My friend chris told me about this yesterday and I have since then started playing pokemon again....

Pokemon Hard Mode Rules:

1. If a pokemon faints, you must release it (or put it in a box labeled "Graveyard" from which it can never be removed unless the event of rule 11)

2. There is no running from a fight, EVER.

3. There is no save scumming of any kind.

4. Repel use is forbidden (however hold items that repel are allowed)

5. Escape ropes are forbidden (dig however is not)

6. You can only catch one pokemon of each species, however if your zigzagoon faints, you can catch a linoone later on.

7. You can only catch only one pokemon per route and it must be the first pokemon you encounter on that route (you don't HAVE to capture the pokemon, but if you do want to capture something on that route it must be of the species you first ran into on), if you run into a pokemon of a species you already have caught first, you must defeat it, and then catch the first pokemon on that route that you don't have.
said route)

8. EXP share/all is forbidden.

9. Quick Claw is forbidden.

10. Use of the Masterball is forbidden, you may only use a Pokeball, Great Ball, or Ultra Ball. Specialty balls such as the Timer or Dusk ball is forbidden.

11. If you white out, all the pokemon in your party must be released or put in the graveyard (nothing ever gets out of the graveyard), if you have no pokemon outside the graveyard in your PC you must go to the first route in the game and catch the first pokemon you run into (all routes will be open for catching again, however you still cannot catch a type of pokemon you already have caught, except for on the first route), when catching this pokemon you may temporarily use 1 of your graveyard pokemon, however after catching the first route pokemon, your resurrected pokemon must go back to the graveyard.

12. For ever time you must temporarily resurrect a pokemon you lose the game.

13. Violating any of the above rules will forfeit the pride and prestige of playing in "HARD MODE" as you will just be another pokemon trainer on normal mode forever more on that save file.

UsaSatsui wrote:

You still post? Sheesh As for those challenge rules (sound like the "Hardcore" runs I've done with Shining Force), some of them are just ridiculous and arbitrary. "One pokemon per route" is particularly retarded. I'm also not seeing the point of banning items that create a certain effect but allowing abilities that duplicate those effects. And when you're playing any sort of handicapped challenge, a large part of it is having the skill to get -out- of dangerous situations where, if you weren't being "hardcore", you'd just sacrifice a guy or reset. Whirlwind is a throwaway ability, imagine if you needed it to get an injured team back home. You can't run from any serious battles anyways. And if you lose a fight, you lose the game, period. Reset. Start over. Fuck you. Let me distill this down to what I think is reasonable: You can only own one of each pokemon at a time, once a pokemon dies you release it (no restoring them), save only to save progress, and if you lose a fight or quit out of one, game over, quit and restart. That should be more than enough challenge for anyone, and still be interesting. I'd probably restrict how many potions you can carry, too.

jeeze. what a bitch.
Anyways, All the abilities which repel don't have a very high repel rate, also to sacrifice and reset would constitute save scumming, And one pokemon per route is not retarded, it's so you can't have an infinite amount of backup pokemon and never lose. And restarting your entire game if you lose once is stupid because it's not like your opponent kills you. If you have other pokemon in you PC you can fall back on those. YES Powerleveling is an obvious way to beat the game, however it is risky because if your super starter dies you lose it forever then you're fucked. And it's not like "OH! I'll just make my pokemon more powerful than everyone elses!" is cheating, in fact it's practically the only way to win.