The mainline Pokemon games, in spite of both their age and target demographic, have an impressively large following on both YouTube and Twitch. That's no surprise given the staying power the series has retained over the past 25 years, but, given the relatively straightforward nature of each Pokemon game, it's not unfair to question what's got so many viewers tuning in every week and how the wealth of streamers manage to keep things fresh.
Well, it turns out the straightforward experience the games are known for has led to a lot of creative exercises in limitation. Every Pokemon game starts and ends the same way; you get a starter Pokemon, then you beat the Elite Four- and this is true for every challenge run, too. It's the modifiers in between that keep it interesting. Want to roleplay as Team Rocket and steal some Pokemon? Or, have you ever wished every trainer you faced was level 100? Things have come a long way since Nuzlocke challenges.
8 Pokemon Shining Pearl But They Randomly Evolve Every Level - PointCrow
Even though Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl has barely been out for two months, the community has already managed to create a slew of different mods for the games. One of these mods, as shown off by PointCrow, forces your Pokemon to evolve into something completely random every time they level up.
Although your moves stay the same, your Pokemon’s stats are different between levels. Base HP, speed, special attack, type weaknesses, STAB damage – everything. One fight you could go into battle with a team stocked full of Legendaries and the next you could have an entire team of Bidoofs - you just better pray to Arceus and hope you get a lucky roll.
7 Can You Beat Pokemon Without Getting Hit? - GameChamp3000
The difficulty of certain Pokemon challenges ranges anywhere from easy to ridiculously hard, but the majority of them are at least still fun for the challenger to attempt. GameChamp3000 decided enjoying himself wasn’t really necessary for his Pokemon Red and Blue run, however, so he attempted to beat the game without getting hit once.
This doesn’t mean GameChamp could save before every match and reload if things didn’t go his way – it meant any time he got hit, he completely reset his progress right back to the beginning of the game. If this sounds completely awful and soul-crushing, that’s because you’re clearly not as strong-willed as GameChamp and his level 100 Raticate.
6 Pokemon But They Level Down - SmallAnt
SmallAnt is, unquestionably, the first name that should come to mind when anyone thinks of silly yet difficult Pokemon challenges. One of his most famous trials features some of the biggest-brain strategies ever witnessed in the Pokemon Twitch scene - “Pokemon, but they level down”.
This is exactly as difficult as it sounds. Whenever your Pokemon defeats another Pokemon, it loses experience. This makes your starter basically worthless, it makes capturing new Pokemon in every area a necessity, and it makes any random trainer battle a complete chore. Worse still, this means that if a Pokemon levels down with low HP, there’s actually a good chance it will faint due to its maximum HP reducing.
5 Pokemon But Twitch Chat Tries To Stop Me - Ludwig
Some content creators are more focused on setting speed-running records or beating insurmountable odds for clout. Ludwig instead prioritizes chaos over skill, and his challenge Pokemon but Twitch Chat Tries to Stop Me is the perfect example of the kind of content he prefers to produce.
Users in Ludwig’s Twitch chat were allowed to choose which Pokemon he encountered in the wild, they could heal his opponents, erase the PP of his moves, and inflict any negative status on his Pokemon whenever they wished. Ultimately an impossible task, but hard to deny that it's entertaining to watch.
4 Can You Beat Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen With Only a Slakoth? - Pikasprey Yellow
Beating a Pokemon game with only a Slakoth might not sound too hard on paper. After all, what’s stopping you from just grinding for eternity and producing a level 100 Slakoth, and then subsequently one-hit-KOing your way through every member of the Elite Four?
Well, as explained by Pikasprey Yellow, Slakoth has two pretty damning weaknesses. Firstly, they're slow. So slow in fact, that they comfortably place in the top 10% of the slowest Pokemon in the entire franchise. This wouldn’t be too damning on its own, but paired with Slakoth’s Truant ability – which causes you to skip every other turn instead of attacking – even the easiest of matches suddenly become a total slog.
3 Can You Beat Pokemon Emerald Using Only Items? - SmallAnt
SmallAnt’s video “Beating Pokemon Emerald using ONLY items” is actually a little more challenging than the title might let on. Not only does SmallAnt stop himself from healing at Poke Centres, but he takes things a step further and forbids himself from entering them entirely.
This means he’s not allowed to use any PCs, forcing him to use the first five Pokemon he catches alongside his starter. The financial burden of the run doesn’t just stop at potions either, as not being able to heal at Poke Centres also constantly drains your Pokemon’s Power-Points for their moves. Resorting to using struggle then also drains your hit points, which causes you to use more potions, which means more money spent... it's a vicious circle.
2 Pokémon, But You Can Donate To Release Them - Alpharad & Jaiden Animations
Even though Pokemon games are usually a single-player affair, outside of trading and online battles, it's not stopped streamers from coming up with new and inventive ways to turn catching 'em all into a 1v1 competition. Most of these battles don't usually end with six-digit donations to charity though.
Yet both Alpharad and Jaiden Animations managed exactly that with their head-to-head Ruby and Sapphire battle, raising over $150,000 for Red Nose Day in 2021. That mammoth figure was reached in part due to a very special challenge modifier; once certain donation milestones were reached, one of both Alpharad and Jaiden's Pokemon were randomly selected to be released.
1 Pokemon But I Can Only Use Shiny Pokemon And The Rules Are Hardcore - Quinn Rutledge Live
The “Nuzlocke Challenge” is easily the most famous Pokemon challenge ever devised. The rules are simple; if your Pokemon ever faints, you have to release them. No matter their level, no matter their rarity, no matter your emotional connection to them – you gotta let them go.
Quinn Rutledge decided this wasn’t brutal enough however, so they decided to amp things up a bit by making all of their chosen Pokemon shinies. Just to clarify, there’s a 1 in 4096 chance of encountering a shiny in Pokemon X and Y – a shiny that will have to be released should they faint. This one is a little tough to watch.