Imagine Pokémon Renegade Platinum was updated to include all 649 Pokémon from Generations 1–5, alongside Gen 5 moves, abilities, items, and battle mechanics.
The game retains Sinnoh’s original Gym Leaders and progression, but follows Renegade Platinum’s level caps and six-Pokémon Gym Leader teams.

How would you redesign each Gym Leader’s team to make the game challenging, strategic, and balanced for a Hardcore Nuzlocke?

Rules
Pokémon Pool: All Pokémon from Generations 1–5 are available. No Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves, or Terastallization.
Battle Mechanics: Gen 5 mechanics apply, including updated moves, abilities, held items, weather, and battle interactions.
Level Caps: Follow Pokémon Renegade Platinum’s Gym Leader level caps.
Team Size: Every Gym Leader has a full team of 6 Pokémon.
Typing: Gym Leaders retain their original type specialties, but dual typings and coverage moves are encouraged.
Movesets: All legal Gen 5 movesets are allowed, including egg moves, TMs, and move tutors.
Abilities & Items: Gen 5 abilities, including Hidden Abilities, and held items are allowed.
Battle Format: All Gym Leader battles are Double Battles (2v2).
Difficulty: Aim for challenging but fair Hardcore Nuzlocke battles. Avoid relying solely on overpowered Pokémon or unavoidable gimmicks such as sleep or evasion.

Gen 4 → Gen 5 Mechanical Changes
Consider how these changes affect team building, particularly Double Battles.
New Abilities & Strategies
Prankster: Gives +1 priority to status moves, enabling strategies with Tailwind, Taunt, Encore, and Thunder Wave.
Telepathy: Prevents damage from allies’ attacks, allowing safer use of Earthquake, Surf, and Discharge.
Regenerator: Restores HP when switching out, enabling defensive pivoting.
Magic Bounce: Reflects many status moves, including entry hazards and Taunt.
Moxie: Boosts Attack after knocking out an opponent.
Defiant: Punishes opponents for lowering stats.
Multiscale: Reduces incoming damage at full HP.

Double Battle Mechanics
Rage Powder: Introduced in Gen 5, providing redirection alongside Follow Me.
Wide Guard: Protects both allies from spread attacks such as Rock Slide, Earthquake, and Surf.
Quick Guard: Protects both allies against priority moves.
Tailwind: Now lasts four turns, including the activation turn.
Follow Me: Its priority increased to +3.
Fake Out: Remains a powerful disruption tool, particularly when paired with setup or speed control.
Weather: Weather-setting abilities such as Drizzle, Drought, Sand Stream, and Snow Warning create permanent weather until replaced.

New Moves & Items
Moves: Quiver Dance, Shell Smash, Scald, Volt Switch, and other Gen 5 moves introduce new offensive, defensive, and support strategies.
Items: Eviolite, Rocky Helmet, Air Balloon, and Gems create additional team-building opportunities.

Gym Leaders & Level Caps
Using Pokémon Renegade Platinum’s level caps, with 6 Pokémon per Gym Leader:
Gym 1 — Roark (Rock): Level 16
Gym 2 — Gardenia (Grass): Level 26
Gym 3 — Fantina (Ghost): Level 33
Gym 4 — Maylene (Fighting): Level 39
Gym 5 — Crasher Wake (Water): Level 44
Gym 6 — Byron (Steel): Level 53
Gym 7 — Candice (Ice): Level 56
Gym 8 — Volkner (Electric): Level 62
All Gym Leaders use full teams of 6 Pokémon, and no Pokémon may exceed the respective Gym Leader’s level cap.

Copy & Fill Out Template
Gym #: [Leader Name]
Type:
Level Cap:
Battle Format: Doubles (2v2)
Pokémon 1–6:
Species:
Level:
Ability:
Held Item:
Moves: / / / /
IVs:
EVs:
Nature:
Repeat for all 6 Pokémon.

Team Strategy
Explain the team’s synergy, coverage, setup opportunities, and overall battle strategy.
For Double Battles, consider:
Lead Combinations: Which two Pokémon lead, and how do they complement each other?
Speed Control: Tailwind, Trick Room, Thunder Wave, Icy Wind, etc.
Redirection & Support: Follow Me, Rage Powder, Fake Out, Helping Hand, and screens.
Spread Moves: Earthquake, Rock Slide, Surf, Discharge, Heat Wave, etc.
Partner Synergy: Abilities such as Telepathy, Levitate, Lightning Rod, Storm Drain, and Flash Fire.
Counterplay: How can a prepared Nuzlocke player reasonably overcome the team?
Difficulty Rating: /10

Starmie and Hypno died at Agatha but I was also severely underprepared for her fight and got lucky

Jynx might be MVP but I was shocked at how well Exeggutor pulled its weight

Yes! And we got through the league completely deathless too!

Not gonna bother naming the team since the pictures do that for me, but they all each put in at least some work in the battles

One final R.I.P. to: Teddy the Vigoroth, Houshou the Pelipper, Big Man the Tentacool, and Zoe the Wailmer

Not sure when I’m gonna do another one of these, or in what game, but when I do I’ll be posting it on here like my other ones. See you then! (And hopefully I don’t take a year+ to complete it next time)

Hello!

I had a question about the Renegade Platinum ROM hack for my Nuzlocke run:

The wiki states that Espeon and Umbreon have a special ability (Magic Bounce and Inner Focus). However, when I have an Eevee with Adaptability, it retains the Synchronise ability when I evolve it.

Should I give up hope of getting an Espeon with Magic Bounce?

Had a plan to PP stall Juan's Kingdra and he took down the goat of this battle.

PS: It doesn't have a nickname because only ninjask keeps it

So far we’ve only had to deal with one loss (RIP Cham the Mankey) but so far this team has surprised me with how well they handle themselves!!

I’m a bit shocked with how much my encounters have limited me (I’ve joked that I’m running a flying type team too many times) but hopefully further routes will provide some more varied options.

Wish me luck!

I’ve been rotating between Fire Red, HGSS, Emerald, and Platinum everytime I lose a run (usually just losing my starter or a key mon lol). Finally went the distance in Fire Red. I’ve done a couple normal nuzlockes, but spamming items in battle didn’t feel right, so I figured I would stick to hardcore rules. First time fully EV training my team as well, which felt really nice. I’ve never had such an “easy” time with the E4 before. Only lost Screech the Electrode (very stupidly let him get nuked by Blue’s Rhydon).

And yes I know my team is full of some of the strongest mons in the game, just wanted to finally get that first clear. I plan to use some lesser used mons if I come back to FRLG.

Excited to try the other games next, especially Emerald and Platinum as I have basically no experience with those. Proud of my team, just thought I’d share!

Come join!!!

Apparently this got ate by reddit filters for some reason so trying again.

Preamble/Rules I'm Following/Resources I'm Using

Got my Switch 2 w/ ZA and Scarlet stolen so we're going back to the DS bby! Nuzlocking Storm Silver for the first time and trying to go in relatively blind. Not aware of much of the changes just that it's generally harder and alot of pokemon have been adjusted. Aside from the basic 2 rules, 1 encounter per route and it faints it dies, the following apply:

1. Nickname all caught pokemon
2. No items in trainer battles
3. Event/Gift/Static encounters are fine but they take your encounter for the route
4. Level caps as per https://nuzlocke-redux.vercel.app/
5. Dupes clause is in effect
6. Since I'm doing this on an actual DS I'm giving myself the grace that I'm not just counting fainting that happens specifically when I'm running around and battling WILD pokemon so I can put minimal mental energy into it while doing something else

The following PDFs were referenced for Storm Silver changes/potential encounters:
Pokemon Route Encounters/Locations

Pokemon Changelog

Event Guide

View the current state/info of the run here

Quick Thoughts/Feelings ATM

Nothing all too much to say so far, the minor dialogue adjustments so far have been mildly amusing and certainly the most so far I feel like pickup has ever proced for me in a game. Was a bit worried for Falkner but then found out you get the eeveelution of choice after completing Sprout Tower. Went with Glaceon assuming they'd be useful later on for Claire and Lance as well, w/ Icy Wind she swept Falkner without much trouble. Current clearing out the Slowpoke Well and happiness grinding Pei(Togepi). I see the Rain Dances on Bugsy's team so doing some thinking/calcing on if I can just chuck my water types at him though maybe I can just Dragon Rage my way through. Thanks for reading!

I have never fought him before (I was always a Ruby kid growing up) and it went about as well as you would expect. A few key mistakes here, but the most glaring was setting up too early and then PP stalling myself out of Psychic. No one died, but at what cost?

Im curious

Hey everyone! 👋

​I just finished this high-action 2D animation sequence, blending organic "slime/water" blob physics with an explosive power-up expansion inspired by classic fight anime.

​This project is part of a personal journey revisiting my history with a Pokémon Nuzlocke. The entire process—from the rough lineart to the 3-tone cel-shading and final compositing—was done frame-by-frame to aim for a high-performance anime studio aesthetic.

​🎥 Watch the full video here:

https://youtu.be/H0cpyjf_u_o?is=g76lUqE_hj4vf0bE

​I'd love to hear your thoughts on the animation timing, impact, and water physics! Which Pokémon sequence should I tackle next? 👇

First death of the Hoenn Region. To Norman's Slaking. I had a couple of Bulk Up's set up and thought it'd be enough for the OHKO, but it survived in the red and used Counter. And of course, Norman healed it afterwards.

Dan the Spinda turned out to be very effective however. Alternating Dizzy Punch (on it's 'loafing around' turn), with Psybeam (to avoid another Counter) worked great.

Dan and Kay were only temporarily on the team to deal with Norman, but it would've been nice to not have the death.

Anyway, I'll be going with Leonard II and Visenya against Winona. Start with Leonard until she sends out Altaria. Hopefully he'll bait an Earthquake from her, which will miss when I switch to Visenya. Then Ice Beam.

Hello! Im new to this subreddit as I rarely attempt nuzlockes, so mods if I missed something in the FAQ or rules pls delete :)

Im currently attempting a Fire Red nuzlocke on my switch and I just obtained the route 12 static snorlax and I feel like he would be a great addition to my team but I’m unsure who to replace.

My current team is Charmeleon, Pidgeotto, Raichu, Gyarados, Hypno, Nidoking. Pidgeotto makes the most sense right?? Im mainly concerned with wanting to have a pokemon with fly (my main playthrough I didn’t have a fly mon and Im not going through that again LOL) would teaching charizard fly hurt it at all/ruin her moveset??

I don't know why, but the negative voices won out again. Which means, I'm going to have to restart the Drayano Gauntlet from the beginning.

I'm not going to go on an entire spiel this time. In fact, I've constantly tried my best as an autistic adult and an autistic fan of Pokémon who not only enjoys playing the main series games, but also wants to nuzlocke, play the ROM hacks, damn near do everything that I can to challenge myself while enjoying the franchise and not feel guilty for doing so because of every other Pokémon fan that says Pokémon sucks.

Honestly, I don't want to give up this entire endeavor. I still want to achieve this entire thing. I have a feeling that someone's going to say that I should give up Pokémon or stop playing Pokémon. I always say I need advice, but I don't know if I deserve advice.

Thank you and sorry.

What do you do for Pokemon caught after beating a gym? For instance Brock’s Onix is lvl 12, so your squad is entitled to be level 12, but what about the Pokemon you catch on Route 3 and Mt Moon? Do you allow them to level 12 or cap the rare candies until right before Misty?

This is based on how good they are

I only count comments

this is just for fun

Me and my brother are playing a nuzlocke in Pokemon crystal advance redux, we have just taken the sixth gym badge. It’s a really fun hack, and the difficulty is a lot higher than ones we’ve played in the past (with level caps on). We are trying to evolve our Magmar into Magmortar, but require Magmarizer. Is there any way to obtain the item before going to Kanto?

Hey all. I just beat renegade platinum and want to step up the difficulty by the correct increment.

I played without calcs, banned legendaries and mythicals, banned substitute and baton pass, and played without the great marsh protect TM. This was actually the first hardcore nuzlocke I ever completed, but I play some competitive and watch a lot of nuzlocke content, so I was able to beat it in 4 attempts.

Is crystal kaizo or emerald kaizo a good next step, or is the difficulty spike too high for me? I’d also prefer a hack that doesn’t alter its generation’s battle AI.

Thanks and good luck in your runs 💯

are there any consistent Brock strategies, I’m resetting quite a few times against further boss fights but hes such an obnoxious first boss because there’s so much RNG in his fights and I’m tired of it.

like are there consistent grass or water types that outspeed onyx, or some consistent walls against vulpix?