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- 5
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- Age 32
- Netherlands
- Seen May 17, 2021
The playtesting phase is over, and here it is: The Lottery Challenge! A challenge that adds suspense every time you beat a Gym, that can have you overhaul your entire team if you're unlucky, and that rewards some creativity in team building to overcome the challenges you face.
Without further ado, here's how it works:
General rules
Challenge Elements
Item restrictions
1. Recession: Can only use normal Poke Balls
2. Klutzes: Can no longer use held items
3. Fair Battles: Can no longer use X Items and similar battle items (Dire Hit etc)
4. Embargo: Can no longer use items in battle to heal your Pokemon (Held items are fair game)
5. Empty First Aid Kit: Can no longer use items outside of battle to heal your Pokemon (Vitamins and such are fair game, Ethers are not)
6. War on Drugs: Can no longer use Vitamins, Rare Candies or PP Ups/Maxes
7. Scarcity: Can no longer buy items other than Poke Balls
8. No Refund Policy: Can no longer sell items
Pokemon restrictions
9. Anti-Establishment: Can no longer use Grass, Fire or Water type Pokemon
10. Muggles: Can no longer use Psychic, Ghost or Dark type Pokemon
11. Low Fantasy: Can no longer use Electric, Ice, Dragon or Fairy type Pokemon
12. Free Nature: Can no longer use Flying, Fighting, Bug or Poison type Pokemon
13. Glass Cannons: Can no longer use Rock, Ground or Steel type Pokemon
14. All Grown Up: Can only use Pokemon with a height above 3 feet
15. Diet: Can only use Pokemon with a weight below 220 lbs
16. Bad Romance: Can no longer use two or more Pokemon from the same Egg Group
17. Diversity: Can no longer use two or more Pokemon with the same Body Style
18. Rainbow: Can no longer use two or more Pokemon with the same color
19. Into the Wild: Can no longer use gift Pokemon, starters, prizes, ingame trades or stationaries
20. Creationism: Can no longer evolve Pokemon (using evolved Pokemon is fine)
21. Collector: Can no longer capture duplicate Pokemon (evolved or underevolved forms of duplicate Pokemon are fine)
22. Cherry Picking: Can only capture or otherwise obtain one Pokemon per route you haven't done so (none anywhere else). This is not a Nuzlocke, so it doesn't need to be the first one.
23. Mortality: Must release/permanently box a Pokemon when it faints. No resetting to undo deaths.
24. Never-ending Nightmare: Must release/permanently box a Pokemon when it falls asleep. No resetting to undo deaths.
25. Broken Belt: Can only use five Pokemon on a team instead of six. (You may capture a weak Magikarp with only Splash to emulate an empty slot, so newly captured Pokemon will not join your team by accident)
Move restrictions
26. Naturalism: Can no longer use TMs or move tutors (including the relearner)
27. Abnormalize: Can no longer use Normal type moves
28. Status Purity: Can no longer use status moves such as Toxic and Spore (secondary effects and pseudo-status such as Confusion are fair game)
29. Ignorance: Can no longer use stat changing moves such as Growth and Growl
30. Perfectionism: Can no longer use moves with less than 100% accuracy (undefined accuracy is fine)
31. Pride: Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power (exactly 60 is fine, undefined base power is also fine)
32. Damage Control: Can no longer use moves with more than 90 Base Power (exactly 90 is fine, undefined base power is also fine)
33. Moveslot Syndrome: Can no longer use four direct damaging moves on a single Pokemon
Other
34. Law and Order: Must use SET mode
35. Field Medics: Can only use each PC or other healing location once (unless you've been there already)
36. Reckless: Can no longer run from wild encounters or buy Repels (finding and using Repels is fine)
37. Strategic Victory: Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion
Practical tips
Current challengers
Champions
Without further ado, here's how it works:
General rules
- The challenge revolves around Challenge Elements. At the start of the game, you get a Challenge Element, and each time you beat a Gym you also get an extra Challenge Element.
- Which Challenge Element you get is decided by random.org or another randomizer. You input numbers between 1 and 37 each time you need a new Element. Ignore duplicates.
- You win if you beat the League in any game. If you want, you can roll a tenth Element after the League and do a Bonus Challenge of some kind (Steven/Red/second round League), that's up to you. Yes, you can make this totally ridiculous on Gen 2 and its remakes by adding another Element after each of the Gyms in Kanto. I didn't do that personally while playtesting on Soul Silver, beating the League is winning the game in my book.
- Delaying Gym Battles to postpone acquisition of new Challenge Elements is frowned upon. In some cases it does make sense to go a bit out of your way to grind a bit or find a certain Pokemon, though. As a rule of thumb, don't postpone beating the Gym any further than you would in another playthrough.
- If you start with a Challenge Element you cannot follow right away, you can play through the game normally until you can. For example, with element 9 or 19 you can use your starter until you get Poke Balls and can capture something else. With element 27 or 31 you can use your starting move (Tackle/Scratch/Pound) until you can acquire something that follows the rule.
- Other obvious challenge rules apply. No Pokemon Refresh/Amie, no Gen 6+ Exp Share, no hacking (though you can try this on a hacked ROM/fangame if you want), no trading for anything other than trade evolutions. Legendaries are frowned upon.
- HM Clause: You may teach HM moves (or other necessary field moves such as Flash) to your Pokemon even if it breaks the rules; however, you may not use them in battle if the rules disallow it.
- Shiny Clause: You may always capture a shiny Pokemon, even if it breaks the rules. If it does break the rules, however, you may never use it in battle. You can transfer it to another game after beating (or forfeiting) the challenge.
Challenge Elements
Item restrictions
1. Recession: Can only use normal Poke Balls
2. Klutzes: Can no longer use held items
3. Fair Battles: Can no longer use X Items and similar battle items (Dire Hit etc)
4. Embargo: Can no longer use items in battle to heal your Pokemon (Held items are fair game)
5. Empty First Aid Kit: Can no longer use items outside of battle to heal your Pokemon (Vitamins and such are fair game, Ethers are not)
6. War on Drugs: Can no longer use Vitamins, Rare Candies or PP Ups/Maxes
7. Scarcity: Can no longer buy items other than Poke Balls
8. No Refund Policy: Can no longer sell items
Pokemon restrictions
9. Anti-Establishment: Can no longer use Grass, Fire or Water type Pokemon
10. Muggles: Can no longer use Psychic, Ghost or Dark type Pokemon
11. Low Fantasy: Can no longer use Electric, Ice, Dragon or Fairy type Pokemon
12. Free Nature: Can no longer use Flying, Fighting, Bug or Poison type Pokemon
13. Glass Cannons: Can no longer use Rock, Ground or Steel type Pokemon
14. All Grown Up: Can only use Pokemon with a height above 3 feet
15. Diet: Can only use Pokemon with a weight below 220 lbs
16. Bad Romance: Can no longer use two or more Pokemon from the same Egg Group
17. Diversity: Can no longer use two or more Pokemon with the same Body Style
18. Rainbow: Can no longer use two or more Pokemon with the same color
19. Into the Wild: Can no longer use gift Pokemon, starters, prizes, ingame trades or stationaries
20. Creationism: Can no longer evolve Pokemon (using evolved Pokemon is fine)
21. Collector: Can no longer capture duplicate Pokemon (evolved or underevolved forms of duplicate Pokemon are fine)
22. Cherry Picking: Can only capture or otherwise obtain one Pokemon per route you haven't done so (none anywhere else). This is not a Nuzlocke, so it doesn't need to be the first one.
23. Mortality: Must release/permanently box a Pokemon when it faints. No resetting to undo deaths.
24. Never-ending Nightmare: Must release/permanently box a Pokemon when it falls asleep. No resetting to undo deaths.
25. Broken Belt: Can only use five Pokemon on a team instead of six. (You may capture a weak Magikarp with only Splash to emulate an empty slot, so newly captured Pokemon will not join your team by accident)
Move restrictions
26. Naturalism: Can no longer use TMs or move tutors (including the relearner)
27. Abnormalize: Can no longer use Normal type moves
28. Status Purity: Can no longer use status moves such as Toxic and Spore (secondary effects and pseudo-status such as Confusion are fair game)
29. Ignorance: Can no longer use stat changing moves such as Growth and Growl
30. Perfectionism: Can no longer use moves with less than 100% accuracy (undefined accuracy is fine)
31. Pride: Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power (exactly 60 is fine, undefined base power is also fine)
32. Damage Control: Can no longer use moves with more than 90 Base Power (exactly 90 is fine, undefined base power is also fine)
33. Moveslot Syndrome: Can no longer use four direct damaging moves on a single Pokemon
Other
34. Law and Order: Must use SET mode
35. Field Medics: Can only use each PC or other healing location once (unless you've been there already)
36. Reckless: Can no longer run from wild encounters or buy Repels (finding and using Repels is fine)
37. Strategic Victory: Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion
Practical tips
- Lists of Pokemon by type, height, weight, egg group, body style and color can be found on Bulbapedia.
- Keep close track of your rules, so you don't make mistakes. Overwrite illegal moves as quickly as possible, check new Pokemon for illegal moves, and check if you're actually allowed to use the Pokemon. Keep close track of where you've been for Elements 22 and 35, for example.
- Try to plan ahead. Which rule would totally screw you over if you got it next? What can you do to prevent that to some extent? (I didn't do this while playtesting and had to rebuild my entire team after I rolled element 20 mid-game)
- If you've seen my playtesting report or the original idea: keep in mind that I added a couple more Elements and also switched around the order. Don't get confused!
- If you find this too easy, here are some ideas to make it harder:
- As mentioned before, you can do this on Gen 2 and its remakes and continue post-League.
- You can add more elements after other important battles – bosses of villain teams or Rival battles, for example.
- You can make someone else choose the elements for you to make it as hard as possible! Some ridiculous combinations would include 4+5+35 or 22+23+36 or both. - If you find this too hard, however, you can try rolling 9 elements at the start, so you know what's coming and you can plan ahead.
Current challengers
- BeAGoodOne / Madlad (Platinum; elements 23, x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x)
Champions
- xx
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