If you've ever been online (I don't recommend this), you may have noticed that many gamers are very angry with Pokemon. Although most of the anger comes from the lack of some Pokémon in Sword and Shield, some fans also think that the game is too easy.
Just search for "Pokemon" on Twitter and you'll see a whole bunch of angry tweets arguing about the difficulty of the game, which is, to be honest, made for children.
Although some missing Pokémon will return via DLC, the developer Game Freak doesn't seem ready to resolve difficult complaints – but, for years, the more efficient fan community has been adding their own rules to their Pokémon games to Making things more exciting, more refreshing, and more difficult. Here are some of our favorites, starting with the humble Nuzlocke:
Nuzlock: Don't let monsters fall
The challenge comes from an ironic web comic called Pokémon Ruby: Hard Mode, created by a man named "Nuzlocke". Their name is based on the first crazy harvest in the plot, Nuzleaf and the lost character John Locke, but the popularity of the comics comes from the Hard Mode rules, and so far millions of fans have realized them in their games.
Before we distort the details or add other rules, most of our more difficult rule sets start with these rules, so if the term is new to you, please read the following instructions carefully:
- You can only capture the first Pokémon you encounter in each new area or route. If you faint or it disappears, you have failed and you cannot catch another Pokémon in the area. Try to get a random "exclamation mark" instead of picking from worldly things.
- If one of your Pokemon faints, it is considered dead. Release it immediately.
Your job is simple: keep your team alive and don't lose all six Pokemon at the party without wasting money. In addition to these two core rules, fans have accepted some additional rules:
- Give each Pokemon a nickname. This will establish a stronger connection between you and your Pokémon, making you more painful when you inevitably have to release them due to inappropriate death. It's like XCOM with pigeons and shit.
- No duplicate Pokemon monster species. This prevents you from encountering a boring team of six identical Pokémon.
A Nuzlocke basically adds a self-set permanent death mechanism to your game. Sword and Shield brought Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokemon to the battlefield, and they could easily hit a Pokemon, making Nuzlocker's life more difficult than the previous generation.
Losing the sleepy Pokémon will bring permanent instant difficulties to the game, but if this is not enough to get you excited, why not try a real surprise of fishing?
SurpriseLocke: adventure meet
Imagine a gambler? Play an acca at the second division in Uruguay every weekend, or spend most of your working time playing poker stars in the toilet and pretending to be shit? SurpriseLocke follows standard Nuzlocke rules, but adds a gambling element where you can use the Surprise Trade feature on this route to exchange randomly encountered Pokémon for the first encounter on each route (so you will feel " Surprised ").
In return, you can receive any Pokemon in the game. By the way, you may receive a lot of weak Caterpies and Skwovets, which will make the battle more difficult, but you may find yourself with more power.
SurpriseLocke is more risky than any other game, but it may also be the most valuable if you are willing to roll the dice. Every transaction can lead to anything from Charizard to Cherrim, and if you are willing to take risks, you will have a lot of fun-remember to avoid fainting your Pokemon, otherwise you will release them faster than you say Gigantamax.
EggLocke: Do you trust your friends?
Many fans of OG Pokemon have entered the stage of life, and everyone is talking about babies. Friends, parents, partners, every conversation is crazy. Although it's not as heavy as a stranded death or Geshe, it does involve a lot of reproduction.
So if the idea of baby talk infiltrating your video game from the real world doesn't tremble your spine, then EggLocke may be for you. Similar to SurpriseLocke, EggLocke is the standard Nuzlocke with some weird encounter rules.
Before you start, ask some of your friends to send you about 35 eggs randomly, and then hatch one egg instead of each new encounter. The difficulties here depend on the kindness of your friends and the lies of Pokemon waiting to hatch. All it needs is what Norman Reedus calls Pokemon, basically you already have the latest Strand-type work.
Soul Link: ‘We cannot separate until death
Never before has a story been more miserable than Skwovet and her Keldeo. Soul Link is the two-person spin of the Nuzlocke rule, adding love and sadness to the game. In addition to the "Big Four" rule, you and your friend's Pokemon will always remain "soul connected". This adds a lot of rules to the game, but if you don't want to increase the difficulty of Pokemon, it's worth it.
- Both players encountered their first encounter on each route, and these Pokemon must be the same gender and cannot share the main genre. They are now soul links.
- If one of your Pokemon faints, its soul link partner must also be released and vice versa.
- On either side, you cannot repeat any major typing in the 12 Pokémon. So if you have an electric Pikachu, your partner can't use other major electric Pikachus at the party. They cannot own Dracozolt, but they can own Galvantula.
Soul Link assumes that Pokemon can fall in love (and can only fall into heterosexual relationships) and that they will die to each other. This also makes it one of the most difficult modes for surrounding Pokemon. Just like a fierce battle at the end of each episode of Love Island, when all couples are paired together, those loved couples must leave the villa forever. I have never seen Love Island.
In "Soul Link", your Pokemon is an aspiring Instagram star, and the Galar area is their Spanish villa, which makes the gym leader try to vote your Pokemon out and get that guy from school trying to fully base Insta comes to follow Insta. He actually has abdominal muscles. However, your Pokemon must look around for life and succumb to the sorrowful embrace of death before the soul mate faints, instead of looking and searching for the hottest lover. This is too cruel.
Mono: Forever Disadvantage
In Dua Lipa's words, "it only takes one type to complete the game." She was right. If you want to make the gym even more difficult, try choosing one that works throughout the game. The normal Nuzlocke rules apply of course, but other than that, you can only try to capture the first Pokemon of the selected type * on each route. There is no such Pokemon in this area-it will not be encountered.
How you choose the type is up to you. If, like me, you are sad about having your favorite Pokémon type (electric-thanks for asking), just choose it, otherwise take off your hat, use a zodiac sign, or throw your dart on a special dart board , Enter. Now, unless you choose "Fire", "Water" or "Grass", you need to give up the starting Pokemon as soon as possible Trade with friends or through the "surprise trading" feature until you receive your favorite monster and then start the real challenge.
No matter which type you choose, there will be stadiums, opponents, or areas you can't handle, and ordinary battles may turn into a troublesome opponent's game ending. For example, Shanlong users must be alert to the heads of Opal and Melony, Fairy and Ice gyms, all of which will cause super effective damage to your entire team. Users of the single-steel type should easily participate in these battles, but Kabu's Fire-type gym can undo it. Do you want hard mode? You have difficult modes.
Potion only: privatization walkthrough
Do you know what the simplest part of a Pokemon game is? State-owned medical system. Yes, I'm talking about "Happy Nurse" and her incredible Pokémon Center, they can provide free medical services to all Pokémon as long as they wear a hat.
The potions-only game will make you feel like living in the UK in five years, where national health services have been privatized and Pokemon Center is no longer free when you use it. In addition to the regular Nuzlocke run, this run has a simple rule: You cannot use Pokemon Centers.
You have to rely on potions and paralysis to restore Pokemon health, while also managing your funds to have enough dwarves to attract new team members. This is probably the easiest way to make your trip in the Galar area, instead of "bringing the Southerners to the store".
Randomists: Invading the system
You will find that if you look at any of the videos linked in this article, many will go one step further and randomly assign games. If you are hacking the Switch's suspicious market, you can randomly distribute the games by downloading (illegal) third-party software, making subsequent gameplay completely different. Alternatively, you can play ROM hacks, but how fun is it?
Randomizers increase difficulty by swapping out every Pokemon that would normally be replaced randomly. count, trainer, gym leader, many. Even if lost by Dragon Wrath in the infamous Nuzlock's ending Sword and Shield, you still don't want to face a level 10 tyrant at an early date. Imagine a glitch in Dark Souls and your first boss is the King of Cinders.
Nothing prevents you from facing the legend multiple times, or finding the gym leader Dynamax to be more powerful than usual Pokémon. In addition, you won't step into the gym and don't know how to do super effective damage to every enemy, but will give leaders the respect they need and deserve.
Combining it with the Nuzlocke rules will bring you real challenges, but with it comes the cost of modifying the Nintendo Switch. It's up to you to pay for it.
If you get to this point and still find things easy, you can always combine some rule sets to make things more complicated. How about pure potion single electric Nuzlocke? Or random soullink SurpriseLocke? There are many of these options, and it's clear that Sword and Shield live longer, regardless of difficulty.
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