Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 2.2.0)

Hey! Loving the hack so far. I'd like to ask: can you find a Pikachu with Surf? I'm curious.

Surf or Fly, yes. :) Eventually I want to give them custom balloon/surfboard sprites, based on the Unown letter routines.

Rangi said:

Surf or Fly, yes. :) Eventually I want to give them custom balloon/surfboard sprites, based on the Unown letter routines.

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That"s a fantastic idea! :3
I'm asking because I have been catching tons of these mice in Yellow Forest for a long time and they are either "normal" or with Fly. Are the Surf ones really rare?

Have you been Surfing yourself?

Rangi said:

Have you been Surfing yourself?

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Oh gosh, this makes SO much sense. Thank you! XD

Rangi said:

Surf or Fly, yes. :) Eventually I want to give them custom balloon/surfboard sprites, based on the Unown letter routines.

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That's a great idea! I also like the haunter/machoke/graverler idea. I must say I'm not usually a fan of Gen 1 or 2 hacks, but I'm enjoying this one. Keep up the good work.

I really love the additioal moves, pokemons and LOCATIONS!!!! well done

Hey!

First of all, thanks for a great hack. Crystal has always been one of my favourites, if not my favourite Pokémon games of the franchise. Your version has made it even greater, with the addition of the newer evolutions, way harder gym leaders and way better Pokémon availability in Johto.

There are quite many trainers whose dialogue is just "TODO". I assume they're something you've left for later to fill up. Couple of them were in Mt. Mortar, and atleast one of them was found on the route to the Pokémon League.

The new areas you've added, of which I've so far seen Cherrygrove Bay and Goldenrod Harbor, seem a little bit empty. You -could- fill them with small caves, houses, trees and somesuch. I do like, however, that you've added a lot of Move Tutors to the game, of which many are found in these new areas. Silver Leaf system seems good, and the Oddish seem to drop them regularly enough, not making it a nuisance.

Going to Cianwood right now, with a team of Vulpix, Slowking, Leafeon, Togekiss and Ledian. The buff to Ledian is really appreciated, since it's design is great and it has always been so freeeeeaking weak that it's ridiculous Waiting for Sneasel to finish my team! How exactly do Sneasel and Gligar evolve, by the way? You've added Razor Claw somewhere in the game and then you just level them up holding it?

Good luck to you

Found an oversight. Astonish is supposed to be a physical move not a special move.

Thanks for your feedback! :)

Eventually I'll add some trainers to the bay and harbor. Another planned feature that would work well in the harbor is outdoor merchants selling some decor for your room, probably carpets and plants. And maybe a ferry to Vermilion City, although that might be redundant with the Magnet Train. Or to some anime location. (Alto Mare would be cool, but pointless since I'm not adding Latios and Latias.)

I've defeated Red and , but I don't know how to obtain the Silver Wing (the old man in Pewter City no longer gives it). Could you point me in the right direction?

After you catch all three legendary birds, take a look around Victory Road.

I know this isn't clear, I'm designing a better event for it.

And version 1.1.1 is out! It fixes the annoying bug with Pokémon overworld sprites, and adjusts the difficulty curve after Chuck. Johto Gym Leaders go up roughly 5 levels at a time, so Jasmine's ace is level 35, Pryce's is 40, and Clair's is 45. Lance is almost at level 60, and Kanto's Gym Leaders go up to level 70. Then you can rematch all sixteen Gym Leaders up to level 75, the Elite 4 up to level 80, and the post-game battles reach level 100.

Some things have been made easier, like Prof. Oak's aides requiring fewer Pokémon caught to earn items, or getting evolution stones from Bill's grandpa in Goldenrod City (since you can just buy them once you reach Kanto).

Also, this time you don't have to restart the game! If you replace the 1.1.0 ROM with version 1.1.1, your old save file should work. (But back up everything just in case.)

Changelog:

• Add: New music by Mmmmmm and Pum.
• Add: More trainer dialog.
• Add: Encounter rival in Azalea Town after beating Bugsy.
• Add: Can't fight Pryce before Jasmine.
• Add: Guide the player in order: Vermilion City, Saffron City, Cerulean City, Rock Tunnel, Lavender Town.
• Add: Receive Eevee from Bill in Ecruteak City.
• Add: Move Bill's grandfather to Goldenrod City and Bill to Cerulean Cape
• Add: Buff trainers and wild Pokémon so that the level curve ends at 100 for the final battle.
• Add: Buff Qwilfish, Stantler, Corsola, Rhydon, Electabuzz, Magby, Elekid, Jynx, and Mr. Mime.
• Add: Typhlosion is Fire/Ground, Feraligatr is Water/Dark, and Blastoise is Water/Steel.
• Add: Goldenrod City move tutor is no longer once per day.
• Add: Buy Exp. Share in Celadon Dept. Store.
• Add: Cheaper TMs in Goldenrod Dept. Store.
• Add: Better in-game trade DVs.
• Add: Trade Jynx for Mr. Mime, not Dragonair for Chansey.
• Add: Lower Pokédex requirements for items from Prof. Oak's aides.
• Add: Get False Swipe TM as a gift, not Calm Mind.
• Add: Show shiny icon in battle (thanks to tonyism).
• Add: Sprite for Rocket Grunt♀ by Mateo.
• Add: Pryce uses Mamoswine, not Piloswine.
• Add: Whitney uses Attract.
• Add: Wild Sneasel may hold a Razor Claw.
• Add: Wild Gligar may hold a Razor Fang.
• Add: Wild Oddish are rare in Ilex Forest during the day.
• Add: Pokémon Go character names as possible Wonder Trade OTs.
• Fix: Pokémon overworld sprites are sometimes loaded from the wrong bank (thanks to comet).
• Fix: Bill's team is broken.
• Fix: Falkner says TMs are one use only.
• Fix: Buff Kimono Girls.
• Fix: Slightly debuff Bugsy, Whitney, and two trainers.
• Fix: Crunch lowers Defense, not Special Defense.
• Fix: Astonish is physical, not special.
• Fix: Cliff Edge Gate uses Route 36 music.
• Fix: "Vulipx" typo.

Patches:

There are two patches, regular and "faithful". The faithful patch does not change any Pokémon types or base stats, or any move attributes. This will be more familiar, but can have some odd consequences, like a Ghost trainer using a Ninetales that lacks STAB on its Shadow Ball.

Patches should be applied to a Pokémon Crystal (UE) (1.0) ROM. The one I used has the MD5 hash 9f2922b235a5eeb78d65594e82ef5dde if you need to make sure your copy is correct.

• polishedcrystal-1.1.1.ips
• polishedcrystal-faithful-1.1.1.ips

The source code on GitHub has a readme with more details, an FAQ, and a guide to using the patch files.

And only a day later, version 1.1.2 is out! :) It's a minor update, just to give Meganium a dual type along with the other starters (Grass/Fairy), fix the starters' movesets, and make Team Rocket more diverse.

Again, it's save-compatible with 1.1.0 and 1.1.1. Just patch an ordinary Crystal ROM to 1.1.2, replace your old ROM but keep your save file, and it should continue to work.

Changelog:

• Add: Give Team Rocket more diverse Pokémon.
• Add: Meganium is Grass/Fairy, and learns Fairy Wind, Moonblast, and DazzlinGleam.
• Add: Typhlosion learns Earth Power and Earthquake.
• Add: Feraligatr learns Night Slash.
• Add: Blastoise learns Iron Head.
• Add: Buff Smeargle.

Patches:

There are two patches, regular and "faithful". The faithful patch does not change any Pokémon types or base stats, or any move attributes. This will be more familiar, but can have some odd consequences, like a Ghost trainer using a Ninetales that lacks STAB on its Shadow Ball.

Patches should be applied to a Pokémon Crystal (UE) (1.0) ROM. The one I used has the MD5 hash 9f2922b235a5eeb78d65594e82ef5dde if you need to make sure your copy is correct.

• polishedcrystal-1.1.2.ips
• polishedcrystal-faithful-1.1.2.ips

The source code on GitHub has a readme with more details, an FAQ, and a guide to using the patch files.

yay
looking forward to the most neverused starter get one shot by a random sludge bomb/gunk shot from a random rocket grunt...

Hm, maybe that's why Bulbasaur was Grass/Poison in Gen 1—so Team Rocket wouldn't have an advantage over anyone's starter.

Anyway, I'll leave it for now and see what the players think. If Meganium is unusable it could be Grass/Psychic or Grass/Dragon instead. Still, Grass/Fairy gives it an early disadvantage against Team Rocket, but later it's immune to Dragon attacks.

fairy is fine, rockets don't have strong poison moves early and it's not like you only have one pokemon.

it can actually stand up to bugsy now, gives you the biggest advantage out of the 3 to chuck, but still continues to be the 'hard mode' of the 3. early game, at least. it totally shuts down clair (bar the ice beamer), bruno and karen while being neutral against lances team

i think it's fine fairy tbh

So in 1.2.0 (or 2.0.0 if it has enough new content) I'll be replacing Smoochum, Stantler, and Aipom with Electivire, Magmortar, and Rhyperior. (And probably replacing Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff with Sunkern, buffed Grass/Fire Sunflora, and Shuckle.) However, I'm undecided on whether to give them dual types too.

Electivire would make sense as Electric/Fighting. It's a physical attacker that learns Fighting-type moves like Cross Chop, and plenty of people have had this idea before. However, I'd like to make Magmortar a dual-type too for balance. There aren't many Steel types available, its cannon arm could be made of metal, and Flash Cannon makes sense in its moveset. What do you think of a Fire/Steel Magmortar? Would the 4x weakness to Ground be too crippling?

Please answer in the thread poll!

Zef said:

fairy is fine, rockets don't have strong poison moves early and it's not like you only have one pokemon.

it can actually stand up to bugsy now, gives you the biggest advantage out of the 3 to chuck, but still continues to be the 'hard mode' of the 3. early game, at least. it totally shuts down clair (bar the ice beamer), bruno and karen while being neutral against lances team

i think it's fine fairy tbh

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perhaps im spoilt by difficulty hacks like sacred gold, but if this hack is really modeled after sacred gold then i think the rocket grunts should not be complete walkovers like in the vanilla game.
"it's not like you only have one pokemon" is not a legit argument, why am I forced to switch asap just because of the possiblity of a random sludge bomb (which would not have killed meganium if not for the fairy typing)?

"stand up to bugsy" ahaha you grind your chikorita to lvl32 before facing bugsy bro?
i would give you chuck and bruno, but now don't forget its weak to jasmine now too. clair has coverage icebeamers, karen has gengar and houndoom.

personally its a little better but not by a lot. plus no play rough...

I didn't think anyone would use Meganium as a physical attacker, so I left out Play Rough, and added Moonblast due to its association with light.

I'm replaying the game with Chikorita to see how it does, but it doesn't gain the Fairy type until its final evolution. As a pure-Grass Chikorita/Bayleef, it's still weak to Poison, but Fairy Wind at level 22 is good against Fighting and Dark types (i.e. Chuck and some of Team Rocket's new Pokémon—which I hope will no longer be "complete walkovers").

What do you think of Fire/Steel Magmortar? Hopefully the added resistances, and loss of Rock weakness, more than make up for the 4x Ground weakness.