Pokemon difficulty modes envisioned by fan would offer more challenge for seasoned players

Pokemon Sword and Shield: Crown Tundra — (Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

A Pokemon fan has answered the question of 'what if Pokemon had a difficulty setting' with a set of hypothetical modes, prompting discussion from fellow players on just what it is that makes a Pokemon game fun to play.

Reddit user Taken_Grace shared a series of images to Reddit's largest Pokemon video game community that show a potential avenue for adding difficulty options to Pokemon: at the start of the game, new players would choose from one of four options: New Trainer, Ace Trainer, Elite Trainer, or Master Trainer. Each mode would offer a progressively more challenging experience, with easier modes offering more explicit hints at which moves will be effective in the middle of battles, offering more free healing items as gifts from NPCs, and even adjusting the levels and catch rates of enemy Pokemon.

what_if_pokemon_had_a_difficulty_setting from r/pokemon

Some of the proposed changes have been given a healthy dose of side-eye by the community, especially tweaks like making enemy Pokemon automatically 5 to 10 levels higher than yours at all times. It's still fascinating to consider what effect base-level changes like these could have on the entire play experience.

More importantly, the post has members of the community talking about what adjustable difficulty would look like in Pokemon at all, a relevant conversation given common complaints from seasoned trainers about lack of challenge in the campaign of Pokemon games. We'll just have to wait and see if anything like these fan-proposed difficulty modes ever appear in an official game.

While you're exploring the realm of Pokemon fan theory, you should also check out this convincing take on what shiny forms of Pokemon Legends: Arceus' Hisuian Pokemon may look like.