Ironknight Challenge Rules

Ironknight is a challenge I came up with on my second playthrough of the game, inspired by Pokemon Nuzlockes and the Ironman challenge from Fire Emblem, in which if a character falls in battle, they are irreversibly dead forever.

Right, so how's this challenge work?
This challenge must be done with fresh data. You don't have to erase your whole save data, but the data for the character you wish to use must be wiped before you start.

If you're familiar with other challenges such as Nuzlockes or Super Kaizo Ironmon, you already know what this means. But for the unfamiliar:

When your dude falls in battle/dies, he is dead forever and cannot be revived.

In this picture, I stood there and let myself be kiled by a Conehead. Now that I have run out of health and died, the run is over, and I must reset Red Knight's character data again.
Obviously, starting out fresh means you go back to your default weapon (whatever it is for your character) and default animal orb (none).
Throughout the run, any weapons and animals you find MUST BE PICKED UP and replace the one you already had. No reverting. Tough luck, little buddy.
So, if you see a sword with terrible stats compared to the chicken you've been batting enemies with, that's too bad, and you have to pick it up.
Yes, you can use Shovel prior to finding it in the Desert.
I will keep adding to this section as people ask more questions I haven't yet clarified.

Beat it first try? Too easy for you? Here are some suggestions to make your one-life worse.
Reset your entire save data and turn it into a real Nuzlocke by making it so that when a character dies, not only are they dead forever but they're extra-dead and cannot be used again. Like, at all

To explain, fresh save data leaves you with only the main four cast, + any DLC characters you own. If I lose a run as Green Knight, that only leaves me with the other three to use before the run is truly joever. And when they die, well.. haha... I would advise doing arenas and other means to unlock more characters like Gray Knight and Barbarian.
You probably used healing potions in your Ironknight run, and that's totally fine. But NOT ANYMORE.
No more buying healing potions from stores, and using them when you're about to get destroyed. Only fruit and other food dropped from enemies, the environment, and animal orbs.
ngl this should probably be a main rule for difficulty
Literally what it says on the tin. Animal orbs cannot be utilised in any way.