- 1,591
- Posts
- 10
- Years
- Age 30
- Seen Mar 20, 2024
Pokémon Inclement Emerald
Inclement Emerald is my third difficulty and catch em' all style hack, and much like the previous two, it's heavily inspired by Drayano's famous hacks. It started out as a binary hack back in 2018, and has since been redone from scratch using the pokeemerald decompilation project. It's intended to offer a modern, more challenging take on the Hoenn region, and is full of quality-of-life improvements, new systems that streamline Pokémon training, and extra events that should freshen things up a little.
Features
Massive Pokémon variety:
- Most non-legendary Pokémon from gen 1-7 can be obtained, with the missing Pokémon and all of Generation 8 planned for a future version.
- New ways to find Pokémon keeps the grass from getting crowded – most routes will have eight Pokémon species found in the grass, with more found in Cut trees, sand mounds and berry trees.
- Choose any of the regional starters at the start of the game! Before choosing a starter, you'll be asked which region you want your starters to come from, and then you can pick one of the three from that region. Be careful not to fast forward your way through the early game and skip this choice!
- Pokémon that normally evolve by trading have alternate evolution methods.
Modern Battle Engine:
Thanks to Dizzy Egg and RHH, Inclement Emerald features most new moves, abilities, items and mechanics from gen 4-7. This includes Mega Evolution, but not Z-moves. It's still a WIP so there will be some bugs, but hopefully nothing game-breaking!
Enhanced Pokédex:
Inclement Emerald uses TheXaman's Pokédex Plus, which shows base stats, learnsets, egg moves and more, all in game!
Custom Mega Evolutions:
Certain fan favourites like Milotic and Flygon can finally mega evolve - complete with custom sprites and cries - and more will be added in future updates. Some Gigantamax forms have also been repurposed as megas.
Custom EXP System:
Like Gen 8, all party Pokémon will get EXP when you battle, and this can't be turned off. However, it works a little differently:
- All Pokémon that appear in a battle get 100% of the EXP
- Pokémon that didn't battle will get 25% of the EXP
- Holding an EXP Share increases that to 100% EXP
Weather Rework:
Weather-inducing abilities like Drought and Drizzle create endless weather again, but the damage bonus from sun and rain has been reduced to 20%. The goal behind this was to make defensive weather abilities like Ice Body and Sand Veil better options, while reigning in Swift Swim and its clones a bit. It also gives you a chance to play around with mons like Hydration Goodra that would have been much better if they'd been around for the weather wars in Gen 5!
Additionally, Ice Types receive a 50% defense boost in Hail. Even though this change is a bit of a meme at this point it really does help all those slow, defensive Ice types!
More TMs and Tutors
- Inclement Emerald features a custom list of 100 TMs, 8 HMS, and a whopping 143 tutor moves! Some of these are entirely new, such as Meteor Mash, Quiver Dance and Freeze-Dry. Note that "only" 126 of these tutor moves are currently available, as some of them are unfinished gen 8 moves.
- Generic tutor moves are all taught by an NPC found in every Pokémon Center. They're all free, and you'll unlock new moves after each badge you earn.
- Special tutors like Grass Pledge, Blast Burn and Draco Meteor are found elsewhere and may have extra requirements to be taught.
- And of course, TMs are infinitely reusable.
Two versions – Rebalanced and Standard (Coming Soon!):
The Rebalanced Version includes changes to base stats, types, moves, movepools, items and abilities to make many Pokémon stronger. This version also includes a few entirely new moves and abilities. These changes are almost entirely taken from my earlier hacks, Photonic Sun and Prismatic Moon, but some also come from Drayano's hacks and Luuma's Altered Emerald. A few examples include:
- Overgrow, Blaze, Torrent and Swarm provide a 20% damage boost to their respective types at all times. This increases to 50% at low HP.
- The Big Root doubles HP recovered from certain moves.
- The Light Ball also works on both Raichu forms, but gives them a 50% damage boost instead of the 100% that Pikachu gets.
- Bonemerang can hit airborne targets (but doesn't knock them down like Thousand Arrows does).
This is something I'm making just for the community, so I'd like to get some input on this – just how vanilla does the Standard Version need to be? Is removing stat and type changes enough, or will the custom megas and move tutors make it unappealing? Please let me know what you think!
Increased Difficulty:
- Improved AI – opponents will switch more often, make better decisions, and understand how new moves and abilities work.
- Trainers and wild Pokémon scale based on your party's levels, allowing you to skip trainers or tackle optional areas at any time.
- As of version 1.3, a level cap system keeps the scaling reasonable and makes training a full party to equal levels easier. Once a Pokémon is over the cap, it'll only get one EXP point per KO, but will still earn EVs.
- Every trainer has a custom moveset to ensure the level scaling doesn't leave them with rubbish sets. Most trainers will simply use level up moves, but bosses, Ace Trainers and Veterans will commonly make use of TM, tutor and egg moves, and some will even use Mega Evolution!
Three Difficulty Settings:
- Normal Mode: trainers have no EVs
- Hard Mode: trainers gradually gain EVs as you progress through the game, eventually having full 510 EV spreads. Regular trainers like Swimmers and Fishermen will have "bad" spreads to keep exploring from becoming a slog, but watch out for Ace Trainers!
- Challenge Mode: This is like Hard Mode, but with two extra rules: the bag can't be used in trainer battles, and the Shift battle style is disabled.
Massive Bag:
The bag has enough space to hold 999 of every item in the game, and has more pockets to make it easier to navigate.
Decapitalisation:
Almost all of the CAPSLOCK in the middle of every SENTENCE has been removed.
QoL changes:
- A new Key Item, the Poké Vial, can be used out of battle to fully heal your entire party. Initially it only has one use, but it's refilled by healing at a Pokémon Center, and can be upgraded with an extra charge later on.
- When a repel wears off, you'll be prompted to use another one.
- Healing items can be used repeatedly, without returning to the bag after each use.
- Auto run – this can be toggled on or off by pressing the "R" button. You can also hold B while it's on to walk, or to run when it's off.
- You can also hold B to surf faster!
- New hybrid HM system: you can still use HMs as normal, but there's now an alternative: whenever you beat a Gym Leader, they'll allow you to call one of their Pokémon to use an HM move for you, so you can use HMs without having any Pokémon that know the move. This applies to all HMs except Fly and Flash, which can be used by any Pokémon that can learn them without actually knowing the move.
- On top of that, Fly can be used in the overworld without any badges.
- Get a free Premier Ball for every ten Poké Balls you buy, of any kind! E.g. if you buy 30 Ultra Balls, you get 3 Premier Balls free.
- Buy healing items, Poké Balls etc. in Pokémon Centers. Marts now sell consumable held items like gems and Focus Sashes.
- Like Sword and Shield, the move reminder, name rater and move deleter are all one NPC that can be found in every Pokémon Center. You can even rename other trainers' Pokémon!
- Friend Balls make Pokémon very friendly when caught - if they evolve via friendship, they'll be already be friendly enough to evolve!
- Dream Balls will give Pokémon their hidden ability when caught.
- The chance of encountering a shiny Pokémon has been increased to 1/1024.
- IVs and EVs can be viewed on the summary screen - press "A" to cycle between stats, IVs and EVs.
Improved Berry system:
- All berry trees have significantly increased yields, and some of them grow much faster.
- Berries planted on rainy routes or in the Berry Master's garden don't need to be watered – they'll always give you the maximum amount of berries.
- You can also encounter wild Pokémon when checking a berry tree, with a different set of mons available at each stage of growth.
Better Training and Stat Boosting:
- The power training items can be bought in Slateport.
- EV reducing berries are found early, have massive berry yields, and grow extremely quickly – one hour per stage!
- Two new NPCS, Evie and Ivy, can painlessly modify your Pokémon's EVs and IVs. Evie can be paid money to increase EVs, and will reset them to zero for free. Ivy will change a Pokémon's IV to 0, 1, 14, 15, 30 or 31 for the price of a Bottle Cap. She can also can change all of a Pokémon's IVs at once to give them a new Hidden Power type, so you don't need to know the IV combination for the type you want.
- The nature changer can be found in Slateport City, and will change a Pokémon's nature for 5 Oran Berries.
- An improved version of Sword and Shield's egg move transferral system allows you to pass egg moves between any Pokémon that share an Egg Group – they don't need to be the same species!
- The daycare has been updated to modern standards – you can pass down natures, balls, moves and IVs exactly as you would in Sword and Shield.
- As of version 1.7, all wild, gift and static encounter Pokémon have at least three perfect IVs, guaranteed.
- Also added in version 1.7: Vitamins now boost IVs instead of EVs. E.g. using a Calcium will raise a Pokémon's special attack IV by 8.
New Locations:
A few maps, like Petalburg Woods and Scorched Slab, have been expanded with new areas, and there are also a few all-new locations. This helps to spread out Pokémon species and keep grassy patches from getting too crowded. Some of the new maps also serve as homes to Legendary Pokémon that wouldn't normally be found in Emerald.
Post-Game Rematches:
- All Gym Leaders can be rematched daily, and you can choose to battle them in singles, doubles, and with or without Legendary Pokémon. There's no need to wait for them to call you, simply talk to them after becoming Champion.
- The Elite Four can also be rematched with the same options as Gym Leaders.
- Brendan/May can be rematched daily on Route 103.
- And more!
Documents
Documentation for things like Pokémon changes, item locations and most everything else you might want to know is provided with the download. Documentation is also available here; the docs here include trainer teams and are maintained the community.
Screenshots
What's not Done:
- The Battle Frontier and Trainer Hill are currently inaccessible, as they're not in a playable state right now.
- Some Pokémon can't be caught yet - see the Pokémon Locations document for details.
What's Next:
While the current version is fully playable, I've got more planned for Inclement Emerald. There's no timeframe for these additions, but I'm planning to add new features in this order:
- Generation 8 Pokémon and battle mechanics (items, moves, abilities etc.)
- Another difficulty setting above Challenge Mode (something like Eternal X/Wilting Y's Insanity Mode)
- Standard Version - dependent on feedback!
- AI overhaul - it's still got a lot of room for improvement
- Fully overhauled Battle Frontier, using Pokémon from all eight generations
- I'd also like to add a few new modes to each facility (maybe 6v6 and inverse battles? We'll see).
- Extended Post Game with all Legendary Pokémon available, plus some extra stuff to do.
Of course, this is a fangame so there's no guarantees any of these things will actually get done, and definitely no deadline or estimated release date for any of them. It's done when it's done!
FAQ
Answers to frequently asked questions:
Q: How can I get Hidden Abilities?
A: Catch a Pokémon in a Dream Ball, or use an Ability Patch on it.
Q: Where can I find [insert Pokemon or item here]?
A: Check the docs! There may be a few things that aren't listed in the docs and should be, so feel free to ask about those here.
Q: Will my current save work with the latest version?
A: Yes! Just make sure you make an actual save with the game's save option before updating. Save states may not work between versions. Saves from 1.0 versions will unfortunately not be compatible with 2.0 and later.
Q: Do cheats work? Why?
A: No, cheats for vanilla Emerald don't work. Decomp hacks can change anything and everything in a ROM, including the memory addresses of things like the bag and the party (case in point: the expanded bag!). Making the bag bigger means relocating and shrinking other things to make room, so vanilla cheats don't know where anything is in the hack and therefore won't work.
Q: What are the levels for the level caps?
A: See this table:
Q: How do I update to a newer version without losing my progress?
A: First, you need make an in-game save using the save option in the menu - save states are not enough.
Then, apply the latest patch to a clean (vanilla, unmodified) Emerald ROM, in the same way you did the first time you patched the ROM.
Finally, make sure that your save file matches the name of your newly patched ROM. E.g. if you have InclementEmerald.gba, your save file should be named InclementEmerald.sav (if they don't match, rename one of them so that they do). Emulators pair the save and the ROM based on the file name, so as long as these match your progress will be carried over to the new version. Progress sadly cannot be carried over from 1.0 versions to the unreleased 2.0 and later versions.
Q: When is day-time and night-time?
A: Night-time is 6pm to 4am, and day-time is 4am to 6pm.
Q: Is there a Discord?
A: Yes, you scrolled past the link. It's the big red text right at the top of the post!
Q: Does the boosted shiny rate apply to (insert thing here)/can (insert thing here) be shiny?
A: Yes. The boosted shiny rate applies to everything. Nothing is shiny locked (though in-game trades are always the exact same mon, so they naturally can't be shiny).
Q: When/how does [Pokémon] learn [move]?
A: Check the in-game Pokédex, it has all this information and more!
Q: I can't find [Pokémon] in the locations doc!
A: If you can't find a Pokémon, try searching for its evolved or unevolved forms too!
Q: Will Hisuian mons be added any time soon?
A: No. We don't have full data for them yet, and while I could just make up move pools for them, I don't want to redo all that work once we get the official data later this year.
Q: Why isn't there an option to turn off the Exp All effect?
A: The game's progression/level/difficulty curve is designed around the Exp all, which in this hack gives you up to 125% bonus Exp (100% from the active battler and 25% to every other party member - still MUCH less than the gen 6+ Exp share). Removing that much Exp from the game would utterly ruin the level curve, making enemy trainers MUCH stronger than they should be. Although their levels scale to yours, their movesets and species do not, so you'd be up against stronger moves and evolutions that would outclass what you have access to, unless you wasted hours grinding. Naturally, the opposite also applies if you over level via too much grinding or cheating - you'll trivialise much of the game!
Q: Will an "easy mode" be added?
A: I currently have no plans to do this, as it would essentially be a whole new hack, and not one I'm interested in making.
Credits
- PRET: pokeemerald
- Dizzy Egg: Battle Engine, Pokémon Expansion, Item Expansion, nature-coloured stats, higher money cap
- RHH: Battle Engine, Pokémon Expansion, Item Expansion
- Contributors to the Simple Modifications thread: various small changes
- Ghoulslash: fast surf, medicine reuse, expanded OW IDs, plural giveitem, toggleable auto-run
- Camthesaxman: expanded OW IDs
- AsparagusEduardo: single purchase TMs, more bag pockets, Pokedex+
- TheXaman: Pokedex+
- lightbox87: whiteout money
- NobodySociety: Fire Red style fishing
- Zeturic: wrapping summary screen, move items in summary screen
- Lunos: OW poison changes, Gracidea form change
- Furret: Music Expansion (HGSS and DPPt tracks)
- SamuRH/Xhizy: RHH/PRET intro
- Chaos Rush, Mr. Dollsteak, contributors to the DS-Style sprite resources: Pokémon sprites
- Skeli: Parental Bond code, which was adapted from the CFRU's source code
- Crema: Temtem's "Tem Vial", which inspired the Poké Vial item
- Fans of EXWY and PSPM: This hack wouldn't be the same without some of the fantastic suggestions you've all provided over the years, and I always appreciate hearing from you! I hope this one lives up to the hype even though it's eight months late. Looking forward to seeing those Hall of Fame screenshots!
Bugs
- The move tutor selection list doesn't fit in the screen while you have six badges. It still works, but doesn't look good!
- Castform and Cherrim can't change form in battle, and will look a little buggy when they try.
- The Berry Blender is broken - it will just look buggy on some systems, but will crash on others.
- Some TM/HM and tutor compatibility may be incorrect. These were done by hand before Sword and Shield were released and then updated, so it's very likely I made mistakes along the way! If a Pokémon doesn't learn a move that it should, please let me know so I can fix it!
- Illusion doesn't fool the AI - this completely ruins Zoroark, so I'd suggest not training one until this is fixed.
- Certain abilities will print the wrong message when they boost a stat (e.g. Justified, Stamina). The stat boost works as intended.
- If your Pokémon eats a berry with Bug Bite while holding an item, that item will be lost. I would suggest not using Bug Bite until this is fixed.
If you find a bug that isn't listed here, I'd be grateful if you report it! Please include as much information as you can: what you were playing on, if you used save states, what you were doing before finding the bug, etc.
Please make sure you're on the latest version BEFORE reporting bugs!
Download
Download the latest (read: the one with the highest number) Inclement Emerald.zip file from this page: LINK.
Then, extract the zip file and follow the instructions in the "HOW TO PATCH" file within. I can't provide a pre-patched version as sharing ROM files is illegal, so you will need to get a clean copy of Pokémon Emerald and patch it yourself.
You might notice the source code is also available at the link above; feel free to make use of this however you want. Credit for any of my code you use from Inclement Emerald is appreciated, but not required.
Finally, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy Inclement Emerald!
Then, extract the zip file and follow the instructions in the "HOW TO PATCH" file within. I can't provide a pre-patched version as sharing ROM files is illegal, so you will need to get a clean copy of Pokémon Emerald and patch it yourself.
You might notice the source code is also available at the link above; feel free to make use of this however you want. Credit for any of my code you use from Inclement Emerald is appreciated, but not required.
Finally, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy Inclement Emerald!
Last edited:
