Hack Series: Pokémon Divine Sword & Blessed Shield (Version 1.1 Update - Return of EXP. Candies!)

I can't believe I am finally writing this, but Phives and I are proud to finally present Pokémon Divine Sword & Blessed Shield, a difficulty romhack. Why release another romhack when Sacred Sword & King's Shield is out, you may ask? Well to be quite honest, that project was rushed and is not something we are particularly proud of. So, we have been working on an entirely new one ever since the release of the Crown Tundra. Now, over half a year later and a LOT of hours sunk into playtesting, we are finally ready to release the first version!

Intro - What is Pokémon Divine Sword & Blessed Shield?
Pokémon Divine Sword & Blessed Shield is a difficulty romhack, taking inspiration mostly from Drayano's work. However, I also played Radical Red last year and took some inspiration from that, although outside of QoL features those are purely optional. So don't worry if you want to play in Switch mode and use healing items in battle! We've made edits to nearly every Pokemon, mainly focusing on making egg and tutor moves available through normal level up movesets as well as providing buffs and new moves to tons of different Pokémon. Of course, there is documentation for everything included in the google drive folder with the download. We've of course redone the team of every single trainer in the game, and hope to encourage team building in order to over come these challenges. However, it is important to remember that all of this is done within the confines of Sword & Shield. We cannot make the AI super smart, nor can we force certain aspects like a level cap, etc. However, we have gone to great lengths in order to make it the best we possible could.

Notable Features:

Screenshots (there are lot of them and they are BIG so here is your warning):


Details for how to install are in the README included in the Google Drive folder. Please read it. Documentation is also in that folder, which is linked at the bottom of this post.

Divine Sword & Blessed Shield - v1.1 Changelog: Return of the EXP. Candies




Video Detailing the Changes

Credits & Thanks

• The amazing creators of pkNX, this project would not be possible without their hard work
• Drayano, for allowing us to reference some of their changes from Renegade Platinum.
• The creator of Radical Red, soupercell, for allowing us to use certain Pokémon edits from their romhack in ours
• https://twitter.com/__Toner___ for the logos

Pokejobs being broken is an intentional feature in order to prevent an EXP/EV exploit.
The only part of the Post Game that is currently finished is the Hop & Sordward/Shielbert section. Champions Cup rematches and such are not edited yet.

Download & Documentation​

This is worth playing SwSh again. Thanks for all the hard work!

Just did a quick update to make Haunter able to evolve without trading, update if you plan on using one!

any idea why it hangs on launching in yuzu? runs fine without layeredfs.

Therealzef make sure you are playing on Pokemon Sword/Shield 1.3 or above. I playtested the entire game on yuzu, so it definitely works just fine.

This made me go back to SwSh, and so far it is definitely well worth it, especially as now the game runs smoothly for me

One question so far
In the item documentation, you mention that all of the EV training items are in Motostoke city BP shop
However, I couldn't find any information on where the shop actually is
Could this be a mistake, and the items are in Hammerlocke?
If this is correct, could you please tell me where to find the BP shop? would love to EV train and prepare for the challenge ahead

Oakenshield said:

This made me go back to SwSh, and so far it is definitely well worth it, especially as now the game runs smoothly for me

One question so far
In the item documentation, you mention that all of the EV training items are in Motostoke city BP shop
However, I couldn't find any information on where the shop actually is
Could this be a mistake, and the items are in Hammerlocke?
If this is correct, could you please tell me where to find the BP shop? would love to EV train and prepare for the challenge ahead

Click to expand...

The BP shop in Hammerlocke is in the center Pokemon center, talk to the league staff next to the shop counter.

Kobazco said:

The BP shop in Hammerlocke is in the center Pokemon center, talk to the league staff next to the shop counter.

Click to expand...

So that is a mistake in the excel sheet, the BP store isn't in Motostoke?
The EV training gear is in Hammerlocke?

Oakenshield said:

So that is a mistake in the excel sheet, the BP store isn't in Motostoke?
The EV training gear is in Hammerlocke?

Click to expand...

Oh my goodness I'm sorry LOL. I just fixed the sheet, its in Hammerlocke yeah.

I was trying to get an Alolan Raichu but it says pikachu is incompatible with the sun stone.

Seawheels said:

I was trying to get an Alolan Raichu but it says pikachu is incompatible with the sun stone.

Click to expand...

This was a bug that I fixed yesterday morning, so redownload the mod if you got it before then.

I just fixed a ton of evolution issues that somehow got messed up, so please update if you haven't already!

Game doesn't start on Yuzu, last early acess build, 1.3.2 version of the game, stuck on an endless load screen
It works completely fine without the mod checked

meiquera said:

Game doesn't start on Yuzu, last early acess build, 1.3.2 version of the game, stuck on an endless load screen
It works completely fine without the mod checked

Click to expand...

How long are you actually giving it? It takes upwards of a minute or so to launch. Yuzu itself just isn;t consistent across the board. I have a majority of people say it works just fine, and I myself test it and play on Yuzu. But due to the nature of it, I can't really help anyone specifically because of how inconsistent it is.

Sorry, but any Yuzu issues you'll have to figure out yourself, cause like I said it works for the majority of people so all I can say is it must be something on your end. Make sure you're using the correct mod structure, title id, etc.

Hallo, Great mod and loving it except for Yuzu being a pain with pokemon games, the only problem is that my scyther is not evolving while holding metal coat, it is already 56 am i missing something?

So far I've just beaten Bea's gym, and I am having a blast here
I'm surprised just how well a poison spikes team is handling this game, as I have never really used a more defensive team

Love what you've done with the gym leader. I'm having a ton of fun trying to figure out what team to bring to each gym, and actually I like grinding the team up for it, at least so far
Really recommend grinding on Chanseys outside Hammerlocke

A few notes I've gathered, mostly regarding the documentation
In the item sheet, you mentioned putting some TMs as possible held items. however, not all of these pokemon are mentioned in the spawn table, so it might not be possible to obtain (Pangoro and Lucario don't seem to have spawns)
Also, in the notable trainer sheet, there is something strange regarding Bea and Allister. each has two level sets, and they are mentioned in the wrong game (Bea in Shield, even though she is the gym leader in Sword). does this mean there is a second match with the other gym leader in the game? if so, how and when is it available?
One final note, you have removed XP candies from raid battles. however, they are still obtainable from the 100 Watt NPC encounters (those that give you some random items for 100 Watts). is this intentional?

I'll keep reporting issues if I find anything else, but so far it is running smoothly and it is a hell of a lot of fun to play

Heyo, I've beaten Kabu thus far and I'm enjoying the hack, although I still feel like some pokemon still need adjustments in the stats and movepool department, especially those slow as molasses Alolan Pokemon and a certain physical electric lion :p

Martin003 said:

Hallo, Great mod and loving it except for Yuzu being a pain with pokemon games, the only problem is that my scyther is not evolving while holding metal coat, it is already 56 am i missing something?

Click to expand...

Hi, I fixed this bug 2 days ago. I suggest updating if you haven't, that should fix your issue.

Oakenshield said:

So far I've just beaten Bea's gym, and I am having a blast here
I'm surprised just how well a poison spikes team is handling this game, as I have never really used a more defensive team

Love what you've done with the gym leader. I'm having a ton of fun trying to figure out what team to bring to each gym, and actually I like grinding the team up for it, at least so far
Really recommend grinding on Chanseys outside Hammerlocke

A few notes I've gathered, mostly regarding the documentation
In the item sheet, you mentioned putting some TMs as possible held items. however, not all of these pokemon are mentioned in the spawn table, so it might not be possible to obtain (Pangoro and Lucario don't seem to have spawns)
Also, in the notable trainer sheet, there is something strange regarding Bea and Allister. each has two level sets, and they are mentioned in the wrong game (Bea in Shield, even though she is the gym leader in Sword). does this mean there is a second match with the other gym leader in the game? if so, how and when is it available?
One final note, you have removed XP candies from raid battles. however, they are still obtainable from the 100 Watt NPC encounters (those that give you some random items for 100 Watts). is this intentional?

I'll keep reporting issues if I find anything else, but so far it is running smoothly and it is a hell of a lot of fun to play

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it. Pangoro and Lucario are available as static high level encounters throughout the wild area, just as they were in base SwSh. We didn't edit the static encounters, so I suggest using something like serebii for that.

The eviolite trainer in Ballonlea is where you can fight the Gym Leader of the other version (Allister in Sword, Bea in Shield)

As for the XP candies, I can't really edit that, but its okay. They barely give any and its not like it will break game balance, so I'm not too worried about it.

Axenild22 said:

Heyo, I've beaten Kabu thus far and I'm enjoying the hack, although I still feel like some pokemon still need adjustments in the stats and movepool department, especially those slow as molasses Alolan Pokemon and a certain physical electric lion :p

Click to expand...

Well, Alolan Ninetales is already a very good Pokemon due to Snow Warning + Aurora Veil, and Alolan Sandslash has Slush Rush access to be fast. But its meant to be more bulky, have you seen it has Prism Armor as its HA? Buffing it anymore would definitely put it over the top.

Either way, mon balance changes will come after I get a lot more feed back :p

Also, I just updated fixing some more evolutions, so update if you haven't already! Sorry for any inconveniences.

Oh I was referring to the likes of Vikavolt and Decidueye, I already know the regional variants are good. Pokemon that gamefreak made slow for no other reason than 'we had too many fast pokemon in the last gen'

quick question for the sake of my curiosity and so i dont mess anything up seeing as it wasnt said in the documentation to my knowledge: since im playing this on yuzu do i need to install the DLCs or should i leave them out of the files?