Hi folks.

Little bit of background - I've attempted 4 hardcore nuzlockes before. I failed at the Champion's final pokemon in Fire Red in my one and only attempt. Changed over to Emerald and then lost at the exact same stage again... I decided that Leaf Green had better encounters, so I went back to Kanto and blitzed it. First win in the bag. Tried Emerald again, and won (even beating Steven without wiping). I was feeling pretty happy with myself, but still strived for bigger challenges.

I enjoyed my Hoenn playthroughs significantly more, so I decided that I'd try a difficulty hack of Emerald. The Kaizo version seems a little too daunting from what I've seen on Wolfey VGC's and Pokemon Challenge's YouTube videos, so I figured that Inclement Emerald was a step lower on the ladder, but still a significant test of my skills, compared to the vanilla titles.

I'm even adding an element of randomness to my starter pokemon (see pictures). FYI - I'm playing with no dupes clause. No nicknames clause (can't be bothered with that. I'm still going to try my best, regardless of what daft names my pokemon have). On the slim chance I encounter a shiny, I can choose to replace it with my encounter from the same route if I wish, unless I already own a pokemon of the same species/from same evolution line, in which case, I can replace that instead. Inclement Emerald has built in level caps and the enemy trainers scale to the player's level, so I'm hacking in Rare Candies and just hitting the level cap after each gym badge to save on grinding. That leaves just EV grinding later, which is about as much as I can be bothered with.

I feel I'm about as prepared as I possibly can be. But to anyone who has played through this game before, are there any hints and/or tips that you think may help me on my first foray into difficulty hacks?