Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 2.2.0)

Toastey said:

I've gone to every route that I can and I didn't get anything

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You don't really need Flash to navigate the cave. I just kept pushing forward until I reached him. It was a bit difficult but not game-stopping.

Now that I have bothered to finish a full playthrough of the 3.0 beta, here are some observations.

After repeated testing, I have to conclude that Drizzle Politoed is one of the better special sponges for most of the main game in the Modified Version. Due to its Water/Grass typing there, it's one of the few 'mons that Lance's damn Wide Lens Multiscale Dragonite can't hit for SE damage with Fire Blast, Blizzard or Thunder, making it a great fit for the Assault Vest item you picked up at Cianwood. The moveset at the time was Surf/Whirlpool/Giga Drain/Ice Beam, although later on I replaced Whirlpool with Earth Power. Muk is also pretty damn good as a special sponge in Modified with the Poison/Dark typing of its Alolan form and Minimize being the cheap tactic it always is, though it has a bit more problems balancing tanking ability with damage output due to how late you acquire Curse and PP issues due to being stuck with Gunk Shot as its only physical Poison attack for the Johto half of the main story and a significant portion of the Kanto half, and I found myself having to use Leppa Berries or Ethers on it in at least a few battles.

I also noticed something funny when fighting Misty. Apparently none of her Pokémon are capable of hitting a Water/Grass dual-type for SE damage or have any secondary typings that make them neutral to Grass, so she ended up switching several times in a row while I had Politoed out and almost never attacked until she was down to her last Pokémon, giving me several free KOs and the easiest win by far out of all of the Kanto Gym Leader fights. You might want to look into fixing the part where she kept switching all of her 'mons out instead of attacking...

Before the E4 rematches, I was reminded of something that is annoying about vanilla GSC. Since it was a Wednesday, I ended up having to fight both Lyra and Silver before being allowed to challenge the E4's rematch teams for the first time in this run. The annoying thing about Silver's final battles is that he uses the Champion theme instead of his rival theme. Would it be possible to switch Silver's final battles' music back to his theme like HGSS did?

The last trainer fights in the game have provided further confirmation of my prior thoughts that the Magnemite and Misdreavus lines are the best non-legendary Pokémon in the Modified Version. The Magnemite line having Levitate instead of Sturdy in Modified enables it to beat the majority of Ground-types with impunity, and its Electric/Steel dual typing is obviously amazing for tanking hits. A moveset of Thunderbolt/Flash Cannon/Thunder Wave/either Reflect or Light Screen depending on which boss trainer you're facing feels like the most optimal set for Magneton/Magnezone to both wreck things and support the rest of your team so they can wreck what it can't. Eviolite Magneton remains virtually invincible against most physical attackers used by the E4 in the first run. As for the Misdreavus line, Mismagius picking up the Fairy typing in Modified after evolution, again, gives it four immunities with only two weaknesses (Ghost and Steel), and coupled with its good Special Defense, gives it many opportunities to set up even with the AI being programmed to ruin your setting up any way it can. Mismagius' Ghost/Fairy STAB lets it hit most of the E4 for super effective damage, and it's one of the few set up sweepers that can take down Green with a level disadvantage (although I had to use an X Speed to make sure it didn't die to Aerodactyl, since even at +6 Special Attack it couldn't OHKO Green's 'mons due to said level disadvantage - it was 88 compared to Green's levels being 95+).

The battle with Green went like this:
1) Lead with Magnezone against her Lapras
2) Set up Light Screen as Mew switches in
3) Tank the incoming Aura Sphere and hit Mew with Thunder Wave
4) Bring in Mismagius to KO Mew
5) Attempt to set up on Lapras but get KO'd by a critical hit
6) Use a Max Revive on Mismagius while Magnezone resists Lapras for a couple of turns
7) Bring Mismagius back in and set up on Lapras, successfully this time
8) Also use an X Speed so Aerodactyl won't outrun Mismagius and end the sweep when it comes in
9) Sweep Green right off the Navel Rock

During the last battles, I had found four issues, all of which were reported last week on the Discord server.

My final team (Levels were 79-82 vs. Red, and 86-88 vs. Green): Typhlosion (starter, though mine originally had Flame Body so I bred a new one with its HA Flash Fire halfway through Johto), Gyarados, Politoed, Muk, Magnezone, and Mismagius. Typhlosion ended up being worthless in the last boss fights and was never brought in. Also, the hax was real in the penultimate fight: Red's Omastar almost never missed with Earth Power against Muk regardless of Muk's evasion boosts (which I had a lot of difficulty even getting to set up Minimize/Curse because of Earth Power hitting so often; once it ran out of clips on Earth Power, it started missing as expected).

After defeating Green was when I decided to go legendary hunting to complete the 'dex (the only Legendary I'd caught before was Suicune, which was not used on my team, and I didn't encounter Raikou or Entei at random in the wild before talking to Eusine in Celadon). My face lit up when I tracked down Mewtwo and discovered that the original Uber now uses an 8-bit demix of Stadium's VS. Mewtwo theme (No, I had not searched through the Music Player for updates to the catalogue prior to this battle). THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR INCLUDING THAT THEME IN THIS HACK!

Misc. note on Legendary Hunting - For those who don't plan on using Moltres as part of your main team (or plan on using exploits to get more than one), once you've defeated Blaine and get access to Cinnabar Volcano I would recommend making sure it has its HA when you catch it. Moltres being the only holder of the Flame Body ability in Polished Crystal that can also use Fly makes it the best choice to use to speed up breeding, once it's finally available.

In all, there is no doubt in my mind that once 3.0 is complete, Polished will be the definitive modernization update hack for Crystal. The main game in the 3.0 beta remains too easy due to the current Exp. Share bug and I still remember how challenging certain fights were without the ability to exploit that bug and go into said fights being overleveled instead of underleveled. Also, I am still annoyed by two things (that aren't unresolved bugs/glitches): the lack of space to hold items in your bag's main pocket or PC (Prism currently has room for 60 item stacks in its PC but Polished only allows you to store away 40 item stacks despite having way more items than Prism, and the Medicine/Berry pockets just don't do enough to alleviate that issue), and how absolutely no trainer in the game has Sturdy as the ability on a Pokémon that can have Sturdy as an ability, unless that Pokémon has Sturdy as its only non-HA (and also annoyed by Steelix losing Sturdy altogether in Modified). If you want to make the game even more difficult, addressing the latter annoyance is something that should be done once you have the time to do so.

Hey, I've got a small question. Will the 60 fps feature that prisim had be applied to this hack?

Curious, I beat the Elite 4 the first time, was a struggle, had to use many many potions (rip $100,000 pokedollars)

Now im up to the battle with Professor Elm and cannot beat him, Where else can I possibly train my pokemon apart from the Elite 4?

I've been trying to breed for a shiny Charmander in 3.0.0 and with 8x speed I've bred all day. I lost count of the well over 150 eggs I hatched using the shiny ditto. I started when the ditto was lvl 1 and now it's 85 just from the daycare people. I tried breeding with different Charmander with different abilities, genders and everything. Also, none of them would breed with totodile or Gyarados beforehand("no interest") so idk if it's a bug or if I'm just THAT unlucky. It also may be worth noting that I'm playing with perfect iv mode. At this point I honestly just wish I could figure out the GameShark code to make it shiny so I can continue my play through. Anyone got any ideas? I'll keep breeding for now...

DT2020 said:

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I will never understand people who go nuts over losing, say, Igglybuff in favor of Weavile. If the Gen 4 evolutions had originally been in Gen 2, nobody would even consider replacing them with babies and forgettable single-stages.

If you want the original 251 just because they're from 2001 instead of 2007, then play the original Crystal. There's no "Physical/Special split" or "Lyra" or "Fairy type" or "bug fixes" to get in the way of nostalgia. :P For best results, emulate with No$GMB on Windows XP.

Rangi said:

I will never understand people who go nuts over losing, say, Igglybuff in favor of Weavile. If the Gen 4 evolutions had originally been in Gen 2, nobody would even consider replacing them with babies and forgettable single-stages.

If you want the original 251 just because they're from 2001 instead of 2007, then play the original Crystal. There's no "Physical/Special split" or "Lyra" or "Fairy type" or "bug fixes" to get in the way of nostalgia. :P For best results, emulate with No$GMB on Windows XP.

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While I do see your point, I think this is unnecessary arrogance.

Yes, hacks are meant to be different and most people understand that. But having incomplete evolution chains or having a Johto Pokemon stripped off a Johto-based game will always be bothersome, especially in a hack like this, which relies heavily on official material and is meant to be a more complete, "perfect" version of Pokemon Crystal.

Sure I do understand what's the reason behind those omissions, I know that it's not possible to add more than 255 Pokemon at this moment, so you had to make choices (sometimes painful ones). I'm not blaming you for that, nor do I criticize your decisions. But it is only natural that they seem off (and somewhat "imperfect") to people, no matter if "forgettable" and "useless" metagame-wise or not (especially considering the fact that babies were kind of important to the Gen II lore, especially in Crystal which had the Odd Egg, so it is a loss).

You should understand that despite the fact it is your very own hack and final decisions are always up to you, people will always see it differently than your average "Pokemon Dark Amethyst: The Mystery of Liparia Region" fanon hack. It is something else, so people have different expectations, like it or not.

Also, when I saw your username as the latest post, I hoped for some update. Seeing a post like this was really disappointing. :P
But don't understand me wrong, I'm totally on your side and cheering for you. And I hope that someday you will find the way to expand Pokedex, so that all omitted Pokemon (as well as certain new ones, especially those needed for the lore [e.g. Steven finally getting his Metagross]) will finally make it to your remarkable game.

It's not "unnecessary arrogance", he's just being blunt. If someone is annoyed by the lack of one of their "favorites" (it's almost never an actual favorite, just a mon they've decided they'd get pissy over today) in Polished Crystal, they're free to... um... just not play it.

Maxim said:

While I do see your point, I think this is unnecessary arrogance.

Yes, hacks are meant to be different and most people understand that. But having incomplete evolution chains or having a Johto Pokemon stripped off a Johto-based game will always be bothersome, especially in a hack like this, which relies heavily on official material and is meant to be a more complete, "perfect" version of Pokemon Crystal.

Sure I do understand what's the reason behind those omissions, I know that it's not possible to add more than 255 Pokemon at this moment, so you had to make choices (sometimes painful ones). I'm not blaming you for that, nor do I criticize your decisions. But it is only natural that they seem off (and somewhat "imperfect") to people, no matter if "forgettable" and "useless" metagame-wise or not (especially considering the fact that babies were kind of important to the Gen II lore, especially in Crystal which had the Odd Egg, so it is a loss).

You should understand that despite the fact it is your very own hack and final decisions are always up to you, people will always see it differently than your average "Pokemon Dark Amethyst: The Mystery of Liparia Region" fanon hack. It is something else, so people have different expectations, like it or not.

Also, when I saw your username as the latest post, I hoped for some update. Seeing a post like this was really disappointing. :P
But don't understand me wrong, I'm totally on your side and cheering for you. And I hope that someday you will find the way to expand Pokedex, so that all omitted Pokemon (as well as certain new ones, especially those needed for the lore [e.g. Steven finally getting his Metagross]) will finally make it to your remarkable game.

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Yeah, I did not want to remove Stantler, or Shuckle, or Aipom; they contributed toward the whole feel of the Johto region. But some of the newer Pokémon were absolutely necessary—the Eeveelutions, Togekiss, Mismagius (a rare Ghost-type), Honchkrow and Weavile (more rare Dark types)—and then others didn't feel right on their own (like Electivire, Magmortar, and Rhyperior). Most sacrificed Pokémon have technical reasons besides being weak or forgettable: Lickitung would have required Lickilicky, Aipom would have required Ambipom, Delibird's only move is Present which had been replaced with something more else...

If pokecrystal ever gets 2-byte IDs, I'll definitely add the missing Pokémon back, and hopefully the moves as well, even if it means switching to MBC5 for 4MB ROM support and thus losing the real-time clock (the no-RTC patch functions well enough with a sped-up in-game clock). For now, though, it's an unavoidable technical limit; and once something's been added like Karen's Honchkrow or Blaine's Magmortar, removing them to put back the original Pokémon would still be a loss.

And of course, there are hundreds of Pokémon unrelated to the original 251 that could enrich the game if 2-byte IDs were a thing. HGSS had the Hoenn Sound and Sinnoh Sound radio stations, which attracted Pokémon from Gen 3 and 4. And there are various legendaries, some Gen 7 Pokémon that would work in the Orange Islands, and so on. I'd say the game feels complete without them, which wouldn't be true of having Sneasel but not Weavile, for example; but they would be nice to add, if/when possible.

No Digimon though. Sorry to disappoint you. :P

I will be honest, as long as Lapras never gets replaced/removed then I'll be very happy and won't care what else happens with who gets cut or replaced or anything.

You keep doing what you do best Rangi, don't let these so-called fanboys get to you and this wonderful hack.

Hey so im just wondering bc i want to play polished crystal again, is 3.0 being dropped any time within the next few weeks? I just want to know bc i dont want to start 2.2.0 and then a few daus later see that 3.0 is out

Hi-imruss said:

Hey so im just wondering bc i want to play polished crystal again, is 3.0 being dropped any time within the next few weeks? I just want to know bc i dont want to start 2.2.0 and then a few daus later see that 3.0 is out

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It's very unlikely.

I'd say play 2.2.0 anyway, 3.0 will be a very different beast in comparison and you'll end up appreciating a lot of the changes between the versions. :)

I just made to Kanto and I'm very proud and happy that I made this far on Nuzlocke mode!

This is amazing. You're amazing. Gen II has always been my favorite gen. Two regions. Now on to my meager concern.

Just evolved an Eevee into a Leafeon at Lv12 and I was hoping it would learn Razor Leaf. I looked into the data on Github and it doesn't learn a physical grass move until Lv37. This is a minor set back being as that Leafeon is one of my favorite pokemon, but has an atrocious special attack stat. Any way to fix this so that it learns a physical grass move earlier?

(also it's back sprite is a little too small. smaller than Eevee's. not a big deal but could use a fix if you've got the time, energy, and/or it's even possible)

gregory_west said:

This is amazing. You're amazing. Gen II has always been my favorite gen. Two regions. Now on to my meager concern.

Just evolved an Eevee into a Leafeon at Lv12 and I was hoping it would learn Razor Leaf. I looked into the data on Github and it doesn't learn a physical grass move until Lv37. This is a minor set back being as that Leafeon is one of my favorite pokemon, but has an atrocious special attack stat. Any way to fix this so that it learns a physical grass move earlier?

(also it's back sprite is a little too small. smaller than Eevee's. not a big deal but could use a fix if you've got the time, energy, and/or it's even possible)

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data/pokemon/evolution_moves.asm has moves learned by Pokémon whenever they evolve; Leafeon gets Razor Leaf. This is a 3.0 feature, so if you're playing 2.2.0, you'll just have to wait. (I had copied the Gen VI learnsets, where it learns Razor Leaf at level 9.)

I'll see about improving the sprite.

Wow. Thank you for the quick response. I've got another question though. Can I obtain the Light Ball? If so, where?

gregory_west said:

Wow. Thank you for the quick response. I've got another question though. Can I obtain the Light Ball? If so, where?

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Eventually an NPC with give one during the adventure (Pkm Trainer Yellow)

How to evolve Electabuzz to Electivire?

Where can I find a vulpix in this game?