Pokemon Sword & Shieldhas enamored fans since its initial release, having already sold over 20 million copies. Players have had a chance to adventure through the Galar region and through two new areas thanks tothe DLC packsand have seen just about everything the game has to offer.
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For those looking to get the most out of their games, it might be time to take on a Pokemon challenge. Fans of the series have designed many challenges to make the games harder over the years, with difficulty ranging everywhere from demanding to downright mind-numbing.
Updated Sept 28th, 2021 by Russ Boswell:Pokemon continues to grow in popularity, which is wild considering it’s over 25-years-old. Nintendo is starting to branch out with its IP, giving additional studios a crack at perfecting the Pokemon formula in a variety of spin-off games and other media. But, at its root, the core Pokemon experience is still one of the most tried-and-true formulas in video game history. But that doesn’t mean it won’t get stale for certain players, from time to time. The best way to break up the monotony is with a challenge run. There are a lot of awesomePokemon Sword Challengesfloating around the internet (as well asPokemon Shield Challenges). To shine a better light on some of thefun Pokemon Sword & Shield Challengesthat players can try, the following list has been updated with even more entries.
15Raidlocke
One of the interesting new elements added to Pokemon Sword & Shield are raids. Players can tackle Gigantamaxed Pokemon in specialized Raid dens either solo (with CPU) or with players online. It’s fun, challenging, and players have an opportunity to secure some truly powerful Pokemon depending on how lucky they are. Because of how neat this mechanic is, players have developed a challenge around it.
The Raidlocke run forces players to complete the game by only using whatever the first 6 Pokemon are that they encounter in Raid dens.
14Powerlocke
One of the easiest ways to beat the Pokemon storyline is to create a team of strong Pokemon by evolving them into powerful creatures capable of laying waste to any enemies or rival trainers. But what if players weren’t allowed to evolve their Pokemon?
That’s the premise of the Powerlocke, which keeps all Pokemon in their first stage evolution, making the beginning areas of the game exceptionally challenge. It forces players to grind a lot more and can provide headaches for some gyms. Power-locking Pokemon until the Post Game can be a pretty fun challenge without making things too overwhelmingly difficult or random.
13The Clones Challenge
There are a ton of Pokemon thanks to the series running strong for over 25 years. As of the time of writing, players have 898 Pokemon to choose from, all of them with varying types, abilities, movesets, strengths, and weaknesses. That said, there are definitely some Pokemon that are much better than others and it’s not likely that players will use every Pokemon they come in contact with in Sword & Shield (unless they fall in love with their design).
The Clones Challenge puts the idea of “good versus bad” Pokemon to the test. The concept is simple, with players using a random number generator to produce a number between 1 and 898. Whatever number they get is the only Pokemon they can use throughout the entire game. Players can have up to six Pokemon so long as they’re the same type, to help with move variance. This challenge can be easy or downright devastating depending on the number rolled.
12Walk It Off
Pokemon isn’t a particularly difficult game thanks to the fact that players get teams of 6 Pokemon and are capable of reviving their Pokemon in battle should they faint. Those with defensive creatures can always “hold out” for a few turns to heal the rest of their team before being overwhelmed by the enemy. It takes away a lot of the “fear of losing” so long as a player is completely stacked with healing items.
But what if players weren’t allowed to heal? The Walk It Off challenge takes away Pokemon Centers and all healing items (including leftovers). The end result has players forced to use Pokemon that are capable of healing themselves.
11Never Faint
Never Faint is a bit more forgiving in allowing players to use healing items but much more stressful when it comes to battles. If a Pokemon faints in the Walk It Off challenge, players can simply catch another one, but Never Faint adds a terrifying layer of impending doom by completely invalidating the run if ANY of the player’s Pokemon faint.
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Allowing a Pokemon to faint means completely resetting the run and starting over from the beginning. It’s tense, difficult, and requires a lot of healing items and strategy.
10Nuzzlocke Challenge
The Nuzzlocke Challengeis likely the most famous challenge in all of Pokemon. Players need to follow the two core rules to participate:
It can be a bit harder to ensure the randomness of the second rule inSword & Shield, so most players blindfold themselves when entering a new area until they run into a Pokemon. While not required, most players in a Nuzzlocke Challenge will also nickname all of their Pokemon and should not reload the game if something goes wrong.
9Surprise Trade Challenge
Sometimes it’s fun to simply let fate decide which Pokemon a trainer has to use! Utilizing theSurprise Trade feature, players should catch the first Pokemon in any given area and immediately trade it for a mystery Pokemon. Players looking to make the challenge hardcore will also follow the rules of the Nuzzlocke challenge, releasing any Pokemon that faints and only getting one new Pokemon per area.
8Apocolocke Challenge
This challenge requires a four-sided die (or a random number generator) so make sure to come prepared! The idea is to roleplay that the Pokemon world has gone through a major apocalypse. Depending on the number that players roll, they have to only use certain types of Pokemon. Normal-types are allowed on all teams, but Fairy types are forbidden.
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The types players get to use are as follows:
7Gym Leader Challenge
Sometimes called a Monotype challenge, the idea is to only use Pokemon of the same type — just like a gym leader! Players could choose to bea humble Bug traineror potentially a Dragon master. Either way, this can create a significant challenge when players have to take on trainers or real gym leaders where they have extreme type weaknesses.
6The All-Star Challenge
The All-Star Challenge is one of thelongest and hardest Pokemon challengesever devised. After every gym, players need to deposit every single Pokemon in their party into the PC except for one. Players then have to use that Pokemon to catch another Pokemon on the next route before depositing it as well.
This makes it so that players are required to catch an entirely new team each and every single time they defeat a gym leader! It takes a long time to train up all of the Pokemon but those that manage to complete the challenge will find it quite rewarding.
