>>46726627This doesnt imply many specific gimmicks or rules but i always follow this with every first playthrough. It is the ideal way of adding challenge without making things artificially difficult, grindy or tedious.
>Averagelocke>Pre-plan your full team, (can be randomly generated, first encounter, simply your favorites, or pokemon exclusively introduced with that region)>You are allowed to trade them or rotate the team members a little in the early game, if too many of your mons are obtained late>Theres an average level cap that your team members must strictly follow>This level line will always be 5/6 or less the level of leaders and boss battles aces (rounded up)(If a gym has most pokemon at level 13, your maximum level allowed is 11, if a champion has a team at level 66, your team should be lv 55 max)
>You must reset the save if after losing a battle you surpass the level cap of the boss you lost to>Theres some pokemon that will have a different level cap than the rest of the team after the first couple of gyms, requiring extra or less levels than the other members, you should apply these:+2 lv (extreme shitmons like ledian or delcatty in the late game, or NFEs when most enemies have fully evolved teams)
+1 lv (pokemon that underperform like arbok or maractus, also some NFEs that are not that bad, but are still below average)
+0 (5x/6 the leaders ace) (most fully evolved pokemon, representing a middleground of usefulness)
-1 (above average pokemon that are pretty useful in story mode, stuff like krookodile, magnezone or some of the starters. Also stuff that evolves into something strong too early)
-2 (broken shit like some fully-evolved pseudos or sg togekiss)
You should judge yourself which pokemon underperform and which ones are more versatile and choose the level accordingly, you may change them as you progress
>set battle mode>no item using in battle (potions, revives, etc) only held items are allowed>you cant use unlimited tms 
