Emerald hack: Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack [Complete, v1.16 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]

[Corveone]

Get your pokemon raised to the level cap of 15, you've got Shinx and oddish on route 101 that could help, route 103 having mareep, and lotad, and route 102 having shroomish, ralts (good counter to skrelp), rookidee, and galar-meowth. There's even joltik in Petalburg Woods that can help you with the carvana if shinx-mareep isn't enough. Try to get confusion inflicted on the opponent via ralts and build a team specifically against that grunt. If you're having trouble with him, I hope you'll have an easier time with roxanne.

Well, I started playing this last night and reached that point, so just giving my two cents:

The battle is totally doable (or not, depending on the team you happen to have at that point), but pokegamer2000 still has a point. You suggest reaching the level 15 cap, but Petalburg Woods' wild Pokémon (because you can't access any higher level area until you defeat that grunt) range from level 6 to 8, so even reaching level 13 (the grunt's team level) is quite the grind for an early game. Raising wild Pokémon levels to be more on par with this "boss" trainer would be probably a good idea, especially for players who might need to adjust their team. Some Pokémon that would be good counters might also fail because they won't learn a decent STAB in time.

I'll summarize my experience with that battle (didn't have a team made specifically for it, I was mostly just picking mons potentially good against the first two gyms)
Team was: Treecko, Taillow, Morelull, Stunky, Solosis, Lotad. All of them where at level 8-10 when I met the grunt, all trainers up to that point were defeated so nothing else to battle against but wild mons. Lost the battle, grinded everyone to 12-13.

Lotad: was meant to start Growling the Elemental Fangs Poochyena, but did nothing. Poochyena's Bite took over half of its HP and made it flinch.
Stunky: Had to relly on Poison Gas because its best damaging move at this point is Scratch. Poison Gas + Screech + Scratch. Defeated the Poochyena with 2 HP left. Carvanha finished off Stunky, but took damage from Aftermath.
Treecko: Outsped and defeated Carvanha with one Mega Drain (Aftermath probably helped). Then used Leer on Skrelp, a second Leer after taking Icy Wind since it was still faster, followed by a Quick Attack.
Taillow: Finished Skrelp, wich was at -2 Defense, with Wing Attack.

Morelull's only Grass move was Absorb (a common issue among other early game Grass types) and has no Fairy moves yet either so it wouldn't have been match against Carvanha's Ice Fang despite the double-sided type advantage. Solosis would have been destroyed by Poochyena/Carvanha's Bite, and even against Skrelp it wouldn't have been that good because its only Psychic type move so far is Psywave. Getting a Bug in Petalburg Woods would probably help (asuming that Bug actually learns a Bug move at level 13 or below) but it's something that might catch many players off guard because Bug isn't a type you'd like to have around when you think about the first gym.

 

[Demadunk]

Hey, congrats! You're the first person to submit a team, so I guess technically you'll always be the first person to beat the game's public release :) thank you so much for taking the time to play the game! I hope it was a fun experience!
Regarding at least Miror B., the NPCs in Slateport might provide you with some guidance. The other quests are found by interacting with other overworld NPCs - if you see anyone out of place, they're probably related!

I've already talked to every NPC in Slateport before you wrote this, and did it again for a double check. I know one of them within the battle tent turned the mission active but it is probably a broken flag. I've completed 26/30 of the quests at this point and only have the 4 left to do. One of them because I am too lazy to complete the regi puzzle again until i feel like it, and Veni, Vidi, Vici because I dread having to face that without collecting the absolute best team I could assemble of pokemon with better strategies since the difficulty is actually far higher than the 6 on the scale you talked about. Late game gyms such as Tate and Liza requiring me to assemble a predominantly dark/ghost team just to have a chance due to the team construction, and don't get me about how hard the elite four crawl was.

I'm starting the Across the PokeVerse quest now since I am confident that the battle tent related one is bugged, should hopefully net me some better BST pokemon to consider throwing in the mix of my teambuilding.

Things I would recommend to new players: There's only one fishing rod now and it's from a fisherman in Dewford that you usually get the old rod from, While you can't get to the grind house in slateport at this point there are audinos in dewford cave, and you will have to grind a team to make against roxanne. You'll have early game hell and late game hell specifically on the elite four+champion due to how much it throws at you.

 

[BrandonXL]

I've already talked to every NPC in Slateport before you wrote this, and did it again for a double check. I know one of them within the battle tent turned the mission active but it is probably a broken flag. I've completed 26/30 of the quests at this point and only have the 4 left to do. One of them because I am too lazy to complete the regi puzzle again until i feel like it, and Veni, Vidi, Vici because I dread having to face that without collecting the absolute best team I could assemble of pokemon with better strategies since the difficulty is actually far higher than the 6 on the scale you talked about. Late game gyms such as Tate and Liza requiring me to assemble a predominantly dark/ghost team just to have a chance due to the team construction, and don't get me about how hard the elite four crawl was.

I'm starting the Across the PokeVerse quest now since I am confident that the battle tent related one is bugged, should hopefully net me some better BST pokemon to consider throwing in the mix of my teambuilding.

Things I would recommend to new players: There's only one fishing rod now and it's from a fisherman in Dewford that you usually get the old rod from, While you can't get to the grind house in slateport at this point there are audinos in dewford cave, and you will have to grind a team to make against roxanne. You'll have early game hell and late game hell specifically on the elite four+champion due to how much it throws at you.

So, one of the NPCs in Slateport will tell you to investigate towns with Battle Tents.
If you want to advance this mini-storyline, you need to:

Spoiler:

Talk to NPCs around Verdanturf!

Great, thank you for that!
One last thing: how does the trainers scale in the mid/late game? Is it an average of party members or only based on your highest level Pokémon?
PS. and when does the "mid game" begin?

So bosses (side-bosses, Maxie, E4, and the like) will always scale to your highest level in the party. Regular trainers will be at -3 so that you can still get worthwhile experience from battling them no matter how strong your team is, but challenging enough to where you can't breeze past them by clicking one button. I'd define mid-game as probably pre-Wattson to be honest; there's a pretty big transition between what you're using/fighting from gym two to gym three. Please feel free to ask any other questions!

 

[BaconatorDude]

Things I would recommend to new players: There's only one fishing rod now and it's from a fisherman in Dewford that you usually get the old rod from, While you can't get to the grind house in slateport at this point there are audinos in dewford cave, and you will have to grind a team to make against roxanne. You'll have early game hell and late game hell specifically on the elite four+champion due to how much it throws at you.

How did you beat the team aqua grunt at the beginning of the game? his pokemon are OP and for some reason, out speeds and tanks everything i throw at him, even tho he only has unevolved pokemon. and it's impossible to train before then because wild pokemon are so low level. Poochyena, carvanha and skrelp, it's impossible for them to be this OP, the carvanha even took down my water type, My water type, which should've resisted it

This!!
I feel like the level scaling makes the game incredibly complex - I agree with the Team Aqua Grunt being difficult since you really need to take everything into account right off the bat; types, stats, abilities and held items.
I can't even imagine anyone completing a hardcore nuzlocke of this! A version with set levels for every trainer would be so much better for the casual player.
People might give up too soon because the Grunt seems so challenging even before the first Gym.

 

[Demadunk]

So, one of the NPCs in Slateport will tell you to investigate towns with Battle Tents.
If you want to advance this mini-storyline, you need to:

Spoiler:

Talk to NPCs around Verdanturf!

Already have done this. Can you be more specific?


Also, is there the battle frontier? I completed Across the PokeVerse to find out it was just a big reference and not opportunity to catch some UBs.
Just trying to find more legendary pokemon to weigh my options so I can try the gauntlet eventually.

 

[Demadunk]

All I've got left to do is the Tent quest and the undoubtedly hardest quest. This is my team + legendary box and I have to admit I still don't feel comfortable going in blind. I don't know how to get Groudon/Kyogre in their origin forms, and I haven't seen the forces of nature trio so far.

 

[BrandonXL]

Already have done this. Can you be more specific?


Also, is there the battle frontier? I completed Across the PokeVerse to find out it was just a big reference and not opportunity to catch some UBs.
Just trying to find more legendary pokemon to weigh my options so I can try the gauntlet eventually.

All I've got left to do is the Tent quest and the undoubtedly hardest quest. This is my team + legendary box and I have to admit I still don't feel comfortable going in blind. I don't know how to get Groudon/Kyogre in their origin forms, and I haven't seen the forces of nature trio so far.

My responses will be in spoilers for obvious reasons.
Regarding the quest:

Spoiler:

There's an old man in the Verdanturf Poke Center.

Regarding the Forces of Nature"

Spoiler:

This takes the place of the Johto starters for completing the Hoenn Regional Dex.

 

[Demadunk]

My responses will be in spoilers for obvious reasons.
Regarding the quest:

Spoiler:

There's an old man in the Verdanturf Poke Center.

Regarding the Forces of Nature"

Spoiler:

This takes the place of the Johto starters for completing the Hoenn Regional Dex.

Damn, I really did overlook the one place in the whole town.

 

[Demadunk]

30/30 quests done.

 

[Soraftw23]

I'm really enjoying this hack so far! Have about 3 badges (I plan on finishing it within a few weeks) and really appreciate all of the quality of life things added. That being said, the biggest miss so far is the HM slave aspect. Is there a way you can fix that in the next update? Hoenn is super annoying to traverse with all the different field moves that are necessary.

 

[BrandonXL]

I'm really enjoying this hack so far! Have about 3 badges (I plan on finishing it within a few weeks) and really appreciate all of the quality of life things added. That being said, the biggest miss so far is the HM slave aspect. Is there a way you can fix that in the next update? Hoenn is super annoying to traverse with all the different field moves that are necessary.

Hey, I'm glad you're enjoying the game and hope you continue to enjoy your journey!
There are certainly two ways to go about that; I've seen hacks implement key items that provide said functionality. The other solution could be to restructure the overworld to have less of a need for that. I think it's definitely worth considering, and if I were to go about it, I'd probably elect to do the former to maintain vanilla integrity.
I'll definitely keep it in mind if and when the time comes to update everything!

 

[KandarRdm]

Really liking the hack so far. Definitely harder than 6/10, but still enjoying. Currently just beat Wally in front of Watson's Gym, but decided to explore around a bit to xp & catch what I can. The fight near the lighthouse, im close to beating i feel, but for the moment, it's a decent way to power level one or two mon with the Exp Egg.
Haven't played many of the 'modern' games (last official game I played was Soul Silver), but getting to mess around with the newer 'mon is fun.
Only complaint i have is the fishing. I have terrible timing, so have only caught one mon fishing in many many tries (It was Clawcher, thought finding a Tentacruel or something Fighting & Ice resist woulda helped on Brawly).

 

[BrandonXL]

Really liking the hack so far. Definitely harder than 6/10, but still enjoying. Currently just beat Wally in front of Watson's Gym, but decided to explore around a bit to xp & catch what I can. The fight near the lighthouse, im close to beating i feel, but for the moment, it's a decent way to power level one or two mon with the Exp Egg.
Haven't played many of the 'modern' games (last official game I played was Soul Silver), but getting to mess around with the newer 'mon is fun.
Only complaint i have is the fishing. I have terrible timing, so have only caught one mon fishing in many many tries (It was Clawcher, thought finding a Tentacruel or something Fighting & Ice resist woulda helped on Brawly).

Happy to hear you're liking it :)
Honestly, my big worry is that the game is too easy, but I think that comes from me knowing what to expect in the game. Difficulty is super important to me (within reason) because it makes overcoming those fights all the more rewarding!

 

[Demadunk]

Happy to hear you're liking it :)
Honestly, my big worry is that the game is too easy, but I think that comes from me knowing what to expect in the game. Difficulty is super important to me (within reason) because it makes overcoming those fights all the more rewarding!

Trust me, the game is not "too easy". It's actually hard due to the severity of some of the challenges early game and ramps up again after gym 6. If I were to place it in comparison to Radical Red it'd be 9/10 only due to the fact you have streamlined it so you don't have to waste a lot of time IV/EV grinding for a good set against an ev trained boss in return.

I'd actually tone down the E4+champ just a little so their teams aren't as ridiculous, but you should consider it when more people get to that point and see how they make their own strategies against it. After all, you'd probably have an easier time with a sun/rain team, but... you know, going in blind made it far more difficult when the team you saw get into the hall of fame was actually the 7th iteration of that team.

 

[toxicrqph]

Hey at the third gym and just go the Hisuian sneasel, wondering where you get the razor claw at?

 

[Demadunk]

Hey at the third gym and just go the Hisuian sneasel, wondering where you get the razor claw at?

I know of where one Razor Claw is at. Unfortunately, it's in the safari zone.

 

[toxicrqph]

I know of where one Razor Claw is at. Unfortunately, it's in the safari zone.

Ah ok thanks, how far into the game do you find the safari zone though?

 

[lweege]

Sorry, just to clarify, so the nature stated in any pokemon has no effect on its stats?

 

[BrandonXL]

Hey at the third gym and just go the Hisuian sneasel, wondering where you get the razor claw at?

Wild Sneasel and Weavile have a chance at holding it, with their locations being Route 112 and Route 123 (respectively).

Sorry, just to clarify, so the nature stated in any pokemon has no effect on its stats?

Correct! You'll see a nature, but it won't influence stats.

 

[toxicrqph]

Hey would anyone know what the specific level caps are per gym? Because sometimes the gym leaders don't say