Nuzlocke

The Nuzlocke challenge is a self-imposed fan-made gameplay formula designed to make video games in the Pokémon series more difficult. Players using the Nuzlocke challenge are unable to use their Pokémon again if they are knocked out in combat once and can only add the first Pokémon they encounter in a select area to their team.

The Nuzlocke challenge was created by Nick Franco when he was a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz. While procrastinating on an assignment, Franco decided to play Pokémon Ruby with a harder ruleset to make it more interesting. He created a webcomic based on the playthrough, dubbed Pokémon: Hard-Mode. A recurring Nuzleaf character, who resembled Lost character John Locke, resulted in the Nuzlocke challenge's name, being a portmanteau of Nuzleaf and Locke.

It has proven popular with players due to its focus on building emotional attachments with the player's Pokémon, as well as for the added challenge it provides. The Nuzlocke challenge is also popular with content creators online, attracting wide followings within the Pokémon fan community. Former Nintendo Minute hosts Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, following their departure from the series, stated that they had been forbidden by The Pokémon Company from using Nuzlocke rules in a video. This resulted in fandom backlash, resulting in the company making a statement clarifying the situation. The Nuzlocke challenge has been adapted into other video games since its introduction.

In the Pokémon series, players travel across an open in-game world, capturing the titular creatures and using them to battle each other in combat; they can use various attacks both offensively and defensively. If a Pokémon takes enough damage, they will "faint" and be knocked out, rendering them unable to be used in combat. These Pokémon can be healed at Pokémon Center locations, or by using healing items. The primary goal is to become the strongest trainer in the region.

Nuzlocke gameplay functions identically to regular Pokémon gameplay, with the only differences being that players can only catch the first Pokémon they encounter in a given area, and that when a Pokémon is defeated in battle, it is considered "dead" and cannot be used again, even if healed in-game. Most rulesets encourage the player to nickname their Pokémon to form a stronger attachment to it.

The Nuzlocke challenge was first created in 2010 by University of California, Santa Cruz student Nick Franco. Franco, procrastinating on college work, chose to play Pokémon Ruby, adding additional rules to make the play session more interesting. Franco eventually turned the playthrough with the ruleset into a webcomic, dubbed Pokémon: Hard-Mode. A recurring Nuzleaf character, who was drawn to resemble Lost character John Locke, became the source of the formula's name, with the words "Nuzleaf" and "Locke" combined to coin the term "Nuzlocke".

As the series has progressed, games have become less compatible with the Nuzlocke format, with games such as Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, which drastically change the gameplay style, being nearly impossible to play with the standard formula. In a Destructoid interview, Franco stated the formula was made more difficult by additions to the games that make gameplay easier; additions included an affection level, which allowed Pokémon to survive hits that would otherwise KO them, and Pokémon spawning in the game's overworld instead of through random encounters, which limited the player's ability to randomly select which Pokémon they would encounter. As a result of these changes, further additions to the ruleset were made to allow for the challenge's difficulty to remain.

Twitch streamer iateyourpie created another variant of the rules, dubbed the "Ironmon Challenge", which kept the basic Nuzlocke formula, but Pokémon locations, item locations, and Pokémon attacks were all randomized using mods. It was devised to provide a challenge to those already familiar with the Nuzlocke ruleset, and was stated in official documentation as "...not meant to be fair, and possibly not even fun". More difficult kaizo challenges limit players to one Pokémon at a time. Other adaptations to the ruleset have been devised, such as the "Hatelocke", which creates one continual run spanning the whole series, barring players from using Pokémon they captured in previous games.