Blue hack: Pokemon Blue Kaizo: Update 4.5 (Very challenging experience)

Alakazam
- Psychic
- Counter
- Reflect
- Recover

Weezing
- Sludge
- Thunderbolt
- Fire Blast
- Explosion

Venomoth
- Psychic
- Mega Drain
- Sleep Powder
- Stun Spore

Sandshrew
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Slash
- Dig

Rattata
- Body Slam
- Quick Attack
- Bubble Beam
- Super Fang

Magikarp
- Bubble
- Tackle
- Splash

- Lead with Zam, switch in Magikarp, as Cloyster will always explode against Zam (but not vs others, unless in low health)
- Zam switches in, one-shotting Nidoqueen about 85% of the time
- Zam should almost always win vs Vaporeon, unless Body Slam crits. 23.4% chance of critting (for 120 base speedsters like Zam), along with Psychic's 1/3 chance of lowering Special should make this easy enough.
- The main issue is buffed Jynx: Zam must either lower its special immediately, or its health to low-yellow or red. Sand Attacks from Vaporeon are a double-edged sword, as they lower accuracy but also boost your Special thanks to the badge boost glitch.
- If Zam wins the exchange (very unlikely), chip Lapras as much as possible. If not, revenge kill with Rattata's Quick Attack.
- If Rattata kills with QA, it will outspeed the coming Lapras and chip it greatly with Super Fang. A 50% Lapras should lose to Venomoth, also thanks to Psychic lowering its Special.
- Venomoth must chip Articuno with a Psychic, as the coming Weezing will not OHKO it with Explosion. On the other hand, Articuno will not kill Weezing with a single Blizzard (always search for good DVs on your mons).
- With Explosion killing Articuno, your Sandshrew is left, so you win 1-0.

- Switch Zam's TWave for Reflect.
- Lead with Zam. Tbolt fluctuates between a 4 and 5HKO, but the main goal is to not get critted with Body Slam, nor paralyzed. Rinse and repeat until you can set up Reflect turn 1 and finish off Raichu with >60% health.
- Thanks to Reflect's weird mechanics, Zam can survive any hit from Machamp, as Psychic will not one-shot it. Unless a crit comes, you can always fish for that.
- Against Chansey, there's a 33% chance of it using TWave, which makes winning almost impossible. You want to recover on a non-Twave, then switch to Magikarp.
- Magikarp dies and Rattata comes in, chipping 50% of its health, maybe even more, if it decides to go for Twave. Then you have to guess whether to use Super Fang again, as Chansey heals up, or predict the BoltBeam and chip it further with QA.
- Weezing revenges with 2 Sludges. It's easier if you poison Chansey, as it will waste a turn using Full Heal. Nevertheless, Weezing can tank a BoltBeam + Earthquake from Charizard. Despite Fire Blast being better, the good AI will go for the super-effective move. Explosion will OHKO it.
- Zam switches in vs Venusaur. Psychic will not one-shot it, but at >50% health, Razor Leaf will not kill Zam. Body Slam will, but its less likely to go for it.
- If Zam wins, chip Blastoise and Venomoth should easily revenge it, as it is unlikely that (1) Blastoise didn't get its Special lowered; (2) or critted.
- Venomoth wins and Sandshrew didn't participate. 2-0 victory.

- This is by far the haxiest battle, as the number of Psychic types, and my only answer being Zam, forces a lot of variables to work precisely your way.
- Lead Rattata. There are two routes: (1) use Super Fang, and most of the time Hypno will go for either Twave or Hypnosis. If Twave hits, QA on turn 2 and revenge it with Zam's Seismic Toss (Weezing is too slow, despite good DVs). (2) Use Body Slam, and pray for para, as Agatha will waste a turn using Full Heal. Then lower it with Super Fang and expect further status moves.
- This either allows a healthy Rattata to deal 50% damage to Exeggutor, or chip with QA.
- Revenge it with Weezing, if Exeggutor is at 50%. If not, you must get lucky with Zam, either avoiding Special drops or too many turns of sleep.
- If Weezing kills, explode on Tentacruel, which is always a one-shot. If Zam does, try to be healthy to live a Surf, and hope it doesn't use Wrap. Psychic will not one-shot Tenta.
- Jynx is again an issue. Zam must try to weaken it on either route, and hope Jynx uses Blizzard vs Weezing, who can deal about 60% with Sludge. Should kill after a Seismic Toss hit.
- Weezing blowing up on Tenta is the best route as it gives Zam a chance to face Jynx while healthy, which isn't even a guaranteed win.
- With Zam winning vs Jynx, Gengar can't do anything other than deal 100HP damage or use 60% acc. Hypnosis. Good DVs are fundamental, again, as you have to outspeed Gengar, but will not be able to one-shot it without a crit.
- With Weezing somehow winning vs Jynx, you get revenge killed and must get lucky with Venomoth dropping its Special, or banking on a Hypnosis miss.
- With Zam vs Zam, just try to heal up and lower Zam's Special a bunch. After two drops, you can sac Zam, as Sandshrew can live a Psychic and deal around 70% damage with Earthquake. Hell, sometimes Zam will just spam Recover. You can also win with Zam, making it a 3-0 victory.
- With Venomoth dying to Zam, it's about the same scenario, though Venomoth will be weakened and has far fewer chances to lower Zam's Special. Sandshrew should be the last one standing. 1-0 victory.

- Lead Zam. Reflect turn 1, then hope for a number of non-occurrences: (1) no crits; (2) no Body Slam paras; (3) no Body/EQ + Hyper Beam. Not even Hyper Beam will one-shot with Reflect, and Kanga will get two-shot 95% of the time, be it with average ranges, crit or special drop on 1st turn.
- VS Lapras: you don't need luck, you just need to not get unlucky. Thanks to Reflect, it will seldom go for Body Slam, as it deals the least damage. Other than that, you want to avoid crits (Blizzard one-shots) and status from either Tbolt or Blizzard (got frozen 3 out of 5 tries, when I was still grasping Lance's team).
- VS Electabuzz and Dragonite: the biggest concern is paralysis, and crits, to an extent, with Elec's 105 base speed. Out of the two, you're bound to get some crits. Nonetheless, Elec is an easy 2-shot, and Dragonite a 3-shot, 2 if the 1st Psychic lowers Special.
- VS Snorlax: this is where the fun stops for Zam. Just try to chip as much as possible, and don't bother using Recover. You can crit (Special drops won't matter), avoid Lovely Kiss or Hyper Beam (90% acc.), so the chances are decent.
- Rattata chips it further with Super Fang, and Snorlax likes to pick Lovely Kiss, so that's an extra chance for further chip, not that it matters much. If it does miss, you can finish it with Body Slam and use QA on Aerodactyl. The QA chip is very relevant.
- VS Aerodactyl: Weezing is more likely than not to tank a crit EQ, but you're safer using Explosion, as I think it does more than 2 Tbolts.
- After both QA and Explosion damage, either Psychic from Venomoth or Rock Slide from Sandshrew will kill Aero. For Venomoth, Sky Attack must miss (90% acc.), as it is Aero's weapon of choice, despite Rock Slide definitely being enough. For Sandshrew, it has about a 70% chance of surviving Sky Attack from full, but Aero has an insane crit rate, of course.
- You can even try something else, which I haven't, that could work: switch Magikarp first and hope for Sky Attack miss. Use Bubble, which has a 1/3 chance of dropping Speed. If so, Venomoth will outspeed and revenge.
- Depending on plays, this can either be a 1-0 or 2-0 victory or even, if Sky misses vs Venomoth, a 3-0 victory.

- By far the hardest battle, needing some hax (less than vs Agatha), but mostly the lack of hax from the AI (about the same amount as vs Lance).
- Switch Seismic Toss with Counter for Zam.
- Lead with Zam. Mew will (1) spam Softboiled; (2) use Twave; (3) Body Slam. Whether it uses Body Slam turn 1 or after a few Softboileds, it doesn't matter, as long as you don't get para'd. Counter + Psychic will kill Mew 95% of the time.
- VS Jolteon: Sandshrew will one-shot 90% of the time, 100% if Jolteon uses Sand Attack, which triggers the badge boost glitch.
- VS Exeggutor: USE THE HYPER POTION on Zam, as the only chance for Sandshrew to do something is to avoid Sleep Powder/Stun Spore and chip with Slash. But since Sandshrew is slower, it is unlikely to do something.
- Out comes Rattata. Use Super Fang, and 90% of the time it will use a status move. Ideally you want a miss or paralysis, as you can either spam Body Slam and try your luck, or chip with Quick Attack. That chip turns a 70% into a 100% chance of revenging with Weezing's Sludge. If it doesn't, there's a 40% chance of poison as backup.
- VS Starmie: this is mostly Venomoth's battle since Starmie has neither Surf nor Psychic. Because of the good AI, it may often spam Recover, but it's an unlikely win due to Starmie's 115 base speed, making it a crit machine. You lead with Psychic and hope for a Special drop, then spam Mega Drain. This is the second hardest part of the fight.
- VS Tauros: with a healed Zam, you can either (1) use Psychic and hope for a crit; (2) use Counter and hope for either Earthquake or Body Slam, which won't one-shot unless crit. A para is unfortunate, but not yet a reset.
- VS Mewtwo: LEAD WITH MAGIKARP. Because it's at full health, it will use Twave. Now, Kaizo's Magikarp has access to Bubble, which, as said above, has a 1/3 chance to drop Speed. If you can avoid full para, you may get a Speed drop.
- Because Mewtwo took damage (less than 1% lol), it's more likely to go for Recover, which gives you further chances for Speed drops. A -2 Mewtwo will get outsped and lose at least 85% of its health to Weezing's Explosion. From then, either Explosion crits (which happened to me), or Zam may finish it off, if it isn't para'd from an hypothetical Body Slam from Tauros. It can easily live a Body Slam from Mewtwo.
- Always a 1-0 victory with Zam remaining.

Bruised and Brutalized

Summary:

The first Pokemon hack that has branded itself as a "Kaizo" hack. For SHF's version of a kaizo Pokemon game, the trainers, gym leaders, and Elite Four + Champ aren't enough for him. So he decided to change the routes, caves, mart item selection, and wild Pokemon location to give it that so called kaizo feel. Unfortunately, that hack comes up a bit short when it comes to being enjoyable. This hack's greatest weakness is it's rather tedious to get through the routes and trainers with the wild Mons only getting better as you progress. While the payoff is very huge, it's just not enough for most people to play this game again and again.

The Brilliant (Pros):

• Gives a unique challenge between the great variety of trainer rosters and many of the routes becoming trainer gauntlets
• Items are cheaper along with different items in some areas (Such as Master Balls and Rare Candies being sold at Indigo Plateau so you can catch them all quicker)
• Compatible with some other QOL improvement Hacks like the Blue version of Red Full Color and Fast Red

The Blues (Cons):

• The mapping for some of the areas comes off as tedious more than challenging (the trial and error paths in Mt. Moon being a good example)
  Many of the trainers have a lot of items. This can get in the way of certain tactics such as sleeping the opponent.
• Many of the Gen 1 mechanics haven't been fixed. Therefore, the status moves that are used by the opponent are still x.75 of what they should be as well as stat changes still acting wonky at times (the opponent's Pokemon still keeping the speed drop after being heal from paralysis is one of the main examples of this happening)
• Between the difficult Gym Leaders and semi-inescapable gauntlet-like routes, this game can be quite rage-inducing if you don't know what you are doing. Thankfully, the author of the hack placed some hints on the PokeCommunity site about the bosses and what's good to use.

Sinister Stadium In The Hood (Fun Fact):

From what I read about this hack on the PokeCommunity site, the author, SHF, has taken a lot of inspiration from Pokemon Stadium when making the bosses for this hack. In fact, he even made a hack for Pokemon Stadium that functions like this hack but without the mazes and better Pokemon to work with. Didn't play this myself, but if you just as much of a fan of Stadium 1 as much as SHF, then go give that a try. Maybe it will be forever know as a hidden gem as far as Pokemon hacks go. Well, as long as TPCI doesn't take it down.