What is a Playthrough?
A playthrough is any "run" through a game where you impose rules on yourself that dictate how you play the game. These rules can be almost anything, such as a rule where you are restricted on what type(s) you can use, how you obtain Pokémon in the challenge or what happens to a Pokémon if it faints. There are several varieties of basic challenges to choose from, to which you can add restrictions as you see fit. You are more than welcome to post your own playthrough here in the "Pokemon Video Games" forum.
Nuzlocke
Wonderlocke
Wedlocke
Monotype
Scramble
Solo
A playthrough is any "run" through a game where you impose rules on yourself that dictate how you play the game. These rules can be almost anything, such as a rule where you are restricted on what type(s) you can use, how you obtain Pokémon in the challenge or what happens to a Pokémon if it faints. There are several varieties of basic challenges to choose from, to which you can add restrictions as you see fit. You are more than welcome to post your own playthrough here in the "Pokemon Video Games" forum.
Nuzlocke
Nuzlocke challenges are fun challenges that really test your skills as a trainer and your ability to make judgements on what Pokémon to use in what situation. Although they can be intense sometimes they are very rewarding and lead to you forming some really strong bonds with Pokémon you never expected to be good.
Basic Rules:
(There are many more besides those listed above!)
Basic Rules:
- You may only catch the first Pokémon you encounter in any route or Area.
- If a Pokémon faints then it is considered dead and cannot be used again for the duration of the challenge. These Pokémon must either be released or placed in a 'Death Box'.
- All Pokémon must be nicknamed (not completely necessary but is strongly advised to give your Pokémon more personality).
- Dupes Clause - you may not obtain a Pokémon if you have already obtained another member of its evolutionary family (e.g. you can't catch a Swellow if you have already obtained a Tailow, even if the Tailow is dead). (This rule helps to prevent you having a box full of Bidoof or other common Pokémon)
- Healing/Item restrictions - this involves imposing restrictions on healing such as how many times you are allowed to heal a Pokémon in battle, being able to heal outside of battle or even restricting use of a Pokémon Center.
(There are many more besides those listed above!)
Wonderlocke
A Wonderlocke is a variation on the classic Nuzlocke that has appeared in Generation VI. As the name implies, the key difference with a Wonderlocke is the use of the Wondertrade system. Instead of using the first Pokémon that you encounter in each area, you Wondertrade it away to someone somewhere else in the world, and use the Pokémon that they traded to you instead.
Basic Rules:
Basic Rules:
- You may only catch the first Pokémon you encounter in any route or Area. This Pokémon must then be traded away using the Wondertrade system.
- If a Pokémon faints then it is considered dead and cannot be used again for the duration of the challenge. These Pokémon must either be released or placed in a 'Death Box'.
- All Pokémon must be nicknamed (not completely necessary but is strongly advised to give your Pokémon more personality).
- Dupes Clause - you may not obtain a Pokémon if you have already obtained another member of its evolutionary family (e.g. you can't catch a Swellow if you have already obtained a Tailow, even if the Tailow is dead). (This rule helps to prevent you having a box full of Bidoof or other common Pokémon)
- Healing/Item restrictions - this involves imposing restrictions on healing such as how many times you are allowed to heal a Pokémon in battle, being able to heal outside of battle or even restricting use of a Pokémon Center.
- Level restrictions (Strongly Recomended!!) - You must re-trade a Pokémon if it's level is above a certain threshold (usually the highest levelled Pokémon of the next Gym Leader) to prevent the game being too easy (it's not going to be that enjoyable if you get a level 59 Hydreigon obtained by someone in Victory Road in exchange for your Pidgey).
Wedlocke
Another variation on the Nuzlocke is the Wedlocke. This variant is harder than the others listed above as it requires you to think much more about choices and their impacts on your team. In this variant Pokémon are paired according to their gender, hence the name Wedlocke.
Basic Rules:
.
Optional Rules:
Basic Rules:
- You may only catch the first Pokémon you encounter in any route or Area. Genderless Pokémon cannot be caught and do not count towards the first encounter rule. If you have an odd-numbered amount of Pokémon in your party then you only count Pokémon encounters if they lead to gender ratio of the party remaining 50:50 (e.g. you would ignore female enounters if you had 3 female Pokémon and 2 male).
- If a Pokémon faints then it is considered dead and cannot be used again for the duration of the challenge. These Pokémon must either be released or placed in a 'Death Box'.
- All Pokémon must be nicknamed (not completely necessary but is strongly advised to give your Pokémon more personality).
- Pokémon are paired according to gender, with male Pokémon being paired with female Pokémon. Once a pair has been created it cannot be destroyed unless one of the Pokémon in the pairing dies. When entering battle, only the lead pair may take part unless both Pokémon in the pair die (no switching between different pairs during the battle).
- Pokémon cannot be deposited into the PC.
.Optional Rules:
- Dupes Clause - you may not obtain a Pokémon if you have already obtained another member of its evolutionary family (e.g. you can't catch a Swellow if you have already obtained a Tailow, even if the Tailow is dead). (This rule helps to prevent you having a box full of Bidoof or other common Pokémon)
- Healing/Item restrictions - this involves imposing restrictions on healing such as how many times you are allowed to heal a Pokémon in battle, being able to heal outside of battle or even restricting use of a Pokémon Center.
Monotype
A Monotype challenge is a fun, more relaxed challenge where you are only allowed to use Pokémon from a certain type. You are allowed to use Pokémon that are not of the chosen type as long as one of it's evolved or unevolved forms are (e.g. you could use Dragalge in a Water Monotype challenge, Surskit in a Flying Monotype etc.). When choosing a type make sure there are actually enough Pokémon of that type in the game and its fine to trade in order to make up the numbers (just don't go around doing a Steel Monotype in Pokémon Yellow ).
).Scramble
A Scramble challenge (aka a Choose My Team challenge) is one where the person undertaking the challenge has little to no control over their team, which instead is chosen by the users who read the challenge. This can cause some crazy teams to be created and can prove to be difficult if everyone gives a hard request. You can only leave one request for a Pokémon, for which you can choose things like its nickname, whether it has to have a certain move for the whole game, at what level it can evolve (or even if it can evolve at all) etc. Don't choose Pokémon that are just useless (Burmy, Magikarp, Combee etc.) unless the person doing the challenge says it's OK for you to do so. Only the first six Pokémon requested may be used (this is to stop you having too much choice - that would be too easy ).
).Solo
A Solo challenge is one where for the entire duration of the challenge you can only use one Pokémon. This can really test your strategic play when you only have a handful of move types available.