Given how easy Pokémon games tend to be, competitive-minded players often resort to doing the Nuzlocke Challenge—playing them with a set of rules that make things more difficult.
There are many variants, but the three main rules are: if a Pokémon faints, it is considered dead and must be released, you can only catch the first wild Pokémon encountered in each route, and blacking out (having all Pokémon in a party faint) is considered to be game over.
As a competitive player at heart, it was only a matter of time before Ludwig gave the Nuzlocke Challenge a whirl on stream. Pokémon Emerald was his game of choice, and he started with Treecko.
Sadly for him, it ended in disaster right out of the gate.
During the first battle against his rival, the star YouTuber had their Cyndaquil on the ropes with a smidge of health left, only for it to then land a massive critical hit out of nowhere, totally annihilating his starter Pokémon Treecko. Since it was the only Pokémon he had, he blacked out, meaning it was game over for the challenge.
The moment it happened, Ludwig’s jaw dropped to the floor in disbelief while his viewers flooded the chat with laughter. “What the fuck? There is no way I just got fucking boomed like that!” he yelled in disbelief.
The YouTuber started a second run shortly after, and although he made it much further, it all came crashing down again close to the four-hour mark due to a menacing Magneton. At that point, Ludwig decided to call it quits. He learned how difficult the Nuzlocke Challenge can be the hard way. But while he’s down, he’s certainly not out.
He’ll be back tomorrow to start a third run, and hopefully, he can use the knowledge he gained from today’s Pokémon Nuzlocke runs to make it just a little further.
