FireRed hack: Pokemon Neon Blue V2.5E

[mcferaligatr]

Pokemon Neon Blue

Story

You start out in a town named Eon Town, in a brand new region. Upon leaving your room, your sibling tells you that the professor is eagerly waiting for you to come to the lab, so that you can obtain your first pokemon.
On your way to become the best trainer, you'll face two team rocket grunts which will interfere with your plans, and you will have to stop them in their tracks multiple times thorough the story. There are also, apart from the players sibling, many rivals such as May, Brendan (friendly rivals), and Denzel (the not so friendly rival).
Most hints that will help the player progress thorough the game are given by prof. Cornel, (text reading is important).
Hm's are needed for certain parts of the game, and their location is also explained by NPC's, some signs, etc.

Features

• A brand new region with lots of new maps, events that differ from the original games.
• Some custom palettes (some ow tiles, ), custom ow sprite, backsprite (for male player only), new town map. (making these is way harder than it seems).
• Some custom added ASM routines (releasing a pokemon - not using the pc, The IV display on the stat menu).
• Lots of pokemon available, including all legendary pokemon from gen1 to gen3 which can be obtained with various methods (some before the elite 4, some with certain requirements, some randomly by chance, etc...)
• New music tracks (mostly battle tracks)
• A place after the elite 4 where you can battle against one of the 19 NPC's (the choice of the NPC is random, and every NPC there was previously encountered/the player interacted with the NPC) - called the CK Frontier (although that's the only feature as of now).
• All 8 badges obtainable, and the elite 4 and the champion events are available.

Screenshots

Screenshots include many things like town map preview, showcase of edited palettes & ow + sprite edits, some events and certain pokemon encounters.

The region - maps put together:

Spoiler:

[IMG]https://www.dropbox.com/s/pu2gdrzco3911i4/Untitled2.jpg?raw=1[/IMG]

HM locations and requirements to obtain them:

Spoiler:

- HM 01 - Cut - Star Pathway, a man there is selling the HM. The player needs to defeat Denzel in Veotron route before being able to get to Star Pathway.
- HM 02 - Fly - Bloue Metropolis's gym - Player has to defeat Blake to obtain it.
- HM 03 - Surf - Obtainable after defeating Brendan in Chaos Ruins.
- HM 04 - Strength - Unknown Hill (South, located after some cut trees) - Player has to defeat team rocket and commando in Fantasy Metropolis first.
- HM 05 - Flash - Champ Makers - Given to player by a youngster before entering Dim Cave.
- HM 06 - Rock Smash - Dim cave - Located at the very end of the cave - Player has to defeat some hikers in order to be able to access it.
- HM 07 - Waterfall (optional) - Voxel Town (North, grassy area) - No requirements, player just needs to access this city and obtain it. Used for accessing a cave in Sylectro Lane in which a legendary pokemon resides.

Some tips (to not get lost in the game):

Spoiler:

- After defeating Brendan in Chaos Ruins, backtracking east is not possible. Player should catch a water type pokemon in Chaos Ruins, teach it surf and then advance further north. In case the player runs out of pokeballs, and has no water type with themselves to be able to cross the water pond east of Veotron, an old man there can teleport you to Neonox City.

- It is recommended to catch a pokemon that can learn cut (Ratatta, Cubone, Sentret) and a pokemon that can learn fly (Spearow, Pidgey, Hoothoot) before entering Bloue Metropolis, so that you don't have to backtrack a lot to catch one of the pokemon to be the HM user.

- Healing nurses that are not in poke centers won't set your healing place in that location, they're there just in case you really need healing.

- When arriving in Louren Town and going to Unknown Hill, you'll need goggles to enter the area. The first time you enter Unknown hill , an NPC will apprear in Louren which will give you the goggles so you can enter Unknown Hill.

- Toy Meowth is located north - east of Greenleaf Route.

- Silph Scope can be found north - east of Champ Makers.

- After finding Prof's parcel in Aquares Island, head to Voxel City east from Champ Makers.

- Before entering Fantasy Metropolis, you need a gym badge from Chronos Downtown.

- When arriving in Fantasy Metropolis, defeat team rocket grunts that are in front of the gym, then challenge Commando (gym leader).

- After challenging Commando, head to Unknown Hill to get HM Strength, then head to Misty Valley (west of Louren Town).

- After defeating team rocket grunts in Misty Valley, fly to Chronos Downtown and proceed left, Denzel waits there.

- Denzel then tells you to go to Lightstone Route (East of Florrest Village, talk to Kabuto so it moves!), you can't enter Lightstone Route north of Voxel Town.

- After defeating Denzel, return to Chronos and keep going left to Warain Waterpath.

- You should battle Brocc there, (south of Warain Waterpath) before proceeding left to Edeon Plateau.

- Once you get to Edeon plateau the gameplay should be a tad bit more clear, however, HM Cut, HM Strength and HM Rock smash are needed to pass through Edeon Plateau.

Gym completion order & tips (only two are optional in order and no gym leader uses a monotype team):

Spoiler:

- Dull Village, gym leader Kazz.
- Cavern Road, gym leader Eri.
- Bloue Metropolis, gym leader Blake.
- Elite Satelite/Louren Town, gym leader Zedd (for Elite Satelite).
- Louren Town/Elite Satelite, gym leader Heidi (for Louren Town).
- Chronos Downtown, gym leader Seymour.
- Fantasy Metropolis, gym leader Commando.
- Glauxy Town - gym leader Nathalia.

Secrets:

Spoiler:

- All gen 1 - gen 3 starter pokemon are obtainable, even the Johto starters after completing the league. All of them will be available at level 1, either in wild or given to player.

- All "rare" pokemon will appear as level 1 on routes. They have a 1% chance of appearing.

- All legendary pokemon gen 1 - gen 3 are available too, but to get most of them player has to access places that are normally not needed to proceed through the game properly.

Starter pokemon locations:

Spoiler:

- Treecko: Chaos Ruins grass area.
- Torchic: Inside Unknown Hill.
- Mudkip: Surfing/Fishing in Dull Village
- Charmander: Louren Town grass area.
- Bulbasaur: Sylectro Lane grass area.
- Squirtle: Eon Town, trade a Feebas to the NPC in return for a Squirtle. (Feebas can be caught with a super rod in Eon Town).
- Totodile/Chikorita/Squirtle: Neo Route, south, grassy island. (After becoming the champion).

Non legendary pokemon locations (technically not available in the wild:)

Spoiler:

-Mr Mime, Scizor, Zangoose - Voxel Town - north area (grass next to the pond of water.)
- Cubone - Khian Village, encounter.
- Hitmonchan, Hitmonlee, Hitmontop - evolve Tyrogue from Champ Makers.
- Snorlax - Lightstone Route.
- Sudowoodo - weird tree in Chronos Downtown (south), requires Wailmer Pail which can also be found there (behind one building).
- Milotic - Safari Zone - surfing 1% - Feebas cannot evolve.
- Castform - pokeball in Water Route.
- Larvitar - Sylectro Cave.

Legendary pokemon locations

Spoiler:

- Articuno - appears when surfing south of Eon Town, if the player doesn't catch it or defeat it there, it will fly to Greenleaf Route. (Breeze Cave).
- Zapdos - Voltrex Plant.
- Moltres - Lavapit crater (located south of Neonox City).
- Mewtwo - Seaside Tunnel - after becoming the champion.
- Mew - talk to the rock north of Neonox City, then fly to Edeon and talk to the kid playing a gameboy, then fly to Grayder Town and find a single patch of grass. After some time, a shiny Ditto will appear. Once it appears, go to Chaos Ruins, and Mew will be there (south).
- Ho-Oh, Lugia - Hollow Granite - beat the game, then talk to the sailor Pete in Cloudy Route to schedule sightseeing in Hollow Granite.
- Celebi - Aquares Path - defeat a trainer at "The secret peak" and it will appear. (To get to this trainer, player must beat the game and go to Khian
Village. A strange rock will appear which will teleport you to a different area.)
- Suicune - Chaos Alteroute north east area - random chance of appearing every time the player enters the area, there is an NPC there who will tell you if Suicune appeared or not.
- Entei - Champ Makers north east area (on top of a "cave hill") - random chance of appearing every time the player enters the area, there is an NPC there who will tell you if Entei appeared or not.
- Raikou - Glauxy Town north area - random chance of appearing every time the player enters the area, there is an NPC there who will tell you if Raikou appeared or not.
- Latios/Latias - one of these appears in Enchanted Forest in Louren Town depending on the gender of the player. Game has to be beaten beforehand.
- Other Lati@s - Chronos Downtown - find a Wailmer Pail behind a building there, go to the tree south and water it. Battle Sudowoodo and interact with the sign that the tree was blocking. It will open up a panel and stairs in Chronos Downtown and you'll be able to find a new sign. Talk to the sign and there is a random chance of the other Lati appearing.
- Regirock - Moss Tomb in Unknown Hill. A new cave opening will appear once you enter the area with 3 nuggets in your party. (nuggets are scattered across the region.)
- Regice - Sylectro Lane's Icy Chamber. Requires waterfall which can be found north of Voxel Town (OW item).
- Registeel - Bloue Metropolis's Empty Cave. Requires a Scanner which can be found east of Eon Town.
- Groudon - Elemental Cave - left area.
- Kyogre - Elemental Cave - right area.
- Jirachi - if a Lati@s was caught/defeated in Enchanted Forest, go to Dull Village, east west and interact with a sign. Level 70 Jirachi will appear.
- Deoxys - XeoNeo area. Do a little puzzle there (cave), and when you reach the end, interact with the sign. Exit the XeoNeo Key and go north east and interact with the glowing objects. Deoxys will appear.
- Rayquaza - Raptor Tower Z in RX Facility 65. Game has to be finished beforehand, go south of Aquares Island, then left and enter the tower. Its residing at the very top of it.

Credits

• Of course, GameFreak and Nintendo for making the games in the first place
• Well, me, as every modification in this rom was made by me, although, I used tools from various sources that have immensely helped me while making this rom hack, and all credits go to the authors of said tools.
  
• Tools & resources used:
  
  - Advance Map
  - Sappy & Mid2Agb
  - Nameless sprite editor
  - Hopeless trainer editor
  - Unlz Gba
  - XSE script editor
  - Intro text editor
  - ASM compiler
  - Iv stat display screen on the summary menu
  - Opponent party generation ASM
  - Whiteout routine ASM
  - Complete item editor
  - Advanced palette editor
  - Pokemon intro cry editor
  - Nameless tilemap editor
  - (Hopefully all credits have been covered)
  - DS 64x64 sprite resource
  - Doesntknowhowtohack - IV stat display
  - G3HS for sprite position and sprite alterations
  - G3T
  - Advanced pokemon sprite editor (for almost all new sprites inserted)
  - Delta's NSE bookmarks - mainly for editing pokemon sprites in credits
  - Lunar IPS - for creating the patch file
  - TL's Quick Enhancer - for wild double battles, PSS, nature colored stats, BW repel system, running indoors, exp gain with a pokemon catch.

Bugs

• Although the likelyhood of bugs not existing in rom hacks is pretty low, I think that no major bugs exist here. Some movement permission errors or NPC dialogue issues/grammar errors are quite possible, though.
  
  Listed errors/bugs:
  - Some grammatical errors.
  - Occasional map/tile errors (tiles in wrong place)
  - Possible Npc's with no scripts assigned to them, causing a game freeze (though that shouldn't be happening).
  
  

  ---How to play the rom?---

  
  - Needed tools (IPS/UPS patcher, Lunar IPS for pc or Unipatcher for android are some of the most known tools for patching).
  - A clean fire red v1.0 rom (clean meaning that it wasn't patched before).
  - Downloaded IPS file of the game (its located in the attachment).
  
  - Patch the IPS file onto the clean Fire Red v1.0 rom and that's all.
  

Download

Download is in the attachment below.

Once again, I have just made some modifications to the base rom purely out of fun, and because I've enjoyed playing pokemon games. I do not own the game, and the game is not intended for sale. The purpose of the rom hack is to provide a new, unique experience for the players, with my vision of how a pokemon game looks like, with changed events and storyline.

Note: Most of the game's mechanics remain unchanged, such as the pokemon obtainable are from gen 1 to 3, battle engine is the same, etc. Changes made are mostly story, maps, scripts and graphics of the game.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

New version - 2.5X
- Since it was requested, I made a new version with physical special split and decided to add some more useful features along with it like:
- Wild double battles - (glitchy, seems that it skips the first turn sometimes.)
- Nature colored stats
- BW repel system
- Running indoors
- Experience gain with a caught pokemon
- Poison 1% survive in the overworld
- Fixed some move category types (for PSS)
- Fixed a random lvl 100 pokemon battle glitch
- Fixed a surfing ow disappearing after the Voxel town battle
- Fixed a quest skip (if the player lost against a wild pokemon after the battle with Seymour and went to Fantasy Metropolis)
- Elite Satelite slight map change

(This version is untested for bugs as it was the newest release. I decided to keep 2.5E along with 2.5X because not everyone prefers the physical special split, as it makes some pokemon less usable than before, while giving other pokemon more beneficial moves to use.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version update changelog:

Spoiler:

Edit: Uploaded a new patch that gets rid of the Khian Village "softlock" and added some fire type pokemon in Neonox City's Lavapit Crater.
- Added a small cave in Sylectro Lane with some rare encounters, fixed some tile errors in Mystal Forest.

Edit: 1.1v
- Fixed a glitch where if the player lost against prof. Cornel in Voxel Town, Denzel wouldn't teleport them back again.
- Added some more pokemon like: Porygon2, Golem, Snorunt, Glalie, Surskit, Masquerain, Girafarig in random places.
- Slight map changes in some areas.

Edit 1.2v
- Fixed a glitch where prof. Cornel wouldn't appear (the tri pass event).

Edit 1.21v
- Fixed a cut tree blocking Empty Cave (Bloue Metropolis).
- Changed some pokemon encounters in Chaos Ruins.

Edit 1.22v
- Fixed a bug where if the player walked south of Chaos Ruins after defeating Brendan, the game would freeze.
- Some slight pokemon encounters changes on some routes.

Edit 1.5v
- New sprites for female protagonist, prof. Cornel and Denzel (Intro, overworld and battle sprites).
- Fixed a glitch where Denzel wouldn't recognize whether or not you defeated Brendan and May at the league.
- Skipped rival naming.
- XY Champion theme added - (credits).

Here are some screenshots showcasing new sprites:

Edit 1.55v
- Fixed the town map icon sprite & palettes.

Edit 2.0v
- Fixed maps where the bike couldn't be used on.
- Some misc. movement permission issues & tiles fixed.
- Added a move tutor in Grayder Town (Mega Punch, Swords Dance, Mega Kick).
- Town map places update.

Edit 2.01v
- Water reflection palette of protagonists updated.

Edit 2.5v
- Added new pokemon sprites from gen 4.
- Added a cutscene after becoming the champion.
- Changed the final challenge at e4 after the player becomes the champion.
- Some wild pokemon modifications (Heracross, Slowking, Wurmple).
- Fixed obedience for Deoxys and Mew.
- Fixed the inability to use HM's from the party menu before getting certain badges.
- Moved the NPC in Eon Town near the entrace of Neo Route closer to the right.
- Fixed pokemon sprites in credits
- Added some more NPC's (Eon Town, CK Frontier)
- Changed the game title in credits.
- Removed duplicate super rod item in Glauxy Town.
- Changed the number of obtained Paralyze Heals in Unknown Hill.

Edit 2.50V
- Fixed the softlock in Breeze Cave (current tiles).
- Some slight encounter changes.
- Some slight map alterations.
- Some script corrections (about two npcs, mostly grammar).
- Added a pc in CK Corp.
- Deleted some leftover text in Sylectro Town's pokecenter.

Edit 2.55V
- Some map tile changes.
- Fixed a part in Champ Makers where the player could fly after defeating the bikers, and not activating a script that triggers the parcel event.

Edit 2.5A
- Changed the class of the final champion from "pkmn trainer" to "champion".
- Slightly altered Cornel's OW sprite.
- Prevented the player from obtaining Ho-Oh and Lugia before becoming the champion.

Edit 2.5B
- Pokedex location updates - most pokemon obtainable in the wild will have their location shown on the pokedex (when the specie is registered.)
- New pokedex colours/palette.
- Small various tweaks (mostly map and some scripts).

Some pictures showcasing the new look of the pokedex: (old)

Edit 2.5C
- Some tiles fixed in Enchanted Forest.
- Forgot to change flight flag for Mytal Forest on the town map, which is fixed now.

Edit 2.5D
- Fixed a critical bug where the player wouldn't be able to go left to Sylectro Town from Dull Village after entering Mystal Forest.
- Fixed some movement permission errors in Sylectro Lane.
- Elite Satelite map position & "map picture" fixed.
- Fantasy Metropolis map slightly changed.
- Eon Town some movement permission errors fixed.
- Added a PokeMart in Glauxy Town.
- Added two TM teachers - (one in Sylectro Town and another one in Florrest Village).
- Made TM's reusable.
- Fixed a tile error in Veotron Route.
- Fixed the Mellto City fame checker script text.
- Removed the VS Seeker as it was not working as intended.
- Fixed tile errors in Mellto City.
- Added a ferry boat in Neo Route (trip to a shiny island to MT. Glimmer after obtaining HM Surf. The island is full of shiny pokemon).
- Slight map change in Neo Route.
- Pokedex design is now "light mode", because while scrolling through the old pokedex it would flash a lot due to contrast.
- Fixed the CK Frontier map name error.
- Changed the layout of Sylectro Cave.
- Removed Larvitar from wild encounters and added it as a "gift" pokemon in Sylectro Cave.

Edit 2.5E
- Fixed a tile glitch error while entering Eon Town from Neo Route.
- Updated the version name (because V2.5 was updated frequently.)
- Fixed a map name error.
- Added a random battle trainer in CK Frontier. (all 386 pokemon are random, as well as the number of pokemon in the opponents party.)

(Newest)
- Added nature colored stats
- Added poison surviving at 1% HP
- Catch exp gain
- New repel system
- Fixed a lvl 100 pokemon battle glitch
- Fixed a surfing ow disappearing after the Voxel town battle
- Fixed a quest skip (if the player lost against a wild pokemon after the battle with Seymour and went to Fantasy Metropolis)
- Elite Satelite slight map change

 

[Avara]

I always like to see a custom region! Best of luck with this :)

 

[Inner Rhymes]

Yoooo! This looks nice! Any idea on how long the release is?

 

[mcferaligatr]

I always like to see a custom region! Best of luck with this :)

Thanks, I worked on this for quite some time, rom hacking definitely requires a lot of time.

Yoooo! This looks nice! Any idea on how long the release is?

I'm not really sure if this is what was asked, but the current game features 8 gyms, elite 4, and the champion. Which technically means that the game is fully playable from the starting town all the way to the champion. Hopefully, the patch in the attachments works properly.

The game in the current state is we could say "finished", as it contains what I'd previously said, all legendaries are obtainable , etc. I however thought about adding something to the "CK Frontier" that's in the game (not to be confused with a froniter like the one from Emerald as my only features about 20 opponents, and when you get to the room you can battle one of them randomly, their teams however, are fixed.)

So, if I ended up changing the game, I'd put the main focus on that "frontier" to add more content, and probably fix the levels of opponents because while I was playtesting I didn't really pay attention to the trainer battles to make sure that the game was without any major bugs. - With this I mean to balance the levels of the trainers, because in my opinion, the game can be quite easy at times (Although I only picked

Spoiler:

Totodile

as my starter each time I played the game).

 

[aicaimze]

aight it was fun but i guess this is where my playthrough ends? lmao https://i.imgur.com/5WzMaOK.png

 

[mcferaligatr]

aight it was fun but i guess this is where my playthrough ends? lmao https://i.imgur.com/5WzMaOK.png

Thanks for the input, should be fixed now. I don't know how I managed to completely miss that lol.

 

[Knight1107]

Hi I just dropping by to say when are you releasing a download for this awesome rom hack? Can't wait to play it.

 

[C7XL]

Hi I just dropping by to say when are you releasing a download for this awesome rom hack? Can't wait to play it.

The patch is attached in the first post.

 

[BlazingDragon1234]

Where I could found the HM Cut? 😅

 

[mcferaligatr]

Where I could found the HM Cut? 😅

Hm Cut location:

Spoiler:

There is a man in Star Pathway, just slightly before those cut trees, and he is selling HM 01 - cut.

 

[BlazingDragon1234]

Thank you so much. :)

 

[Ers92]

How to go past Psyducks in Louren Town?

 

[mcferaligatr]

How to go past Psyducks in Louren Town?

Explanation is in the spoiler:

Spoiler:

To get past the Psyducks there, you have to defeat prof. Cornel in Voxel Town. So, before challenging the prof. there the gym will remain blocked by the Psyducks. You can head east of Louren and navigate to other Towns and then, prof. will call you and tell you to get to Voxel Town. Only then, after battling, the Psyducks will move. If you didn't do the Unknown Hill event yet, you can read the tips on game navigation in the first post about the goggles which could help.

 

[chrisleo123]

Hi is there a way to evolve pokemon that evolve through trade?

 

[Hermione Granger]

I would think this wouldn't be in the progressing hacks section since you can become champion.

I do hope you you can get the vs seeker working as intended, since it seems you are having issues.

 

[Ers92]

Explanation is in the spoiler:

Spoiler:

To get past the Psyducks there, you have to defeat prof. Cornel in Voxel Town. So, before challenging the prof. there the gym will remain blocked by the Psyducks. You can head east of Louren and navigate to other Towns and then, prof. will call you and tell you to get to Voxel Town. Only then, after battling, the Psyducks will move. If you didn't do the Unknown Hill event yet, you can read the tips on game navigation in the first post about the goggles which could help.

But Way to east is blocked by TR.

 

[mcferaligatr]

Hi is there a way to evolve pokemon that evolve through trade?

Trade evolving pokemon still evolve through trade only. I did make some of them obtainable in the wild, but not all of them like Porygon 2, Golem (I think).

I would think this wouldn't be in the progressing hacks section since you can become champion. I do hope you you can get the vs seeker working as intended, since it seems you are having issues.

I agree, now that I think about it, this would've fit better in the rom hack studio as the game can be completed. But as far as VS seeker is considered, it would take a real long time to redo all trainer battle scripts just to add the rematch option, and since I figured that out near the end of the game it ended up getting scrapped.

But Way to east is blocked by TR.

Okay, this seems like you didn't go to Unknown Hill first. Here's a little walkthrough:

Spoiler:

Once in Louren Town, enter Unkown Hill, and you'll get a message about needing goggles. Then, when returning to Louren, an NPC should appear. After talking to it, you'll receive those goggles, and should then head back to Unkown Hill. Once you do the event in the cave there, you can get past team rocket.

 

[Ers92]

Okay, this seems like you didn't go to Unknown Hill first. Here's a little walkthrough:

Spoiler:

Once in Louren Town, enter Unkown Hill, and you'll get a message about needing goggles. Then, when returning to Louren, an NPC should appear. After talking to it, you'll receive those goggles, and should then head back to Unkown Hill. Once you do the event in the cave there, you can get past team rocket.

I've got it but now I'm stopped by Old Man who wants a tea. Where I can find it?

 

[mcferaligatr]

I've got it but now I'm stopped by Old Man who wants a tea. Where I can find it?

Hints:

Spoiler:

You've entered Chronos Downtown, but before that you should go to Aquares Island and get the parcel that prof. told you about. Once you get the parcel, you go to Voxel Town and defeat prof. Cornel.

After that, you can either go to Elite Satelite or Louren Town and defeat the gym leaders, and once you do that you should then enter Chronos Downtown.

But, the gym leader in Louren Town gives you tea after winning the battle.

Also, if the ghost pokemon is blocking the path, then there is one item in Champ Makers which will reveal it and allow you to proceed further.

 

[Jayphlosion]

Where can I find the ruby to get the 8th gym badge?