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Emerald hack: Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack [Complete, v1.15 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]

Hey BrandonXL, First of all, thank you for the hack. Just started playing it. Quick question though. Why no day and night?
Honestly, I just didn't think it was within scope for what I wanted to do with this particular project. I hope you're able to enjoy your adventure, and please don't hesitate to share any other questions you may have!
Honestly I cant remember the main threat varied elite 4 member to elite 4 member, but since it was doubles i couldnt use the swords dance speed boost cheese so most of the time I was using mega kang
Oh, so was this cleared on Challenge Mode or regular? The last sentence seems to imply Challenge Mode, which (if it was the case) definitely can lead to some hair pulling haha
View attachment 166553
For some reason i don't get, my Murkrow doesn't have the usual sub-menu "Change Moves" like all other Pokemon
Edit: I checked 40+ Pokemon i had in PC and about 70% of them are able to use the Move Relearn, the others don't, so probably is intended
Hi! It just means Murkrow knows all it can at that point; there are no other moves prior that it can relearn. This is pretty common early on for first stage mons.
 
I would like to thank you for making this, BrandonXL. This was the most immersive pokemon experience I've played to date. Even with my unimaginative old eyes, the world felt alive. It made sense.

It made sense that gym leaders had those pokemon instead of their normal ones. It made sense that other gym leaders visiting another region would feel imposing. It felt like the OG Pokemon anime where every encounter scales with you. I also love the touch of a traveling pokemon trainer bumping into legendaries from time to time, and the more I journey throughout the world, the legendary encounters are more frequent.

I beat challenge mode today with these guys. It's a prankster thunder wave team with setup moves and a good dash of save state cheese.
[PokeCommunity.com] Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack  [Complete, v1.15 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]

Another showcase of the pokemon that beat the game with me.
[PokeCommunity.com] Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack  [Complete, v1.15 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]
 
I would like to thank you for making this, BrandonXL. This was the most immersive pokemon experience I've played to date. Even with my unimaginative old eyes, the world felt alive. It made sense.

It made sense that gym leaders had those pokemon instead of their normal ones. It made sense that other gym leaders visiting another region would feel imposing. It felt like the OG Pokemon anime where every encounter scales with you. I also love the touch of a traveling pokemon trainer bumping into legendaries from time to time, and the more I journey throughout the world, the legendary encounters are more frequent.

I beat challenge mode today with these guys. It's a prankster thunder wave team with setup moves and a good dash of save state cheese.
View attachment 166618

Another showcase of the pokemon that beat the game with me.
View attachment 166622
I'm so glad you enjoyed this; I should be the one thanking you! I put a lot of time and effort into it, so seeing people actually like the game is an extremely gratifying feeling. Also, seeing the Dialga and mention of Challenge Mode means you took the time to do the side content, so you rock for that! The side content isn't always enjoyable for everyone, but I'm happy you took the effort to experiment and overcome some of the rougher challenges. The full PC box is also cool to look at, because it shows everyone who was a part of your journey to the end. Thank you once again for taking the time to play through this and sharing your team with me :)
 
I just started this rom hack, and I really like it so far. Very well made, the dexnav and the variety of pokemon available in different areas is great.

Feel like a novice asking, but suppose I should since I'm on at least my 5th or 6th attempt: what's up with Roxanne in the first gym? her whole lineup seems way overpowered. I've leveled up my whole roster to the cap of 15 and tried multiple different line-ups with the wild pokemon from the surrounding area. Nothing works lol. any suggestions? Realize this means I'm in for a rough go if I'm having this much trouble with the first gym.
 
I just started this rom hack, and I really like it so far. Very well made, the dexnav and the variety of pokemon available in different areas is great.

Feel like a novice asking, but suppose I should since I'm on at least my 5th or 6th attempt: what's up with Roxanne in the first gym? her whole lineup seems way overpowered. I've leveled up my whole roster to the cap of 15 and tried multiple different line-ups with the wild pokemon from the surrounding area. Nothing works lol. any suggestions? Realize this means I'm in for a rough go if I'm having this much trouble with the first gym.
Well, funnily enough, the attempt after posting this I managed to beat her lol. Her Archen made that rough for a first gym battle.
 
View attachment 167032Finally beat the champion. It was honestly a bit of a tough one but I managed to make it through
Awesome work making it through! I'll be adding it to the main post shortly. Regarding your question about the Battle Frontier, the BF was made available in later versions of the game around the time of v1.13. Based on your screenshot, you were running an older version of the game. Because so much was added to the newer iterations, a lot of the data was moved around and save files from older versions are sadly not compatible; apologies for the inconvenience. However, whatever version you're running should have some post-game goodies to keep you busy :) Thanks for playing once again!
Well, funnily enough, the attempt after posting this I managed to beat her lol. Her Archen made that rough for a first gym battle.
Yeah, it can be a little rough at first, but I hope that doesn't discourage you! Actually, people that have beaten the game sometimes cite Roxanne as one of the harder fights; if you can beat her, you're more than capable of clearing. Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help in any way!
where is the download link? I'm blind af lol
Hey, no problem! In the main post, there's a section called "Documentation and Patch," with a hyperlink leading to some docs and the actual .bps file!
 
Really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel here, but I present: 6 new HoF inductees!

Crazy team with sand attack/twave Liepard, 3 destiny bond/memento users, trick room + Marowak-A for Agatha, and moody Glalie for the sweeps. The Wallace double battle was a bit rough but we got there eventually with a bunch of Protect uses and decent Moody luck. No in-battle save states, but I did have to reload pre-fight saves.
[PokeCommunity.com] Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack  [Complete, v1.15 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]
 
Not sure if I'm missing something, but it looks like Lugia and Ho-Oh are in boss mode (can't be caught). Any idea why that might be? I do still have a few outstanding quests, but from what I remember 1.11 didn't have that issue...

E: This seems to have been related to the Cyrus quest. Finishing the quest resolved it.
 
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Holy shit, the Battle Palace is just... insane. First try, multiple trainers with what looks like perfect movesets and natures, just absolutely clobbering me. My max winstreak is 3 after several hours of teambuilding and trying new setups.
 
Really starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel here, but I present: 6 new HoF inductees!

Crazy team with sand attack/twave Liepard, 3 destiny bond/memento users, trick room + Marowak-A for Agatha, and moody Glalie for the sweeps. The Wallace double battle was a bit rough but we got there eventually with a bunch of Protect uses and decent Moody luck. No in-battle save states, but I did have to reload pre-fight saves.
View attachment 167388
Hoopy, it's good to hear from you again! I think this might be one of the weaker teams to actually clear the game, but it sounds like you cooked up quite the strategy to clear things :) I've gone ahead and added your entries to the main post!
Holy shit, the Battle Palace is just... insane. First try, multiple trainers with what looks like perfect movesets and natures, just absolutely clobbering me. My max winstreak is 3 after several hours of teambuilding and trying new setups.
Yeah, it's a bit rough/RNGish. To be honest, the original plan was to just run with the Battle Tower and Battle Factory, but I thought it would be too barren with only two facilities. I also happened to like the exterior + interior of the Battle Palace, so just ran with it. As for the trainer pools, the BFac + BTower + BPalace all share sets, so anything you see for use in the Factory will be what trainers have access to as well. I think the optimal strategy is to probably go as broken/cheese as you can, although BPalace is certainly the least enjoyable of the three in my opinion.
 
Alright, I think I'm starting to pull a Battle Palace team together, legitimately... I'm back to Shedinja strats, though.

Shedinja @ Focus Sash
Ability: Wonder Guard
Docile Nature (56% attack, 22% defend, 22% support)
- Phantom Force
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance
- Toxic

Corviknight @ Rocky Helmet
Ability: Pressure
Calm Nature (High HP: 40% attack, 50% defend, 10% support | Low HP: 25% attack, 62% defend, 13% support)
- Brave Bird
- Iron Defense
- Roost
- Body Press

Suicune @ Leftovers
Ability: Pressure
Naive Nature (56% attack, 22% defend, 22% support)
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Calm Mind
- Substitute

Ideally this Suicune would be Hasty, but I wasn't thinking about the Battle Palace when I caught it, so it'll have to just fail to use a move more often than I'd like.

My Tower team, on the other hand, is:
Landorus-Therian (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Intimidate
- Knock Off
- Rock Slide
- U-turn
- Earthquake

Urshifu-Rapid-Strike @ Choice Band
Ability: Unseen Fist
- Surging Strikes
- Aqua Jet
- Close Combat
- U-turn

Venusaur-Mega @ Venusaurite
Ability: Thick Fat
- Leech Seed
- Mega Drain
- Sludge Bomb
- Synthesis
 
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Also, I'm beginning to suspect that move selection in the Palace is bugged. When my pokemon tries to use a damaging move, it almost always (>90% of the time) uses the first one in the list of damaging moves, rather than pick randomly *or* pick using smart AI. I suspect this is related to the code that calls the move selection AI in the Battle Palace code, around here:


This basically means you only have one attack on every pokemon while your opponents can call whatever, and makes winning *much* harder.
 
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I somehow forgot to comment on this gem of a romhack. I absolutely adored this thing from beginning to end playing through challenge mode, even when screaming throughout the entire elite 4 and regretting my life choices. Thank you so much for the memories!
 

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  • [PokeCommunity.com] Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack  [Complete, v1.15 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]
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I somehow forgot to comment on this gem of a romhack. I absolutely adored this thing from beginning to end playing through challenge mode, even when screaming throughout the entire elite 4 and regretting my life choices. Thank you so much for the memories!
Apologies for taking so long to respond! Work has been hectic on my end haha

I am so thankful for your kind words; it takes a lot to want to sit through Challenge Mode (especially considering that the only "reward" is hopefully a sense of accomplishment lol), so kudos to you. Is the team you're submitting the team that cleared it? If so, that's even more impressive! It's been over a year since I released the initial iteration of this game, and I still get really happy when people enjoy their experience. It's far from perfect - I'm not afraid to admit that - but seeing comments like "thanks for the memories" really brightens my day. MMARC234, thanks for taking the time to experience this. I'm extremely grateful that you shared your experience with me!
 
Hi Brandon, I just saw this romhack last week and I'm having a blast so far and also Emerald is my favorite in the series.

Battle Frontier is what made me liked Emerald so much more than the other games and I remember racking my brains out for strategies against these Frontier Brains and that was the most fun I had playing Pokemon as a child(sorry for the quick backstory). I've read some of the posts and I saw that the Battle Frontier is not 100% yet, are you planning on enhancing all the facilities for this mod?

Regardless, I'm sure this will be one of my favorite Emerald romhacks once I finish it.
 
@BrandonXL Thanks for this awesome hack! Quick question, where can I find Spear Pillar? I did the Cyrus quest my first playthrough but I can't seem to find it this time.

So this was actually my first Pokemon romhack ever, I beat it a few months ago after not playing pokemon in over a decade. Really set the standard for what I've come to expect with romhacks. I would like to do a more thorough writeup after I finish my second playthrough.
 
Hi Brandon, I just saw this romhack last week and I'm having a blast so far and also Emerald is my favorite in the series.

Battle Frontier is what made me liked Emerald so much more than the other games and I remember racking my brains out for strategies against these Frontier Brains and that was the most fun I had playing Pokemon as a child(sorry for the quick backstory). I've read some of the posts and I saw that the Battle Frontier is not 100% yet, are you planning on enhancing all the facilities for this mod?

Regardless, I'm sure this will be one of my favorite Emerald romhacks once I finish it.
Glad to hear things are going smooth so far :)
The Battle Frontier in this game is comprised of only the Battle Factory, Battle Tower, and Battle Palace. Actually, only the Tower and Factory were in scope when I decided to add them in, but the Frontier felt too bare with only two facilities. I am not currently planning on adding the other facilities in the game, but I'm hoping there's still plenty of content to be enjoyed regardless. Please don't hesitate to ask any other questions!
@BrandonXL Thanks for this awesome hack! Quick question, where can I find Spear Pillar? I did the Cyrus quest my first playthrough but I can't seem to find it this time.

So this was actually my first Pokemon romhack ever, I beat it a few months ago after not playing pokemon in over a decade. Really set the standard for what I've come to expect with romhacks. I would like to do a more thorough writeup after I finish my second playthrough.
There's a separate entrance to Granite Cave accessible from Dewford West; you can access Spear Pillar by going through those stairs. Interested and looking forward to your writeup whenever that time comes :)
 
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