With all of Elden Ring's success since its 2022 release, there's no wonder why it won Game of the Year. FromSoftware, the developer responsible for highly-rated games like the Dark Souls trilogy and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, is known for their incredibly well-developed worlds, stories, and challenges. Like other FromSoftware games, Elden Ring is intentionally difficult for even the seasoned player, but there are always ways to make it even more so.Challenge runs are far from uncommon in the Elden Ring community. Everything from pacifist to shield-only runs offer new ways for players to enjoy the game. Now, Elden Ring is taking a queue from Pokémon players to make the proceedings even more difficult. The Nuzlocke Randomizer has made its way to Elden Ring, and it may be one of the hardest challenges yet.
What the Nuzlocke Randomizer Is
Back in 2010, webcomic creator Nick Franco decided that the Pokémon games he was playing were getting a little too predictable, so he created what he calls a "Hard Mode" in the form of the Nuzlocke challenge. In the original challenge, any Pokémon that faints in battle must be released into the wild and declared legitimately dead. This excludes the starter Pokémon, but it still offers a terrifying consequence for not being prepared for a fight.
However, the challenge was pushed even further with the Nuzlocke Randomizer. For this challenge, players face random Pokémon with random movesets as they navigate the game, making it much harder to not only complete the Pokédex but also to prepare their team for the coming game session. While "vanilla" Pokémon games allow players to know (to a certain extent) what they are facing in the next gym or in the Elite Four, the Nuzlocke Randomizer means that players can face any Pokémon at any time in any place, and the rules for releasing downed Pokémon still apply.
How the Nuzlocke Randomizer Applies to Elden Ring
Much of Franco's original challenge rules apply well to Elden Ring. Each player may make their own modifications to the challenge depending on their styles of playing (for example, some players, like Twitch streamer SeeFooBoo, only allow themselves to pick up a finite number of weapons), but most of the rules remain standard. Like the Pokémon randomizer challenge, all enemy encounters in Elden Ring are randomized, including the major bosses. Players going into a boss battle that would usually be Margit the Fell Omen may find themselves pitted against Malenia, for example.
It isn't just the enemies that are randomized either. Loot is also random, which makes it difficult to hunt for specific items that are necessary to complete certain objectives. However, the random encounters and loot aren't necessarily the most difficult part of this challenge run.
There are roughly 70 areas (routes, dungeons, etc.) in Elden Ring, and for the Nuzlocke Randomizer challenge, the first weapon looted in each route must be kept, while all others are discarded. Even more devastating, upon death, players must discard whatever weapon they were using at the time of death. Some players would just switch to a useless weapon when they realized they were going to die, but the Nuzlocke challenge also prohibits switching weapons in the middle of a fight. This almost encourages players to use weapons they don't particularly mind losing, which makes the game even harder.
There are two difficulty levels within the Nuzlocke challenge that players can choose from, each of which has its own rules. For the more difficult route, players must choose their starting class at random, can't purchase weapons, and cannot flee from a boss battle. For a slightly easier approach to the challenge, players don't have to penalize their fall deaths and can keep any boss weapons, even if they die with them.
Players embarking on this challenge must do their best to beat each boss with as few deaths as possible, for each death brings them closer to losing the challenge run. Once the last weapon has been discarded, the run is over no matter how close they are to completing the game. In a title where death is just part of the experience and nearly unavoidable, this puts more pressure on players and arguably gives the challenge the difficulty boost that sets it apart as a favorite among Elden Ring fans.
At the end of the day, challenge runs like the Nuzlocke Randomizer Challenge are meant to make a playthrough a unique, fresh experience. For many players, the Nuzlocke Challenge is perfect for meeting those goals. While some players may find it too difficult, the Nuzlocke Challenge encourages players to seek out new experiences and get out of their comfort zones, which is always a journey worth attempting.