Y Nouveau is a difficulty hack of Pokemon Y, built primarily for Hardcore Nuzlocking. This is intended to be a challenging experience, meant to push you to develop clever strategies and steer maniacally. The game has been massively enhanced, both for balancing and quality of life.


I thoroughly hope you enjoy the game, and if you'd like to join the community, chat with other players, and flame the dev, pop on into the YN Discord by clicking the icon in the upper-right of the site.


The Y Nouveau Website is actively under development. If you encounter a page that is Under Construction or In Progress, you can find the information you're looking for in the fallback YN Google Sheet, linked in the upper-right of the site.

ORAS Megas

Returning from Ancestral X, Mega Pokemon available only in Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire are available in Y Nouveau! Take your favorites into battle!

Mega Rayquaza is available - Delta Stream, Primal Kyogre, and Primal Groudon are not.

Unfortunately, Mega Camerupt, Mega Sableye, and Mega Steelix are disabled due to graphical restrictions yet to be overcome.

Level Caps

Never before seen, Y Nouveau features built-in Level Caps!


Choose your own difficulty, from Strict Caps to removing the Level Caps entirely! Just open up the Settings Menu to adjust the value to your liking!

Handcrafted Trainers

Every Trainer has been constructed from the ground up, with difficult trainers utilizing items and synergistic abilities meant to test your mettle!

Fully Custom AI

Expanding on the AI developed in Ancestral X, Y Nouveau now offers a fully deterministic AI, for both Battle AI and Switch AI.

Pokemon Rebalancing

Every single Pokemon has been individually evaluated, and have been entirely overhauled to ensure they are viable. Additionally, you'll find that evolutions have been stretched out, giving you more time to interact with the rarely used middle stage Pokemon! Changes for each Pokemon include:

  • Stats & Types Changes
  • Ability Changes
  • Move List Changes
  • Evolution Method Changes

New Abilities

For the first time ever, Y Nouveau reworks base game Abilities, pulls Abilities from Gen 7+ into the game, and introduces brand new Custom Abilities to Kalos!

New Moves

Expanded from Ancestral X, all Moves have been evaluated and select ones have been buffed or nerfed. Additionally, a series of Moves from Gen 7+ have been introduced to the game, as well as a number of Custom Moves to fill in gaps where certain types + category combinations are vacant.

New Items & QoL

Brand new Items have been added to Y Nouveau, expanding the capabilities for your Pokemon in battle, and for your ease of play. Battle Items from Gen 7+ make their appearance, as well as a large list of items that offer QoL:

  • Mobile PC - Change Your Party!
  • Candy Pouch - Boost to Level Cap!
  • Ability Capsules & Patches, Nature Mints, and Bottle Caps
  • And many more!

New Battle Mechanics

The mechanics within Battles themselves have been shaken up! Stat Ranks scale differently, Weathers have been buffed and nerfed, and new Terrains have been introduced!