain a third party slot permanently. You can release some to use more of your money, release some to permanently switch the battle mode to switch, etc.
Another rule is that you can only catch pokemon on the highest-level available route you can train on. For example, if I have three gym badges in pokemon blue, I can't go back to route 1 for easy pokemon catching. This balances it because you gradually get more money as the game progresses and buying 99 pokeballs to go on a catching spree is absolutely broken in this challenge.
So that's what I'm thinking of right now, I might have a bajillion edits like normal but that's what I recall from my previous thoughts of the challenge. Please leave feedback and I hope you all have successful challenge runs!

A second idea I had, and this post will be much smaller, thank Arceus. My schedule can't handle all this.
I had the idea of a nuzlocke where after you gain a badge/complete a trial or something you trade your team off to another player who completed the same badge/trial and is waiting for a trade-off. After your next badge/trialoh screw it call it a checkpoint!- you trade off your newer team to someone else or the same person. It'd be really cool seeing how others train your pokemon and how they build movesets, nickname, etc.. This challenge, if it comes to fruition, will be a test of how far your dependance and trust will go! Getting angry at the person who accidentally killed off half of your team is part of the fun, folks.
Anyways, please leave feedback if you like because I'd really like to see this idea come to life! Hope your challenges do well in the meantime :)

 

[Janp]

Ping

No need to have these ideas in separated posts, so I merged them together.
Anyway, I like the ideas, but would probably do something little bit different.

For the 1st idea:
I fear that the whole mechanic of catching endless number of Pokémon to do anything would quickly become chore and will be boring. Allowing only 2 Pokémon at the start is good, as well as limited money. But limiting Pokécenters is something not as challenging as much as annoying.
I would probably borrow one of the essences of the Nuzlocke and let people catch only 1 Pokémon on each Route. That way, you can set prizes the way it will "hurt" the player, because they would need to choose one or another. I think all the games have at least 30 encounters, so you can go with something like: Trade 5 Pokémon for new slot on your team, 1 for about 5 000 Poké Dollars, 4-6 for a Switch mode, maybe even limit the player to only their starter + Poison and Dark-Types (you know, the types that criminal would use) and they can unlock more types for selling Pokémon or trade 1 Pokémon so they can learn a TM to their Pokémon.
But it would probably need more testing.

And 2nd idea:
I already said what I think about this type of Challenges only a little higher in this thread, so the short version: I think this Challenge can work great while playing with someone you know in person, because here, you might not even find someone playing on the same gen as you or in the near timezone. Or even worse, they can disappear from the forum and you won't have a partner to trade with.
It can work, but I fear that not that many people would join.

 

[Juno]

I actually saw these videos like a week ago and wanted to see if anyone would be interested in trying something like this. They're long videos boiling down how they made the run possible (pretty interesting imo, but idk if it's something people would want to try for themselves)

​

I think the Ditto-only run would be slightly more interesting, as a lot of the "technique" involved in the Magikarp run is just letting your PP for Splash run out and then banking on Struggle being able to take out the opponent (and just sheer dedication/time wasting :p). Ditto did run into a wall that made the run impossible to complete in RBY though.

​

But yeah, doesn't necessarily have to be these two Pokemon - if I do make this challenge, I might try to make it something like a gimmicky-Pokemon only run, if something like that doesn't already exist. You would need to cheat in these Pokemon early in, though.

 

[Janp]

I had these videos in my recommendations for a while but never watched them, because I can guess how they will go.

But as far as I remember, you can't beat RBY only with Magikarp, because of a single Pokémon line - Ghastly/Haunter/Gengar. In Gen I, Struggle is consider Normal-Type, so Magikarp can't hit them.

As for Ditto, I can't think of anything that could stop it. Final battle with the Rival could be a problem because Ditto will always transform in Pidgeot and Rival has Rhydon.

I did Rattata only run with Nuzlocke rules thrown in on Fire Red just to make it interesting and plan on doing more like beating XY only with Bunnelby or DPPt with only Buneary (Because Bidoof is OP, everyone knows that). Wobbuffet and Pyukumuku are other Pokémon I consider for solos.

 

[AnthonyTZ]

Fire Red Nuzocke Question

Hey guys I'm doing a Nuzlocke for Fire Red and I wasn't sure about one thing. So I bought a Scyther at the Celedon Game Corner as my catch in the city. Later I accidentally found the free Eevee you get at the top of one of the buildings (thought it was going to be a TM or something before I picked up the pokeball) and I was wondering, is it legal to use this eevee as an event pokemon and scyther a catch (even though I bought her), or are both Scyther and Eevee considered event pokemon?

 

[Neb]

Advice For Someone Who Struggles With Nuzlockes?

Whenever I try to do a nuzlocke it fails miserably. I'll run into a Pokemon that sweeps my team without warning (Sigilpyh in Black, Hawlucha in X) and I'm forced to end the challenge. How have you worked around this, and what advice would you give someone who is bad at nuzlockes like myself?

 

[Janp]

Hey guys I'm doing a Nuzlocke for Fire Red and I wasn't sure about one thing. So I bought a Scyther at the Celedon Game Corner as my catch in the city. Later I accidentally found the free Eevee you get at the top of one of the buildings (thought it was going to be a TM or something before I picked up the pokeball) and I was wondering, is it legal to use this eevee as an event pokemon and scyther a catch (even though I bought her), or are both Scyther and Eevee considered event pokemon?

The funny part of the Nuzlockes is that only you decide what is okay and what isn't in your run. Only essentials rules of the Nuzlocke are about catching only 1st Pokémon on each Route, releasing/putting in the box Pokémon that faints and nicknaming your Pokémon. Other than that it's up to you how hard you want to make your run - people tends to call it clauses. The one you're talking about is a Gift clause, which makes gifted Pokémon to be expected from the "1 Pokémon per location" rule. IIRC both Eevee and Pokémon from Celadon Game Corner are considered as gifts by majority of players, so if you decide to play with the Gift Clause you can use both Scyther and Eevee AND still catch something in the water area of Celadon City. But like I said, it's up to you in the end. Do whatever you find more entertaining.

Whenever I try to do a nuzlocke it fails miserably. I'll run into a Pokemon that sweeps my team without warning (Sigilpyh in Black, Hawlucha in X) and I'm forced to end the challenge. How have you worked around this, and what advice would you give someone who is bad at nuzlockes like myself?

I think I know what Hawlucha you're talking about. I had problems with it too. And with Axew near it. But what I do is grind a lot to be around the levels of the next Gym Leader and have a bunch of healing items. One thing that I see people doing is keeping Pokémon they catch on team so they have team of 6 really underleveled Pokémon on their team before even facing the 1st Gym sometimes. I prefer having 2 or 3 Pokémon and then slowly adds another team members or even rotate my team as I catch new Pokémon.

 

[chaosrising]

Hello there,
after beated US, to make replay more fun, I made some own rules mixed with nuzlocke. Main idea is
make it more challenging but also still fun and not frustrating. So:

-All encounters/trainers randomized by BST (Recommended)
-Trainers etc mons lvl x1.25 (or more)
-No share xp
-No revives in combat
-Deaths in main fights (trails/rivals/main characters) = release
-Max 1 catch per location, (Optional) only shiny (chance to find 20%) (like in nuzlocke, but first found shiny)
-(Optional) Amount of z-crystals you have = max amount of pokemons in your team + starter
-(Optional) You can only have pokemons with type (at least 1 of types) of z-crystals u have + starter

Last 2 are making this more difficulty and interesting, what do u think?
btw
I didn't look over all posts if there were some similar ideas

 

[Janp]

Hello there,
after beated US, to make replay more fun, I made some own rules mixed with nuzlocke. Main idea is
make it more challenging but also still fun and not frustrating. So:

-All encounters/trainers randomized by BST (Recommended)
-Trainers etc mons lvl x1.25 (or more)
-No share xp
-No revives in combat
-Deaths in main fights (trails/rivals/main characters) = release
-Max 1 catch per location, (Optional) only shiny (chance to find 20%) (like in nuzlocke, but first found shiny)
-(Optional) Amount of z-crystals you have = max amount of pokemons in your team + starter
-(Optional) You can only have pokemons with type (at least 1 of types) of z-crystals u have + starter

Last 2 are making this more difficulty and interesting, what do u think?
btw
I didn't look over all posts if there were some similar ideas

It reminds me of this Challenge. You might check it out for inspiration. I really like the 2 optional rules. I never thought of using Z-Crystals like that.

But the whole idea looks like a fun run.

 

[slyfox198]

Introducing a new idea: The Budgetlocke!

This is a redesign of my older idea where you are a pokemon dealer and you trade in pokemon for perks throughout your run. However, after some contemplation and feedback it seemed more of a chore than a fun run. Hopefully this one will pique someone's interest.

It may be a world of pokemon, but that's no reason to be getting hundreds of dollars each time you defeat someone. No more happy-go-lucky shopping sprees of 99 potions, you have a limited budget this time around and trainers aren't so willing to donate hundreds of dollars to passerby 11 year olds. If only it were that way in real life...
Starting Restrictions:
-You start out with a TBD amount of money that you keep track of out of game
-This is a nuzlocke challenge at its core, so the nuzlocke rules apply here
-You have a limited number of pokemon on your team, lets say two for now
- Limited trips to poke center
-limited level cap
-and so on. I think you get the idea, there will be a lot of restrictions. To keep track of them, if this challenge comes to fruition, I could whip up a chart that you could print off to keep track of everything
Spending Money:
Money is your lifelink in this game (and in real life) if you don't spend money you are almost guaranteed to lose. You probably will have no chance of winning, actually. Money can be used lift certain restrictions and do a lot of other things. The full list is not fleshed out, but for example:
-To catch a wild pokemon you spend 10 dollars (it must be the first on the route, like a normal nuzlocke)
-A new party slot costs 50 dollars
-Another trip to the pokecenter costs 10 dollars
-Using a healing item costs 5 dollars
-Raising level cap costs 10 dollars
...and so on.
Earning Money:
Earning money is relatively simple. You get a certain amount for each gym you beat, a certain amount for each trainer you beat, and so on. Another way to earn money is by completing challenges (I will make these if this challenge gets approved). You have a certain number of challenges that cycle out and completing them awards you money. For example:
Skip catching pokemon until next gym: 50 dollars
Set loose 2 pokemon: 40 dollars

The challenges will fit to your current situation and for now I'm thinking of them being replenished at every badge you get. They may also differ by game.

I also thought of gambling, but I don't want to add too much to make this thing extremely complicated, so I'll end it at here. I'd appreciate feedback on how I can develop it!

 

[Janp]

Introducing a new idea: The Budgetlocke!

I like this idea more that the last one. I still think it would need some testing to get the costs and prizes right.

 

[slyfox198]

What about.... the Alphalocke?

One of your pokemon can be the designated alpha of your team, or pack. The pack consists of one type of pokemon but the alpha can be anything. The alpha It can level up 3-4 times per gym badge and the rest of the pack stays below the alpha's level. If the alpha raises another level past the limit, you must kill a random member of the pack that is not the alpha. If another pack member reaches the level of the alpha, roll a die. 1-2: the daring pack member kills the alpha and becomes the new alpha, 3-6: The alpha kills the member and stays in its position.
The first pokemon you find past the gym you just beat/ found after you get pokeballs for the first time is the pokemon that your pack will consist of. Immediately catch four more to complete the pack of six, alpha included. Important: After catching the first pack member (other than the alpha) whenever you come across another of the same pokemon you must catch it unless you have a full team. In other words, you can't dawdle and try to get the highest level pokemon of the same type, once you find one you gotta catch it.
Your starter starts as the alpha. You must catch the pack first thing, and if you level up in the process it's fine, just prioritize catching and nothing else. Now that all six members are in place, the rule with alpha-past-level-limit applies and if you want to level it past the cap you must kill a random member afterwards.
Once you fill your team of six, you cannot catch any more pokemon until the next badge, period. If you run out of pokemon, you failed the pack. You're as good as dead.
Once you acquire a new gym badge, release your entire pack, save the alpha. Now, rinse and repeat: When you find a pokemon for the first time after the badge, catch it, immediately catch five others. Continue on your way.
You may switch into your alpha during battle, but your alpha may not switch out.
If your alpha dies, the entire pack runs away, except for the lowest level pack member. It becomes the new alpha, but you may not catch any more pokemon until the next badge is acquired. If it levels past the limit, you lose. Tough luck.

I think that's all, feedback appreciated!

 

[Janp]

What about.... the Alphalocke?

One of your pokemon can be the designated alpha of your team, or pack. The pack consists of one type of pokemon but the alpha can be anything. The alpha It can level up 3-4 times per gym badge and the rest of the pack stays below the alpha's level. If the alpha raises another level past the limit, you must kill a random member of the pack that is not the alpha. If another pack member reaches the level of the alpha, roll a die. 1-2: the daring pack member kills the alpha and becomes the new alpha, 3-6: The alpha kills the member and stays in its position.
The first pokemon you find past the gym you just beat/ found after you get pokeballs for the first time is the pokemon that your pack will consist of. Immediately catch four more to complete the pack of six, alpha included. Important: After catching the first pack member (other than the alpha) whenever you come across another of the same pokemon you must catch it unless you have a full team. In other words, you can't dawdle and try to get the highest level pokemon of the same type, once you find one you gotta catch it.
Your starter starts as the alpha. You must catch the pack first thing, and if you level up in the process it's fine, just prioritize catching and nothing else. Now that all six members are in place, the rule with alpha-past-level-limit applies and if you want to level it past the cap you must kill a random member afterwards.
Once you fill your team of six, you cannot catch any more pokemon until the next badge, period. If you run out of pokemon, you failed the pack. You're as good as dead.
Once you acquire a new gym badge, release your entire pack, save the alpha. Now, rinse and repeat: When you find a pokemon for the first time after the badge, catch it, immediately catch five others. Continue on your way.
You may switch into your alpha during battle, but your alpha may not switch out.
If your alpha dies, the entire pack runs away, except for the lowest level pack member. It becomes the new alpha, but you may not catch any more pokemon until the next badge is acquired. If it levels past the limit, you lose. Tough luck.

I think that's all, feedback appreciated!

I love your entusiasmus, but if I were you, I would work on one Challenge at time and try to polish it as much as possible.

 

[CodeHelmet]

This is a random idea I had the other day regarding a challenge but I find it adds an interesting wrinkle to say the least. I call it the Rock, Paper, Scissors Challenge and here's how it works. You first pick a starter and that counts as Pokemon#1. You must defeat the first Gym Leader using nothing but your starter. After defeating the first Gym Leader, you may capture a 2nd Pokemon but the Pokemon must follow a certain pattern. Namely it must either crush your starter(Rock), be weak to your starter(Paper) or be similar to your starter(Scissors). To determine what type of Pokemon you catch, you roll a six sided die with 1 and 4 corresponding to Rock, 2 and 5 corresponding to Paper and 3 and 6 corresponding to Scissors.

So for example, lets say you start off with a Fire Starter. If you defeat the first Gym Leader and roll Rock, you'd have to catch a Pokemon that crushes Fire Types. Namely Water, Rock or Ground. Conversely, if you roll Paper, you must catch Grass, Bug, Ice or Steel. Finally with Scissors, you must catch another Fire Type or a Type that is neutral to your starter(basically any type not in the Rock or Paper category).

You then repeat this process with the next Pokemon in your list until you fill your Roster. Luck will determine how balanced or unbalanced your team happens to be. To demonstrate a hypothetical team, lets examine Pokemon Yellow. I start with Pikachu so that means I have to defeat Brock with just him(difficult but not impossible). You then roll a die and I rolled Rock so that means I had to catch a Ground Type. Seeing as Mount Moon has Sandshrew, that makes it ideal run so far. After Misty, I roll Paper so a Pokemon Ground is strong against. I opted for Vulpix but I can't acquire her just yet. After defeating Lt.Surge with Dig, I roll again, this time with Vulpix as the barometer. I roll Scissors so I have to choose something that is neutral to Fire. Psychic meets that parameter so I choose to catch an Abra. Repeat the process until you have a full team. If the Pokemon you want to catch isn't available just yet, you must go without it until you can but still base Rock, Paper, Scissor decisions off of it.

You can add additional rules or stipulations such as a Rock, Paper or Scissor approach to Gym Leaders. Namely if you roll Rock, you may only use Pokemon that crushes the Gym Leader. Paper roll is the exact opposite(only Pokemon who are weak to the Type prevalent at the Gym) while Scissor necessitates a neutral approach. Again this is just an idea and if anyone wants to roll with it, customize it and what not then they can so long as credit is given.

 

[slyfox198]

I have (yet another) idea. Sorry about all the spontaneous ideas I post here, maybe someone who is interested in them can smooth out the many wrinkles that plague them. Anyways, this is more idea-like and not very fleshed out. I think it's an interesting concept. My idea:
Integrating a gacha-like system into a pokemon run.
If you don't know what gacha is, it's a mechanic apparent in many Japanese free-to-play game titles. Generally, it goes like this: Once you have enough in-game currency, you can try your luck at random RNG rolls for heroes or whatnot. Usually it's designed to get the consumers to pay.
I think it has potential. I'm willing to sort through many pokemon and divide them into viability ranks, just like how gachas are sorted into worse, common characters and better, rarer characters. I'm not quite sure what the best incarnation of this would be for pokemon challenges; it could be a nuzlocke, standard run, or over multiple generations. I brainstormed some ideas of how to acquire these gachamon, and the rules of how the pokemon themselves will work.
1. First of all I'd like to share an important rule I came up with for how the gachamon operate. Once you acquire it, through whatever method is final, it has a certain level cap and cannot evolve. There may be other limitations involved depending on the rarity of the pokemon in the gacha. Maybe hacking could be involved with IV caps and stuff. For the level limits, it'll probably depend on where you are in the game and the rarity of the pokemon. Once its past its cap, you get rid of it and maybe depending on how you did with it you get points towards your next gacha roll.
2. Obtaining points. Points could be obtained by maxing pokemon levels, acquiring gym badges, and defeating trainers. Once you have a certain amount of points you can enter the gacha. You get more points on average the further you get in the challenge and therefore can participate in higher level gacha rolls that are worth more points.

That's essentially it for now. It needs a lot of smoothing out and I'd really like it if someone who is interested in creating this can help flesh it out. I like the idea of acquiring pokemon through a gacha mechanic for a challenge and I think it can be done.