Game Modes
Casual – The player has a stat advantage on average over all trainers.
Normal – The fairest setting. It is interpolated between Casual and Hard.
Hard – Trainers have a stat advantage on average. This mode is the opposite of casual.
Nuzlocke – Fainted Pokémon can’t be revived or healed (uses encounter lock).
Sadlocke – Fainting reduces happiness by 100, and makes Pokémon disobedient (uses encounter lock).
Encounter Lock – Only the first encounter per wild zone can be caught (with shiny and duplicate clauses).
Unrestricted – There are no additional constraints on catching or using Pokémon in battle.
Level Caps – Blocks the player from leveling past gym levels.
Itemless – Blocks the player from using the item bag in battle.
Automatic Nicknames – Gives random nicknames (you can still give custom nicknames anyways).
Min-grinding Mode - This is an optional mode which neutralizes IVs and EVs for the player and enemy. It was designed to have no impact on the difficulty modes. On average, playing with or without it should be just as difficult whether you are in min-grinding mode or not. In practice, this may vary since having competitive vs. uniform stats can have more impact on some Pokémon than others. If this mode is not enabled then it is HIGHLY recommended to use the new EV vitamins (Super and Max) in the Celadon Department Store. Once this mode is enabled, it cannot be disabled since it would be exploitable and confusing for the player. When this mode is enabled, the player has uniform EVs=min(level, 85) and IVs=14-16. Enemy stats vary depending on the difficulty mode. Generally, Casual has flat zeros, Normal has average, and Hard has perfect stats. There is small +-1 variance to all stats though.
Endgame System - After defeating the E4, the player may optionally choose to take over the Viridian Gym. This acts as an endless randomized battle system with ways to track your ranking and streaks in the game. This includes about 38 trainer classes for you to can battle against (and 1000s of names). The trainer classes each have their own text and difficulty, which affects their team and AI (Bug Catchers are easy while Ace Trainers will be boss level). They sometimes have type biases in their teams, in line with their theme. The battles are fought consecutively in bouts of 5 with healing in between. Losing a battle does not interrupt the gauntlet. Max rank is 5 Stars, based on win % and the total battles fought (using an exponential moving average to allow for some recency in the calc). You’ll need at least 32 battles under your belt for a chance at 5 Stars and a win rate ≥ 90%. As your win % increases so does your reputation. As your reputation spreads, you’ll start to be challenged by more diverse and difficult classes of trainers.