Hack Series: Pokémon Photonic Sun & Prismatic Moon

[Buffel Saft]

Never occurred to me this "flow of time" thought, but it does make sense.

Usually, when playing Pokémon, if my opponents manage to hit me, I feel like I'm playing it wrong, (at least in-game, not Battle Tower/Tree whatever) which kind of explains my fixation on Mold Breaker and my reluctance in using anything with base speed lower than 80.

In your hack, though, I guess I will eventually be hit by faster stuff, which I won't say I don't mind, but will probably be somewhat of a refreshing experience. I actually don't mind too much something surviving my hits because their defense is high, but the sturdy gets a little bit on my nerves. This run of US I did these days was quite fun, though, even if I used something quite slow and not that strong, my chosen duo for the run (I always choose two Pokémon and go with them, to leave room for training stuff for the dex and my Breloom and Smeargle catchers) being Malamar and Pelipper (just so I could not die immediately to Guzma's First Impression, mainly). I can't express how rewarding it was to topsy-turvy every single totem fight in the game. Turning their auras agains them felt SO rewarding. The Contrary was a nice thing, too, if only to laugh at Intimidaters.

One thing I came to notice in this run is that the A.I. simply don't know how to deal with Contrary. In some cases, they would keep boosting my stats even after they'd already triggered Contrary once. Poor A.I..

I believe I could do a similar thing with Hitmontop in PS/PM, but stealing the auras with Luvdisc and baton passing it seems a bit funnier. Powering through them might not be as easy with their higher levels, now, at least.

I'm still finishing hunting the wormholes legendaries in US, to have everything with my OT, in order to play PS (though I'd still rather see Giovanni use Mega Mewtwo Y, as I find X ugly, as well as it missing its signature move), so I will be here loathing the game designer who though it was a good idea to add curves to the Ultra Warp Ride minigame for a while before experiencing your changes.

As there's no National Dex (and I understand why), I'm wondering if I should simply insert my living Dex at the start of the game or if I should hunt for the Pokémon in-game. Maybe if I build a living Dex it will feel like completing the pages.

Did you change the Battle Agency Pokémon to fit with the hack changes, by the way? Though I suppose we wouldn't get the visitor Pokémon to complete the team, so maybe that's not worth the effort? Battle Factory style things are enjoyable to me, and I got a little curious about it now.

Trainers in my hack will eventually have full EV spreads, so there's a very good chance they'll outspeed you at some point. Contrary is nuts in game, the AI doesn't check for it at all. That seems to be the case for most gen 4+ abilities though; Dry Skin, Storm Drain, and Lightning Rod are all ignored, so you can get the AI to trigger them over and over. I suspect GF just stopped updating it with logic for the new abilities, which is a shame really (in Emerald it actually learns which ability your Pokemon has when it activates, and behaves appropriately).

Beating totems with Luvdisc is something I'd love to see, that sounds hilarious!

I haven't edited the Battle Agency at all, though pk3DS can edit the Battle Royal and Battle Tree, so it's probably possible (I'd assume it just pulls Pokemon from the same list as one of those). Might be something to look into for a future update.

 

[Giovanni Boss]

Trainers in my hack will eventually have full EV spreads, so there's a very good chance they'll outspeed you at some point. Contrary is nuts in game, the AI doesn't check for it at all. That seems to be the case for most gen 4+ abilities though; Dry Skin, Storm Drain, and Lightning Rod are all ignored, so you can get the AI to trigger them over and over. I suspect GF just stopped updating it with logic for the new abilities, which is a shame really (in Emerald it actually learns which ability your Pokemon has when it activates, and behaves appropriately).

Beating totems with Luvdisc is something I'd love to see, that sounds hilarious!

I haven't edited the Battle Agency at all, though pk3DS can edit the Battle Royal and Battle Tree, so it's probably possible (I'd assume it just pulls Pokemon from the same list as one of those). Might be something to look into for a future update.

I believe Agency does use Tree's roster of Pokémon.

So, that means the A.I. can't deal with Illusion? If I emulate a Toxicroak with a Zoroark, would the A.I. keep throwing psychic attacks? Seems so sad.

This hack is making me want a full team, something no Pokémon game ever did to me. A pity, in part, for I did want to include the Luvdisc for the totem-beating purpose alone.

Now Porygon-Z can be my all-purpose steamroller, I guess I could actually choose the other members solely on what I'd like to use, to actually have interesting matches against the rosters you built.

Speaking of Porygon-Z, I believe there's a certain special trainer that might want to use Techno Blast instead of Tri-Attack on it. Just mentioning in case you didn't notice.

 

[aviranzerioniac]

Thank you for doing this. Enjoying it immensely.

 

[Izanagi-no-Bisharp]

This hack is making me want a full team, something no Pokémon game ever did to me. A pity, in part, for I did want to include the Luvdisc for the totem-beating purpose alone.

Exactly!! I've already cleared post game and all of optional quests and now i just catch all improved pokemon and rebattle E4 with different teams. Sometimes i do monotype, or starter, or pseudo-legend team. It's fun because i can add pokemon that in vanilla never made it good, like Ariados or Ledian or even Farfetch'd and freaking Delibird 😂. Also you don't get bored fighting E4 because it's a lot challenging than the vanilla and sometimes i do lost (i am looking at that savage Life Orb Marshadow and Genesect and that damn M-Metagross 😭).

Thanks for this incredible hack Buffel Salt 😄, this is as far my most enjoyable hack alongside Drayano's hacks.

 

[Giovanni Boss]

Exactly!! I've already cleared post game and all of optional quests and now i just catch all improved pokemon and rebattle E4 with different teams. Sometimes i do monotype, or starter, or pseudo-legend team. It's fun because i can add pokemon that in vanilla never made it good, like Ariados or Ledian or even Farfetch'd and freaking Delibird 😂. Also you don't get bored fighting E4 because it's a lot challenging than the vanilla and sometimes i do lost (i am looking at that savage Life Orb Marshadow and Genesect and that damn M-Metagross 😭).

Thanks for this incredible hack Buffel Salt 😄, this is as far my most enjoyable hack alongside Drayano's hacks.

I did get to know this hack after searching if Drayano had a blaze black / volt white for USUM, and I'm not disappointed in the least. It speaks volumes to be on par with such a well developed hack-patch.

Buffel, I wonder if you can make it so Knock Off cannot remove Genesect drives if the target is Porygon-Z, since it has access to Techno Blast, now. The same for Trick and Switcheroo. Is it possible?

 

[NuclearNecro]

Ah man, nice to see some of my ideas getting put into the hack, though I should probably mention one thing, it being that in the remastared level up move docs, it says that Stunfisk learns Earth Power at level 47, despite being at the absolute bottom of its move list. I'm assuming it's meant to be level 67 but you forgot to correct it.
But anyways, I got some more ideas for balance changing:

- Change Fearow's type from Normal/Flying to Dark/Flying. Considering that Fearow literally has fear in its name, has a menacing and sharp appearance, its Japanese name is Onidrill, with oni being a type of demon and demons being associated with evil and darkness, AND it getting Intimidate in the rom hack, it's kinda bizzare that you didn't go all the way and give it the Dark type. And considering it has the buffed Drill Peck and Sniper, giving it access to Night Slash could give it an interesting niche.

- It may be weird, but granting Kantonian Raichu a new ability, with it being Electric Surge. With how things are now, Kantonian Raichu is pretty much worse when next to its Alolan counterpart, with Alolan Raichu having a higher Special Attack (since why would you even use a physical Raichu set? Volt Tackle?), the secondary typing giving it more coverage. That and it could give them a bit of cute duality, with Kantonian Raichu being the terrain setter, while Alolan Raichu is the terrain abuser. And if you think it would make Alolan Raichu have a disadvantage since it would only have one ability, maybe you could give it Lightningrod as one of them, and then something more bizzare like Thick Fat (since it's more rounded than the Kantonian version, the cause for Alolan Raichu being this way being believed to be diet, and the whole Pancake Race thing from the anime) or Oblivious.

- Return Granbull into a Fairy/Fighting type like it was in Eternal X/Wilting Y, and maybe replace Rattled with Strong Jaw. It's weird how this was one of the changes that wasn't carried over from the rom hacks, and it's a shame, since it made Granbull more interesting to use. That and it having Strong Jaw does make sense for it, since... look at the size of its jaw man. It's massive. And hey, it gains access to the elemental fangs and Crunch, so it will get use out of it!

Also I have a question. With the current modding tools for the 3DS Pokemon games, is it possible for you to edit the resistances that types have? Because then you could give the poor Ice types some love by giving them some resistances.

 

[Buffel Saft]

I believe Agency does use Tree's roster of Pokémon.

So, that means the A.I. can't deal with Illusion? If I emulate a Toxicroak with a Zoroark, would the A.I. keep throwing psychic attacks? Seems so sad.

This hack is making me want a full team, something no Pokémon game ever did to me. A pity, in part, for I did want to include the Luvdisc for the totem-beating purpose alone.

Now Porygon-Z can be my all-purpose steamroller, I guess I could actually choose the other members solely on what I'd like to use, to actually have interesting matches against the rosters you built.

Speaking of Porygon-Z, I believe there's a certain special trainer that might want to use Techno Blast instead of Tri-Attack on it. Just mentioning in case you didn't notice.

Yup, that's the reason Zoroark is so effective against Ultra Necrozma; it'll just use Photon Geyser on it over and over until you defeat it or it runs out of PP. I see who you mean, I probably should make that trainer change!

Thank you for doing this. Enjoying it immensely.

You're welcome! Thanks for taking the time to let me know you're enjoying it!

Exactly!! I've already cleared post game and all of optional quests and now i just catch all improved pokemon and rebattle E4 with different teams. Sometimes i do monotype, or starter, or pseudo-legend team. It's fun because i can add pokemon that in vanilla never made it good, like Ariados or Ledian or even Farfetch'd and freaking Delibird 😂. Also you don't get bored fighting E4 because it's a lot challenging than the vanilla and sometimes i do lost (i am looking at that savage Life Orb Marshadow and Genesect and that damn M-Metagross 😭).

Thanks for this incredible hack Buffel Salt 😄, this is as far my most enjoyable hack alongside Drayano's hacks.

Thanks! I never expected the post game to be so replayable; good to know you're having fun with it!

I did get to know this hack after searching if Drayano had a blaze black / volt white for USUM, and I'm not disappointed in the least. It speaks volumes to be on par with such a well developed hack-patch.

Buffel, I wonder if you can make it so Knock Off cannot remove Genesect drives if the target is Porygon-Z, since it has access to Techno Blast, now. The same for Trick and Switcheroo. Is it possible?

Probably not possible to have them work that way just for Porygon-Z, but it might be possible to make them unaffected by Knock Off.

Ah man, nice to see some of my ideas getting put into the hack, though I should probably mention one thing, it being that in the remastared level up move docs, it says that Stunfisk learns Earth Power at level 47, despite being at the absolute bottom of its move list. I'm assuming it's meant to be level 67 but you forgot to correct it.
But anyways, I got some more ideas for balance changing:

- Change Fearow's type from Normal/Flying to Dark/Flying. Considering that Fearow literally has fear in its name, has a menacing and sharp appearance, its Japanese name is Onidrill, with oni being a type of demon and demons being associated with evil and darkness, AND it getting Intimidate in the rom hack, it's kinda bizzare that you didn't go all the way and give it the Dark type. And considering it has the buffed Drill Peck and Sniper, giving it access to Night Slash could give it an interesting niche.

- It may be weird, but granting Kantonian Raichu a new ability, with it being Electric Surge. With how things are now, Kantonian Raichu is pretty much worse when next to its Alolan counterpart, with Alolan Raichu having a higher Special Attack (since why would you even use a physical Raichu set? Volt Tackle?), the secondary typing giving it more coverage. That and it could give them a bit of cute duality, with Kantonian Raichu being the terrain setter, while Alolan Raichu is the terrain abuser. And if you think it would make Alolan Raichu have a disadvantage since it would only have one ability, maybe you could give it Lightningrod as one of them, and then something more bizzare like Thick Fat (since it's more rounded than the Kantonian version, the cause for Alolan Raichu being this way being believed to be diet, and the whole Pancake Race thing from the anime) or Oblivious.

- Return Granbull into a Fairy/Fighting type like it was in Eternal X/Wilting Y, and maybe replace Rattled with Strong Jaw. It's weird how this was one of the changes that wasn't carried over from the rom hacks, and it's a shame, since it made Granbull more interesting to use. That and it having Strong Jaw does make sense for it, since... look at the size of its jaw man. It's massive. And hey, it gains access to the elemental fangs and Crunch, so it will get use out of it!

Also I have a question. With the current modding tools for the 3DS Pokemon games, is it possible for you to edit the resistances that types have? Because then you could give the poor Ice types some love by giving them some resistances.

Oh it seems I uploaded the wrong level up moves file, that should be fixed now; Stunfisk gets Earth Power at level 36.

Those are all pretty convincing reasons to change Fearow's type, I'll add that to the next update!

Electric Surge/Surge Surfer would be an interesting gimmick for the two Raichu forms; they'd be the Plusle and Minun concept, except better. Surge Surfer is good enough to be Alolan Raichu's only ability IMO, but Lightningrod wouldn't hurt either.

Sure, I'll bring that type change over too. I'd probably replace Quick Feet with Strong Jaw instead though; Rattled on a Pokemon with a double resistance to dark and bug would be interesting (especially if you can get something to hit it with Pin Missile or Beat Up).

It's possible to edit the type chart, but it's not something I want to do (even though Ice types would really benefit from it).

 

[Giovanni Boss]

Probably not possible to have them work that way just for Porygon-Z, but it might be possible to make them unaffected by Knock Off.

Knock Off already treats the item as unremovable for Drives if the target is Genesect, for Plates if Arceus, for Memories if Silvally and for Griseous Orb if Giratina, which is why I mentioned. Trick and Switcheroo fail if either the target or user fits these, too. That's why I mentioned including Porygon-Z when the item is a Drive.

I was thinking about Salazzle having two abilities now and remembered totem-sized Pokémon abilities were chosen so they can only have one ability available. Does that mean totem Salazzle will break the game somehow if it uses an ability capsule?

 

[DancingDodo]

Hello!
I've been enjoying your Prismatic Moon hack recently (also completed your X/Y hacks. Your changes makes the games many times more interesting than vanilla).
I have a problem/question:
In the documentation it says that Meganium's Hidden Ability is Triage, but I can't seem to achieve this on my own. Even when using PKHeX to confirm that it has its HA it keeps insisting on Leaf Guard.
Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? Or is it just a mistake in the documentation? If it isn't intended for Meganium to have Triage, could it be possible to make this change then? It gives arguably the worst starter an ability that justifies using it.

Ps. is there any chance you will be doing a hack of ORAS? I've wanted to play these game for quite some time and I am not sure I can get myself to play any other hack without your awesome rebalancing :)

 

[NuclearNecro]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention something in my previous post, when I should have mentioned it.

In Eternal X and Wilting Y, you made it so that Milotic is now a Water/Fairy type. Any plans of carrying that over to this hack?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Knock Off already treats the item as unremovable for Drives if the target is Genesect, for Plates if Arceus, for Memories if Silvally and for Griseous Orb if Giratina, which is why I mentioned. Trick and Switcheroo fail if either the target or user fits these, too. That's why I mentioned including Porygon-Z when the item is a Drive.

I was thinking about Salazzle having two abilities now and remembered totem-sized Pokémon abilities were chosen so they can only have one ability available. Does that mean totem Salazzle will break the game somehow if it uses an ability capsule?

I'd expect species checks like that to be part of the battle engine and not something I can edit, but I might be able to make the drives unremovable from every Pokemon, like Z crystals are.

Most totems have more than one ability and these can be set in their encounter data, so that's not an issue. You can even give totem Lurantis Contrary to make the totem aura lower its stats instead.

Hello!
I've been enjoying your Prismatic Moon hack recently (also completed your X/Y hacks. Your changes makes the games many times more interesting than vanilla).
I have a problem/question:
In the documentation it says that Meganium's Hidden Ability is Triage, but I can't seem to achieve this on my own. Even when using PKHeX to confirm that it has its HA it keeps insisting on Leaf Guard.
Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? Or is it just a mistake in the documentation? If it isn't intended for Meganium to have Triage, could it be possible to make this change then? It gives arguably the worst starter an ability that justifies using it.

Ps. is there any chance you will be doing a hack of ORAS? I've wanted to play these game for quite some time and I am not sure I can get myself to play any other hack without your awesome rebalancing :)

The Pokemon changes in the hack are all part of the ROM and not the save file, so PKHeX doesn't have any way to access them. If you're using it with the rebalanced version, you can rename the exe to PKHaX to remove the legality checks. You could also create a Bayleef with Leaf Guard; when it evolves in the hack it'll have Triage as expected.

I probably won't be making an ORAS hack; I'm working on Emerald instead, as that gives me a lot more freedom and also lets me include gen 7 and 8 Pokemon. Drayano's Rising Ruby and Sinking Sapphire are great hacks with similar changes if you want a good way to experience ORAS though!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention something in my previous post, when I should have mentioned it.

In Eternal X and Wilting Y, you made it so that Milotic is now a Water/Fairy type. Any plans of carrying that over to this hack?

Yeah I probably will at some point, it seems to be a pretty popular change among the ROM hack community. Only reason it hasn't been done already is that I'm not sure if I like Milotic having a weakness to poison, but I guess all the extra resistances are worth it.

 

[Izanagi-no-Bisharp]

You could always copy your Ultra Moon save over to Ultra Sun and then play Prismatic Moon if you really wanted to; saves from one version work with the other.

Oh yeah i've been meaning to ask you, can i transfer the ExtractedExeFS and ExtractedRomFS from Prismatic Moon to my vanilla Ultra Sun? I had the vanilla version from years ago and
i was going to play it again with your improved hack.

 

[Giovanni Boss]

I'd expect species checks like that to be part of the battle engine and not something I can edit, but I might be able to make the drives unremovable from every Pokemon, like Z crystals are.

Most totems have more than one ability and these can be set in their encounter data, so that's not an issue. You can even give totem Lurantis Contrary to make the totem aura lower its stats instead.

I understand now, about the item-affecting moves.

And I meant the gift totem-sized Pokémon, not the actual totem Pokémon. The ones Samson gives the player. If the Pokémon in question has one regular ability only it gets that ability, whole if it has two it gets the hidden one, in a way totem-sized Pokémon can't have ability capsules used on them on the original games. I guess that change doesn't break anything, though.

 

[DancingDodo]

The Pokemon changes in the hack are all part of the ROM and not the save file, so PKHeX doesn't have any way to access them. If you're using it with the rebalanced version, you can rename the exe to PKHaX to remove the legality checks. You could also create a Bayleef with Leaf Guard; when it evolves in the hack it'll have Triage as expected.

I don't think I was completely clear in my earlier question. That is the exact issue. Even when confirming that my Meganium has its Hidden Ability it still shows up as Leaf Guard and not Triage as the document states it should be. Also using Ability Capsules only switches between Overgrow and Flowerveil. No sign of Triage =/

 

[Buffel Saft]

Oh yeah i've been meaning to ask you, can i transfer the ExtractedExeFS and ExtractedRomFS from Prismatic Moon to my vanilla Ultra Sun? I had the vanilla version from years ago and
i was going to play it again with your improved hack.

Technically you could transfer part of the romfs with a bit of work, but the exefs will only work with Ultra Moon. I'd suggest just using Photonic Sun with it instead.

I understand now, about the item-affecting moves.

And I meant the gift totem-sized Pokémon, not the actual totem Pokémon. The ones Samson gives the player. If the Pokémon in question has one regular ability only it gets that ability, whole if it has two it gets the hidden one, in a way totem-sized Pokémon can't have ability capsules used on them on the original games. I guess that change doesn't break anything, though.

Oh I see what you mean. Yeah, it'll just mean you can use an ability capsule on the gift Totem Salazzle.

I don't think I was completely clear in my earlier question. That is the exact issue. Even when confirming that my Meganium has its Hidden Ability it still shows up as Leaf Guard and not Triage as the document states it should be. Also using Ability Capsules only switches between Overgrow and Flowerveil. No sign of Triage =/

Ability capsules can't switch to or from hidden abilities, so that's why that isn't working. Do you have the latest version of the hack installed? If you downloaded a prebuilt cia chances are it's outdated, and if a Chikorita caught in game has Leaf Guard that's probably the reason. It's had Triage for a while now, but it hasn't always had it.

 

[DancingDodo]

I figured out the issue. I was not aware that a pokemon has to evolve in order for the hack to update it's hidden ability to the new one.
I had previously just changed the ability with pokehex after it evolved and that didn't register probably, so I had to deevolve it, change the ability and then evolve it again for it to register the correct ha

 

[Buffel Saft]

I figured out the issue. I was not aware that a pokemon has to evolve in order for the hack to update it's hidden ability to the new one.
I had previously just changed the ability with pokehex after it evolved and that didn't register probably, so I had to deevolve it, change the ability and then evolve it again for it to register the correct ha

I should've explained that better. The game looks at two things to determine a Pokemon's ability; the actual ability they have, and the ability slot (i.e slot 1, slot 2 or HA). The ability slot is the only thing the game checks when a Pokemon evolves, which is why a Bayleef made in PkHex with Leaf Guard becomes a Meganium with Triage in the hack. Once it's evolved the game only checks the ability, which is why things like Wondertomb can exist, and why Leaf Guard got carried over into the hack.

 

[Univioxiz]

Hello !
I'm new to your game and i wanted to ask you if it's possible to change the nature of a pokemon like in SnS ?
I have another because i'm new to "ROMS" it's not about your game but Is it possible to start a Game on PC and then transfer his game to my phone with your ROM ?

Thank you very much for your very very nice job your kindness and for reading this

have a nice day ( my english is bad sorry )

 

[Buffel Saft]

Hello !
I'm new to your game and i wanted to ask you if it's possible to change the nature of a pokemon like in SnS ?
I have another because i'm new to "ROMS" it's not about your game but Is it possible to start a Game on PC and then transfer his game to my phone with your ROM ?

Thank you very much for your very very nice job your kindness and for reading this

have a nice day ( my english is bad sorry )

Hey! There's no way to change a Pokemon's nature in the hack, but if you really want to you can do it by editing your save with PKHeX.

You should be able to transfer a save from the PC version of Citra to the mobile version. I don't know where you'd copy the save to on your phone, but you can find it on PC by right-clicking on the game in citra and choosing "open save data location".

 

[Univioxiz]

Thank you for the answer ! Ok i'm gonna learn how to use PKHex
Thank you for your very good rom hack

have a nice day