By After over a year and countless community efforts, Pokemon’s toughest challenge has been conquered.
If you’re acquainted with Pokemon challenge runs, you might have heard of Kaizo Ironmon. This ruleset was, for some time, regarded as the most difficult the community could devise. A fully randomized run where opponent trainers’ Pokemon are significantly stronger than usual, and the trainers themselves are more intelligent. You are also permitted to have just one Pokemon at a time. This means no switching, which is a vital aspect of regular Nuzlocke runs, intensifying the challenge.
However, as players began to complete Kaizo Ironmon, the rules were made even more stringent. Super Kaizo Ironmon amplifies the difficulty by prohibiting any ‘setup’ moves – those that inflict no damage and strictly serve to enhance your Pokemon’s stats, which are also integral to many Nuzlocke runs. Likewise, stat-boosting items are forbidden after the last gym, along with almost all hidden items.
To add to the complexity, Super Kaizo Ironmon restricts your capacity to alter your Pokemon. While normal rules permit you to ‘pivot’ to a new champion on each route, in Super, you must choose your (random) Pokemon from Oak, and then switch to a new Pokemon midway through the adventure. In FireRed and LeafGreen, this occurs in the Safari Zone.
It’s a harsh and unconventional ruleset that truly exists to challenge the most patient elite players. It’s so demanding, indeed, that its creator ensures to emphasize that “this is not intended for everyone” right at the beginning of their rulebook. As its first anniversary approached – with no one having publicly overcome it – there were worries that it might indeed be unbeatable. While there’s no official count, this game mode is so tough that the overwhelming majority of attempts do not progress beyond Pallet Town, and the community estimates it has “easily” exceeded 100,000 combined efforts without a victory. Until now.
Over the weekend, streamer Reimi finally defeated Gary Oak on his 8,502nd attempt. He accomplished this with a Pokemon that a fellow runner remarked was “a monster […] with stats/moves nearly tailored to achieve this.” That monster was a Crobat with remarkable stats and coverage, yet the run still came down to the very end – Reimi was compelled to use a Full Restore to navigate the last two Pokemon of the run, and he was aided by fortunate RNG when Gary’s Rayquaza activated Substitute off Metronome, leading to a gradual demise by poison before it could land a proper hit on Crobat.
For a Pokemon this powerful to come perilously close to defeat at the final obstacle serves as a reminder of why some within the community feared that Super could never be defeated. Even Reimi’s response is one of disbelief – “there’s a reason why every time people inquire ‘can this do it?’ I’m like, ‘I dunno, man’ […] I genuinely thought we’d be playing this for