A Pokemon romhack that's been labeled as "extremely challenging" by even the most experienced players has only been beaten twice since it was created.
As highlighted by YouTuber Pokemon Challenges, the romhack known as 'Pokemon Run and Bun' is still yet to be beaten by a third challenger. According to the video below, the mod was developed by competitive Pokemon player 'Dekzeh' for over two years to make it one of the hardest romhacks out there, especially when playing with hardcore Nuzlocke rules - more on that later.
The romhack itself is a mod of Pokemon Emerald that implements Pokemon and mechanics from up to generation 8. It also includes other challenging factors like all of the Gym Leaders in the game have a Legendary pocket pal, double battles are designed with "extremely devious mechanics in mind", and every trainer from the start has "basically the perfect type coverage on their Pokemon."
As the video explains, several professional and semi-professional Nuzlocke runners have been giving it a go, but only two have managed to beat it following the Nuzlocke rules. If you don't know, 'Nuzlocke' refers to a set of rules that are intended to make Pokemon games more difficult. More specifically, players may only catch the first wild Pokemon encountered in each area and no others - if that first Pokemon faints or flees, that's it, it's over. There are other variations of the rules but that's the general idea.
The YouTuber we mentioned before, Pokemon Challenges, is attempting to be the third person to ever complete Pokemon Run and Bun. They documented their first attempt in the same video above, and - at the time of writing (August 9) - they haven't been able to beat the game just yet. Although, they have been giving it a pretty good go, as shown on their Twitch channel.
To start with, Pokemon Challenges selected Piplup as their starter Pokemon and leveled it up to level 12. As the Pokemon fan explains, the early battles in the game give you a pretty good idea of just "how nasty" the romhack is going to be. For instance, the first boss you encounter has "good Pokemon with good items, strong abilities, and good synergy with each other," which is bad news for you.
You can see more of this Pokemon player's Run and Bun attempt in the full video, and if you're planning to follow in their footsteps, godspeed.
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