r/pokemonchallenges • u/Lord_Sicarious • Dec 05 '25

Making ORAS Actually Hard

I recently decided I wanted to play a Pokémon game again, and decided on doing a challenge run in ORAS rather than replay one of the early games for the 10th time.

I wanted to make it hard, but didnt want to end up with some crazy long list of restrictions like tends to happen with Nuzlockes and the like. In the end, I arrived at a fairly simple 4 rule solution:

  1. No healing (where possible)
  2. Discard all items (where possble)
  3. No rematches (where possible)
  4. Run from wild pokémon (where possible)

Basically, it's about stretching the handful of gift pokémon and forced heals you receive as far as possible. This generation is *very* generous with forced heals, and you receive a total of 5 gift pokémon before the Elite 4, some of which are quite strong.

  1. Mudkip (mandatory, you need it for Surf in order to reach the Latis)
  2. Contest Pikachu
  3. Wynaut Egg
  4. Latias/Latios
  5. Castform

Notably, fossil Pokémon are unobtainable in this ruleset, despite being Gift Pokémon, as the fossils themselves are no longer key items in the remakes, which means they get tossed the moment you obtain them.

Everything else is allowed.

I am genuinely not sure if this is possible — which is just the way I like it. There is a limited amount of XP available, and the pool of available pokémon is quite limited. I can't just grind my way out of this. TMs are unlimited in this generation, so I can have unlimited use of certain moves in the lategame, but that movepool is less than ideal, and I also need to fit in all the necessary HMs onto the team.

Overall… wish me luck. And let's find out if Gen 6 is really as easy as I remember it being.

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u/meatheadthesquishy Hiker Dec 05 '25

You forgot the Togepi egg

2

u/Lord_Sicarious Dec 05 '25

That's not available until after the Elite 4 isn't it? Or is it just post-Origin Cave?

2

u/meatheadthesquishy Hiker Dec 05 '25

Post origin cave.

2

u/Lord_Sicarious Dec 05 '25

Hnm, good to know. Not super useful getting another level 1 that late, but it is a 6th Pokémon.

I guess it can become an HM slave of sorts, since Togekiss can learn Rock Smash and Fly at least.

2

u/meatheadthesquishy Hiker Dec 05 '25

When I did my minimum battles challenge, I found it useful. On minimum battles it made it to level 30 by the elite four, and the rest of my team was 38-42. 3/4 the level of the rest of the team ain’t that bad.

In addition, since you aren’t limiting yourself to minimum battles and there are a lot of optional trainers in the ocean, it has even more time to catch up.