Crystal hack: Pokémon Polished Crystal (update 2.2.0)

[FIQ]

Ooh, the gen V experience system. I always liked that, both as a soft cap on grinding, but also to more easily grind up lower-level mons. Never liked the removal of it in 6gen.

Allthough I always felt alone in that regard... lol.

 

[Mag-Mar]

Ooh, the gen V experience system. I always liked that, both as a soft cap on grinding, but also to more easily grind up lower-level mons. Never liked the removal of it in 6gen.

Allthough I always felt alone in that regard... lol.

I think the 6GEN has more options in post game or during the side quests to gain experience. Like Battle Maisons and rematch systems. Even a low-level 'mon could be easily leveled up.
And Speaking about rematch or post game things, will be possible to challenge again the gym leaders ?

 

[Rangi]

I think the 6GEN has more options in post game or during the side quests to gain experience. Like Battle Maisons and rematch systems. Even a low-level 'mon could be easily leveled up.
And Speaking about rematch or post game things, will be possible to challenge again the gym leaders ?

Yeah, that's why I haven't actually implemented it. Raising low-level Pokémon more quickly would be nice, but I'd have to re-tune the level curve again. Don't know how much of a problem it would be in practice, since my own teams are rarely more than a couple levels higher than the NPCs and apparently other players' are even lower. Still, it's just an idea, not a concrete plan.

And yes, you can rematch the Gym Leaders and some other trainers in the Fighting Dojo after getting all 16 badges.

 

[Mag-Mar]

And yes, you can rematch the Gym Leaders and some other trainers in the Fighting Dojo after getting all 16 badges.

IDEA
After defeating a gym leader, they could fade and a message indicating they are running into the Fighting Dojo! ^^

Awesome work btw. Hex editing can be a pain the ass.

 

[Rangi]

Awesome work btw. Hex editing can be a pain the ass.

Oh god, no way would I have done this by hex editing. The pokecrystal project decoded the Crystal ROM into Z80 assembly code, along with lots of macros that make it even more convenient to reprogram.

 

[Rangi]

2.1.0 was released a bit early for the sake of fixing some bugs. Here's 2.2.0, featuring Pokémon natures! Like in Gen III, they raise and lower stats by 10%. They're determined from DVs, kind of like Hidden Power's type, since personality values don't exist in Gen II.

This update is compatible with save files from 2.0.0, 2.0.1, and 2.1.0! Just patch a fresh Crystal ROM to 2.2.0 and use it with your old save file.


Patches:

Patches should be applied to a Pokémon Crystal (UE) (1.0) ROM. The one I used has the MD5 hash 9f2922b235a5eeb78d65594e82ef5dde if you need to make sure your copy is correct.

• polishedcrystal-2.2.0.ips
• polishedcrystal-faithful-2.2.0.ips

Changelog:

• Add: Natures (based on Atk/Def DV, not personality value).
• Add: Descriptive text for certain rock features.
• Add: Edit some trainers' rosters, including better natures.
• Add: Vulpix can learn Moonlight.
• Add: Staryu+Starmie can learn Calm Mind.
• Add: Wobbuffet can learn Recover.
• Add: Entei can learn Earthquake.
• Add: Lugia can learn Hurricane.
• Fix: Lugia's room music loops.
• Fix: Dragonite can learn Hurricane.
• Fix: Metronome cannot become Transform.
• Fix: Bill can walk through you.
• Fix: Trainer Card controls.
• Fix: Acid and Crunch descriptions.

 

[Mag-Mar]

Wow!
Amazing! The first time ever I see nature values on G/S/C. Pretty decent job! I also loved the arrows indicating which value increase/decrease
Seems like you are putting so much effort on it! Great Job

Cynda is so baddas now.

 

[darthbr]

I Found some bugs, maybe cause im playin 1.1.2F, some dialogues are bugged, the sages in ecruteak tower, some letters scape from the board, in olivine gym, after beat her too.

Waiting for the last version without loose save file, i have 2 cousins they are playing too, we are enjoying a lot! best hack rom ever!

** will be possible transfer just pokemons from 1.1.2F to future 3.0v (final) ?

 

[cometcruiser01]

I've had this account for almost 2 years now apparently and I've never posted, haha. I was on the Pokemon Hacks Reddit and asked what the best Crystal or Gen 2 hack and people said "Polished Crystal". I'm still relatively new to playing hacks so I had never heard of it before but I am very grateful that I asked and found it. I honestly know nothing about the hacking process itself and how long it takes to do any aspects of it. However, Gen 2 was always my favorite 'cuz I remember most memories of it despite starting with Gen 1 like mostly everyone.

I've played a few Gen 2 hacks and they were all right. I haven't gotten very far in Polished yet 'cuz I just started it last night, I'm up to Violet City and just cleared the Bellsprout Tower. But I felt compelled to hop onto this account and thank you personally. This is my favorite and best Gen 2 hack. I've always wanted an update so to speak with Gen 2.

Yeah, there's HeartGold and SoulSilver but I guess in regards to the Pokemon series, I never moved on with the times so to speak. I know the DS games are good but personally, them being so 3D, it just feels weird to me. Pokemon is better with non-3D graphics hand-held wise in my opinion, consoles is a different story. But I just wanted to say a great job and continue to keep it up.

I do however have a question:

- Removed: Spearow, Fearow, Lickitung, Goldeen, Seaking, Hoppip, Skiploom, Jumpluff, Shuckle, Aipom, Stantler, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Smoochum, and Delibird.​

Any reason why these Pokemon were removed and if that's the case, how does the game have 253? From my understanding usually hacks of each Gen has all the Pokemon you could catch for that Gen so I was little confused there. Also, some of the Gen 4 Pokemon like Glaceion, why was Gen 4 added for a Gen 2 game? Preferences I assume?

I do have a request if I may. It's rather silly and I don't know if it's an easy thing to hack or if it'd take awhile to do and if you don't want to do it or it would take awhile then that's ok:

Could you include another IPS of the regular but with a different trainer that you play as, sprite? I have no problems with the original trainer sprite, it being so memorable and of my childhood. But I've seen some hacks that would use a variation or unique trainer sprite. I guess I sorta feel this being a remake it'd be cool to have a different sprite or an option for it. The two best sprite designs or that stood out, in my opinion, are from the Creepypasta called "Pokemon Strangled Red" and the trainer was called Steven.

His sprite was more or less the Gen 1 default one but had longer hair, I thought it was pretty cool (of course I don't mean the sprite of after he's changed into a demon or lost his sanity, lol) and the other is from Twitch Plays Pokemon Anniversary Crystal. It's the default Gen 2 sprite but with a hair variation and I thought it was good as well but those are just suggestions.

I'm not sure if you have surprises within the game that you didn't speak of but to add more to the challenge, you could do like TPP Red that once you collected all 251 (253 in this case) and beat the Elite Four and beat your rival, Prof. Oak would challenge you. He was the most powerful trainer and last boss so to speak.

Speaking of challenging, when does the level curve or AI really pick up? I ask 'cuz as stated I'm in Violet City. Well, my Quilava is level 16 and I'm trying to work on getting the rest of my team to at least 10 before I challenge Falkner. I didn't know if the curve is automatically higher and I just tend to over grind. It's honestly not a big deal but every Pokemon game I have ever played I've had a bit habit of over leveling the starter Pokemon and just destroying everything and neglected the others.

I mean as a kid or teen, I didn't see the big deal of just leveling and focusing on one however now that I'm older and what not, I want to try to level other ones and see their personalities in fights so to speak and what they're capable of. Also, I'm sure in order to get all 253 that you gotta evolve some. I know in some hacks that contained all the Pokemon of that Gen, that you could or would eventually catch all the evolved forms in the wild. I think it's a pretty neat idea but then I feel it defeats the purpose of leveling Pokemon period.

Apologies for the long post of rambling and questions but the other questions I have I believe pertain to the newer Gens. I only played up to Gen 3 which was Emerald. I played some of the DS ones such as B/W and X/Y but didn't really get that far in them to learn the new mechanics so to speak.

- Type chart, base stats, and move attributes all updated to Gen VI. (I know those always vary per Gen.)

- Physical/Special/Status split. (Not understanding the mechanic changes here or what Gen they added this or why they added it.)

- Natures (determined from DVs since personality values don't exist in Gen II) thanks to FredrIQ. (I know Natures were introduced in Gen 3 and they affect how stats fluctuate but I never really paid attention to natures since they were new at the time. More or less, how important are they really or is it just mostly for "min-maxers"? The people obsessed with stats and numbers.)

- Gain experience from catching Pokémon. (What Gen was this and any reason why they added it? It feels weird to me, lol.)

- Money loss formula from Gen V. (Do you lose sums of money from battles? Why was this added and I'm assuming you can go broke if you lose too much, so what happens if you have no money to lose?)

- Type-enhancing items raise by 20%, not 10%. (Why was this increased or what Gen? I mean items that were held were never that weak to start with.)

- Many base stat changes, mostly based on Drayano's Sacred Gold/Storm Silver. (I know base stats change per Gen but any reason they are based on someone else's hack?)

- Cut is Steel-type and has 60 power and 100% accuracy.
- Hidden Power is ???-type and has 70 power.
- Metronome is ???-type.
- Sing has 75% accuracy (matching Lovely Kiss).
- Supersonic has 65% accuracy.
- Submission and Take Down have 90 power and 100% accuracy, like Wild Charge.
- Hail boosts Defense of Ice-types by 50%.
- Fly has 100% accuracy.
- Strength has 90 power.
- Rock Smash has 75 power.
- Whirlpool and Fire Spin have 90% accuracy.
- Pain Split is Ghost-type.
-Some Pokémon has new types (for example, Ledian is Bug/Fighting, Persian is Normal/Dark, and Dunsparce is Normal/Ground).​

(I realize the buffs/nerfs are based on the hacker's preferences but what's the reason for them? Is it to adjust the AI or the learning curve?)

Last thing: I know that with all the changes per Gen that you won't know the answers unless you were a creator and helped with it, I got that, but being behind on Gens past 3, I didn't know if like the creators provided reasons for why stuff was added like say through interviews.

Again, apologies for the long post. Just trying to understand things since I'm so far behind Gen wise. Your time on this hack is greatly appreciated and as stated, continue to keep it up.

 

[Mag-Mar]

I've had this account for almost 2 years now apparently and
Removed: Spearow, Fearow, Lickitung, Goldeen, Seaking, Hoppip, Skiploom, Jumpluff, Shuckle, Aipom, Stantler, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Smoochum, and Delibird

Any reason why these Pokemon were removed and if that's the case, how does the game have 253? From my understanding usually hacks of each Gen has all the Pokemon you could catch for that Gen so I was little confused there. Also, some of the Gen 4 Pokemon like Glaceion, why was Gen 4 added for a Gen 2 game? Preferences I assume?

I think the inclusion of pokemons in the game isn't very simple, I've seen this threat https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=378692 and Add new pokemon is yet to be discovered, if you want to replace can be done. So she decided to swap some not very used for some new ones.

 

[FIQ]

So while I like this hack, there is one thing that has annoyed me to no end since I started.

Why is the clock reset forced? It is annoying, and it resets daily events on each soft reset. It also makes the clock drift each soft reset since it resets the second timer to 0.

 

[Rangi]

I Found some bugs, maybe cause im playin 1.1.2F,

Yes, please test in the latest version (2.2.0) before reporting bugs. Those ones have been fixed. You won't be able to use a version 1.0 save in 2.0, nor 2.0 in 3.0. That's what the major version numbers mean. I do hope for the next few updates to be minor version numbers, so even if they add a lot of new content, they'll still be save-compatible. But that's not always possible.

I was on the Pokemon Hacks Reddit and asked what the best Crystal or Gen 2 hack and people said "Polished Crystal". I'm still relatively new to playing hacks so I had never heard of it before but I am very grateful that I asked and found it.

Cool, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Gen 2 was my first as well. I think it has a good balance between "lots of features already included" and "easy to reprogram with even more".

Any reason why these Pokemon were removed and if that's the case, how does the game have 253?

253 is the maximum number of Pokémon you can have without a major and never-done-before code rewrite. I added 17 new Pokémon from future generations—evolutions of Gen 1/2 ones, like Eevee→Sylveon and Misdreavus→Mismagius—so I had to remove some to make room. I miss the removed ones, but the new Pokémon are more useful and have rare types like Ghost and Dark.

Could you include another IPS of the regular but with a different trainer that you play as, sprite?

Sorry, I'm only going to maintain two patches, the regular and faithful ones. If you want any customizations, there are instructions for downloading the code and compiling it into a ROM, and it's fairly simple (maybe with help on forums like these) to change some graphics before compiling it.

I'm not sure if you have surprises within the game that you didn't speak of...

Oh, there definitely are. :)

Speaking of challenging, when does the level curve or AI really pick up?

A level 16 Quilava is already good enough to beat Falkner—that early on, I copied HG/SS's levels, so his Pidgeotto was boosted from level 9 to 13. Oh, and Gym Leaders all have better IVs and movesets now. Falkner has three Pokémon, Bugsy four, Whitney five, and all the rest have six.

The levels really start to get higher that regular GSC around Jasmine. In GSC Chuck, Jasmine, and Pryce were all around the same levels because you could do them in any order. Here I've blocked Mahogany until you beat Jasmine, so Gym Leaders consistently go up by about 5 levels. The Elite 4 are level 50–60, then the Kanto Gym Leaders get up to level 70, and there are even more challenges after that. I don't think you'll need to grind much, though, since the wild Pokémon and random trainers are also raised to give more experience.

Also, I'm sure in order to get all 253 that you gotta evolve some. I know in some hacks that contained all the Pokemon of that Gen, that you could or would eventually catch all the evolved forms in the wild.

Right, you'll have to evolve some and catch others in special events, but they're all available. No trading necessary. You can use the random Wonder Trade feature in Goldenrod City to fill out the Pokédex at first. IMO it's a fun way to get Pokémon you wouldn't have thought to use otherwise.

I only played up to Gen 3 which was Emerald. I played some of the DS ones such as B/W and X/Y but didn't really get that far in them to learn the new mechanics so to speak.

Here's a quick review:

• Gen 6 introduced the Fairy type. Super-effective against Fighting, Dragon, and Dark; immune to Dragon; weak to Poison and Steel. They're a good counter to the somewhat-overpowered Dragon-type. Fairy Pokémon include Wigglytuff, Clefable, Granbull, Azumarill, Togetic, and Sylveon. I also made some original changes: Meganium and Mismagius are both part Fairy.
• Physical and Special moves are now separate from their types. So you can have Flamethrower, a Fire-type move that uses Special Attack and Special Defense, but also Fire Punch, which uses Attack and Defense. It rebalances a lot of Pokémon: just for instance, Hitmonchan can now use the elemental punches effectively, but Alakazam can't. For better coverage, I added some new moves. Like, Crunch is the main Dark-type attack, but it's physical, so I added Dark Pulse as a good special Dark move. There are also some good stat-boosting moves, like Nasty Plot (Special Attack +2) and Dragon Dance (Attack +1 and Speed +1). Enemy trainers will boost their stats and try to sweep you.
• Natures are like a bonus on top of IVs. If you weren't breeding your Pokémon to get high IVs, you won't need to worry about natures either. On the other hand, it's easy to see how a nature is affecting your stats, since I added up and down arrows next to them.
• Gen 6 added experience for catching Pokémon. I like it because presumably your Pokémon still fought to weaken the wild one, and you don't have to choose between catching a powerful legendary or fainting it for the experience.
• You used to lose half your money. Now you lose an amount proportional to how many badges you have, which will probably end up being less.
• I buffed the type-enhancing items to 20% because the new gens have so many other ways to boost stats which aren't included. There are usually tradeoffs, like "boost Attack by 50% but keep using the same move". This keeps things simpler. (And there's no room to add more items anyway.)
• Drayano already did the work of choosing base stats to buff Pokémon that needed it, so formerly weak Pokémon like Ariados or Butterfree are now viable. My own type changes also help with that, like making Dunsparce Normal/Ground as well as raising its stats. And some of them make up for the lack of Gen 6 Mega Evolutions, which add 100 points to a Pokémon's stats. So there's no Mega Beedrill, but regular Beedrill does have higher Attack.

Why is the clock reset forced? It is annoying, and it resets daily events on each soft reset.

...It's not. I haven't changed the real-time clock code, so it should be working the same way as any other ROM on your particular emulator. Make sure you're using the right Crystal base, [1.0].

 

[cometcruiser01]

Thank you for answering all those questions, Rangi.

 

[FIQ]

Yes, please test in the latest version (2.2.0) before reporting bugs. Those ones have been fixed. You won't be able to use a version 1.0 save in 2.0, nor 2.0 in 3.0. That's what the major version numbers mean. I do hope for the next few updates to be minor version numbers, so even if they add a lot of new content, they'll still be save-compatible. But that's not always possible.





Cool, I'm glad you're enjoying it. Gen 2 was my first as well. I think it has a good balance between "lots of features already included" and "easy to reprogram with even more".



253 is the maximum number of Pokémon you can have without a major and never-done-before code rewrite. I added 17 new Pokémon from future generations—evolutions of Gen 1/2 ones, like Eevee→Sylveon and Misdreavus→Mismagius—so I had to remove some to make room. I miss the removed ones, but the new Pokémon are more useful and have rare types like Ghost and Dark.



Sorry, I'm only going to maintain two patches, the regular and faithful ones. If you want any customizations, there are instructions for downloading the code and compiling it into a ROM, and it's fairly simple (maybe with help on forums like these) to change some graphics before compiling it.



Oh, there definitely are. :)



A level 16 Quilava is already good enough to beat Falkner—that early on, I copied HG/SS's levels, so his Pidgeotto was boosted from level 9 to 13. Oh, and Gym Leaders all have better IVs and movesets now. Falkner has three Pokémon, Bugsy four, Whitney five, and all the rest have six.

The levels really start to get higher that regular GSC around Jasmine. In GSC Chuck, Jasmine, and Pryce were all around the same levels because you could do them in any order. Here I've blocked Mahogany until you beat Jasmine, so Gym Leaders consistently go up by about 5 levels. The Elite 4 are level 50–60, then the Kanto Gym Leaders get up to level 70, and there are even more challenges after that. I don't think you'll need to grind much, though, since the wild Pokémon and random trainers are also raised to give more experience.



Right, you'll have to evolve some and catch others in special events, but they're all available. No trading necessary. You can use the random Wonder Trade feature in Goldenrod City to fill out the Pokédex at first. IMO it's a fun way to get Pokémon you wouldn't have thought to use otherwise.



Here's a quick review:

• Gen 6 introduced the Fairy type. Super-effective against Fighting, Dragon, and Dark; immune to Dragon; weak to Poison and Steel. They're a good counter to the somewhat-overpowered Dragon-type. Fairy Pokémon include Wigglytuff, Clefable, Granbull, Azumarill, Togetic, and Sylveon. I also made some original changes: Meganium and Mismagius are both part Fairy.
• Physical and Special moves are now separate from their types. So you can have Flamethrower, a Fire-type move that uses Special Attack and Special Defense, but also Fire Punch, which uses Attack and Defense. It rebalances a lot of Pokémon: just for instance, Hitmonchan can now use the elemental punches effectively, but Alakazam can't. For better coverage, I added some new moves. Like, Crunch is the main Dark-type attack, but it's physical, so I added Dark Pulse as a good special Dark move. There are also some good stat-boosting moves, like Nasty Plot (Special Attack +2) and Dragon Dance (Attack +1 and Speed +1). Enemy trainers will boost their stats and try to sweep you.
• Natures are like a bonus on top of IVs. If you weren't breeding your Pokémon to get high IVs, you won't need to worry about natures either. On the other hand, it's easy to see how a nature is affecting your stats, since I added up and down arrows next to them.
• Gen 6 added experience for catching Pokémon. I like it because presumably your Pokémon still fought to weaken the wild one, and you don't have to choose between catching a powerful legendary or fainting it for the experience.
• You used to lose half your money. Now you lose an amount proportional to how many badges you have, which will probably end up being less.
• I buffed the type-enhancing items to 20% because the new gens have so many other ways to boost stats which aren't included. There are usually tradeoffs, like "boost Attack by 50% but keep using the same move". This keeps things simpler. (And there's no room to add more items anyway.)
• Drayano already did the work of choosing base stats to buff Pokémon that needed it, so formerly weak Pokémon like Ariados or Butterfree are now viable. My own type changes also help with that, like making Dunsparce Normal/Ground as well as raising its stats. And some of them make up for the lack of Gen 6 Mega Evolutions, which add 100 points to a Pokémon's stats. So there's no Mega Beedrill, but regular Beedrill does have higher Attack.

...It's not. I haven't changed the real-time clock code, so it should be working the same way as any other ROM on your particular emulator. Make sure you're using the right Crystal base, [1.0].

That's odd, considering that all other Crystal romhacks, and Crystal itself, I've tried works.

I just tried to checkout the 2.2.0 stable version (which has the same issue as always), and it compiles into md5sum 9d3a3026bc3730cdf5d813b0bfe49697, and I verified that it is the same as in roms.md5.

To clarify, this is what I'm talking about:

I have tried this under VBA-rr as well as VBA-kk (whatever the latter is). Both have the RTC explicitly enabled. Note that the timer display on the time reset thing is in fact accurate (not counting the slight offset by 5 or so minutes that builds up over time with multiple resets).

EDIT: OK, so I attempted to create a new game from scratch. In the new game the time function does in fact work. So I assume that, somehow, my save is messed up (Perhaps I ran the emulator with RTC disabled by accident the first time around or something). Oh well, thanks anyway!

 

[ZLink]

How do I get Misty to appear? I have battled all the trainers on Routes 24 and 25, I've found the missing machine part/turned on the Power Plant. I've gone back to Routes 24/25 and double checked that I've battled everyone, and she still does not appear. I remember battling the Rocket Grunt in normal Crystal, but for some reason he never battled me. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: I'm on 2.2.0F patched on a fresh Crystal ROM.

 

[Rangi]

How do I get Misty to appear? I have battled all the trainers on Routes 24 and 25, I've found the missing machine part/turned on the Power Plant. I've gone back to Routes 24/25 and double checked that I've battled everyone, and she still does not appear. I remember battling the Rocket Grunt in normal Crystal, but for some reason he never battled me. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: I'm on 2.2.0F patched on a fresh Crystal ROM.

Battling the Rocket Grunt is what triggers the encounter with Misty. In 2.0.1 it was possible to take the Machine Part and return it without ever battling the Grunt. I fixed that in 2.1.0: the Machine Part doesn't appear in the water until you battle him. If you updated an ongoing game, though, you might have already triggered the event. Just continue for now, and eventually use the Gameshark code 01FF5FD8 to get all the Kanto badges. (It should be possible to earn them all except for Misty's anyway.)

 

[Mag-Mar]

Are you considering any randomized patch?

I've been playing for some hours the Nuzlocke mode and I really miss some variety.

Also, I'm not sure If I am a Pidgey lure. I had to start all over 3 times, cause I was unable to caught some 'mon that can learn Flash. S*** Happens :'(

Edit 1 The defeat pokemon that cannot be revive system is working perfectly.

 

[Rangi]

Are you considering any randomized patch?

I've been playing for some hours the Nuzlocke mode and I really miss some variety.

Also, I'm not sure If I am a Pidgey lure. I had to start all over 3 times, cause I was unable to caught some 'mon that can learn Flash. S*** Happens :'(

Edit 1 The defeat pokemon that cannot be revive system is working perfectly.

No plans for a randomized version. You could probably make one by shuffling the list in constants/pokemon_constants.asm and recompiling.

Don't Nuzlocke runs let you bend the rules to catch an HM slave? Or you could technically wander blindly in the dark...

 

[FIQ]

Doesn't Nuzlocke mode block captures past the 1st though?

 

[Rangi]

Doesn't Nuzlocke mode block captures past the 1st though?

Yes. You can temporarily turn off the Nuzlocke option.