Nuzlocke (noun, plural Nuzlockes) — Pokémon fandom slang for a self-imposed challenge run where you can only catch the first wild Pokémon encountered in each area, and any Pokémon that faints can never be used again. That’s the dictionary definition (Wiktionary), and it matches how the community uses the word.

Two usages you’ll see everywhere:

  • “A Nuzlocke” — a playthrough using these rules. “I’m doing a Nuzlocke of Emerald.”
  • “The Nuzlocke Challenge” — the ruleset itself.

Bulbapedia adds an important nuance: the rules “are not an in-game function, but self-imposed on the player’s part, and thus subject to variation.” Nuzlocke is not an official mode in any Pokémon game — it’s a promise you make to yourself.

What the word means literally

“Nuzlocke” is a portmanteau of two things:

  • Nuzleaf — the Grass/Dark Pokémon from Generation 3.
  • Locke — John Locke, the character from the TV series LOST.

In 2010, UC Santa Cruz student Nick Franco turned his rule-restricted Pokémon Ruby playthrough into a webcomic, Pokémon: Hard-Mode. The comic featured a recurring Nuzleaf character drawn to resemble John Locke. Readers combined “Nuzleaf” and “Locke” and started calling the challenge itself “Nuzlocke” — the name stuck, and it outlived the comic as the universal term.

For the full story, see Nuzlocke origin & history and the Nuzlocke comic.

What a Nuzlocke means in practice

Under the name sits a very small ruleset — the two core Nuzlocke rules:

  1. First encounter only — catch only the first wild Pokémon in each new area.
  2. Faint = death — a fainted Pokémon is considered dead and must be released or permanently boxed.

Everything attached to those rules has its own vocabulary: clauses (optional modifiers like the Dupes Clause), variants (structured twists like Soul Link or Randomizer), and Hardcore (level caps + no items in battle). A “Nuzlocke” can mean any of these combinations — as long as the two core rules are in place, the run counts.

The extended meaning

Wiktionary records a second, broader usage: “by extension, a similarly challenging playthrough of any game other than Pokémon, especially one involving some kind of self-imposed permadeath mechanic.” When players say they’re “Nuzlocking” another game, they mean borrowing the permadeath mindset, not the literal rules.

Nuzlocke and The Pokémon Company

Nuzlocke has no official status. Wikipedia’s reception coverage records a notable flashpoint: former Nintendo Minute hosts Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang said The Pokémon Company barred them from using Nuzlocke rules in videos, reportedly treating them on par with ROM hacks — and after fan backlash, the company clarified it had no issue with players using the ruleset. (This is third-party reporting via Wikipedia, not a primary statement.) The practical takeaway: the rules are fan-made, tolerated, and enormously popular — r/nuzlocke alone has passed 150K members.

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