Twitch streamer’s 6-hour Pokémon run is ended by opponent’s one-hit KO Destiny Bond

Twitch streamer Calebhart42 has been running Pokemon challenge runs lately, and one of his latest runs ended in absolute tragedy. Caleb fought a trainer battle towards the end of Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver, when an enemy Scizor used Destiny Bond. Since the Twitch streamer skipped past the text too quickly, he missed some vital information.

This led to the streamer’s lead Pokemon, Blaziken (HAMBURGE), dying to Destiny Bond immediately and ending his run. Since this was an Ironmon run, the moves of the Pokemon were all randomized, and there was no way to know this was coming.

After a controller was thrown and a chair was smashed into the ground, there was no other move but to keep going with another attempt.

---

Reddit reacts to random Destiny Bond ending Twitch streamer’s Pokemon run

Calebhart42 was running through Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver on what’s called an Ironmon Challenge and unfortunately hit a stumbling block a good six hours into the run. The Twitch streamer was distracted, talking about how often Pokemon can survive on 1 HP in this kind of run.

His Pokemon was level 65, and the trainer’s Scizor was 50, but it seems the two had a speed tie that Blaziken lost. Calebhart42 skipped through the text too fast and saw all too late that Destiny Bond was used by the enemy Pokemon.

Destiny Bond is a move that, when used, kills the opponent when the Pokemon using the power dies. So the 1 HP Scizor used Destiny Bond, and when Blaziken fired back with Drill Peck, the streamer's run was immediately extinguished. There was nothing the Twitch streamer could do about it. Trainer battles cannot be fled from, so the only way out was to combat that first.

This led to a bit of confusion from a Reddit user, but the next person briefly explained what exactly happened. This style of Pokemon challenge run requires that all Pokemon moves are randomized, leading to the Destiny Bond.

Of course, there are also always going to be people who have negative or mean things to say on Reddit.

Though this story does have a happy ending. The grind continued, and so did the challenge runs. The Twitch streamer posted to Twitter that they beat Lance and were ready to go for the next half of the game, thanks to Venusaur.

Nuzlocke and Ironmon challenges are popular in the Pokemon community because the games are incredibly easy on average. There are ways to increase the challenge, but what is a Nuzlocke or Ironmon?

---

The Ironmon challenge

(Clip begins at 3:55:14)

The Nuzlocke challenge is occasionally called the Fire Emblem challenge. It’s a style of Pokemon run designed to be incredibly challenging and also forge a bond with the Pokemon. The starter Pokemon must always be in the main party, and every Pokemon must have a name.

If a Pokemon faints, it is released (or put in the computer, never to be used again), and if the starter Pokemon faints, that’s game over. Players then delete the save file. For some players, that simply isn’t enough.

Players can also only catch one Pokemon per route, and if they accidentally kill it, that’s it for the route. It forces challenge and creativity in every run. These can also be randomized to make them even more unpredictable.

That’s where Ironmon comes in. Originally designed by Iateyourpie, it has also been improved to also include Kaizo Ironmon. This is as hard as Pokemon runs can get. It is likely that Caleb was using Kaizo Ironmon, because it only allows one Pokemon.

This would explain the run being ended where it did. The player can have other Pokemon in the party, only for HM purposes, and cannot grind on wild Pokemon. All exp is through trainers and gym leaders. Players can also not purchase items from stores, and the starter is chosen at random.

The player cannot have legendaries, though enemies can. Moveset are randomized, and all trainers have 50% level increase. There are also move restrictions (no healing moves, for instance), and HP-restoring items cannot be used outside of battle.

There is no greater challenge, and, understandably, a Twitch streamer would be frustrated after six hours and see a run end in this way.