Playing Your Games, The Other Way!

By Darknesscrusher. Art by Bummer.
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Introduction

With Gen VI being so nearby, a lot of players wanted to feel the nostalgia and fun of playing through a Pokémon game again. Some, if not most, people, however, find it boring or easy to play the same game twice or thrice. Therefore, people have been coming up with new forms of playing through the game. This makes the game more attractive/interesting to play, or a lot harder. Forms range from the popular Nuzlocke to just using Little-Cup-only Pokémon.

Nuzlockes

Nuzlockes have been a popular form of playing the games for a while now, and already had a Smog article. Therefore, I won't be touching on this too much, but I'll explain the basic rules of gameplay for Nuzlockes. In Nuzlockes, one may only capture the first Pokémon that he or she encounters on each new route; for example, if the first thing you find in Route 1 is a Patrat, you may not catch another Pokémon on Route 1. In addition to this, if a Pokémon faints, the Pokémon must be released, as if it's dead.

Solo Runs

Solo runs are pretty straightforward; it's just clearing the game with one Pokémon. This can be a starter or any other Pokémon, hacked in or traded. These kind of challenges aren't easy, as Pokémon all have a certain weakness (duh) and where you would usually cover this up by having another Pokémon, if you have just one Pokémon, you obviously cannot do so. Some hardcore players limit the usage of PokéCenters while doing a solo run, or forbid using in-battle items. Solo runs shouldn't be done with Uber Pokémon, as that would just ruin the whole point of making the thing hard. Other than that, Solo runs can be done with all Pokémon, ranging from top-tier OU Pokémon, like Scizor, to Pokémon that lurk in the pit that is NU. Solo runs are challenging, but fun nonetheless, and completing one is a great feeling.

Egg Runs

Egg runs are totally different than how you would normally play the game, as you cannot choose what kind of Pokémon you have. The point is pretty simple: you ask people to send you eggs, without you knowing what it will be, and once you have six, you hatch them. This is then your team for the whole game, consisting of Pokémon that others just had in their boxes. This challenge is rather tough as your Pokémon start out in level 1, which doesn't make it easy. In addition to that, people tend to give you crappy Pokémon, like Bellsprout. You could however state that you don't want a Pokémon that is too weak (eg: Sunkern/Plusle). Egg runs sure are fun, but finding people to actually giving you the eggs can be a hard thing to do, so I recommend making a thread to ask for people to give you those.

Little Cup Challenges

A thing we recently tried out over at #orangeislands is the Little Cup challenge. This limits your game team to Pokémon usable in Little Cup (If you don't know what Little Cup is, it basically means that you can only use Pokémon that can at least evolve once, and don't have any previous evolutions, more info here). But where in standard Little Cup there is the level 5 limit, that is removed with said challenges, as it would get impossible to beat the higher-level trainers. This challenge isn't hard, until you start hitting the point where other trainers have evolved Pokémon, and your Pokémon are just a lot less powerful. For example, beating the Elite Four with just Riolu, Patrat, Snivy, Timburr, Deino, and Frillish isn't an easy task to do, seeing that their evolved counterparts are about twice as strong. This needs to be compensated by the player's skill, the AI's skills (or lack thereof), and a bit of luck.

Scramble Challanges

As with the Egg run, in the Scramble Challange you don't get to choose what kind of Pokémon you get. Other people decide what you get, and when they decide this, they give you certain restrictions on how you must use said Pokémon. Sounds complicated? I suppose an example could be useful in this scenario, therefore:

Fool was, from his birth, a rather foolish Smeargle. It didn't like to paint, and when he did, he wasn't that good at it. When Fool grew up though, he thought about painting, and how he ruined his life by not doing it. He realized that his life had failed, and he did drugs, and on a particular trip, he saw that he could become the best artist ever. But, Fool wasn't that foolish to think that he could become a great artist without ever practicing; therefore, he had to paint from Gym Leaders, as they were the best-of-the-best models. He then needed to show off his skill and KO the Pokémon he just painted. So, in short:

I have a feeling you'll be on my hit list after this, Darkness! :P

Seeing that some people, including me, tend to make Scramblemons (the Pokémon you gave to another person) rather hard, challenges are one of the hardest things to pull off, but are very fun to do. People also tend to write a whole lot of backstory to the Pokémon that you give them and the one that receives the challenge usually write a whole story about his adventures in the great world that is Pokémon. Scrambles also are a great way to get revenge on a fellow Smogon community member, especially if they ask for a hard Scramblemon. You just give them something that is very hard, like an Abra that can only use physical moves or, if they play Gen IV and they didn't allow trading, a Feebas. (No, giving Feebas in any generation is pretty mean and doesn't really need any other restrictions.) You just need to remember this: when you give out Scramblemons, you can basically give out any Pokémon in the game, including legendary Pokémon. Of course, when you do so, you must give it a really, really tough restriction, like a Ho-Oh that may only be healed by Potions and must always use Brave Bird and hold a Sticky Barb.

Speed Runs

Whoever said that the ultimate way to decide a conflict was a duel he should be executed. The only ultimate way to decide who is right is the speed run. A fair, strategic, luck-based way to show everyone that if you say that Charizard should be in Ubers, you are right. The rules of a speed run are simple and binding; one player that doesn't agree with another player challenges the other player to a speed run, who then selects what game they shall be playing. Both players then boot up the game and start playing. The one that has beaten the Elite Four and seen the credits the first shall be crowned the winner and will have the right to kill the other person, if the terms stated so. (Kids, don't accept terms like this). Some people, however, decided to do speed runs for fun, and for good reason, as speed runs usually result in a ton of laughs and fun, especially while you are chatting/Skyping with your opponent.

Monotype

Some people are just fan of certain types of Pokémon, so for them, the monotype run exists. The title is pretty straightforward, right? You just boot up your game and decide not to catch Pokémon that aren't of a certain type. So if you decide to do a Monotype challenge for Black and you want to do Fighting, you could have a team consisting of Mienshao, Conkeldurr, Scrafty, Cobalion, and Terrakion. However, if you aren't too keen on having certain Pokémon, you could just do it with Mienshao and Conkeldurr. In other words, you don't have to have a full team, but it's nice, of course. Having Pokémon of just one type can seriously hurt your team, as the team I just described would have a serious problem with Skyla and Caitlin, due to obvious weaknesses to the Flying- and Psychic-type. In any way you look at it, Monotype challenges are a great ton of fun and a challenge on top of that.

Conclusion

So now you know about all these ways to play the main series game, and I bet you got excited! So, you ask, how do I get into stuff like this? Well, it's rather easy. For starters, visit #orangeislands on SynIRC, where you can find me with ease, as I'm online a lot. If you're having trouble doing so, you can just follow these links to the respective threads on the forum: Scramble Challanges, Nuzlockes, and Monotype. If the specific form of playing the game doesn't have a thread, you could make your own. After you have started, I usually find it very cool to hear about other people's progress, either in the form of a quick update or a long story, with a whole different plot than what the game actually uses.

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