Smogon Community - The Gauntlet Challenge

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The Gauntlet Challenge

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Gauntlet Challenge! If you're tired of playing the same old in-game challenges over and over again, then this is the thread for you!

Read the next 5 sections before posting!

What is a Gauntlet?
A Gauntlet Challenge is a playthrough of any Pokemon game of your choice where you ask your fellow Smogonites to provide you with a gauntlet of challenges to complete over the course of your playthrough. Some of these challenges will be ones that govern how you play the entire game (ex. play on Set mode) and others will be one time challenges (ex. beat Sabrina with a Beedrill). These challenges can be assigned at the start of your game or at set points as you progress. Failing some challenges will have consequences set by the person who gave you the challenge, so be careful!

How to Request a Gauntlet:
Simply make a post on this topic that includes the following information:
- What version of the game you are using for your challenge
- To what extent you are able to trade
- What difficulty level you want the challenges you are given to be at.
- When during the challenge you will be taking more challenges. You can take them all at once at the start of your challenge or set it up to receive new ones as you pass various milestones in your game. The points at which you will take new challenges need to be set BEFORE you start your challenge (though the number of challenges you're taking in each section doesn't need to be decided until you reach that section.)
- How many challenges you will be taking at each point in your challenge. Remember, the more you request the longer it'll take for you to start your challenges.
- Any specific rules and restrictions you want to make on your challenges. Remember, the more restrictions you place the less likely people will be to give you creative challenges.
- Record the challenges you are given in the post where you ask for a challenge, so that people can ensure that the challenges they give you don't conflict with ones you've already received.

You are also strongly recommended to provide updates of your progress in your playthrough, especially with regards to your progress and experiences with the challenges you are given. This gives more motivation for people to give you interesting challenges!

How to Give a Challenge:
- Read all the rules and guidelines in the post of the person who you will be giving the challenge to
- Post detailing what the challenge is! A challenge can be almost anything, feel free to get creative! Try not to get so complex the person cannot understand it though.
- Try to adhere to the difficulty requested by the person who is requesting the challenge. Your challenge CAN be rejected if it does not meet their requirements.
- You are limited to one challenge per a section. If the player has set multiple points to receive challenges at, you can give one challenge per an opportunity, but no more. This ensures the most diverse experience for the player and ensures everyone gets a chance to give out challenges.

What exactly am I giving out?
What you're giving out are "challenges", which are tasks or restrictions intended to make the game more interesting and challenging for the player. These aren't like the Pokemon given out in the Scramble Challange thread, as they do not have to be attached to any Pokemon, and indeed, you are encouraged to stay away from specifying what Pokemon someone must use throughout the game. Think of it more like being something along the vein of a Nuzlocke challenge, only the rules are picked out by other people (and don't necessarily include Pokemon death), and random ass challenges thrown in to test your metal (like having to solo certain trainers, not use items against certain trainers, beat a certain minigame, etc.) Each challenge only may contain ONE restriction or challenge event, otherwise it breaks the rule above and will get rejected.

Rules for Rejections and Reservations:
- You can reject any challenges that break your rules or do not fit the difficulty you requested. However, you cannot reject challenges for reasons you did not cover in your initial post.
-- Note, sometimes it is simply easier to request changes to the challenge you are given instead of flat out rejecting it.
- You may make reservations to give a person a challenge, to ensure your spot is not taken while you are writing the challenge. However, such reservations are only valid for one hour. After that point anyone may take your place if they post before you do. The goal here is to give people time to make good challenges, not to allow people to snatch up all the spots before anyone can post.

Now you can post!

Tips for Making Good Challenges:
- Get creative! Simple challenges like those in the opening paragraph are pretty weak, though you're free to make them. The goal is to make the playthrough as interesting for the player as possible.
- Look out for how your challenges interact with other challenges the person has already been given! Sometimes challenges can conflict, making only one possible. Other times a challenge you're giving can make another challenge someone already gave much more difficult. Make sure you read what challenges have already been given to a person before you make your own!
- Try to encourage creative solutions with the challenges you give. Challenges that trap a player into one course of action are very rarely fun to play

Examples of good challenges:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat The Reptile

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat The Reptile

Jimera0, all pokemon that you own can only evolve after soloing an entire gym or soloing your Rival.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat King Serperior

I'll give one of these that I'll call the the extinguisher!!! None of your pokemon can evolve from their first stage until LV. 30 and their last stage until LV. 50.

Bonus: You can't use pokemon that aren't able to evolve when caught (wild Steelix, Fearow, Farfetch'd, etc) or pokemon not in their basic stage upon capture (Pidgeotto, etc..). Note that this is a BONUS addition to the above challenge ^_^ Comment from me: The "bonus" addition is OK, as it is an extension of the main challenge, closing loopholes and stuff, not a completely separate challenge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Jimera0

The Reptile, you are challenged to defeat Misty without using any type advantages, be they super-effective attacks, types that resist Misty's attacks, or anything else like that. Good luck, this is harder than it sounds!Comment from me: Yes I know I made it, but it's the only example of a one time challenge we have so far

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat 2sly4u

Here's a one time challenge! You need to beat Whitney without using any items, Fighting type moves, or Geodude. Failure to do so means you cannot buy healing items until after obtaining all the badges (you can still use ones you find though). You get three chances.

Credit: A lot of the ideas and procedure for this thread was inspired by the Scramble Challange thread, run by Its A Random. I decided to take the idea and expand on it a bit for people who wanted to try something a little different :)

I'd like to do a Gauntlet of Blue, please.

I can trade between all Kanto games.
Medium difficulty, please.
Updates will be when I get a badge, so I'd like the challenges to be given to me twice per badge. I'd also like to start off with 2 challenges.
Also, you may give me multiple challenges, but not 2 or more at once (you can give me one at the beginning of the game and one after Koga, but not two between Blaine and Giovanni).

Current challenges

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

And just to provide an example for everyone, I'll get my own Gauntlet going!

I will be playing Soul Silver version right through the post game all the way to Red.
I'm looking for Hard but not crazy challenges. I can trade via all methods available and have every Pokemon in 4th gen available to me. I will be taking 6 challenges every 4 gym badges (counting Kanto), starting now!

Try to keep your challenges from being too grinding intensive! If I feel your challenge is too tedious I'll either reject it or request you to revise it. I'm looking for a challenge, not to bore myself to death. After I get my first 6 challenges I'll make another post in which I'll put all my updates and stuff. In the meantime, I'll keep track of all the challenges I'm given in this topic.

EDIT @ Naix: How many challenges will you be taking at the first stage? Remember this isn't the scramble; we're not taking Pokemon here, we're taking challenges. I'll give you one to start you off.

Naix, you are challenged to go through the whole game without ever catching or recieving a grass type by any means! Good luck with your challenge!

EDIT2:

Challenges so far:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat The Reptile

Jimera0, all pokemon that you own can only evolve after soloing an entire gym or soloing your Rival.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat King Serperior

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Zaccheaus

Jimera0, whenever you buy an item, you must buy a multiple of 5 of that specific item

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Arcticblast

Jimera0, you may not catch two Pokemon of the same primary type. Normal/Flying Pokemon are considered to have both Normal and Flying as a primary type, because Flying is (almost) never a primary type.

Example: You can't have Rattata + Pidgey or Spearow + Pidgey, but you can have Ledyba + Pidgey.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat 2sly4u

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat DEMo Gorgon7

Alright Jimera0, here is my challenge to you: You must pick either Cyndaquil or Chikorita as your starter, and once you do you cannot use ANY pokemon that has a weakness to one of the types your starter is weak too. (Screw water-types with their two weaknesses, I want you to have common weaknesses)

@Jimera0

Challenge accepted. I should probably edit in that I'm also starting off with 2 challenges. Because I don't want to waste 4-5 challenges on one Pokemon, I'm withdrawing my challenge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Naix (Post 4330314)

Jimera0, here's your first challenge. Trade in a Shroomish ASAP. Catch 3 of your other team members with Shroomish alone. Have Shroomish solo the entirety of Sprout Tower. To evolve, it must solo Whitney, and to use Fighting-type attacks, it must max out its "Power" Pokeathlon statistic.

Am I doing it right?

Well technically but I think you're under the impression this is more similar to the Scramble challenge than it is. The idea is to give challenges that aren't necessarily attached to an individual Pokemon. It's like you know how a Nuzlocke works right? Well it's like giving out aspects of Nuzlocke challenges (IE Pokemon die after fainting, only one each route, or the optional restrictions of not being able to use items, not able to use pokemon centers, etc.) instead of Pokemon. For instance, see the simple one I gave you. You can also give out very specific challenges, like "beat Koga without using any super-effective moves with a Jumpluff" or something crazy like that, but you're not supposed to dictate a single Pokemon they have to use the entire game. That's the Scramble challenge's ground and I have no intention of encroaching on that.

Also you need to specify how many challenges you're taking in each stage of your playthrough, otherwise we won't know when to stop giving you challenges!

EDIT: Ok good you specified now, I have to say, I requested hard challenges, and just starting with Chikorita isn't exactly hard. You got time before my challenges fill up so go ahead and try again XD.

I'm also going to add a section to the OP better explaining what a "challenge" is so that people don't make the same mistake you did, so everyone will have to read that new paragraph once I get it up.

@Jimera0
I changed your challenge so it would better suit your difficulty. Is this acceptable?

EDIT: On second thought, I'm withdrawing the challenge in its entirety, as I'm just not getting it right at the moment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Naix (Post 4330341)

@Jimera0
I added another "challenge" to the challenge so it would better suit your difficulty. Is this acceptable? I messed up again, didn't I?

Still not really in my difficulty range. To get an idea of the overall difficulty I'm expecting I suggest checking my current black scramble (link in my sig). The difficulty those Pokemon are at is the sort of difficulty I'm looking for in my challenge. The Lucario in particular is the sort of challenge I'm looking for.

Also, you're still thinking somewhat along the line of a Scramble challenge. Why don't you try to give out something different entirely?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat The Reptile (Post 4330355)

Naix, all of your pokemon can only use moves it could learn in it's basic form (So Butterfree can only use Tackle and String Shot since that's all it can learn as a Caterpie.) This restrictions apply to TMs and HMs as well (So Nidoking can't learn Fire Blast or Surf by TM/HM because Nidoran can't learn those moves).

Jimera0, all pokemon that you own can only evolve after soloing a major battle (Gym Leader, Rival, Rocket Executives, ect.). You can also never use items on your pokemon (excluding TMs and HMs). Finally, after each gym, pick 2 pokemon in your party. Until you beat the next gym, those pokemon cannot use STAB moves. If you have less than 2 members, then just apply this to your one pokemon.

This is how it works, right?

ALMOST! You got Naix's completely right, and that's exactly the sort of challenge I'm looking for.

Problem is that the one you gave me is actually like 5 challenges. I'll show you, I'll have backslashes separating each of the challenges within the one you gave me.

Quote:

Jimera0, /all pokemon that you own can only evolve after soloing a major battle (Gym Leader, Rival, Rocket Executives, ect.)./ You can also never use items on your pokemon (excluding TMs and HMs)./ Finally, after each gym, pick 2 pokemon in your party. Until you beat the next gym, those pokemon cannot use STAB moves. If you have less than 2 members, then just apply this to your one pokemon/.

So what you gave me there was actually 3 challenges. Give me any ONE of those and that's great, I'll need another 5 like that then I can start.

I'll edit the OP again to reflect this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Jimera0 (Post 4330371)

So what you gave me there was actually 3 challenges. Give me any ONE of those and that's great, I'll need another 5 like that then I can start.

Alright, I fix'd my challenge.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat The Reptile (Post 4330355)

Challenge accepted. I am now ready to start.

@Jimera:

I'll give one of these that I'll call the the extinguisher!!! None of your pokemon can evolve from their first stage until LV. 30 and their last stage until LV. 50.

Bonus: You can't use pokemon that aren't able to evolve when caught (wild Steelix, Fearow, Farfetch'd, etc) or pokemon not in their basic stage upon capture (Pidgeotto, etc..). Note that this is a BONUS addition to the above challenge ^_^

I'll edit this later for my own gauntlet :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat King Serperior (Post 4330402)

Sounds great! Stuff like the "bonus" bit there are cool, since they basically just close loopholes. I'll take it on, this combined with The Reptile's challenge it sounds like I'm going to be NFE Pokemon for a VERY long time lol.

EDIT: @everyone: I suggest you make your challenge requests in new posts instead of editing old ones because it's really easy to miss them if you edit them into old posts. Just a word of advice, not a rule or anything :P

Probably a good idea :P

I'm going to start one of these. The game is Leaf Green

Rules
- Medium-Hard Difficulty
- I'll take 3 challenges right now, and then 2 more every 2nd badge
- I'm playing up until you beat the Elite Four.
- Avoid making me grind please or other tedious challenges.

Challenges so far

Pre-Gauntlet

2 Badges

Updates

VS Brock

VS Misty

VS Lt.Serge

EDIT: Due to some difficulties, I'm going to be playing Leaf Green instead.

Cool idea, Jimera ^.^

I'm just wondering, you said you would take on 6 new challenges every 4 gym leaders. Are these in addition to your first challenges, or are your first ones wiped clean after the first 4 gyms?

Glad you liked it, Jimera!!

I'll do a Platnium Gauntlet!!

RULES:
- Easy-Mid Difficulty
- I'll take four whole game challenges
- Playing until the E4 have been vanquished!!
- No trades >_>
- I'd rather not have overly tedious challenges. I don't mind a little extra grinding, but I don't want too much.

Current Gauntlet Challenges:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat The Reptile

King Serperior, all of your pokemon evolve 5 levels later than they should.

Sounds reasonable. This will make starting with Ape and Terra somewhat difficult at certain portions, but that's not a problem :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Naix

King Serperior, each of your Pokemon must learn an HM move ASAP.

This will place some interesting restrictions on my choices....luckily, I already have a team idea forming...

King Serperior, all of your pokemon evolve 5 levels later than they should.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Jellicent (Post 4330418)

In addition, so in the end I'll end I'll have a whopping 24 challenges. Remember, some of them are going to be 1 time things so it won't actually be that many restrictions, and SS is a massive game so I'll be needing longevity. I'll reduce the number or ban whole game challenges if I feel like it.

EDIT: Reserving a challenge for KS, will write it in a minute. Also KS, you're taking 3 whole game challenges, then how many total? Or are you only looking for whole game challenges?

King Serperior, each of your Pokemon must learn an HM move ASAP.

The Reptile, you can only buy 3 items at a time from Poke Marts. Keep in mind that when you buy those 3 items, you can't buy from that Poke Mart for the rest of the game.

@The Reptile:

May not use moves with base 50 Power or more against Brock. Include STAB in these calcs of BP.

Jimera0, whenever you buy an item, you must buy a multiple of 5 of that specific item

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Jimera0 (Post 4330428)

EDIT: Reserving a challenge for KS, will write it in a minute. Also KS, you're taking 3 whole game challenges, then how many total? Or are you only looking for whole game challenges?

I'll bump the challenges to 4 and I am wanting challenges that will affect me for the whole game.

Alright, accepting Zacchaeus' restriction. TMs just became really damn expensive. I'll have to be careful managing my resources.

Just 3 more and I can start (assuming no one has posted me another while I was typing this)

KS, alright then, you are challenged to a Nuzlocke style catching regimen. You can only catch 1 Pokemon per an area and it must be the first Pokemon you encounter. No abusing Repels to control what you get. If you fail to catch the first Pokemon you encounter in an area, you do not get a second chance.

Good luck and have fun!

EDIT: God I just knew I'd be ninja'd XD accepted Articblast adding it to my main post. I'd appreciate it if I got some one time challenges before too long for a bit of variety! Just two more!