How To Do A Nuzlocke Run In Pokemon (2024)

There are countless ways to play through a Pokemon game. Many players will take it slow when experiencing a new region for the first time, catching all the exciting new Pokemon and exploring every area they come across. Many will likely remember their first playthrough involving a ridiculously over-leveled starter doing the bulk of the work while a team of level thirty-something HM slaves looks on.

Related: Inside The Legacy Of The Pokemon Nuzlocke Challenge

In 2010, however, a 4chan user came up with a new way to play the game, calling it "hard-mode". He added self-imposed rules to the game and documented his efforts with comics posted to the site. A Nuzleaf given the face of Lost's John Locke was particularly popular among those following the playthrough, so the names were mashed together and the nuzlocke was born.

The Basics Of A Nuzlocke

A nuzlocke is essentially a playthrough of a Pokemon game where you impose additional rules on yourself to make things harder. Being a game ultimately designed with children in mind, many players find the games lack challenge, and nuzlocke playthroughs aim to solve that problem.

There is no one definitive set of rules, but we'll cover the most popular ones shortly. Nuzlockes can be done in any mainline Pokemon game, so all you need is a Pokemon game from Generations I-VIII, and a console to play it on.

Fundamental Nuzlocke Rules

Nuzlockes lack a single standardized set of rules, so the exact sets of restrictions used by players vary widely. In this section are the most commonly agreed-upon rules that constitute the fundamentals of a nuzlocke run. Use the three rules below, and most people would consider your playthrough to be a nuzlocke in some shape or form.

A couple of quick points - a run's rules come into force once you get your first Poke Balls, and the run is considered beaten once you defeat the Champion (the notable exception here is the Johto games, where many players consider Kanto to be a part of the playthrough and Red to be the final boss).

A run is considered lost if every Pokemon on your team faints during a fight, though some instead set the bar for failure at the loss of every Pokemon you have, meaning that if you lose a team of six during a fight, you can get more Pokemon from the PC and carry on until the box is empty.

If A Pokemon Faints, It's Considered Dead And Cannot Be Used

This is pretty self-explanatory, and is where a nuzlocke gains its stakes. You grow more attached to your Pokemon knowing that any battle could be their last, and the constant threat of their demise encourages you to play more carefully and strategically than you otherwise might - having to complete a run after having lost some of your strongest 'mons is a challenge in itself.

There's no hard rule for what to do when a Pokemon dies - most people either release it on the spot, or keep it in a graveyard box in the PC, awaiting resurrection once the Champion is beaten.

You Can Only Catch The First Pokemon In Any Given Area

What constitutes an "area" is a bit of a debatable topic, but the general rule of thumb is that it's the location the Pokemon was caught in its summary screen. For example, Routes are distinct areas, as are caves and towns. However, merely entering a new place and getting a load screen doesn't always mean it's a new area - the Eevee from Bill and the prize Pokemon from the Game Corner are both just "Goldenrod City.

"Encounter" is also arguable - some people count gifts (like the Silph Co. Lapras) or in-game trades (like Mindy's infamous Haunter) as the encounter, while others consider encounters to be purely Pokemon found in tall grass and the like. Finer distinctions like this are entirely up to you - just go with whatever seems the most fun.

The idea with this rule is to increase the difficulty by forcing you to play the hand you're dealt. In a restriction-free playthrough, you can plan out a team with fantastic type coverages and a counter for any weakness. Nuzlockes mix it up and thrust random Pokemon on you, forcing you to get creative with your team composition. You also end up often using Pokemon you otherwise wouldn't, which can be one of the most fun experiences the playthroughs have to offer.

You Must Nickname All Of Your Pokemon

This rule doesn't add much to the difficulty of the run, but it increases the stakes on an emotional level - you get more attached to your adorable allies once you've chosen their names, making the thought of their deaths sting that much more.

Dupes Clause

This is a sort of modifier to the three fundamental rules, but it's worth mentioning it since a vast number of people use it. If you're using dupes clause, you can redo an area's encounter if the first Pokemon you encountered was one you already had (or something from its line). For example, if you already have a Rattata, and you go into a Route and encounter another Rattata, or a Raticate, you can run away and do another encounter to get something new. Some people also force this to prevent stacking up on multiples of powerful Pokemon, meaning you have to run away in the event of encountering a dupe.

The idea behind dupes clause is to keep things fun and ensure at least some diversity in your team - no one wants to play through a region with a team of Wurmple. As with any rule, using it or not is entirely up to you, and there are arguments to be made in favor of both, so just go with what's the most fun.

Shiny Clause

This is the other main clause that sees widespread use along with dupes. If you encounter a shiny Pokemon, you're allowed to catch it, even if you already have a Pokemon from that area. Shinies are cool, and it's exciting to catch and use one, so this is a good rule in the name of fun. What you can do with the shiny once you catch it is a matter of opinion - some say you can use it for your playthrough, others argue the extra Pokemon is an advantage and the shiny must be boxed.

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Hardcore Nuzlockes

If you're a bit more of an experience Pokemon player, or have a few Nuzlockes under your belt, you can take things to the next level by attempting what's become known as the "hardcore nuzlocke". It adds three main rules to those of the standard nuzlocke:

You Cannot Overlevel The Next Gym Leader's Ace

One of the easiest ways to cheese a regular nuzlocke is by over-leveling to give your team an advantage. Hardcore nuzlockes remove that option to force you to win battles with strategy instead. A gym leader's ace is their highest-leveled Pokemon - normally their final one - so before fighting their gym, you cannot have a Pokemon of a level higher than that.

For example, in the runup to Maylene's gym in Diamond and Pearl, the highest you could level your Pokemon to is level 30, since that's the level of her ace, Lucario. If one of your Pokemon does go over, you can't use it until you've beaten the gym - it has to stay in the box.

You Cannot Use Items In Battle

The other main source of (arguably) cheap wins in standard nuzlockes is spamming potions to keep your Pokemon in the fight and wait for a lucky opening. Again, hardcore nuzlockes look to make a battle a showdown of pure skill and strategy, so healing items are out. You can use potions in the overworld to heal up between fights, but reaching for the bag mid-battle is a no-go.

You Must Play On Set Mode

In the settings for any Pokemon game is a toggle, allowing you to choose between playing on shift (also called switch) and set modes. Shift lets you know what your opponent is sending in after one of their Pokemon faints, and gives you the option to swap Pokemon yourself. Set mode takes this option away, meaning that if you want to swap a Pokemon in, you'll have to do it into a potential attack.

This is another obvious difficulty increase, and forces you to play that bit more strategically for battles. Instead of just planning out counters, you'll also need to consider what Pokemon could tank an attack before dealing damage themselves.

Other Rules

The rulesets listed above are the basics for the two most common types of nuzlockes, but the possible restrictions do not end there by any means. Some players like to do monotype runs, meaning only Pokemon of a chosen type can be caught and count for catching rules. Other similar restrictions can be tried out for varying levels of difficulty - only Pokemon of a certain color, or 'mons whose names end in a certain letter, and so on.

For even further increased difficulty, some players remove overworld healing and backtracking, turning every Route into a gauntlet. When the only place you can heal is a Pokemon Center, every fight must be meticulously planned out if you want to make it through the Route with no losses.

Randomized nuzlockes have also become popular, and use emulators to mix up some elements of the game. You can randomize anything from wild encounters and abilities to enemy teams and items on the ground, or all of the above. It's a great way to revisit a game you know well while keeping things fresh.

Ultimately, you don't even have to play with all three of the fundamental rules if they don't sound fun to you. The reason people do nuzlockes in the first place is because they find the added challenge enjoyable, so pick and choose rules and clauses freely until you have a ruleset you're content with.

Choosing A Game To Nuzlocke

There are a vast number of Pokemon games, and in terms of nuzlocking, not all are created equal - the mainline games sit on a spectrum of difficulty for a Nuzlocke playthrough. FireRed and LeafGreen are considered some of the easiest, so make a good entry for a first-time nuzlocker.

Meanwhile, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Platinum, and HeartGold and SoulSilver are generally agreed upon as the hardest (the latter due to their doubled length), so they might be better once you have some experience under your belt.

Ultimately, the more familiar you are with a game, the easier it'll be to plan for, so picking the game you've played the most is a good starting point. Likewise, going in blind to a game you've never played before is a surefire way to have a challenging run.

There are also ROM hacks, which are fan-made alterations of mainline games (or original games entirely). There are far too many of these to cover here, but the most notable examples aim to increase difficulty with smarter enemies, while offering more quality-of-life features like expanded Dexes and better access to IVs and EVs.

Hacks like these include Radical Red and hacks made by Drayano - such as Sacred Gold and Storm Silver, or Renegade Platinum. The most infamous hacks are the Kaizo hacks for Blue, Crystal, and Emerald; these have become notorious for their high level of difficulty, garnering massive attention on Twitch.

ROM hacks are impressive projects, though the difficulty typically associated with them means they might not be ideal for a first nuzlocke. Once you've got some experience, however, they could provide a great challenge - and the bragging rights that come with victory.

Some Final Tips

Once you've chosen a ruleset and a game, you're ready to get started. To have the best chance of success, researching major battles ahead of time to plan for the fight can be a major help. Additionally, looking up a Route's encounters to plan for what you might want (and seeing if you can increase your chances of a desirable encounter using dupes clause) can help with building a balanced team. If you want more tips for nuzlocking, there's a whole list of them here.

Next: The Best Pokemon For Your Nuzlocke