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There's plenty to love about Pokemon Legends: Arceus, however, it doesn't address one of the most long-stand criticisms about the Pokemon franchise: difficulty. While Pokemon Legends: Arceus offers different gameplay challenges from the more traditional games, experienced fans will still likely manage to go the entire game without failing even once.
The community is sharp as ever, though, as players have already devised plenty of ways players can ramp up the challenge of their experience. From restricting what players can use to paying hefty prices for failure, adding more challenges to the game is sure to change players' perspectives on the world.
8 Nuzlocke
A Nuzlocke has been the traditional challenge run for every Pokemon game up until now. In Pokemon Legends: Arceus, it's still possible to do one, as all the rules can apply. Only catch one Pokemon in each new area, nickname every Pokemon, and when a Pokemon faints, it can't be used anymore.
Pokemon Legends brings in some new gameplay elements and changes that players can use to alter the nuzlocke formula. For one thing, there are technically only 5 distinct areas in the game, so players will have to be creative drawing the borders of where they are and aren't allowed to catch Pokemon. Additionally, battling is significantly emphasized in the game, so Pokemon fainting will be a much rarer occurrence. However, since the player can now faint, there could be some penalty established for that, like having to release a Pokemon.
7 Alphas Only
Pokemon Legends: Arceus gave players a new form of apex predator in the Pokemon world in the form of Alpha Pokemon. These red-eyed Pokemon are significantly larger than their regular counterparts and roam specific areas of the world.
This challenge speaks for itself. Aside from their Starter Pokemon, every catch the player makes must be an Alpha Pokemon. This makes life extremely difficult in the early game, where the Alphas are extremely high-level in comparison to the Starters, but veterans will have to find clever ways around this challenge.
6 Monotype
Plenty of challenges from previous games still work wonders in Pokemon Legends: Arceus, and will provide a range of challenges. Only being able to capture Pokemon of a single type has obvious restrictions, as players will have to carefully construct a team around secondary types for balance.
In Pokemon Legends, it offers an extra challenge, though, as players will only be able to complete research tasks for Pokemon of a single type. Completing research tasks is needed for players to increase their Galaxy Rank and progress through the game, so a lot of legwork will need to be done on that front.
5 Crafted Items Only
The game puts a significant focus on players needing to fend for themselves early on, with resources needing to be gathered for crafting essential items. Unfortunately, as the game goes on, players will gather so much money that they will eventually be able to buy whatever they need and can stop relying on resources.
To stop this from happening, this challenge completely bans players from using any of the item/material shops. If players want Pokeballs, Potions, or any items of that nature, they will have to spend time foraging throughout the world. This doesn't have a massive impact on gameplay, but it removes a safety net that many players may have relied on the first time around.
4 Shinies Only
Shiny hunting can be a long and arduous process but an equally rewarding one. Doing a run where only Shiny Pokemon are allowed is quite the time commitment, as a full-length shiny hunt often takes days, sometimes even weeks.
On this front, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a little more generous, as Shiny Pokemon are a bit easier to come by. Firstly, with shiny Pokemon showing as such in the overworld, finding them whilst roaming is a lot easier, and if players are lucky enough to encounter a Mass Outbreak, their shiny odds are dramatically increased.
3 No Duplicates
The Pokedex in Pokemon Legends: Arceus clearly intends for players to capture multiple specimens of each Pokemon, making it a research task for almost every Pokemon. This challenge decides to remove the player's ability to catch more than one of each Pokemon.
This means that if players want to make the most out of what they catch and complete their research tasks, they will need to dedicate everything to their one specimen, which should significantly increase players' attachment to that Pokemon. It introduces a bit of tedium to the game but with fun results.
2 No Pastures
Taking things a step further than "no duplicates", this challenge imagines a world in which the citizen of Jubilife Village either can't or won't keep Pokemon under control in the Pastures. As such, the player is restricted by the six slots they have in their party, and not a single slot more.
This means that when players want to catch a new Pokemon, they'll have to release an existing team member. It means players will want to complete as many research tasks as possible with the Pokemon in their party as soon as possible before releasing them to research new Pokemon. Alternatively, players could be extremely careful, only filling slots with Pokemon they want to be in their party until the very end.
1 One Pokeball
This is somewhat of a roleplay run, imagining that the player is just as unknowledgeable about Pokemon as the rest of the people in that time period. When venturing out in the wild, players may only take a single Pokemon with them to try and catch something.
Technically, players could keep returning to camp over and over to refresh their stock, but to prevent that, players can only return to get a new Pokeball after each major story scene. This will ensure that players think extremely carefully about which Pokemon they choose to catch or even try to catch, as failure will rob them of a Pokeball for a significant length of time.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is available now on Nintendo Switch.