Blue hack: Pokémon Baby Blue: the Gen 1 Littlelocke

[Edit: Baby Blue has been updated. Please ensure you use the 19 August version, linked below]



This rom hack gives the trashlocke treatment to Pokemon Blue. It is perfect for nuzlocking, and a unique and challenging way to experience generation 1.

Enemy trainers are untouched.

All evolutions are cancelled. Only a handful of single-stage Pokemon are accessible.



On top of this, other changes have been made to enhance difficulty.

- Wild encounter locations have been carefully edited. For example, you will not access a ground-type before defeating Surge. Very good Pokemon (think Psychic types) have been delayed until very late in the game.

- StatEXP (the gen 1 equivalent of EVs) has been removed. You will not gain that ridiculous advantage over the AI.

- Access to certain TMs has been restricted or delayed.



- Certain moves have had their PP nerfed. A small group of fundamentally overpowered moves (like Surf) have had their power heavily nerfed. None of these nerfs will impact enemy trainers.



- There have been a few adjustments to level-up learnsets (i.e. delaying certain moves, like leech seed).

- There are minor map edits that make select trainers mandatory. I have not overdone this... otherwise the game would be too grindy. This hack retains gen 1's usual fast pace.



- Routes 17 and 14 (i.e. the paths to Fuchsia City) have been more heavily edited. They are now hostile environments, designed to discourage you from delaying Erika. You will want to defeat Erika, raise the level cap, and stock up on repels before you traverse these routes. You have been warned.



The goal of these changes is to ensure that no gym leader can be solo swept by any encounter. Blaine and Giovanni are still far from terrifying, but even they will put up more of a fight than usual... at least they won't be swept by Surf spam.

PLEASE NOTE, this game has been designed to be played with strict level caps. Rare candies have been put in the PokeMarts to eliminate grinding. But if you want the intended challenging experience, please refrain from over-leveling the next gym leader.

Level caps are as usual:

Brock - 14
Misty - 21
Surge - 24
Erika - 29
Koga - 43
Sabrina - 43
Blaine - 47
Giovanni - 50
Elite Four - 62
Set mode recommended.

A note on glitches: gen 1's glitches have not been removed. But do not glitch in Mew or other strong Pokemon, obviously this defeats the purpose of playing this hack. Also, the game has been designed with the assumption that TMs are finite. If you are a hardcore gamer, refrain from using the item clone glitch on TMs.

Good luck, have fun!



Patch: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1R2I8WBda6Zzcs8oGosDR64Oqwj_8ay4k
Full documentation: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i4Qo8bflPmCla7UluOFZxLWHSrjBCfXn9AkHH24GQxY/


Credits:
Pret's pokered disassembly was my vital tool in editing Pokemon Blue. Thanks to the amazing team responsible for it.
The other main tool used was PolishedMap for map and object editing.
Thanks to Hawlucha47, MindysHaunter and Tommunist1917 for playtesting and giving feedback.
And SinisterHoodedFigure for providing some tips on gen 1 hacking.

This is an interesting idea but I would appreciate it if the level cap was actually forced on the player. I accidently over leveled my team with rare candies because I thought the level cap was forced.

Also, is the badge boost glitch still in the game?

I can look into enforcing the level caps. I thought keeping it as a self-enforced thing might help casuals play how they want. But then again, the game is designed for nuzlocking...

Badge boost glitch is present yes, but not AS abusable because all stat-boosting moves have been reduced to 1pp, and Mimic is inaccessible.

Just a heads up for anyone playing this game.

I have released a significant update. If you're playing it, please use the new patch (18 Feb) in the linked Google Drive folder.

This version:
-fixes route 23
-rebalances difficulty (somewhat nerfing the currently dominant sleep strats)
-slightly alters Cerulean Cave postgame

This will be the final update with any impact on difficulty. What you see in the documentation is final. Any future update will only deal with technical problems (god forbid)

I would really appreciate a version with forced level caps. I don't personally care for nuzlocke challenges. Thanks for making this anyway buggford.

I have released a new patch (23 May) with minor updates.

- some trainer placement fixed.

- porygon learnset edited.

@buggford: Think this can be hardcore nuzlocked deathless?

It is absolutely possible. I beat the Elite Four deathless on a playtest.

Forcing Koga before Sabrina is fine, but both having the same level cap is an issue.
With Silph and Sabrina's Gym trainers, you'll overlevel Sabrina.
Also, Exeggcute not being able to learn Mega Drain sucks

Other things I noticed:

- you could have raised the level caps for some gyms since the unevolved mons need less EXP (also, the gyms' level caps are unbalanced in general)
- if you pick Exeggcute, your rival will have a LV 22 Gyrados with Dragon Rage and Hydro Pump in Pokemon Tower (Who greenlighted that, Game Freak?)

PSA:

If you patch to a ROM with impossible evos enabled, weird things will happen (like encounters evolving into Slowbro before the first gym).

Please patch to a clean Blue ROM.

Thank you for making this hack Buggford, it provided a solid challenge, and even got me to realize how some stage 1 Pokemin are actually pretty solid when stuck into a similar group.

TheEndOfTheRoad said:

Thank you for making this hack Buggford, it provided a solid challenge, and even got me to realize how some stage 1 Pokemin are actually pretty solid when stuck into a similar group.

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Glad you enjoyed it! Yep, it's surprising how many unevolved guys can perform well in the E4. Badge boost helps a lot too.

TRAWY said:

I need fresh water to progress but celedon dept is closed so where is it

Click to expand...

Lemonade is on sale in Fuchsia City. Only then can you get into Saffron.

Thank You