Hack Series: Pokémon Photonic Sun & Prismatic Moon

[Buffel Saft]

Great to hear!

Keep in mind that sometimes changing/adding types doesn't have to be a strength upgrade. Power neutral, thematic changes are awesome, and sometimes adding typings that increase weaknesses are useful. This mod's Typhlosion is double-weak to water now, for instance, which is definitely a rough change even if it gets access to STAB ground attacks and electric immunity. I wouldn't mind Flygon getting a bit of a nerf in order to feel more thematic. This isn't a Smogon-approved competitive battling simulator, after all. :P

Yeah, nothing wrong with side-grades that make a Pokemon more interesting, but I generally don't like nerfing things (even though a lot of mons deserve it).

 

[JulianH1001]

I feel that!

All this discussion has gotten me researching other mods' changes as well as some new thoughts of my own (why on earth is Cloyster part ice type?). I'd be interested in going down the roster and suggesting changes with reasoning. If I bother doing that, will you give it a once-over? If you're not interested I won't take the time, but I'd love to pick your brain.

 

[james19]

I think I've played that one (a Platinum hack IIRC?), that was an interesting change to Empoleon. Defensively it's a huge nerf, but it also got Swift Swim which was really good offensively (it was almost broken). But yeah, I prefer it with Steel typing too. I can see the reasoning for Blastoise and Ninetales; Ghost Ninetales is less of a stretch than this hack's Grass/Fire Sunflora I think haha.

Yep, Bloody Platinum. Pretty good if you ask me, but after playing Drayano's hack, men, it's just impossible to come back. And empoleon, you can say whatever you want about swift swim, but IA used just one EQ or Bullet Punch and he was wrecked. I didn't liked that change what can I say haha.

And btw, any news about "Buffel's Emerald"? How is it going?

 

[Buffel Saft]

I feel that!

All this discussion has gotten me researching other mods' changes as well as some new thoughts of my own (why on earth is Cloyster part ice type?). I'd be interested in going down the roster and suggesting changes with reasoning. If I bother doing that, will you give it a once-over? If you're not interested I won't take the time, but I'd love to pick your brain.

Sure, I'd give that a read! Try to keep it a reasonable length if you can though! Cloyster makes no sense to me either, maybe it's just based on something that lives in cold water.

Yep, Bloody Platinum. Pretty good if you ask me, but after playing Drayano's hack, men, it's just impossible to come back. And empoleon, you can say whatever you want about swift swim, but IA used just one EQ or Bullet Punch and he was wrecked. I didn't liked that change what can I say haha.

And btw, any news about "Buffel's Emerald"? How is it going?

Yeah Dray's Platinum is amazing, it's so well done.

Emerald's mostly done, it just needs a few little things finished before I can release it. There's a full list here which I update whenever something's done, but it's really just finishing trainer rematches, changing the bag to hold everything and cleaning up the documents that need to be done.

 

[james19]

Sure, I'd give that a read! Try to keep it a reasonable length if you can though! Cloyster makes no sense to me either, maybe it's just based on something that lives in cold water.

Yeah Dray's Platinum is amazing, it's so well done.

Emerald's mostly done, it just needs a few little things finished before I can release it. There's a full list here which I update whenever something's done, but it's really just finishing trainer rematches, changing the bag to hold everything and cleaning up the documents that need to be done.

Awesome, can't wait to try it out :D

 

[JulianH1001]

I really appreciate that you'd read it! Unfortunately, I know myself well enough that I'd likely type out a TON. Kinda dumb being so passionate about something as trivial as pokemon typing, but what can I say? Lol.

Instead of dropping a multi-page mess on you out of nowhere one day, I'll slow roll them a generation at a time so you can review a smaller lot, and maybe jot down anything that really catches your eye. No pressure, at the end of the day it's fun just being able to write about these after years of thinking these thoughts and complaining to friends!

https://imgur.com/a/GLWdXgc

Gen 1, check it out whenever you have a few minutes!

 

[Jk Howling]

Hey again! I've been playing through this again the last week or so (attempting a hardcore nuzlocke, which has been a blast actually, even if I've failed 4 times already lmao)

Something I noticed that Combee still seems to have an 87.5% chance to be male, which doesn't evolve? Same with Salandit. At least, no changes on their part are documented anyways. A potential change (in both this and EXWY) could be to make Salandit and Combee 100% female (or maybe flip them to 12.5% male, 87.5% female?). Alternately, could enable both genders to evolve- male Gardevoir and Primarina exist, it wouldn't be that farfetched to have a male Vespiquen or Salazzle tbh. Might go a little bit against their lore, but any of these would be a nice QOL change that'd help get rid of the grind having to search for that rare female to have something actually useful.

Another thing I noticed was that you gave Togetic Fairy Wind at 14, but not Togepi, so it's kinda screwed out of early fairy stab if you don't friendship grind fairly quickly. Friendship is easy enough to grind though, and its fairly feasible to evolve in time to learn Draining Kiss at 27, just wasn't sure if intentional or not.

Last thing I noticed was that Umbreon does not get Foul Play at literally any point in the main portion of the game, as the tutor for it is locked to the battle tree. This severely undercuts it's use, since its attacking stats are subpar at best. Maybe give it as an evo move over Pursuit, or at least as a levelup move (maybe around the mid-30's, since Vullaby's is at 35?)

Great game as always :)

 

[Buffel Saft]

I really appreciate that you'd read it! Unfortunately, I know myself well enough that I'd likely type out a TON. Kinda dumb being so passionate about something as trivial as pokemon typing, but what can I say? Lol.

Instead of dropping a multi-page mess on you out of nowhere one day, I'll slow roll them a generation at a time so you can review a smaller lot, and maybe jot down anything that really catches your eye. No pressure, at the end of the day it's fun just being able to write about these after years of thinking these thoughts and complaining to friends!

https://imgur.com/a/GLWdXgc

Gen 1, check it out whenever you have a few minutes!

I'd consider adding Fairy to Rapidash and Electric to the Porygon line (electric makes more sense than normal anyway). Ghost Parasect has been suggested before, but IMO it'd be better for an evolved form of it (the bug part is still barely alive according to a dex entry, so it's not quite a ghost yet). Even though the Blissey line looks like the typical pink blob fairy-type, I suspect they aren't for balance purposes and I'd rather not mess with them lol.

I wanted to do something with Lickilicky and Dodrio too, but it's hard to place a secondary typing for them. Poison almost works for Lickilicky, but it's also not poisonous so it's a bit of a stretch.

I won't do major type changes like Fairy Dragonite or Dragon Gyarados just because it's too much trouble to add them into the hack at this stage, they're best done right at the start. I'd have to revisit any trainers or totems that include those Pokemon to make sure everything still plays well and has appropriate movesets etc. (changing Dragonite would mess up the Kommo-o totem for example). I buffed Alolan Marowak at some point and it kinda broke the totem fight, so I want to avoid making that mistake again.

Hey again! I've been playing through this again the last week or so (attempting a hardcore nuzlocke, which has been a blast actually, even if I've failed 4 times already lmao)

Something I noticed that Combee still seems to have an 87.5% chance to be male, which doesn't evolve? Same with Salandit. At least, no changes on their part are documented anyways. A potential change (in both this and EXWY) could be to make Salandit and Combee 100% female (or maybe flip them to 12.5% male, 87.5% female?). Alternately, could enable both genders to evolve- male Gardevoir and Primarina exist, it wouldn't be that farfetched to have a male Vespiquen or Salazzle tbh. Might go a little bit against their lore, but any of these would be a nice QOL change that'd help get rid of the grind having to search for that rare female to have something actually useful.

Another thing I noticed was that you gave Togetic Fairy Wind at 14, but not Togepi, so it's kinda screwed out of early fairy stab if you don't friendship grind fairly quickly. Friendship is easy enough to grind though, and its fairly feasible to evolve in time to learn Draining Kiss at 27, just wasn't sure if intentional or not.

Last thing I noticed was that Umbreon does not get Foul Play at literally any point in the main portion of the game, as the tutor for it is locked to the battle tree. This severely undercuts it's use, since its attacking stats are subpar at best. Maybe give it as an evo move over Pursuit, or at least as a levelup move (maybe around the mid-30's, since Vullaby's is at 35?)

Great game as always :)

Hey! That sounds painful haha, guess you'll have a lot of deaths by the end of it. The awful gender ratio on Salandit and Combee is a big part of their gimmick; I wouldn't invert it but could bump it up to 25% female.
Togetic gets Fairy Wind in vanilla, I assume Togepi doesn't get it because it doesn't look like something that could whip up a wind (similar to the way it gets flamethrower but not heat wave until it evolves). It's mostly useless in battle anyway so I wasn't too worried about giving it more moves.

Umbreon should definitely have Foul Play earlier, I'll fix that next time I update the hack.

Glad you're still enjoying the hack!

 

[squed]

Hi, whenever I try and shop at the PokeMart, the game hangs and glitches out. How do I fix this as i redownloaded the zip and replaced the files but the same thing continuously happens? Thanks in advance.

 

[Buffel Saft]

Hi, whenever I try and shop at the PokeMart, the game hangs and glitches out. How do I fix this as i redownloaded the zip and replaced the files but the same thing continuously happens? Thanks in advance.

Hey, you just need the eshop update installed as per the install guide.

 

[Superteletubbies64]

Hello, I'm pretty sure I installed this correctly but one thing isn't working, the TMs that were changed don't teach the moves that were changed, the descriptions were changed but the TMs still teach the moves they originally were, does anyone here know how to fix this?

 

[TheZipBon]

I'd consider adding Fairy to Rapidash and Electric to the Porygon line (electric makes more sense than normal anyway). Ghost Parasect has been suggested before, but IMO it'd be better for an evolved form of it (the bug part is still barely alive according to a dex entry, so it's not quite a ghost yet). Even though the Blissey line looks like the typical pink blob fairy-type, I suspect they aren't for balance purposes and I'd rather not mess with them lol.

I wanted to do something with Lickilicky and Dodrio too, but it's hard to place a secondary typing for them. Poison almost works for Lickilicky, but it's also not poisonous so it's a bit of a stretch.

I won't do major type changes like Fairy Dragonite or Dragon Gyarados just because it's too much trouble to add them into the hack at this stage, they're best done right at the start. I'd have to revisit any trainers or totems that include those Pokemon to make sure everything still plays well and has appropriate movesets etc. (changing Dragonite would mess up the Kommo-o totem for example). I buffed Alolan Marowak at some point and it kinda broke the totem fight, so I want to avoid making that mistake again.

Hey! That sounds painful haha, guess you'll have a lot of deaths by the end of it. The awful gender ratio on Salandit and Combee is a big part of their gimmick; I wouldn't invert it but could bump it up to 25% female.
Togetic gets Fairy Wind in vanilla, I assume Togepi doesn't get it because it doesn't look like something that could whip up a wind (similar to the way it gets flamethrower but not heat wave until it evolves). It's mostly useless in battle anyway so I wasn't too worried about giving it more moves.

Umbreon should definitely have Foul Play earlier, I'll fix that next time I update the hack.

Glad you're still enjoying the hack!

Since gender ratio changes are on the table, what about changing gender ratios of starters and Eevee to 50/50? It's disappointing that Pokémon like Primarina, Sylveon or Meganium are much more likely to be male.

 

[Buffel Saft]

Since gender ratio changes are on the table, what about changing gender ratios of starters and Eevee to 50/50? It's disappointing that Pokémon like Primarina, Sylveon or Meganium are much more likely to be male.

Sure, that wouldn't hurt. Only issue is that those Pokemon might change gender if they're used in a vanilla game, but that shouldn't really matter.

 

[Jk Howling]

Hey! That sounds painful haha, guess you'll have a lot of deaths by the end of it. The awful gender ratio on Salandit and Combee is a big part of their gimmick; I wouldn't invert it but could bump it up to 25% female.
Togetic gets Fairy Wind in vanilla, I assume Togepi doesn't get it because it doesn't look like something that could whip up a wind (similar to the way it gets flamethrower but not heat wave until it evolves). It's mostly useless in battle anyway so I wasn't too worried about giving it more moves.

Umbreon should definitely have Foul Play earlier, I'll fix that next time I update the hack.

Glad you're still enjoying the hack!

It's going good so far actually! Granted, I'm on my fifth attempt, but only 3 deaths for this attempt, and I just beat Olivia without issue thanks to the glory of double dance (Curse+Autotomize) Klinklang.

25% would be nice. I understand their gimmick, but it was never a great gimmick to begin with honestly.
And that's fair about Togepi, but it's less a matter of being useless in battle and more a matter of it being less useful even when it evolves, if you don't evolve it before level 14. Not everyone checks levelup docs, and friendship evos can be annoying sometimes. Maybe you could make it (and/or Air Cutter) an evo move at least, so it doesn't punish those who don't know to grind friendship that early?

Speaking of which, could giving Klinklang (and maybe other mons that gained Earthquake access) the ability to learn Bulldoze via TM be considered? I'm fairly sure it works that way with the vanilla mons that learn Earthquake, plus it makes sense similarly to what you did with Focus Blast and Aura Sphere. It'd give them that little bit of extra coverage earlier on as well, and is weak enough to not be particularly broken.

Can't wait for your Emerald hack btw, very much looking forward to it!

 

[Ulysess]

hello bufel, hope you are doing great. can you help me out a bit? you see i was trying to do the same thing that you help with me last time which is merging your hack with my edits of abilities,stats,etc but this time i was going to do it with you other amazing roomhack wilting Y and also with rising ruby by drayano but the thing is, i cannot find the a/0/1/7 garc in neither of the roomhacks, what can i do?

 

[Buffel Saft]

It's going good so far actually! Granted, I'm on my fifth attempt, but only 3 deaths for this attempt, and I just beat Olivia without issue thanks to the glory of double dance (Curse+Autotomize) Klinklang.

25% would be nice. I understand their gimmick, but it was never a great gimmick to begin with honestly.
And that's fair about Togepi, but it's less a matter of being useless in battle and more a matter of it being less useful even when it evolves, if you don't evolve it before level 14. Not everyone checks levelup docs, and friendship evos can be annoying sometimes. Maybe you could make it (and/or Air Cutter) an evo move at least, so it doesn't punish those who don't know to grind friendship that early?

Speaking of which, could giving Klinklang (and maybe other mons that gained Earthquake access) the ability to learn Bulldoze via TM be considered? I'm fairly sure it works that way with the vanilla mons that learn Earthquake, plus it makes sense similarly to what you did with Focus Blast and Aura Sphere. It'd give them that little bit of extra coverage earlier on as well, and is weak enough to not be particularly broken.

Can't wait for your Emerald hack btw, very much looking forward to it!

Oh I see, that's a good point about Togetic. Looks like Fairy Wind is an evo move in gen 8 anyway, so might as well make it part of the hack too, along with Air Cutter.
Sure, Bulldoze for mons with EQ makes sense, should've been done already honestly.

Good to hear! It's very close now, got the bag changes finished today (there's enough space for every item in the game now) so that just leaves rematches and some bug fixes/testing.

hello bufel, hope you are doing great. can you help me out a bit? you see i was trying to do the same thing that you help with me last time which is merging your hack with my edits of abilities,stats,etc but this time i was going to do it with you other amazing roomhack wilting Y and also with rising ruby by drayano but the thing is, i cannot find the a/0/1/7 garc in neither of the roomhacks, what can i do?

Hey! I'm doing well, hope you're good too. The stats garc has a different name in those games, but you can see which file it is in pk3DS by clicking Options -> About GARCs. The "personal" file is the one you want to edit.

 

[765Craven]

I got Pokemon Photonic Sun all set up (haven't played Ultra Sun before, using sibling's cart for it) with Citra and am still very early in the game. Used PKHeX to save edit for Mega Evolution before postgame and decided to change my Rowlet's nature while I was at it, but I noticed that he lost Tinted Lens in the process. Is there any way for me to fix this without starting over? He still has ability slot 2 (which should have Tinted Lens) but it says he has Overgrow and I'm reasonably certain that the hack is working since Kukui said the game was Photonic Sun when I booted it up and my Rowlet had Tinted Lens before I tried to save edit.

Also, any recommendations on Pokemon to use in this hack? I'm set on my Rowlet and a Mawile, since I haven't used Mega Mawile before and have really been wanting to.

 

[Jk Howling]

I got Pokemon Photonic Sun all set up (haven't played Ultra Sun before, using sibling's cart for it) with Citra and am still very early in the game. Used PKHeX to save edit for Mega Evolution before postgame and decided to change my Rowlet's nature while I was at it, but I noticed that he lost Tinted Lens in the process. Is there any way for me to fix this without starting over? He still has ability slot 2 (which should have Tinted Lens) but it says he has Overgrow and I'm reasonably certain that the hack is working since Kukui said the game was Photonic Sun when I booted it up and my Rowlet had Tinted Lens before I tried to save edit.

Also, any recommendations on Pokemon to use in this hack? I'm set on my Rowlet and a Mawile, since I haven't used Mega Mawile before and have really been wanting to.

You need to use PkHaX, not PkHeX, when it comes to editing mons in romhacks that have different abilities. Change the file name to PkHaX and that should enable illegal mode (there'll be a little popup when you open it saying you've entered Illegal Mode and to behave), which'll let you change its ability back to Tinted Lens. Make sure to change the little number next to its ability to 2 as well (indicating ability slot 2) so it remains Tinted Lens on evolution.

I've found Klink in Hau'oli City with Motor Drive is fun. Ledyba with Aerilate on Route 1 is also really fun. Sneasel in Seaward Cave looks fun with Technician, but haven't gotten a chance to use it yet. Chikorita from the Route 2 ambush encounters (near the pokemon center/trial site) is one of my favorites- it evolves into Grass/Fairy Meganium. Haven't had a chance to use Noivern yet, but Noibat is in Verdant Cavern and evolves via friendship at night, plus gets Nasty Plot later which seems fun to play with. Tough Claws SD psychic/water Golduck is fun, from Psyduck in Sandy Cave.

 

[Aqua Mosquito]

Hello, I'm preparing to nuzlocke this game after wiping to Korrina in Wilting Y and I have a question about mega stones. A lot of bosses in the documentation seem to use them and I saw you recommending hacking the mega ring into the game, but it seems like mega stones are only available during the postgame.

 

[Cyñical1]

Would it be possible to merge the versions somewhat? Basically just including the Sw/Sh movepool changes in the Standard version. If it's a hassle, I'm cool with doing it myself, just need a heads up on what tools/tutorials I'd need to give it a shot.