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Enter the [[Self-Imposed Challenge]].
 
A [[Self-Imposed Challenge]] is a playthrough of a game wherein the player plays under a restriction not required by the game itself in an attempt to increase the difficulty (or immersion) and replay value. These restrictions can range from the fairly simple (a refusal to make use of a [[Game Breaker]], for example) to the near-impossible ("Hey, can you beat ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'' without [http://tasvideos.org/1332M.html pressing the "B" button]?"). Check a message board for a game that's been out for a while and you'll undoubtedly find players reporting on their progress in various exotic Self-Imposed Challenges.
 
Gamers will occasionally record these runs and post them on various archive sites. As noted above, the rise of Casual Gamers make these even more of a dedicated pastime than ever before.
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== [[Action Adventure]] ==
* ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'' has a number of these, mainly the 3 Life challenge which is done by not picking up any [[Heart Container|Heart Containers]], 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.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: MajorasMajora's Mask (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' has the three-day-only challenge, where you can only play the Song Of Time once, and that's when you get the Ocarina of Time from the Skull Kid from the first time loop. For a game that's pretty much made of [[Sidequest|sidequests]], it leaves you with barely much to face the final boss with. Did we mention that you'll be rolling and spinning '''everywhere'''? And let's not get started on the Zora eggs...
** [http://www.archive.org/details/MajorasMask_6DC It's been done, too.] ''With the entire 2nd Night and Final Day to spare''.
** Think that's good? Try it ''[http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9BE435004584413C gathering SEVENTEEN non-transformation masks]''.
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** Also in this game, beating the boss Twinmold using only the sword (no Giant's Mask).
** Another popular challenge for ''most'' of the ''Zelda'' games is the three-heart challenge (impossible in some of the games in the series, as you are forced to collect some heart fragments), which is exactly what it sounds like: beat the game ''without'' collecting any of the [[Heart Container|Heart Containers]] that increase Link's [[Life Meter]]. This is easy at first, but quickly gets more difficult as you tackle later dungeons and the game expects you to be able to take more damage than you can...
*** A friend of mine did this on his first playthrough of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]]''. Without using any faeries. Including the Cave of Ordeals. He had to quit without saving (losing progress) quite a few times to avoid collecting heart fragments in chest...
*** The hardest challenge for ''Twilight Princess'' would be as follows: 3 hearts, no shield (burn the wooden one as soon as you can and never get a metal one), always using the ordon sword (except for the 2 fights where you NEED the master sword) no hidden skills (besides ending blow), nothing in your bottles, never take off the Zora Armor (anything fire/ice pretty much one-shots you) no bomb/arrow upgrades, no arrows except during bosses and puzzles that specifically require arrows, and lastly, ''[[No Sidepaths No Exploration No Freedom]]''.
** It was theorized that the original ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Videovideo Gamegame)|The Legend of Zelda]]'' could be beaten WITHOUT USING THE SWORD (because you have to get it yourself). This is actually impossible, although it is possible to beat the entire game except the final boss (for whom a sword of any sort is required). Using the sword only on Ganon has remained a popular challenge. A [http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=32B36810E3EA465E three hearts, minimal sword] challenge turns this [[Up to Eleven]].
*** ''[[Link to The Past]]'' is a good example of a game in which to attempt this, and due to an easter egg, when the Master Sword is seemingly required to deflect Aghanim's beam back at him, one can use the Bug-Catching net instead.
** Also, completing a Zelda game without ever dying is a challenge, because some games such as ''[[The Legend of Zelda: aA Link Toto T Hethe Past (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'' have a counter for number of deaths. This feat is acknowledged in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: LinksLink's Awakening (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening]]'', which includes a special addition to the ending sequence if you complete it without dying. This is extremely difficult in the original NES game, though, because you can only save at the Game Over screen, meaning you'd have to play through the entire game in one sitting<ref>Or know about a secret code involving the second controller.</ref>.
* The Oracle games feature the [[Poison Mushroom|Cursed Ring]], which halves your sword damage and doubles the damage you take, it seems to have been made for this trope.
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword]]'' features [[Harder Than Hard|Hero Mode]], a mode where you take double damage and enemies can take more damage, and the enemies never drop hearts (but your sword beam starts off at its endgame strength). Now try playing the mode without potions, extra heart containers, upgrades and any medal, and using only the most basic shield available(or no shield at all). And no using the [[Sword Beam]] either, except when it's absolutely needed. [[Schmuck Bait|Go ahead, try it.]]
* With the dawn of ''[[Castlevania]]'' games with inventory systems and equipment, the idea of "Naked" runs stand out as an obscene challenge that requires no weaponry, armor, magic, or equipment that boosts ''anything'' by luck. It gets quite difficult at times.
** Lets not forget the 1-kill playthrough of Symphony of the Night, requiring you to kill ONE enemy throughout the entire game. You're still beating it at 200.6%; you're just limited to killing a puny Blademaster. This is quite difficult, as the mandatory boss fights count as kills. Once you become extremely adept at glitching through walls, its not terribly difficult, but it will give you a run for your money if you arent mentally prepared.
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== [[Action Game]] ==
* A popular ''[[God of War]]'' challenge is the NUR (No Upgrades Run) which is [[Exactly What It Says Onon 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.
** Die hard fans of the first game also like performing fresh runs on Dante Must Die. It's worth noting that, excepting the last few boss fights, it's much easier compared to DMC 3, simply because DMC 1 doesn't beef up the enemies' vitality and defense to the insanity that DMC 3 does.
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== [[Collectible Card Game]] ==
* 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: theThe 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.
** Peasant Magic a.k.a. Pauper requires that your deck either contain only commons, or up to 8 uncommons. Rares are right out.
* ''[[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.
 
== [[Edutainment Game]] ==
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== [[Fighting Game]] ==
* The ''[[Super Smash Bros (Video Game)|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.]]
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== [[First-Person Shooter]] ==
* ''[[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 (Video Game)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.
** Another is the Fists-Only on Total Carnage (hardest difficulty) - especially impressive on the special Vidmaster's arena level, with the grey enemies.
* ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 (1997 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Golden Eye 1997]]'' and its [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' feature unlockable difficulty settings (called "007" and "Perfect Dark" respectively) that allow the player to alter the challenge by fine-tuning certain enemy properties: their health, accuracy, damage and reaction times. Level runs done with minimum enemy health and all other settings on maximum (meaning both player and perfectly-accurate guards will die in a single hit) are known as "Licence to Kill" (LTK) settings. Runs with ''everything'' set to maximum, so that guards have ten times more health than normal, are known as "Dark LTK" runs. In ''[[GoldenGoldenEye Eye007 (1997 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Golden Eye 1997]]'' this is stupidly hard since a dead foe doesn't drop enough ammo to kill the next one; in ''Perfect Dark'' it's ''marginally'' more manageable thanks to the game's quirk that [[Boom! Headshot!|headshots on unshielded NPCs are always instant kills]].
** The above customisable difficulties (as well as the standard ones) can also be used in conjunction with the games' many unlockable cheat options. "Turbo Mode" has obvious effects on the sort of record times that can be attained, while "All Guns" and other weapon options allow the player to impose even more restrictions (it's particularly fun trying to kill all guards in a level using nothing but [[Knife Nut|duel-wielded throwing knives]]). However, some of the cheats make the game much harder, such as the "Enemy Rockets" cheat, which [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|gives every enemy in the game a rocket launcher with infinite ammo]]. Yes, that too is possible to complete.
** And what's more, at the end of each level, various statistics are displayed about your performance. So, can you do one or more of the above... but with 100% accuracy? [[Speed Run|And within a certain target time?]]
* The utterly crazy ''[[Doom (Video Gameseries)|Doom]]'' fanbase. Among the challenges on offer:
** Speed: Your standard speedrun. Currently, the lowest recorded time for a completed level is ''five seconds''.
** Pacifist: Complete a level without directly or indirectly harming monsters, effectively restricting the player to causing infighting.
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** Max: A speedrun where all secrets must be collected.
** Tyson: The level must be completed with every monster killed as quickly as possible...with no weapons other than the fist, the chainsaw and the pistol.
* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]''. [[Pacifist Run]] is pretty standard, and the game encourages it. How about a [http://forumplanet.gamespy.com/general_deus_ex_discussion/b49372/14593517/p1/?850 no items run]? (Not just the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G_wDf-cUqo first level].)
** ''[[Deus Ex Human Revolution (Video Game)|Deus Ex: Human Revolution]]'' can also be beaten with a pacifist run. The ''Missing Link'' DLC has a more difficult one: No weapons, explosives, or Praxis Kits (augments).
* Try a No [[Bullet Time]] run of ''FEAR'' on Extreme difficulty. The former earns you the "Real Time" achievement.
* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' and its sequel has both fan challenges and in game challenges via achievements. Some in-game challenges involve completing a campaign without any survivor getting incapacitated, using pistols only, using melee weapons only, finish a game without ever causing friendly fire, etc. Some fan challenges include playing a whole campaign on Expert difficulty without any bots helping you.
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** Some people have tried a "melee only" run in where you're only allowed to attack zombies by meleeing them to death. The only exception you get is for the Tank where people are allowed to set it on fire.
*** The sequel even has an achievement for this called "Confederacy of Crunches." Well, two, technically, since killing the Tank with melee weapons ("Tank Burger") is going to come up sooner or later if you take this on.
* 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.]
 
== [[Four X4X]] ==
* The flexibility of many [[Four X4X|4X strategy games]] with regard to [[Self-Imposed Challenge|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 Tech Trading: Your faction must research all of its own technologies.
*** There is another far more useful reason for this option; stopping the AI begging for tech, then getting uppity at you because you didn't give them free toys.
** [[Pacifist Run|No Wars of Aggression]]: Your faction must never declare war and may only wage wars in self-defense. Conquest is allowable only to reclaim territory previously lost to another faction.
** The ''[[Civilization]]'' community has the long-established challenge of "Always War," which is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]: You're always at war. This can mean "You're always at war with at least one other civilization" or "You're always at war with ''everyone''." Naturally, when ''Civilization IV'' decided to recognize Always War along with the One-City Challenge and No Tech Trading in-game, they opted for the latter form. On the other hand, they also offered "Always Peace," which is also [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]: No [[A Is]] will declare war on you, and you can't declare war on anyone.
*** Speaking of ''Civilization'', ''Revolutions'' has a few Achievements for this. "Absolute Power is Kind of Neat" means playing the whole game under a Despotism (the simplest and worst form of government, by near-universal consensus).
** 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.
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** In ''Diablo 2'', a user on the inc.gamers forum demonstrated the story of [http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=480035 Anna Goanna]. She was an Amazon-class hardcore, as in "if you die you die permanently," character who completed the game on all difficulty levels with only cracked/low-quality items, a summonable NPC support fighter and a hireling fighter. Some bosses took hours to finish. When she finally beat the last boss on the [[Harder Than Hard]] difficulty, her name-personalized cracked sash sold in-game for multiple high-value items.
** One player, going by the name Sirian, decided to create a whole [http://web.archive.org/web/20071012223800/sirian.warpcore.org/diablo2/diablo2.html host of restricted D2 characters], such as Ember, the firebolt-only Sorceress.
* Several challenges have popped up in the ''[[Monster Hunter (Video Game)|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.)
 
== MMORPG ==
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== [[Platform Game]] ==
* ''[[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 (Videovideo Gamegame)|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.
*** Or even worse, try playing it without getting ANY non-manditory stage points. [[Raocow]] is doing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKR9M3kCauI&feature=channel_video_title this right now].
** ''[[Super Mario Kart (Video Game)|Super Mario Kart]]'' allows players to shrink their characters on the select screen as if they had been struck by lightning or a poison mushroom. This way they're slower and more easily crushed, ratcheting up the challenge of an already hard game.
** Find a hidden green mushroom in ''[[Super Mario 64 (Video Game)|Super Mario 64]]'' and collect the 8 red coins and the star before it catches you. That mushroom will not stop until it grants you an extra life.
** A minor example: Try to beat as many ''[[New Super Mario Bros (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros]].'' levels as you can using the turtle shell dash for the entire level. Fun times.
*** How about this: try to beat every single level with a single turtle shell, and restart from the very first level if you get hit. At all. You'll need to start after you've found a turtle shell, though, so you'll have to play a little ways into the game at least to try it.
** Also extremely fun in ''[[New Super Mario Bros (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros]].'': Complete as many levels as you can ducking the entire level. It's surprisingly easy to do this on the final level, but that's one of the few levels where it's easy.
** Never forget Buddhist Mario, where you [[Pacifist Run|kill no enemies]], collect no coins, and have to walk through the gate at the end to show humility.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvdYCAqqiUQ This] guy does a parody challenge run of ''[[Super Mario Bros. (Videovideo Gamegame)|Super Mario Bros]].'' Unfortunately, he fails before even pressing the Start button.
* ''[[Metroid]]'' players seem to love self-imposed challenges. ''Super Metroid'' in particular seems to attract them besides the traditional [[Speed Run|Speedruns]], [[Minimalist Run|low-percentage runs]] and [[Hundred-Percent Completion|100% runs]], there's also runs where you don't collect some items usually required to progress, morphball-runs (only get out of morphball when it's absolutely required), and ofcourse the NBMB-run (no bosses/minibosses), where you see how high percentage of items you can get without killing any bosses ([http://tasvideos.org/1139M.html it's possible] by exploiting sequence-breaking bugs in the game). Here are a few popular, obscenely hard challenges:
** The original ''Metroid'' without beating the minibosses. You get into Tourian by freezing an enemy. Then the Metroids kill you a whole damn lot.
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** Any of the ''Prime'' games on Hard with the minimum collection rate. (For instance, the current minimum for ''Prime 3'' is 22%.) Hard mode in these games is murderous; without your ''stuff'', it's strictly for the hardest of the hardcore.
** ''Zero Mission'' is the first (and to date, only) Metroid game that was designed with self-imposed challenges in mind. 15% item completion and a finish time of under 2 hours is required for the best ending, but the item completion can go as low as 9% (10% on hard), and the time to well under an hour.
* A fairly common one in the ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]]'' classic and ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]'' series is to defeat all the robot masters or mavericks using only your arm cannon, without using an [[Emergency Energy Tank]]. For extra challenge, use no charge shot and battle all the bosses and Wily/Sigma fights in the castle levels in this fashion as well. For the truly determined, try taking no damage at all. Exceptions must be made for those bosses who are only vulnerable to a specific weapon. Difficulty can vary wildly between games, from "Slightly more challenging but fun," to "Borderline impossible."
** As an example of "Borderline impossible", let's player [http://www.youtube.com/user/HideofBeast HideofBeast] has done a minimalist, no damage speed-run of Mega Man X4-6 on Extreme mode. The X6 run in particular looks so painful to pull off that just watching it could be considered a masochistic activity.
** ''Powered Up'', the [[Video Game Remake|remake]] of the first game, acknowledged the "arm cannon only" variant; defeating a Robot Master with just your arm cannon will unlock them as a playable character.
** Youtube user [http://www.youtube.com/user/RoahmMythril RoahmMythril] has actually finished every Robot Master stage in the main Mega Man series, ''Mega Man & Bass'', ''Mega Man Powered Up'' and the Gameboy games without taking damage, using only the uncharged arm cannon as far as possible.
** ''[[Mega Man (Videovideo Gamegame)|Mega Man]] 9'' and ''10'' both have an item called "The Book of Hairstyles" that can be bought for the ever-so-low price of 20 screws. This item removes Mega Man's helmet, revealing his hair. But wait. Without his helmet, Mega Man takes MORE damage, and if he loses even ONE life, his helmet comes back, thus requiring the item to be bought...AGAIN. If you're looking to obtain the achievement for beating all 8 bosses without your helmet, expect <s>your screw expenses to overflow</s> [[Incredibly Lame Pun|to be screwed over.]]
** Thanks to people who spent their time figuring this out, there's a not-so-obvious Mega Man X challenge: Beat the entire game without any upgrades from the get go. Unfortunately, since it's not possible to defeat Chill Penguin without running into the Boots upgrade (or it is, this editor hasn't figured that out), it's technically not from the get go. The password you need is: 4764 8488 7716. To make this even more fun, try without using boss weapons.
* The ''[[Kirby]]'' series leaves itself open for these. One example is to not use Kirby's copy abilities, either for an entire game or the duration of one boss battle. Another is to not take any damage while fighting a certain boss.
** A challenge among [[Let's Play|Let's Play'ers]] is the "Haddaway Challenge," thought up by Cloud8745. The LP'er must play ''[[Kirby]]'s Dreamland'' on Extra mode...while listening to [[Ear Worm|"What Is Love?"]] by Haddaway the whole way...and singing it on its first loop.
** ''Kirby's Dream Land'' features the Config Mode, which lets you adjust how many lives and how much health kirby starts out with. Combined with the above challenge, it is absolutely brutal. Good luck with the [[Boss Rush]] in the final stage.
* ''[[Iji (Video Game)|Iji]]'' has loads of this, some even implemented in-game. The [[Harder Than Hard|hardest]] difficulty, Ultimortal, limits you to only upgrading your health - meaning you'll have to stick with the first weapon, the shotgun, for the entire game until the final boss. The game encourages a [[Pacifist Run]], as morality plays a large part in the story. There's an optional timer for speedruns. Right before the final boss, if you've already beaten the game at least once, there's a computer that supercharges his shields, giving him ''loads'' of health.
** Not just loads of health; it kicks him up to 'full power', increasing the rate and power of his attacks, the number of projectiles and the size of their hitboxes, and so on. You are specifically warned that doing this ''is a very bad idea'' if you don't know what you're doing.
* Expert players of [[Spelunky]] have attempted many different flavours of this. There's the common stuff, like speedruns, no-damage runs, high-treasure runs, and so on. The game has some built-in optional challenges which unlock stuff, but these are generally considered extremely easy. That is to say nothing of the no treasure, no kills, no action button, no damage runs in [[Game Mod|Gates of Hell Spelunky]] that people have attempted.
* Try playing a [[Ratchet and Clank]] game without ever buying ammo from a vendor, i.e. ammo crates are your only method you have of reloading weapons. For added challenge, never use a max-level weapon, and play on the highest difficulty, if possible. Warning: In the games where ammo doesn't reset if you die, this becomes a major case of [[Unstable Equilibrium]], the more you die, the harder it gets. Doing this in Deadlocked on [[Nintendo Hard|Exterminator difficulty]] is next to impossible.
* ''[[Rolling Thunder]]'' has been completed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SEAHjYuEo4 without the machine gun].
* The flexible sequence of ''[[La -Mulana]]'' lends itself well to many self-imposed challenges, which range from the easy (no Scalesphere/Ice Cape? Pfff) to the murderous (''No Life Jewels?!'').
* ''[[Yoshis Story]]'' has an "official" self-imposed challenge, the Melon Run. This requires eating all 30 Melons hidden in a level. The game goes out of its way to encourage this behavior, and it is the way to get high scores on 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.
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== [[Puzzle Game]] ==
* ''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 (Video Game)|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].
** Western ''TGM'' players have also taken to playing one-handed.
* Many people have completed levels in ''[[World of Goo (Video Game)|World of Goo]]'' for trying to get either as much goo per level as possible, complete the level with least moves or the shortest time. Often it turns the gameplay into something completely different.
* FreeCell: The most obvious one is reducing the number of free cells, sometimes even to zero (69 out of the original Microsoft 32000 can be solved with no freecells). Some software implementations will have this as an option. Another is to make the biggest "flourish"<ref>cards automatically going to the home row at the end of the game</ref> you can. There are a few games where it is possible to set up a 52-card flourish, taking the home row from empty to full in one move flat.
* 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.
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* 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.
* ''[[War CraftWarcraft]] III'' allows a player to set the max HP on EVERYTHING they make (units, heroes, buildings, etc.) to be 50%, 60%, 70%, 80%, 90%, or the standard 100% before the match begins.
* 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.
 
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** Carbon Fiber Man: Never carry more than 100 stones. An extremely harsh equipment restriction, especially considering that there are five plot-necessary artifacts which each weigh 100s and each need to be brought to the bottom of the Caverns of Chaos, which you have to do while naked in this challenge (and without wearing a signet ring needed to peacefully pass a very nasty monster). Astonishingly, it has been completed at least once.
** Archmage: [http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Archmage Raise a character capable of casting Wish at will].
** Brimstone Man: Go straight to the Tower of Eternal Flames ([[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|guess what it's like]]), and don't exit until you have the [[Artifact of Doom|Chaos Orb of Elemental Fire]] in your possession. Extremely difficult, as most level 1 characters will be burned to ashes within several turns (along with their equipment), and the Tower contains many high-level monsters and a nasty boss. There has been one save-scummed completion, just to prove it's theoretically possible.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'''s [[Self-Imposed Challenge|Self Imposed Challenges]] come in four varieties: Self-imposed challenges where players abstain from some gameplay feature like not brewing any liquor, starting build-related challenges like starting with only unskilled dwarves, location-related challenges like building a fort in a place with an aquifer or goblin tower, and megaprojects, which are huge constructions undertaken only to satisfy the player's ego.
** There is a huge list on the [http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/Challenges df wiki].
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== [[Role Playing Game]] ==
* ''[[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 (Video Game)|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.
** Solo quests are also popular, and the truly hardcore will try both -- that is, soloing with a weak class. This is so hard that there are whole FAQs available for beating the game with one Thief, one White Mage, etc.
** Due to Sequence Breaking, it is possible to reach the Castle of Ordeals much earlier than thought possible, as well as getting the airship very early. This has led to the Level 11 Class Change, which is only possible by running from all battles and fighting only the mandatory fights before Class Changing.
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* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' arguably has the nastiest of these in the form of the "no junction" challenge, sometimes known as "No GF" challenge. No character can ever equip a GF at any time for any reason throughout the entire game. This cuts off access to every skill you get other than attacks and limit breaks, meaning you only get two characters capable of healing your party in any way, get no way to resurrect fallen characters, and no access to the stat boosting junction system which is required to get stats that are in any way passable. Despite all this, apparently somebody did this without resorting to the game's [[Game Breaker]]. It apparently took him 200 tries to beat the final boss.
* ''[[Star Ocean Till the End of Time]]'''s Battle Trophy system actively encourages this. You get in-game rewards for beating bosses in under a minute, for beating them without actually moving the player-controlled character, for beating the optional bosses with only one character, for a [[Low-Level Run]], for beating the entire game armed with the game's weakest weapon, et cetera.
* ''[[Star Ocean the Second Story (Video Game)|Star Ocean the Second Story]]'' has an option to turn the final boss into a God-like being with insane amounts of HP and spells capable of killing your entire party in a single hit. The game also provides a dungeon specifically designed to help train your party to a high enough level so that this battle won't be ''completely'' impossible. But, even at level 255-highest possible level one can achieve-this battle is ridiculously hard.
** Defeating Unlimited Indalecio is less a matter of level grinding to 255, and more a matter of skill and knowing [[Game Breaker|Game Breaking]] strategies you can use to bring him to his knees. One effective but somewhat unorthodox strategy requires '''not''' using Rena, the best healer in the game, because she can't use Bloody Armor (which grants invincibility at the cost of constantly draining your HP). Instead, use Opera or Noel and have them use full-party heals as necessary. The fight is still pretty tough though because Indalecio flies all over the battlefield while spamming spells and you have to watch everyone's HP so nobody gets eaten by their armor.
** Unlimited Indalecio is widely regarded as one of the most difficult bosses in any RPG ever made; add in a higher difficulty level ("Universe" mode) where all enemies' strength, defense, blocking ability and health is doubled for a new level of controller-meets-wall. And that's with a full party of mini-gods armed with their best moves and [[Infinity+1 Sword|ultimate weapons]].
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** This is easier than it sounds. Hand-To-Hand has some surprising bonuses that other weapons don't, spells can make one very resistant to all types of damage, and not wearing armor makes you practically undetectable when using stealth. In fact, the Monk character class basically revolves around this challenge.
*** There's an additional 'Live Off The Land' challenge, begun by ''[[Morrowind]]'' players, that requires leaving ''all'' possessions and gold in town, traveling on foot, and surviving missions only with what the player comes across. A monk/alchemist build has the most success at making the use of any possible scavengings and loot. This challenge is also doable in Oblivion, but without unarmed skill the player needs to rely on acrobatics, athletics, and arcade reflexes. Also, it's permissible to use alchemy equipment only if left where it's found; looting it means that it has to be left in town, and inaccessible for future adventures.
*** Quite possible in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', when using the 'paralysing palm' perk and V.A.T.S ([[Fun Withwith Acronyms|vault assisted targeting system]]).
** A blogger named Christopher Livingston decided to play ''[[Oblivion]]'' as a [[Non-Player Character]], and [http://livinginoblivion.wordpress.com wrote about it here.] ''PC Gamer'' magazine later hired him to give ''[[Skyrim]]'' the same treatment ([http://www.pcgamer.com/author/clivingston/ look here]).
* ''[[Fable]]'' allows you to bet your money for one or more "boasts" before quests, which include a mix of standard challenges (such as wearing no armor or [[Pacifist Run|killing no enemies]]) and quest-specific ones (such as [[Escort Mission|perfectly defending all civilians]]). Following them earns you extra cash, while breaking them forfeits the bet.
* In ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'', the player can adjust his/her level as preferred; the lower the level used, the better the drops and experience.
** On top of that, one can get a 100% completion rating from collecting everything that is to be collected, and defeating all the enemies. Though, it has no bearing on your game, other than showing off your game card to someone over wireless connection. Even the noise reports detail all the item drops, collecting them will add a star, which has no effect, except to inform you what it drops, and make it look pretty in the report. You can even fight any of your previous bosses too, on any level and difficulty you're on, and even compete in a boss rush, and fight an absolutely [[Nintendo Hard]] boss.
** Finally, there is the ability to finish the game with only your starting weapon (a badge with the ability of pyrokinesis), no clothes to give stat boosts, and no food eating to increase attack power and defense. The game must be played on the hardest difficulty level available at each stage of the game on level 1, and the 'Retry on Easy' feature for bosses is not allowed.
* Play the Later [[Shin Megami Tensei]] games that have a demonic compendium, but do not use the compendium. Or do a Nuzlocke run of the game.
* In the first twp ''[[SaGa]]'' games, using a horribly unbalanced party. Probably the most infamous is four monsters. In the first game, you can simply choose to not recruit anyone, making the [[Solo Character Run]] challenge possible.
* ''[[Romancing Sa GaSaGa]]''; After completing the game once, you are given the option the next time when you fight the final boss; to power him up using the [[Cosmic Keystone]] set you have collected; He becomes more powerful, and hits multiple times in one turn. However, the ultimate challenge of this is to offer the entire [[Cosmic Keystone]] set to him (10 to be precise). Five and Below means only his HP will increase while beyond Five means his stats will also increase along with HP.
** This can become even more challenging by adding on a one-character only restriction. The fight reaches near [[Serial Escalation]] status. Another popular one is to take on his elder siblings Shirach and Death mano-e-mano both of which can be challenging even with a full party.
** Try and defeat [[That One Boss]] Ewei without Multi Hit techs, that is a real challenge in itself as he regains his meat shields every 2nd turn after both are defeated; said meat shields also protect Ewei from damage. Ewei also uses a Hit All magic spell and he can recover his own HP; and has a magic shield applied at the very start of battle; minimizing the damage dealt to him.
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Cant use Fossils, Game corners, or drugs (PP Up, Rare Candy, etc) }}
** One monotype challenge is now apparently known as the 'Youngster Joey' challenge. Get through the Elite Four with only a Rattata.
* Due to the way the level up system works, it's possible to go through ''[[Boktai (Video Game)|Lunar Knights]]'' without any status boosts. This is especially amusing when you can be at level 99 with stats of 1 in everything.
* Having all characters be the same job is a popular one for ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|Final Fantasy V]]'', and pretty much all of the games that have a job system.
** Especially having them all remain with the beginning job, which typically doesn't gain new abilities.
* ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' has an in-game list of challenges, most of which can only be completed in New Game + mode. These range from using a specific weapon type thousands of times, to finishing the game in less than 10 hours, to doing each block puzzle in record time, to completing the bestiary, to getting the ultimate sword from one enemy in one room of a mapless dungeon, to playing the whole game without saving.
* ''[[Contact (Videovideo Gamegame)|Contact]]'' can be made so much more fun by limiting yourself to using only one costume and one type of weapon. Since the game only forces you to use other suits/weapons once (Aegis), there really isn't anything stopping you from doing this. A further challenge could be to use the costumes and weapons not designed for battle. Literal [[Lethal Chef]], anyone?
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'': The Critical Mode ([[Nintendo Hard]]) Lvl. 1 Challenge with NO DAMAGE for scripted fights, boss fights and Data battles (''more'' [[Nintendo Hard]]) from KHIIFM+.
** Enter [http://www.youtube.com/user/Bizkit047 Bizkit047], who meets the above description and has ''more restrictions'' for several of these fights.
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** Scoring high in the games itself is a [[Self-Imposed Challenge]]. Scoring high in ''[[Touhou]]'' involves making things as dangerous as possible: grazing thousands of bullets, often using your bombs to clear away bullets, then ''suiciding'' to reset your bomb count and get even more points. A compendium of [http://touhouwiki.net/wiki/High_scores world records can be found at TouhouWiki.] If you download the replays on the page, you will be ''astounded'' at the challenges the players put themselves through. The world-record ''Subterranean Animism'' replay by "yukarin" is particularly notable, getting very close to maxing out the graze counter at ''97,585 grazes.''
* [[Giga Wing]] is infamous for its [[Pinball Scoring|ridiculously inflated scores]]. Some players play just the opposite of the way it was meant to be played; by aiming for the lowest score possible, or even not scoring at all for as long as possible. The latter is essentially a [[Pacifist Run]] on steroids; you get awarded points for having bombs at the end of a stage.
** 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 (Video Game)|Mars Matrix]]''.
 
== [[Simulation Game]] ==
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** 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.
** In general, these kinds of challenges are fairly common in the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' Series in general, due to the fact that many unlockables can only be obtained by beating the game as quickly as possible.
* Beat ''[[Dead Space (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dead Space]]'' without ever touching a workbench. Not hard enough? Try beating ''[[Dead Space 2 (Video Game)|Dead Space 2]]'' without ever touching a workbench...on Hardcore.
 
== [[Turn -Based Strategy]] ==
* ''[[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 [[Game FAQs]] 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.
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* The ''[[Jagged Alliance]]'' series is fairly open ended, and lets players choose their own method. Most go with the 'get money, buy more guns, hire more mercenaries' approach, but some (more masochist) players will make a drive for the final city with one team, or even with a single soldier. There was even one who attempted to finish the game by sneaking and only using a knife, which can be tricky later on against the hordes of machine-gun-wielding commandos and tanks...
* Even the ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games are not exempt. Examples: no-upgrade challenges, no pilot improvement (in those games that have it) and for the particularly sadistic, using only a small group of units when not forced to field others, usually from a certain series, such as only using Gundams, only using the ATX team, or only using Tekkamen.
** Using only [[Tekkaman Blade (Anime)|Tekkamen]] doesn't seem too hard, given that they're all ridiculous [[Game Breaker|Game Breakers]].
** The "True to the Show" Challenge forbids you from deploying anyone who was not present in the episodes the scenario is based on and requires that characters only attack enemies from their series ([[Mazinger Z|Koji Kabuto]] is only allowed to fight Dr. Hell's Mechabeasts, for example). You must also finish bosses using the attack that killed them or forced their retreat in the show (for example, [[G Gundam|you must kill Gentle Chapman with George and Chibodee's Rose Magnum Hurricane]]). Can be quite tricky, seeing as some series only contribute [[One-Man Army|one unit]].
* In the original ''[[Shining Force]]'', it is possible, by making use of a glitch, to [[Sequence Breaking|skip the first set of characters who are supposed to join your party.]] Do that, and also skip every single other non-mandatory character, and you'll end up just shy of a full party of 12 at the end of the game. It's a fun little challenge -- not excruciatingly difficult, but hard enough to be interesting. There's an FAQ for this challenge on GameFAQs, though it mistakenly lists Diane as mandatory.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* [http://xkcd.com/724/ This] ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|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.
 
{{reflist}}
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