Pokémon Nuzlocke: rules, tips, origin, and more

The Pokémon series has been around for nearly 30 years, so it’s no surprise that its fan base has quite a large age range. While the franchise does have complicated mechanics in place — a vast knowledge of Pokémon states is needed to play competitively and shiny Pokémon hunting has been broken down into a science instead of a surprise — but, as a whole, the series’ story and overall difficultly has always been family-friendly and aimed toward a younger audience. This can leave older, more experienced Pokémon trainers wanting more when they cruise through a new Pokémon title.

Pokémon has never had an adjustable difficulty setting, but over the years, players have figured out how to up the challenge by creating their own self-imposed rules. The most popular challenge taken on by gamers of all skill levels is the Nuzlocke challenge, a set of rules popularized by web comics, streamers and content creators in the past decade that adds a bit of spice to the average Pokémon playthrough.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Pokémon Nuzlocke challenge.

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What is the Nuzlocke challenge?

The Nuzlocke challenge was created by artist and gamer Nick Franco in March 2010. Posting comics detailing a playthrough of Pokémon Ruby on 4Chan, Franco explained the self-imposed “hard mode” rules he invented to make the game more difficult. Soon after, he launched his own website to post his comics (you can still view the original Nuzlocke comics there), and he has since written about other playthroughs using the same ruleset.

The challenge became wildly popular in the Pokémon community on 4Chan as other players started using the same rules for their own playthroughs. The popularity of the Nuzlocke challenge has only grown — there’s a community on Reddit dedicated to the challenge and it’s a common