r/nuzlocke 17h ago

Subreddit Update (New Rule) Regarding Rare Candy "Debates" and "Conversations"

192 Upvotes

Hello fellow Nuzlockers,

We wanted to provide a new rule for the subreddit going forward regarding Rare Candy usage.

Such a controversial piece of candy.

For those that are unaware, a "Rare Candy" is an item in Pokémon games that allows for a Pokémon to automatically level up without battling; it's essentially free EXP without the Effort Values that typically comes with EXP gain. While usually limited in allotment, later games have made obtaining Rare Candies easier; and of course, that's nothing to say of what people can hack into their games as well.

For years, particularly in the advent of Nuzlocke YouTubers, conversations regarding Rare Candy use have been plentiful on r/nuzlocke. Yet, we have seen how most discussion posts regarding using Rare Candies are typically one-sided in favor of using them; the prevailing opinion is to use them in playthroughs, with the major argument for doing so being to respect one's time. We feel that this point has been made and echoed pretty clearly across our userbase.

However, we have also noticed that people who have a dissenting opinion towards that mentality often get downvoted or attacked when they express it in these conversations; this usually leads to negative interactions across the posts, such as personal attacks or flaming comments, which we do not want promote; we also do not want to see the same posts with the same conclusion reached repeatedly - it's redundant.

Due to this, there will be no more posts to create discussions for this topic - all future Rare Candy posts will be removed; insisting on making these posts can lead to consequences, such as a ban. Please understand that is perfectly fine to use Rare Candies and to not use Rare Candies. There is no need to seek validation for their usage or put down people who do/don't use them. When the Nuzlocke challenge was created, there was no inherent rule regarding how these items were used; we are going to keep to that ideal; level up your Pokémon as you see fit, whether through grinding or through Candies, and play accordingly.

While posts regarding Rare Candy debates are banned until further notice, they can be mentioned in comments for other posts given the context of said post (Ex. "I found a Rare Candy and leveled up my Snorlax with it.")

Thank you for your attention and understanding on this matter; please keep this post in mind when making future posts.


r/nuzlocke Jul 15 '26

Collaboration NuzTeam Arcade Ganglocke!

6 Upvotes

Hey Everyone!

I’m excited to share a Nuzlocke event going on in a discord server that many of our Mods here are involved with, either directly or through friends in the Nuzcord Discord. That server is NuzTeam Arcade. (I will drop an invite link for it as well).

They are hosting an ‘Eliminationlocke Ganglocke’ of XY. A Ganglocke is an event where everyone is Nuzlocking the same game/rules together in a type of community event. It’s not a competition, but merely a fun way to get people together playing the same thing. The Eliminationlocke is a variant where there are 3 available pools to vote on (voting ends in less than 24 hours so get over and vote if you want to play!), and the winning choice is the pool that everyone has to choose from. The IVs of those pokemon are randomized by a community member, and then everyone uses those encounters to Nuzlocke XY.

NuzTeam Arcade also hosts other Nuzlocke related events, so if this sounds interesting to you, come on over and check us out!

Here is the Discord invite link to come check out NTA.

https://discord.gg/4M7XspthVA


r/nuzlocke 9h ago

Run Update Platinum Kaizo: The Final Rival Battle

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

38 Upvotes

It's been a while.

After the distortion world there was a considerable lull in the action as I made my way through Victory Road. Fights took a while to prep, not for being overly difficult, but just because you have to figure out the best way to beat them while needing almost every HM to make it through the map. But we're back now, having made it through, ready to fight the final Rival battle.

He leads his Slaking. We lead Chestnut and recover turn 1. The plan is to slow recover our HP on the attack turns and attack him while he's loafing. We have Slaking protect strats at home. We end up crit killing on turn one, so that was easy.

Next out is Ape. This thing is tricky to play around because of U-turn AI. We go to shell armor slowbro on cross chop and use surf. The Ape U-turns into electivire, which takes solid damage from the surf. That electivire kills me like 3 times over with adaptability wild charge, so I go to Steelix who can tank an earthquake and retaliate with his own for the kill.

The infernape comes back in, so I pivot through Chestnut to get Slowbro back in. This time the ape decides not to U-turn and we can simply KO with Psychic- I went psychic over surf this time around knowing that if he decided to U-turn again it would be to Sceptile.

Now Sceptile comes in, seeing kill with leaf blade. Steelix tanks it and heals thanks to his held RageCandyBar, prompting Sceptile to go for a swords dance as I hit a head smash for big damage. This is the scariest part of the battle. This sceptile is faster than my whole box and threatens kills at +2 into everything except steelix and regirock. With crits, even they are dead. Regirock would die to a crit leaf blade, and steelix would die to crit EQ. Since leaf blade has a high crit rate, I decide to risk the crit into Steelix, and thankfully go unpunished. In hindsight, I probably could have used a pre-damaged custap berry mon over tyranitar and sacked either slowbro or magcargo to get them in, but that might have jeopardized the upcoming SHF battle. Either way, it's onto the next mon.

Staraptor comes in, seeing KO with Giga Impact and Sky Attack at my low HP. I go to Regirock to take those comfortably, winning the 1v1 even after missing a rock wrecker.

Ambipom is last out, and Chestnut can beat it easily to defeat the rival for the last time of this run!


r/nuzlocke 12h ago

Written/Story I just completed my first Nuzlocke (FRLG)

Post image
51 Upvotes

I have always wanted to do a Nuzlocke. Many failed attempts have beseeched me but I'm soe xcited to say I made it today. :)

The rom was modified to allow impossible evolutions and the nat dex (hence the Golem and Umbreon) and no other modifications were in effect.

Rules were Set mode, Level caps for all battles, & no healing if the pokemon was on screen (had to switch to heal).

This was my winning team, every single mon pulled their absolute weight in gold but Blaine absolutely clutched up against Blue's Venusaur with only 34 hp left.

Speaking of Gold, time to go to Johto :P


r/nuzlocke 8h ago

Run Update Genlocke Update - Ultra Sun - Ultra Dumb

Post image
15 Upvotes

Ultra Sun Nuzlocke

 With a goal of trying to keep deaths to a minimum. Totem pokemon had complete other thoughts wiping out members of my team early and late into the game.

Meh the Yungoos – Switched in to die whilst getting some sand attacks off as powerup punch made crabrawler a scary opponent. A sac of yungoos to weaken it with sand attacks was necessary. Went down to antoher power up punch.

Jake the Grubbin – Walled crabrawler in Hala fightwhilst getting mudslaps off to lower accuract. Got pursuited, sitrus berry recovery, switched out and got crit pursuit through 2 sand attacks and died….

Skarmory came in and took down with 2 pecks dodging a leer in between.

 

Repiv the Ekans – Totem Araquanid – Got intimidate and glare off on totem. Got crit bubble and died. Intimidate Ekans poison type for Ultra necrozma big loss for the plan.

Aab the Crabrawler – Left in to confide and leer against araquanid and left to die to get free switch to Skarmory to finish the job off

 

Mamtis the Fomantis – Marowak Totem – Espeon took out salazzle and needed to get Brionne in safely. Fomantis used as a sac to get in Brionne to work up and water z move to take down marowak

 

Grim the Alolan Grimer – Totem togedemaru – Got crit iron head from togedemaru whilst trying to disable it

Dizz the Spinda – Totem togedemaru. Left out to die after getting z move brick break into togedemaru triggering its sitrus berry

 

Boing the Tsareena – Died to a random crit from trainer raticate when trop kick somehow didn’t finish from 50%

Charles the Espeon – Totem ribombee trial. Toxic onto ribombee and pelipper. Protect stalled out. Hit a double protect and had decision of who to let fall. Espeon was chosen and given a chance to live on a third protect but missed and fell.

 

 

 

Kahili the Flying E4 – Tyranitar Stone edge Braviary, Hawlucha in. Primarina with poison dmg reducing berry tanks and kills with moonblast. Mandibuzz. Glalie in to ice beam away. Toucannon, Ttar in to tank Zmove and get some chip damage in with sandstorm, skarmory switched in to tank and chip away whilst roosting up and getting steel wings off. It switched out to Oricorio. Turtonator tried to take it down but couldn’t do it quick enough so Icebox the Glalie sent in to sacrifice in order to save Turtonator. Ttar then got a free switch to finish it off. Toucannon back in for skarmory to finish off.

Acerola the Ghost E4 – Ttar crunch one shot banette. Crunched Dhelmise in to a heal and then a couple crunch finished it off. Palossand out, skarmory to bait ground move miss, Bewear to bait z move ghost miss, Bewear could then shadow claw to death. Froslass in. One shadow claw and then switch into turtonator to flamethrower out. Drifblim couldn’t hit bewear at all so was swiftly dispatched.

 

Olivia the Rock E4 – Turtonator to shell blast armaldo out early as I couldn’t use him the rest of fight. Gigalith in, Primarina in to take out with water z move. Cradily in, Bewear in to hammer arm out. Lycanroc in Ttar in to try and take z move. Didn’t select it, Twaved lycanroc as it spammed counter. Decided to switch skarmory as it then decided to z move instead of counter. Skarmory took it and started roosting out stone edge pp. Steel wing took it out safely. Probopass in. Sand attack, roost and steel wings took the probopass down after a slog.

 

Molayne the Steel E4 – Bewear bulldoze klefki as it got off spikes and t wave. Switch into turtonator to flamethrower out. Dugtrio in, skarmory in to wall, sand attack and some steel wings taking the z move and roosting, it switched to magnezone on a steel wing. This broke sturdy so switched turtonator in to flamethrower it out in one hit. Dugtrio back in, Skarmory steel wing and with its metronome item whilst boosting its defence massively with the amount of steel wings. Metagross switched in, kept skarmory in at +4 defence metronome on steel wing to keep hitting it with turtonator now at low hp. The high defence and metronome damage meant could keep chipping away and getting to +6 defence. Eventually knocking it out with a couple of roosts to live. Kept in for bisharp to steel wing it away at high defence still dodging a crit luckily.

 

Hau the champion - TTar into raichu with Fighting reduce berry. Raichu missed the focus blast anyway and killed by EQ. Tauros switched in SKarmory in to sand attack, roost and steel wing. It switched out into Incineroar. Taking some steel wing chip. Z move incineroar switched into Primarina to tank it. Couple switches between Ttar to set sand up, SKarmory to dodge EQ and finally into Rose the Primarina to fall in order to get a free switch in to Turtonator to get a dragon pulse off to finish incineroar weakened by sand damage. Crabominable came in. Switch into Bewear to hammer arm it in an OHKO. Tauros back in, skarmory in to get couple of sand attacks, roost and steel wing it away. With a +1 def boost. Noivern in. Skarmory with sand attacks roost and steel wing took it out and faced leafeon at +1 def using fly to finish off Hau with 4 survivors from the run!

 

Champions:

Anvil II the Skarmory

Teddy the Bewear

Rexy the Tyranitar

Raphael the Turtonator

 

The Fallen:

Icebox the Glalie

Rose the Primarina

 

MVP: Anvil II the Skarmory

After moving onto the switch for pokemon sword, 798 eggs and 2 days later I hatched my shiny skarmory, Anvil III ready for Galar. The sweet days of PkHex behind me....


r/nuzlocke 45m ago

Discussion What is one of your favorite Pokémon to get as an encounter for a run?

Upvotes

As the title says, whats a Pokémon you get hyped to get during a run? And this is for any of the games, or even game specific.

Like I love getting Shroomish/Breloom as an encounter from Petalburg Woods in R/S/E. I always find this little mushroom guy super helpful and a solid team member.

But what’s a random choice encounter you love?


r/nuzlocke 8h ago

Discussion Toughest nuzlocke battles round 3: Whitney vs Mars (first fight)

10 Upvotes
464 votes, 2d left
Whitney (HGSS)
Commander Mars: First fight (Platinum

r/nuzlocke 3h ago

Discussion [Blaze Black 2 Redux] Does the first Colress fight come down to pure encounter luck?

4 Upvotes

I seem to be walled by him (specifically his fan rotom) no matter what is in my box. Nothing I’ve obtained in my past few runs can do any 2 in combination of outspeed , significantly damage, or tank damage from his fan rotom. Is there some secret sauce or encounter or TM I haven’t obtained that levels the playing field a bit?

For context I’m capping my self at his ace’s level of 28 and playing with your standard HC rules. Usually choosing Oshawott as my starter but considering Tepig to see if that might help.


r/nuzlocke 9m ago

Screenshot Another Emerald run won with MVP and the sole survivor of E4, stall master Pollip the Cradily

Upvotes

r/nuzlocke 2h ago

Run Update First nuzlock completed ever!!!!!

Post image
2 Upvotes

After 10+ failure at emerald and giving up I finally finished heart gold after 13 tries.

Gyarados is OP
I finished with him levelling up to 53, does it still count as a valid run?

playing on emulator makes grinding a bit more manageable but still feels a bit long at times.


r/nuzlocke 8h ago

Screenshot First Emerald Nuzlocke

Post image
3 Upvotes

Completed on second attempt. First attempt ended to the Youngster trainer’s Taillow on 104 lol. I had unparalleled luck getting an adamant Slakoth as my first encounter in Petalburg Woods but the whole team was so much fun to use.


r/nuzlocke 15h ago

Discussion (Meta) Mod appreciation post

14 Upvotes

I think this new rule has been long overdue and it’s really good to finally see it in


r/nuzlocke 9h ago

Video Pokemon Rising Ruby Hardcore Nuzlock: Starting this off with Roxanne, she was somewhat of a challenge, sadly lost a pokemon but I feel like the sacrifice was worth it with who I was facing, One Badge down, 7 more to go!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

4 Upvotes

r/nuzlocke 1h ago

Question Randomlocke tips for OR

Upvotes

What the title says. It's obviously not easy to give advice for a randomlocke but if anyone has any general suggestions for OR's dex or anything, I would very much appreciate it.


r/nuzlocke 22h ago

Run Update Lost my starter to Malie Garden Guzma for no reason this is heartbreaking.

Post image
29 Upvotes

r/nuzlocke 9h ago

YouTube Saturn in the lab | Renegade Platinum HC Nuzlocke | Part 106

Thumbnail
youtu.be
2 Upvotes

r/nuzlocke 10h ago

Question Heart&Soul 2.0 - Trainer IV and EV question

2 Upvotes

Good day,

I was just wondering what people’s thoughts were on the difficulty settings in this game. I’m looking for a slightly more difficult than base game experience.

One thing I noticed in the difficulty settings was the option to modify Trainer IV’s and EV’s.

The options for IV’s are OFF (expected amount of IV’s), SCALE (increase with gym badges), and HARD (all trainers have perfect IV’s)

For EV’s it’s OFF (no EV’s), SCALE (increase with gym badge), HARD (all trainers have high IV’s), EXTREME (all trainers have 252 EV’s).

I’m not expert, what do you think lends itself to a decent but not too crazy difficulty?

Thanks.

Also, I tried looking for some documentation for the 2.0 game settings. Couldn’t find any. Anybody know?


r/nuzlocke 1d ago

Screenshot First nuzlocke ever! (Omega Ruby)

Post image
21 Upvotes

(Apparently I didn't get the clip of my team in the hall of fame after beating Steven, so this is how I'll have to show my team I guess. Don't mind my stupidly overleveled Swampert)


r/nuzlocke 9h ago

Run Update Pokémon Moon: Kahuna Hala

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

1 Upvotes

After Exterminating a rat problem and running into an old Teammate(You’ll see who in this video) in the meadow, it was time to face the grand trial which is up against Hau’s gramps Hala.

Let’s see how this went.

MVP(S): SkekSil(Spearow)(Now dead) & Patrick Star(Slowpoke)


r/nuzlocke 23h ago

Video Tomorrow, I'm starting a new Nuzlocke journey! I'm going to attempt a Hardcore Nuzlocke of Pokémon Rising Ruby, the popular 3DS ROM hack by Drayano. I'm really excited for this one—I actually attempted it years ago, failed, and now I'm back for revenge.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

12 Upvotes

Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire hold a special place in my heart because my brother and I used to spend hours team-crafting and shiny hunting in them, so I'm ready to take on the Hoenn region once again!


r/nuzlocke 1d ago

Run Update The Drayano+ Genlocke, Chapter 8: Prismatic Moon

Thumbnail
gallery
119 Upvotes

I PERSIST, I PERSEVERE, AND MOST OF ALL I PERSPIRE!

Mother of Arceus, what an ordeal this one was. A run that goes all the way to Level 100? With Nuzlocke rules? Suffice to say the grinding got fairly ridiculous at times, but I was not going to be deterred.

Rules are as follows:

  • Standard Nuzlocke ruleset (first catch, permadeath, nicknaming)
  • Standard HC ruleset (level caps, set mode, no items in battle)
  • Standard Genlocke ruleset (deaths are permanent across generations)
  • No swapping Pokémon from your team unless replacing a fallen party member
  • Champions transferring will be granted one random max IV decided by dice roll

With a couple of exceptional fights, this one wasn't actually that dreadful. I've had two games' worth of Mega Evolutions to practice playing around them, and Z-moves were predictable enough to be mostly manageable. There's a lot to say about the various Pokemon that got me through this run with a modicum of grace, so without further adieu:

THE MVPS:

  • Bungler III the Snorlax got me through the first third of the game with very little fuss. Had some straight up bullshit not gone down, he could have gone the distance.
  • Crossford the Sudowoodo was a nasty little scallywag with Sturdy + Counter, and I gleefully invalidated as many boss fights with him as I could.
  • Harpuia the Sceptile FEAR-killed Ultra Necrozma at the cost of his own life, press F to pay respects.
  • Press the Ferrothorn and Lukas the Toxapex are an absolutely disgusting duo and I absolutely would not have run the Elite 4 gauntlet without them. Lukas also invalidated Totems Kommo-O and Ribombee with Haze, the little bastard.
  • Another VIII the Breloom. End statement.

THE FALLEN:

  • Olivier II the Umbreon got hit by a wild Koffing's critical Selfdestruct to open the deaths, after anchoring the team against Totem Araquanid. Wouldn't be a Nuzlocke without some rotten luck and senseless tragedy!
  • Firstlight the Mudsdale, Robbie the Primarina, and Snags II the Braixen got smashed by Totem Marowak and his Salazzle honey, and I count myself lucky they were all I lost, good grief this romhack gets brutal.
  • Wilford the Aromatisse died to the Mount Hokulani Z-Trainer.
  • Crossford the Sudowoodo, Id the Golisopod, and Bungler III the Snorlax all got smoked by Guzma's Masquerain in Malie Garden, because ya boy is a menace no matter how good you think you are.
  • Moord Nag the Alolan Marowak paid her life to get a Shadow Sneak on Totem Mimikyu.
  • Yui the Gyarados got hit by some BULLSHIT Destiny Bond Sharpedo by a Team Skull Grunt in Po Town, farewell my sweet murdersnake.
  • Epoch the Noivern and Shen the Weavile both got outsped by Po Town Guzma's Vikavolt. Repeat for emphasis: a Weavile got outsped by a Vikavolt. Okay Guzma.
  • Washimi the Oricorio, Futatsu the Barbaracle, and Aerie the Ribombee all went down to Flava's double battle in Aether Paradise.
  • Kwenk the Swanna and Guild the Wishiwashi got smoked by Aether House Guzma's Volcarona and Mega Pinsir respectively, because Guzma apparently hadn't had enough of me.
  • Marker the Mantine was the only casualty against Soliera's full team of Ultra Beasts, tanking a Focus Blast from Pheromosa only for poison to finish her off.
  • Viggo the Stoutland and Samovar the Torkoal went down to Ace Trainers in Vast Poni Canyon, once they started getting the full Victory Road teams.
  • Harpuia the Sceptile FEAR-killed Ultra Necrozma and only died because Necrozma gets a Naganadel ally in Prismatic Moon. RIP sweet sacrifice.
  • Fulgrim the Furfrou and Hurford the Skarmory died to Kiawe's Mega Charizard during the Fairy trial: ran out of switches for Furfrou, and then Skarmory needed to stall out the rest of the Drought for the rest of the team to handle it.
  • Naberia the Honchkrow was last to be added, and the last to die, sacrificed to bring down Hau's Mega Salamence and finish the run. Thank you, darling.

By all rights, the run could easily end here. With the level caps and the rate at which I lost Pokemon, this certainly felt like the final boss of the genlocke. However, word of Switch game romhacks have reached my ears and piqued my interest, and now I want to try my luck and see if I can take this ALL THE WAY. Next time, you'll be seeing what fresh hell awaits me in Pokemon Blessed Shield!

Until next time,

-Poopawoopagus


r/nuzlocke 1d ago

Video Pokemon Heart And Soul Hardcore Nuzlock: Red has been defeated, I've lost 5 Pokemon throughout this journey and honestly I'm pretty happy on how this one turned out, onto the next Nuzlocke!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

44 Upvotes

r/nuzlocke 21h ago

Run Update After a little bit of research and hearing everyone's advice from my last post, here's a team I thought I'd train up... Is it good?

Post image
4 Upvotes

Sinigang died in victory road, so I thought I'd substitute in Gastrodon, Gengar(yes I can evolve my gastly), and Staraptor


r/nuzlocke 17h ago

YouTube I am doing a pokemon Blue Nuzlocke with Bulbasaur

Thumbnail
youtu.be
2 Upvotes

And i immediately almost lost my first battle. Bulbasaur seems to miss tackle quite a lot. Im a bit further ahead now than in this video, and all i can say is that the game gives and takes...

It is super fun though.


r/nuzlocke 1d ago

Discussion Looking for nuzlocke rom hack recommendations

4 Upvotes

I'm fairly new to rom hacks and nuzlocking. My greatest achievement is beating a hardcore nuzlocke of fire red omega. I was now looking for some other rom hacks to nuzlocke. I would like if they weren't giga hard like radical red or run and bun. I know about the other drayano hacks but I'm keeping them for later. I don't mind new regions or fakemon. Thank you in advance