A Pokémon Diamond player beat the entire game using a single Bidoof as their only Pokémon. The Pokémon franchise is known for inducing players to come up with challenges to kick up a game's difficulty up a notch or two. There are all kinds of additional challenges for the Pokémon games out there. A particularly popular example of these challenges is called a Nuzlocke run, in which, among other things, a player must remove any Pokémon that faints from their party permanently.
There is a rising sentiment in the Pokémon community that the games are getting less challenging, and, in many peoples' opinions, are too easy nowadays. Challenges like Nuzlockes have been the community's way of addressing that problem. The recent release of Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl has prompted fans of the originals to revisit them in anticipation of the new titles. Now that the remakes are out and proving to be mostly quite faithful to the original games, it's only a matter of time before more challenging runs of the new games start to become commonplace as well.
On November 25th Reddit user OdrumT posted a video showing them completing Pokémon Diamond with nothing but a level 100 Bidoof in their party. Not only did they use only that Pokémon for the entire run (not counting necessary HMs) they used the first Bidoof they came across, without hunting around for one with an optimal nature, and they also used no items other than held items. They also named everything in the game after Bidoof, including their character. Somewhat confusingly the player's character was named "Bidoof" and their Bidoof was named "Big Oof." Other noteworthy names from the run include their rival as "Bad Oof" and their HM users as "Leafdoof," "Wetdoof," "Buffdoof," and "Birdoof." Lastly, Dialga also got a special nickname of "Timedoof."
See the original post on Reddit here.
Pokémon Diamond is no Dark Souls, but to beat the game with nothing but a Bidoof is still a very impressive feat and would probably have been impossible or very close to impossible without the correct moveset. The moves that OdrumT used were Return, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, and Dig. With only four moves across an entire team of Pokémon, it would be impossible to cover all of one's bases in terms of move type, but the set this player went with did leave them with several tricks up their sleeve. With maxed out friendship, Return does excellent damage, Dig has the possibility of dodging important moves, and Ice Beam can take the opposing Pokémon out of the fight for a few turns. All things considered, despite the limitation of having only one Pokémon in the party, this moveset has a lot going for it.
Not many people would have the perseverance necessary to grind the same fights over and over until luck came out on their side, but luck alone would not be enough to beat Pokémon Diamond's gym leaders with only a Bidoof. Even luck and a strong moveset would not be enough on its own. A great deal of time, dedication, and skill must have been required to beat the game in such a challenging form, and doing so is a feat any gamer should be proud of.
Source: OdrumT/Reddit