Two-player Pokémon Soul Link Nuzlocke automation. No spreadsheets, no honour system.
Every patched game boots into its own SoulLink title screen, drawn in that game's logo style.
A Soul Link Nuzlocke is two players, two copies of the same game, and one rule: the first Pokémon you each catch in an area become a pair. If one of them dies, so does the other.
SLink plays that rule for you, live, inside both games. Your first catches in an area are paired the moment both land. When one Pokémon faints, its partner faints in the other game, mid-battle if need be. Each cartridge gets a companion patch that puts SoulLink into the game itself: its own title screen, a SLINK page in the START menu, trades between linked partners, and, in Gold, Silver and Crystal, calls from your partner on the Pokégear. A shared board and stream overlays keep score, so nobody has to.
Both games run in BizHawk. Each emulator runs a small Lua client that reports to a Python server, which enforces the rules and serves the web pages.
Open the START menu and there's a SLINK entry. It shows your pairs, badges and dead zones, and on Gen 3 every linked pair with live HP and status, without leaving the game or alt-tabbing to a browser.
- Linked Pokémon can be traded through the game's own trade, at the Cable Club receptionist on Gen 1 and Gen 2, or with a trader in any Pokémon Center on Gen 3, where the real trade animation plays on both screens and trade evolutions happen. You can only trade a Pokémon for its own partner.
- In Gold, Silver and Crystal your partner rings your Pokégear when a pair links, an area closes or a Pokémon falls. With Native Sounds on, those moments also play through the game's own sound engine.
- With Explode Mode on, a partner's death mid-battle makes your Pokémon use Explosion.
- With Rival Swap on, your rival shows up with your partner's actual team.
- On Radical Red, the Battle Calc shows how hard the highlighted move hits.
The patch version sits on the Continue screen, so you can tell at a glance whether both players are on the same build.
| Rule | What happens |
|---|---|
| One encounter per area | Each player's first catch in an area is linked to the other player's first catch there. |
| Missed encounter | If either player fails to catch in an area, it's closed for both. |
| Shared faints | When one Pokémon faints, SLink faints its partner in the other game. |
| Linked teams | Both halves of a pair go in the party together, or in the PC together. |
| Memorial | Fallen pairs are moved to a memorial box once both games are somewhere safe. |
| When it starts | The rules switch on once you have Poké Balls. |
Pick these when you create a run. The form greys out anything the chosen game can't do and says why.
| Option | What it does | Games |
|---|---|---|
| Species, Gender, Type Clause | Refuse a link when both Pokémon share an evolution family, a gender, or a type. | All (no Gender Clause on Gen 1) |
| Explode Mode | When your partner's Pokémon dies, yours is forced to use Explosion. | All except Emerald Expansion |
| Rival Swap | Rival battles use your partner's real team instead of the usual one. | Gen 1, pureRGB, Gen 2, Radical Red |
| Native Sounds | Run events play sounds through the game itself. | Patched games |
| Phone Calls | Your partner rings your Pokégear when a pair links, an area closes or a Pokémon falls. | Gold, Silver, Crystal |
| Battle Calc | Shows the damage of the highlighted move in battle. | Radical Red |
You need Python 3.11+, BizHawk 2.11+ (Gen 2 also runs on 2.9+), and your own copy of each game. No ROMs are included.
Install the requirements and start the Run Manager:
pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m server.manager --host 0.0.0.0Then open http://localhost:8090/.
- Create a run. Name it, pick the game family and the options you want. Where the game supports it, you can also have the Manager randomize the cartridges.
- Download each player's setup. On the run page, open Launchers and download the Player A and Player B setup ZIPs, plus each player's prepared cartridge.
- Connect. Each player unzips their setup, opens the cartridge in BizHawk and loads their save, then opens the launcher in the Lua Console.
- Play. Your first catches in the same area form a pair.
For a player on another machine, set Players connect to under Launchers to an address they can reach, then download their setup again.
Each run gets its own board, on port 8081 and up. Port 8080 is only used when you start a single run by hand with python -m server.server.
Both players pick from the same family. Red links with Blue, for example, and a Radical Red run is Radical Red on both sides.
| Family | Randomizer |
|---|---|
| Red, Blue, Yellow | Yes |
| PureRed, PureBlue, PureGreen (pureRGB) | Yes |
| Gold, Silver, Crystal | No |
| FireRed, LeafGreen | Yes |
| Emerald | Yes |
| Radical Red 4.1 | No |
| Emerald Expansion | No |
The randomizer is your own copy of Universal Pokémon Randomizer ZX. Both cartridges get the same settings and different seeds.
SLink is tested in BizHawk, but not every game has been played start to finish. Gen 4 and Gen 5 support is experimental and isn't offered in the Manager yet.
Every game in the list except Yellow and the Emerald Expansion needs the SLink companion patch, and a clean cartridge of those games won't connect. The Manager patches each cartridge it prepares, so you only need to think about it if you bring your own. In that case, use /patcher on the Manager.
More in the companion patch guide.
Each player gets a card showing their area, their lead or current battle, and HP and moves. In battle, it also previews how much damage each move will do. Below that, pairs are sorted into in party, waiting for a partner, boxed and fallen. The event log runs down the side.
If the server stops answering, the board says "Connection lost" instead of showing old numbers. If an in-game trade ends in a state SLink can't settle on its own, a banner on the board lets you settle it.
The timeline tells the run in order: every pair formed, every death, dead zone and burial, plus the areas that are still open.
The calculator has a SLink panel with both players' live parties, so you can check a matchup without typing your team in. On Gen 3 runs, the Prep tab lists upcoming key trainers, and you can open any of their Pokémon straight in the calculator.
Broadcast lists every overlay with its URL and recommended size, ready to add to OBS as a browser source. There are overlays for each party, linked pairs, battles, badges, the event feed, area and encounter trackers, death and attempt counters, and the memorial.
The same page sets up OBS scene switching on run events and a Twitch bot that answers !partner, !rip and !runstats. Those need a few extra packages:
pip install "twitchio>=3.0" "simpleobsws>=1.4" psutil- Companion patch guide: which games need it and how to patch your own cartridge.
- Technical reference: server options, the protocol and how SLink works inside.
SLink is MIT licensed. The bundled calculator keeps its upstream MIT licence, and the Universal Pokémon Randomizer ZX patches are GPL-3.0. See NOTICE.md for details.
No ROMs or savestates are distributed here.
Built with BizHawk, the Smogon damage calculator, and research from the pret disassemblies.
Pokémon is a trademark of Nintendo, Creatures Inc. and GAME FREAK Inc. This is an unaffiliated fan tool.