Self-Imposed Challenge: Difference between revisions

** Alternatively, restricting yourself to a single type or category of weapon, if such categories exist.

* [[Double Play]]

 

Some of these can overlap.

 

This type of gameplay is one of the staples of the [[Challenge Gamer]]. See also [[House Rules]]. [[I Am Not Left-Handed]] is an in-universe example of this, or rather, an in-universe example of giving up on a '''Self-Imposed Challenge'''.

{{examples}}

* ''[[Cave Story]]'' has a number of these, mainly the 3 Life challenge which is done by not picking up any [[Heart Container]]s, and the Basic Weapons challenge, which forces you to only use the three weapons you can't avoid getting throughout the entire game. There is also a timer for Speedruns in the bonus level. By finishing the last level in under 3 minutes you unlock a bonus song heard nowhere else in the game. Completing the last level is in itself an achievement, but finishing it with Minimum Health, Basic Weapons and under the time limit is almost impossible and very much luck-oriented - there is a section where blocks start falling from the ceiling and their locations are completely random. Doing this challenge has been known to test the sanity of some people.

** What's particularly insane is that Pixel (the developer) seems to have expected people to try the Minimal HP run because every single boss in the Normal Ending Final Boss Rush has attacks that do 1 or 2 damage. That normally wouldn't bother the player, having 40 to 50 HP, but with only 3 HP, these attacks really hurt.

* ''[[An Untitled Story]]'' allows and encourages to do self-imposed challenges. [[Speed Run|Finish as fast as possible!]] [[One Hundred Percent Completion|Complete with highest completion percentage!]] [[Minimalist Run|Finish collecting as least as possible!]] [[Save Point|Finish while saving as much as possible!]] [[Final Death|Finish without saving]]!

 

* A popular ''[[God of War]]'' challenge is the NUR (No Upgrades Run) which is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. Less famous but even more sadistic is the Pain+ run<ref>hardest difficulty, no upgrades, no weapons aside from the Blades, no magic (unless [[But Thou Must!|thou must]] in a tutorial), no chests, and no special items (like the Amulet of Fate or Golden Fleece).</ref> This has been done for every game in the series by [[Badass|various authors]] on [[YouTube]].

* ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' and ''4'' encouraged players to take on self-imposed challenges in the form of getting the "S" and "SS" after-mission rankings in order to [[Cosmetic Award|collect bonus artwork]] completely unnecessary for gameplay. In 3, the most difficult-to-get one required a [[No Damage Run]] on top of making the time limit, collecting enough "Red Orb" currency, getting enough "style" points and using no items. The famous player Keith "Pokey86" Poke pioneered the idea of the "Dante Will Die" run, which is a run on the highest difficulty of "[[Harder Than Hard|Dante Must Die]]"... with a fresh game, lacking the usually maxed character that would normally be used. It really forces players to use different strategies, given the lack of moves and weapons that would normally be available. Even more crazy and skilled players have combined the SS run and the DWD run.

** The game also features an extremely weak (well, ''initially'' weak...) wooden sword weapon. Naturally, people decided to see how far they could get using only that weapon. For example, check out [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlqy6wQpzHU this video] of a player beating one of the hardest bosses in the game using only that wooden sword and Ryu's kick attack.

 

* ''[[God Hand]]'' has a built-in Self-Imposed Challenge: early in the game, the hero has a "Kick Me" sign slapped on his back, which makes enemies stronger. It will fall off if he uses [[Limit Break|the God Hand or God Reels]]. Finishing the game with the "Kick Me" sign still in place (that is, never using those powers) unlocks a bonus: [[Bragging Rights Reward|a music CD.]]

 

* Variant formats for Collectible [[Card Games]] may be considered a form of Self-Imposed Challenge, especially those that aren't supported for [[Tournament Play]]. ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'', for example, has Rainbow Stairwell, in which the player's deck must contain six cards of each color, one of which costs one mana, another which costs two, et cetera, up to six, and Highlander (AKA Singleton), where players build a deck with no more than one copy of any card that isn't a basic land.

** Elder Dragon Highlander, a.k.a. Commander, takes the Highlander format and adds additional restrictions: You must include a Legendary creature in your deck, which determines what colors of cards you may play otherwise, and the rest of your deck must be exactly 99 cards.

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'': in the recent "world championship" games, some of the Duel Point bonuses are awarded for unconventional deck compositions. These variants include: no traps, no spells, only 1 copy per card, only 1 type or attribute of monsters, monsters of each possible level, only level 1 monsters, and no monsters at all.

 

* ''[[Oregon Trail]]'': Forget braving the wilderness, there are people who'll try to kill all their party members before reaching the first fort, usually by doing normally stupid things such as fording rivers that are above fording level, not treating injuries, and getting themselves shot on purpose.

 

* The ''[[Super Smash Bros.]].'' games distribute points based on your performance in battles; high points for playing well, and you can actually lose points for relying too much on a single move. Unless, of course, you ''only'' use a single move, or any number of other self imposed challenges. One of the trickiest was called "Switzerland" and asked you to finish the round without ever attacking or taking damage.

* ''[[No More Heroes]]'' has the interesting challenge of completing the game using the most basic weapon, the Blood Berry. This can range from being [[Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels|mildly easy on Sweet to insanely hard on Bitter.]] On Bitter, towards the end of the game, bosses can have around 400% more health than normal, and even mooks become walking brick walls.

** Fortunately, there are several ''[[One-Hit Kill]]'' moves a player can use on mooks, which become nearly essential in the later stages. However, [[Useless Useful Spell|bosses are immune to these moves.]]

 

* ''[[Half-Life]]'' Two challenges you to complete a level using only the gravity gun. Episode 1 ups the ante and challenges you to fire ''one'' bullet throughout the entire game: to shoot a lock off after you get the pistol.

* The Vidmaster's Challenge in ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]]'', complete with charter that appears when attempting to use the Skip Level cheat. Rules include using grenades whenever possible, punching every switch (instead of pressing the action button on them), not to use the default Caps Lock key as the run key (i.e. not using what today would be an Always Run option), and to never ever leave a single one of the allied humans ("Bobs") alive.

* Officially, ''[[JFK: Reloaded]]'' is about trying to recreate three hardest three shots in American history. In reality, it's used for either causing as much chaos as possible, or pulling off trick shots, like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5bjWTyj1Ng shooting off the first lady's hat,] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5gJWXbIgB8 hitting a special agent in the ass,] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-iatlxEHoE hitting Kennedy with a ricochet,] or [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB-yS50kXzM shooting Governor Connally's hat out of his hand.]

 

* The flexibility of many [[4X|4X strategy games]] with regard to Self Imposed Challenges is almost limitless. Some of the more notable variations include:

** One-City Challenge: Complete the game while maintaining only one city (base, planet, etc.) Mostly used in games where there is an alternative to global conquest or where cities can be easily razed.

** No Trade Initiation, which makes it much more difficult to exploit the AI which can normally be done one way or another in most games. For added danger, agree to all proposals made by the AI.

 

* ''[[Diablo]]'' has its very own sub-community based on the premise of "variant characters": characters obeying special rules. The indisputable kings of these variant characters are the ''Naked Mage'' (no armor, no weapons, just pure magic), the ''Beyond Naked Mage'' (whatever armor and weapons you like—providing they're all ''cursed''), and the ''Barbarian'' (non-magical weapons and armor only—no magic, no spells, no potions, no fear).

** [http://www.theamazonbasin.com/d2/forums/index.php?showtopic=32067 One player] had a character called IreneTheInfirm: a hardcore sorceress who could not wear or wield anything, cast any spells or assign any stat points, and was thus limited to punching away for 1-2 damage a go, using the act 1 mercenary as the main source of damage (who also couldn't use any items). Somehow, Irene ended up killing Andariel.

* Several challenges have popped up in the ''[[Monster Hunter]]'' series once they have their strongest set of armor and weaponry. The most common are the naked run (no armor at all), to use a really bad weapon against a certain monster (Greatsword vs. [[That One Boss|Plesioth]], no felynes), a marathon run (specialized quest that require you to kill 2 or more of a certain monster simultaneously) and the ''Arrowhead Cutoff'' (using only the Circle attack of a Bow, which swings one of your bolts like a makeshift sword, to cut off the tail of a monster, most often a Tigrex.)

 

* These even exist in [[MMORPG]]s. ''[[City of Heroes]]'' has the MAN challenge. Essentially, attempting to see how far you can get without using any superpowers beyond "Brawl" and "Sprint." It's considered cheating (and probably rude) to join teams and leech XP from more conventional characters. Due to the way mission enemies spawn, other MAN characters are fine if you can find someone else to join in your insanity.

** ''[[City of Heroes]]'' also added an in-game version in late 2007 with the Flashback system. A character can revisit old or outleveled story arcs and complete them with various restrictions, including a time limit, powered-up enemies, or only certain powers and abilities allowed.

* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' has several types of [[Bragging Rights Reward]] completely nailing this Trope. [[Level Grinding]] to the maximum level in the [[Forced Tutorial]] of Prophecies where you can only get XP past certain point by leveling monsters on your character to point where they become high enough level to grant you xp for killing them, getting the maximum level without dying even once (and getting XP worth of 10 times reaching maximum level without dying.), completing all missions with bonus in the [[Nintendo Hard]] mode to name a few.

 

* ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' games can get harder by avoiding power-ups. Avoiding everything but mushrooms is good; avoiding those as well is basically a [[No Damage Run]].

** ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' in particular invites the challenges of not using Yoshi and not visiting the Switch Palaces that activate helpful blocks in other levels.

** However, there's ''also'' the Thirty Lucky Fruit challenge, which is more true to the trope. This challenge requires eating 30 Lucky Fruit instead on a level. However, each level only contains 12 Lucky Fruit normally. The way to get the others is via an [[Easter Egg]]: When you do a [[Ground Pound]] near a [[The Goomba|Shy Guy]] while invincible, it turns into a Lucky Fruit. Actually making sure you're in the vicinity of several Shy Guys while invincible is another story entirely. It's not even possible on all levels, or with all Lucky Fruit on a particular level.

 

* ''Fantastic Contraption'', a flash-based physics-puzzle game, lends itself to this. Players will try to complete the goal with as few pieces as possible, or without using certain kinds (gravity power, no catapults, etc.). The fact that you can save and share your contraptions for others to watch in action aids in this.

* A popular challenge among Japanese ''[[Tetris]]'' players is to stack blocks to form a stack as wide and tall as the playing field, but with holes in it that form the shape of a "greater than" (>) sign. In the ''Tetris: The Grand Master'' series, if you successfully form at least half of the stack, you'll get a secret grade proportional to how complete it is. A textbook example of someone completing this challenge can be seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K4RxUpZ9Ss here].

* It is possible to complete a lot of co-op chambers in Portal 2 without any help from a partner (as in they don't place a portal or interact with anything) and very few of them require glitches. Finding a partner who will let you do this is a problem, though.

 

* It is possible to complete ''[[Pikmin]]'' without ever getting Blue Pikmin, though you still do need to use them in some sense—there's a flower that allows you to transform a handful of pikmin into blues, but they only appear at very rare points in the game.

** It's possible to beat Pikmin 2 (collecting 10,000 Pokos) without ever leaving the Valley of Repose. This takes a while since eventually your only source of treasure will be mook corpses, which go for 10-15 Pokos each.

* Enter the [[Day Nine]] [[Star Craft 2|Daily]], where we learn to be a better gamer. Except on monday where we just dick around. Indeed, on Funday Monday, the host, [[Day Nine]], imposes a self-imposed challenge on your gameplay such as, "You must only attack on creep", "You must make a planetary fortress at your opponents natural", or "Make all your pylons outside your base." The best and funniest entries are casted by the host on a live stream.

 

* ''[[Guitar Hero]] 2'' and III have a cheat code called "Performance Mode," which removes the fret board, requiring you to play by ''memory''.

** ''GH III'' also has a "precision mode" which cuts down the lax (if not too lax) default timing window to a very picky one.

* [[Space Channel 5]] and it's sequel leaves room for these. Failure mode where you rescue nobody and get the minimum view rating, Mirror mode is when you play through the game with the mirror code activated... and Purge mode, in which you shoot the hostages and rescue the robots.

* Stepmania has Song Attacks, or [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdftrIQLKIo this]. This is the game intentionally messing you up.

* ''[[Nethack]]'' is worth mentioning as an overarching example: it features a bevy of voluntary challenges, including a [[Pacifist Run]], an "atheist" run (not using the "pray" command to ask favors from the gods, or dropping anything on altars to test for alignment, or chatting with priests, or...), an "illiterate" run (not reading anything, and not writing anything beyond the letter X), a "foodless" run (not eating anything, including non-foods), and for the truly psychotic, combinations of any or all of the above resulting in things like "wishless genocideless polyitemless polyselfless illiterate atheist weaponless vegan" (actually achieved). You get nothing for completing these other than satisfaction, but the game will keep track of what you've accomplished. ''Nethack'' is already [[Nintendo Hard]] of itself, so these challenges add replay value only for the truly hardcore.

** It gets even more bizarre when you get into the fan-created challenges. The strangest: "Zen"—going through the entire game blindfolded. Only a tiny handful of recorded Zen completions are known: samurai (one of the two classes that can start with blindfolds in the inventory), rogues (the other class who can start with a blindfold), and at least one ''tourist''. The tourist used [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|a towel]], of course.

** Particularly notable is the so-called "Hermit Challenge" where 6 of the 7 embarking dwarves and every single immigrant get killed off and caravans are ignored or killed. Check out [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=15572.0 One Dwarf Against The World], the story that made the name "Urist" popular in the DF fandom.

 

* ''[[Earthbound]]'' has numerous [[Randomly Drops|1-in-128 items]]. These range from items you can't find in stores (such as the Sword of Kings and the Xterminator Spray) to items you can get well before stores ''stock'' them. Numerous fan quests have arisen as gamers try to get every one of them.

* Playing ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' with a party of four White Mages is a popular one. The early-level characters are so weak that a battle with goblins can reach epic proportions.

* Since the discovery of a glitch making it possible to skip most of Mercury Lighthouse (where Mia is recruited), "no Mia" runs of the first game have become mildly popular among ''[[Golden Sun]]'' enthusiasts, along with the usual "minimum Djinn" or "[[With This Herring|starting equipment only]]" runs for the rest of the series.

 

* ''[[Touhou]]'', one life, no continues, no bombs, quit and restart if you pick up a boost/points, [[Pacifist Run]] against the [[Bonus Boss]] by outlasting the clock, randomly picked (covered eyes and random clicking, hardest difficulty, and try not to destroy your computer within the first 5 seconds).

* ''[[R-Type]]'' skill runs generally involve non-use of the Force Device or Wave Cannon, not killing anything but bosses that would kill you and things that directly obstruct your progress, or some combination of the above. Oddly, the games appear to have anticipated this, since in ''III, Delta'' and ''Final'' the game will give you a Force Device for the final stage of the last boss if you don't have one. Delta and Final also keep track of various handicaps you might impose on yourself, like beating the game without Force or Wave Cannon.

** Zero-score runs are much easier to do in its sequel. Your score multiplier starts at 0, which means you won't score a single point if you never collect a medal. Same with [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Mars Matrix]]''.

 

* Due to its [[Wide Open Sandbox]] nature, you can find several Self Imposed Challenges for ''[[Freelancer]]'' in GameFAQs.

* The popular ''Football Manager'' series of sports management games has a community of players who try to achieve glory with the poorest, smallest, lowest-level teams in the game. They're called L.L.M.ers or Llamas.

* Once people are sick of playing ''[[Tamagotchi]]'' the normal way—to keep them alive and happy as long as possible, they do the opposite; try to kill them off as fast as possible.

 

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' and beyond was made with this sort of thing in mind, with various ranks and accomplishments. There is the [[Pacifist Run]] (which nets you at least a Pigeon rank and is needed to get higher ranks), the [[Stealth Run]] (which nets you at least a Chameleon rank and is needed to get higher ranks), and a no-kill no-continue no-Alert [[Speed Run]] on the highest difficulty will get you a suitably heroic title, usually Big Boss. There's stranger challenges (like [[Gotta Catch Them All|eating all possible animals]] in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'' which nets you the [[Extreme Omni Goat|Markhor]] rank), and there's still a slew of strange player inspired ones, such as using only the handguns or completing the whole game while smoking a health-sapping cigarette. There's also some very bizarre bonus titles that take a strange mind to get or see the worth of getting - ending ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 2'' with a Ration-eating sea louse in your inventory nets you the Sea Louse rank, and ending ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'' with a Stamina-sapping leech attached to your body gives you the Leech rank. Kojima has claimed the reason he included the [[Shirtless Scene|Naked camouflage]] in ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'' was to 'make players want to finish the game without using clothes'.

** Various diet-based runs of ''[[Metal Gear Solid]] 3'' are popular.

* ''[[Thief]]'' players originated the "Ghost Run"—finishing the game without being detected or leaving any trace of your passing other than missing treasures. Some take it so far as to re-lock every lock. Ghost runners will try this challenge in any other game that it appears to be doable.

 

* ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'' lends itself very well to self-imposed challenges. Some of the most popular include the no merchant run, in which the player can only use weapons they find lying around and cannot get any upgrades or bonus items (whether selling excess ammo is allowed varies); the handgun and knife run, in which weapons can be bought and upgraded at will as long as they're handguns; and the no merchant handgun and knife run, in which the player can only use the knife and unupgraded handgun.

** It helps keep a self-challenger honest that you can just kill The merchant the first time you see him and not risk temptation later on.

* Beat ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' without ever touching a workbench. Not hard enough? Try beating ''[[Dead Space 2]]'' without ever touching a workbench...on Hardcore.

 

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', already a challenging game with a [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|cheating computer]], overwhelming odds and some of the hardest bosses in all of video game history (though strongly mitigated by almost all class having at least one [[Game Breaker]]), has a whole FAQ on [[GameFAQs]] dedicated to different challenges. It has been completed with one character with a single class and no out-of-class abilities with almost every one of the 20+ classes in the game.

** It has also been beaten using a single class and no out-of-class abilities with ''every'' class, though with a full party. This notably includes the Calculator, whose ability is to cast other classes' magic on all characters fitting certain criteria on the battlefield - but you don't ''learn'' any of that other magic in this challenge, and the Calculator "chassis" is weak, fragile, and '''incredibly''' slow. Another FAQ was written to tell you how to fight every battle with the Calculators, sometimes all the way to turn-by-turn strategies. It still comes down to [[Luck-Based Mission|pure luck]] for many of them.

** The Antarctica Challenge: Build only one base in Antarctica, the only continent guaranteed ''not'' to be in the path of any major UFO incursions.

 

* [http://www.deadrising2.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=2798&st=0&start=0 A list] of Self Imposed Challenges for ''[[Dead Rising]] 2''.

* ''[[Minecraft]]'', aside from avoiding the monsters, has no goals and would get boring very quickly if players didn't keep thinking up insane megaprojects to do.

** There's also the Skyblock challenge, in which you're spawned onto a small island in the sky with one tree, and must complete certain objectives (make a tree farm, make a stone generator, etc) being compounded by even MORE self-imposed challenges.

 

* ''[[Super Size Me]]'' is pretty much one giant self-imposed challenge where a guy goes for an all-[[McDonald's]] diet for about a month. He even has his own rules and everything, such as walking 5,000 steps a day, supersizing his food when asked,<ref>Which after the movie was released was discontinued</ref> trying out every single item on the [[McDonald's]] menu, and finishing everything on the plate.

 

* In-universe example: [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged]]'s quest to insult the entire universe, one person at a time, ''in alphabetical order''. Before you complain about newborn beings early in the alphabet messing up what he's already insulted, keep in mind that time travel is ''very'' available in this universe.

** The time travel part works both ways - he gets messed up due to time travel shenanigans involving Arthur Dent himself (also doubles as a [[Brick Joke]] of course...) And he knows it'd be logically impossible - He decided to do it just so he'd have a purpose in life.

** Similarly ''La Disparition'' by Georges Perec, translated from French into English as ''A Void'' by Gilbert Adair.

 

* Barney Stinson of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' frequently challenges himself with increasingly bizarre trials, such as refusing to take off a ridiculous set of overalls ''until he gets laid.''

{{quote|'''Barney:''' No one, I mean no one, could get laid wearing these... ''challenge accepted!''}}

 

* Reportedly, when the Celtics were facing one of the teams near the bottom of the standings, Larry Bird used to impose these on himself. One common one was going an entire game shooting [[I Am Not Left-Handed|exclusively with his left hand.]]

** Also reportedly, this is how the Harlem Globetrotters went from 'straight' basketball to the colourful antics they're known for.

* Firearms historian Ian McCollum of [[Forgotten Weapons]] has competed in shooting matches using a variety of antique firearms (a typical competitor in these matches has a modern firearm, often with accessories that cost more than the gun itself). He warns this will not be fun to attempt if you aren't a skilled shooter already.

 

* [http://xkcd.com/724/ This] ''[[Xkcd]]'' inspired an actual [http://www.swfme.com/view/1046212 Flash implementation] of the game. It's pretty unplayable (that's kind of the point) with the usual Tetris goals, but [http://www.metafilter.com/90888/Theres-also-a-Katamari-level-where-everything-is-just-slightly-bigger-than-you-and-a-Mario-level-with-a-star-just-out-of-reach#3034952 a MeFite] pointed out the game is actually interesting and reasonably challenging if you try to end the game with as ''few'' pieces as you can.