Black 2 hack: Pokémon Black II: Paradigm Shift

[koopa990]

Changelog

Spoiler:

1.3

• Re-changing the HM moves around

1.2 hotfix

• Re-double checked the script that fixes the game from locking up with trainer LOS. I am deeply sorry for this mistake.

1.1

• Repurposed Rock Smash
• Slightly altered trainer levels in the first half of the game for further balancing.
• Fixed up remaining Wild Pokemon that were left out
• Further altering some Pokemons' evolutions for better accessibility

What is this about?
My previous ROM hack "Pokemon Amalgamation of Emeralds" focused on battles being exclusively double only and among other minor gameplay improvements. I now brought those features over to Generation V, for Black 2. However, the mitigation of HM was unaffected because of technical problems, I decided to change the HM moves around by making them somewhat useful and effective in battle scenarios (details listed below).

• Triple battle now comes into play (no Rotation battle with exception of Heartbreak Charlie)
• Slightly harder battle difficulty
• Some NPC have unique battle traits and skills
• Expanded Pokedex – It is now possible to encounter and capture all Pokemon from past generations in Unova
• Essential items like Rare Candy and TM are now accessible for purchase for better gameplay flow
• HM moves are now upgraded instead of mitigating them from being operative:
  1. Cut -- slight boost in damage & inflicts BURN.
  2. Rock Smash -- damage boost & higher chance to decrease DEFENSE.
  3. strength -- boosts in CRIT. ratio & damage.
  4. surf -- ineffectual against your allies.
  5. waterfall -- boosts in damage & FLINCH.
  6. dive -- inflicts CONFUSION & slight damage boost.
  7. fly -- chance to increase SPEED.
  8. flash -- debilities foe's ACCURACY by -2x.
  9. whirlpool -- boosts in damage and ACCURACY.

More screenshots below

How do I install and play?
There is an attachment of a .xdelta file you need to patch to the clean, original ROM you have on your system. Go to this site to download Xdelta:
https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/598/

NOTICE: If you are using MelonDS 0.9.5, the latest version of the emulator, I suggest downgrading to 0.9.3 and early. I am announcing this because the game simply crashes when a trainer spots the player; Using the old version unknowingly avoids that crash. Your experience may be different, this is only a suggestion.

Please disregard the emulator compatibility issue above, as I discovered one user still have persistent hard lock from the game. Instead, diverge your attention to another emulator called Desmume, which can be found here: https://github.com/TASEmulators/desmume/releases/tag/release_0_9_13

 

[Hiroshi Sotomura]

Hey, hi, hello, approved.

 

[koopa990]

Hey, hi, hello, approved.

Thank you very much. 😀

 

[TheBlackJokerus]

Yo looks cool. What exactly are all the HM changes?

 

[koopa990]

Yo looks cool. What exactly are all the HM changes?

Rock Smash -- damage boost, higher chance to decrease defense.
strength -- boost in crit. ratio, damage
surf -- ineffectual against your allies.
waterfall -- boost in damage, flinch
dive -- inflict confusion, slight damage boost
fly -- chance to increase speed
flash -- debilities foe's accuracy by 2x fold
whirlpool -- boost in damage and accuracy

 

[chazfoot]

Hello, thanks for sharing OP.
Never the biggest gen 5 fan but this rom hack has reignited my passion for B/W ^^

Was wondering if you know any working android emulators for this hack?

Sadly Drastic crashes when you're spotted by a trainer before battle. Will move to desmume on PC as suggested but I like to game on my phone 😅

Any advice in which emulator to use for Android would be lush x

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

Getting the "xdelta3: unavailable secondary compressor: LZMA: XD3_INTERNAL" error using the tool you linked to. I tried applying the patch to the proper dump of the game, hash data below.

    File: Pokemon - Black Version 2 (USA, Europe) (NDSi Enhanced).nds
  CRC-32: d4427fd1
     MD5: 4c65a32989c78b8070751765592b0ea6
   SHA-1: e51e6dfb8678a3d19dcd2a10691b96a569ca0abb
 SHA-256: 2e6b2415354aa41471bc7617068dce059a59931bf5c4348a264f8043f297683a

I have also tried using a couple bad dumps (since some hackers still have a habit of using those) and the patch didn't work with those either. It appears that the patch was made for an already modified version of the original game.

 

[TommyTwoToes]

Getting the "xdelta3: unavailable secondary compressor: LZMA: XD3_INTERNAL" error using the tool you linked to. I tried applying the patch to the proper dump of the game, hash data below.

    File: Pokemon - Black Version 2 (USA, Europe) (NDSi Enhanced).nds
  CRC-32: d4427fd1
     MD5: 4c65a32989c78b8070751765592b0ea6
   SHA-1: e51e6dfb8678a3d19dcd2a10691b96a569ca0abb
 SHA-256: 2e6b2415354aa41471bc7617068dce059a59931bf5c4348a264f8043f297683a

I have also tried using a couple bad dumps (since some hackers still have a habit of using those) and the patch didn't work with those either. It appears that the patch was made for an already modified version of the original game.

You have to patch a clean, unpatched version of Black 2. I'm not sire if by proper dump of the game you mean a dump for the clean version of the ROM. This is basically the OG version before even the Anti-Piracy (AP) patch was added or the EXP patches commonly found. My trouble is finding a clean version. Everything I've found that claims to be clean or unpatched still gives me these errors when patching:

xdelta3: target window checksum mismatch: XD3_INVALID_INPUT
xdelta3: normally this indicates that the source file is incorrect
xdelta3: please verify the source file with sha1sum or equivalent

Without a clean rom to patch I'm pretty stuck myself :(

EDIT: It still creates a file that's around 270mb but the game always crashes in the intro outside your house with the failed patched rom :(

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

You have to patch a clean, unpatched version of Black 2. I'm not sire if by proper dump of the game you mean a dump for the clean version of the ROM. This is basically the OG version before even the Anti-Piracy (AP) patch was added or the EXP patches commonly found. My trouble is finding a clean version. Everything I've found that claims to be clean or unpatched still gives me these errors when patching:

xdelta3: target window checksum mismatch: XD3_INVALID_INPUT
xdelta3: normally this indicates that the source file is incorrect
xdelta3: please verify the source file with sha1sum or equivalent

Without a clean rom to patch I'm pretty stuck myself :(

EDIT: It still creates a file that's around 270mb but the game always crashes in the intro outside your house with the failed patched rom :(

I know I have to patch a clean dump, I'm saying that the original vanilla ROM used for this patch isn't clean, meaning this patch won't work with the proper clean dump of the ROM, I was just stating that no matter what dump I used, genuinely proper and clean, or a known bad dump, nothing works. I will continue my efforts sourcing the right dump, but so far none of the known ones actually work with this.

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

Sourced out the problem. The hacker in question used a version of xdelta UI that contained a different build of xdelta.exe than what it originally came with. They likely sourced this one from romhacking.net, long story short, someone uploaded a version that replaced the original with no indications of a new update other than the date of upload being updated. This build has some compatibility issues that cause even newer xdelta solutions to be unable to apply patches made from this exact build. I went out of my way to apply the patch with this build of the patching software, and have made a brand new patch that works with the modern solutions AND the original xdelta UI build.

The patch must be applied to the following ROM dump:

    File: Pokemon - Black Version 2 (USA, Europe) (NDSi Enhanced).nds
  CRC-32: d4427fd1
     MD5: 4c65a32989c78b8070751765592b0ea6
   SHA-1: e51e6dfb8678a3d19dcd2a10691b96a569ca0abb
 SHA-256: 2e6b2415354aa41471bc7617068dce059a59931bf5c4348a264f8043f297683a

Patch Download:
https://mega.nz/folder/wFwxTK7Z#sRsoRoqA6ML3sHVDCdq6SQ

Patching Tools:

Spoiler: xdelta UI (Windows)

https://gbatemp.net/download/xdelta-ui.38327/

Spoiler: MultiPatch (MacOS)

https://www.romhacking.net/utilities/746/

Spoiler: Xdelta Patcher (Online)

https://kotcrab.github.io/xdelta-wasm/