With the release of “Pokemon X and Y,” millions of players scrambled to amass a new team and once again, conquer the challenge of the Elite Four. It seems that the developers wanted players to finish this game as quickly as possible this time around and wished for more focus on post-game content.
There was an addition of a mini-game that allows players to raise a specific statistic, known as EV, of a Pokemon without having to hunt and battle specific Pokemon. The true Pokemon Masters take the time to catch and breed specific natures for ideal statistic attributions and move sets.
While all this is fine and dandy and presents a challenge of its own, many people simply want to play the game and destroy everything in their wake. After the game, an anonymous player came up with the genius idea of applying the new Wonder Trade feature and challenging the game over again. This is possibly the greatest challenge thought of second only to the Nuzlocke challenge, but beating out the Joey Challenge. With an assortment of random Pokemon it is indeed an intimidating, yet tempting, task to take on the game a second time around. With Wonder Trade, players send out one of their Pokemon and in return receive a random Pokemon from a random Player in some random part of the world. To begin, the challenge players simply catch five/six additional Pokemon at the beginning of the game.
They then trade the six Pokemon they have away through Wonder Trade, yes that means your starter, and receive six random Pokemon. For the remainder of the game you are not allowed to catch anymore Pokemon and that is your team that must beat the game. The obvious challenge of this is that you have no control of what your team composition will be. You could have the worst luck ever and get an entire team of Bidoof and be doomed for failure the rest of the game. On top of the lack of control, Wonder Trade is notorious for circulation of Pokemon from the starting areas due to players trying to get something of value for nothing of significance. There is an upside to walking in blind though- all of your Pokemon will get boosted experience. Without having to worry about switching out and retraining a new team member, all six of your Pokemon will constantly be receiving experience and leveling up while far surpassing the game’s level.
The biggest downside to this is having to let go of your old team and resetting the game. All those memories and footsteps taken, forming a bond with the pixelated pocket monsters. Players are notorious for becoming attached to the team they raised with such diligence. If you can work your way past that wall, the challenge is indeed worth taking on.
With so many unknown factors the Wonder Trade Challenge is a perfect task for those players looking to add a twist to the game. So grab your Pokeballs and get Wonder Trading. You may be the lucky player to get a team full of death and destruction. Or an army of Bidoof.
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