Pokemon Sword & Shield has enamored fans since its initial release, having already sold over 20 million copies. Players have had a chance to adventure through the Galar region and through two new areas thanks to the DLC packs and have seen just about everything the game has to offer.

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For those looking to get the most out of their games, it might be time to take on a Pokemon challenge. Fans of the series have designed many challenges to make the games harder over the years, with difficulty ranging everywhere from demanding to downright mind-numbing.

10 Nuzzlocke Challenge

The Nuzzlocke Challenge is likely the most famous challenge in all of Pokemon. Players need to follow the two core rules to participate:

• Any Pokemon that faints is considered dead and must be removed from the party (and released if players are hardcore.)
• Players may only catch the first Pokemon they encounter in each area.

It can be a bit harder to ensure the randomness of the second rule in Sword & Shield, so most players blindfold themselves when entering a new area until they run into a Pokemon. While not required, most players in a Nuzzlocke Challenge will also nickname all of their Pokemon and should not reload the game if something goes wrong.

9 Surprise Trade Challenge

Sometimes it's fun to simply let fate decide which Pokemon a trainer has to use! Utilizing the Surprise Trade feature, players should catch the first Pokemon in any given area and immediately trade it for a mystery Pokemon. Players looking to make the challenge hardcore will also follow the rules of the Nuzzlocke challenge, releasing any Pokemon that faints and only getting one new Pokemon per area.

8 Apocolocke Challenge

This challenge requires a four-sided die (or a random number generator) so make sure to come prepared! The idea is to roleplay that the Pokemon world has gone through a major apocalypse. Depending on the number that players roll, they have to only use certain types of Pokemon. Normal-types are allowed on all teams, but Fairy types are forbidden.

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The types players get to use are as follows:

• 1: Tsunami - Water, Grass, Flying, and Dragon-types.
• 2: Heat Wave - Fire, Electric, Ground, and Rock-types
• 3: Ice Age - Ice, Steel, Dark, and Fighting-types
• 4: Nuclear - Bug, Psychic, Poison, and Ghost-types

7 Gym Leader Challenge

Sometimes called a Monotype challenge, the idea is to only use Pokemon of the same type — just like a gym leader! Players could choose to be a humble Bug trainer or potentially a Dragon master. Either way, this can create a significant challenge when players have to take on trainers or real gym leaders where they have extreme type weaknesses.

6 The All-Star Challenge

The All-Star Challenge is one of the longest and hardest Pokemon challenges ever devised. After every gym, players need to deposit every single Pokemon in their party into the PC except for one. Players then have to use that Pokemon to catch another Pokemon on the next route before depositing it as well.

This makes it so that players are required to catch an entirely new team each and every single time they defeat a gym leader! It takes a long time to train up all of the Pokemon but those that manage to complete the challenge will find it quite rewarding.

5 Shiny Only Challenge

This challenge can either result in very small teams or trainers being forced to hunt or breed Pokemon for a very long time. Players are only allowed to use shiny Pokemon on their team — not including the starter Pokemon as it's shiny locked. Once players get their first shiny however, their starter must be put into the PC.

4 Wedlocke Challenge

Till death do us part taken to its Pokemon extreme, Wedlockes follow the rules of a normal Nuzzlocke challenge with one exception — players must keep their team gender-balanced. This means if their starter Pokemon is a Male, the next Pokemon they catch must be a female. Genderless Pokemon can be matched with any other Pokemon, making them a unique wild card.

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Each Pokemon is coupled when a pair is caught, so when one Pokemon faints, the other must also be removed from the party. If trainers decide to put one Pokemon in the PC, its partner must also be deposited.

3 Genderlocke Challenge

This challenge is also like a Nuzzlocke challenge, but each Pokemon caught must be of the same gender. This means if the starter Pokemon is male (which is an eight in one chance) the rest of the team must be male.

Some players eliminate the starter gender requirement and simply allow players to only use a single gender of Pokemon at any given time. This also allows genderless Pokemon teams to also exist which can add variety to the challenge.

2 Generational Challenge

For this challenge, players may only use Pokemon that were introduced in a single generation. This means players can choose to only use Pokemon originally found originally in Kanto, try to only use new Pokemon from Sword & Shield, or choose another game to take their teams from. It can be fun to do this challenge focusing on the game that first got players into the series.

1 Starter Only Challenge

Choosing a starter Pokemon is already a challenge, so imagine if it was the only Pokemon that could be used the entire game. This challenge requires players to get through the game just the very first Pokemon that ever joins their party. This can make things challenging as it's easy to accidentally faint and lose a battle, thus being forced to start it over again.

For players that want a truly masochistic challenge, they can choose to fully restart the game if their starter ever faints just like they would have to in a Nuzzlocke Challenge.

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