Awesome romhack Soupercell, I really enjoyed it! This is coming from someone who played (and worked on) SNES rpg romhacks in general; this is the first GBA romhack (excluding translation patches) I played! I really loved your changes to Thief, huge quality of life upgrade. The "bug" from the Pickup ability also made me really enjoy this hack too. The last Pokemon gen I ever played competitively was gen 4, I skipped all later generations with the exception of Ultra Sun (because I heard they removed gyms and looked forward to something different in Pokemon's single player, ironically gyms just got cut due to time constraints for the original Sun). Adding in so many Pokemon and moves from Sword and Shield were great too. I loved the areas added in by your romhack with the Swords of Justice Pokemon.
Some improvements I would love to see in later versions of your hack:
- Post game content
- More edited / added locations
- Some of the unused placeholder Pokemon you are clearly working on (including the Giga's)
- Further refinements on moves that used to reduce accuracy (they were always legal & served a phasing purpose, also some moves become redundant or are worse off with no secondary affect like Mud Slap in your hack)
- IV perfecter giving you the ability to select the IVs you want for a particular Hidden Power type
I ended up using the same team after Safari Zone, most of the game before the Safari Zone I was using a Magneton until I caught Meltan, before that in the earlier gyms I had used Mightyena (with Strong Jaw) and Stararaptor before I finalized my team. The Third gym I had trouble with and ending up using 3 ground types with (usual Trapinch/Vibrava/Flygon which was always intended to be a part of my team, with Gligar and Dugtrio being only used for the Lt. Surge battle). The Persian I had since Route 3 was originally just a Meowth with Pickup meant for field utility but just ended up far too useful with Fake Out and it already had a perfect speed iv, so I decided to evolve it while in the Silph Co. Building to Persian and changed it's ability to Technician (it held an Amulet Coin for trainer battles all the time anyway). Right before the Elite 4 I ended up saving (and spending) enough money get 4 Pokemon to have Perfect IVs, first was Charizard (which became useful for gyms where I would use Charizard X with Dragon Dance), then Breloom, then Flygon, and finally Persian. The Mismagius for Elite 4 was from a 3 star raid battle (it wasn't the first Mismagius on my team) with perfect Defense, Special Defense, and Speed IVs, and the Melmetal had Perfect IVs in HP and Attack (plus had A in Defense IVs and A+ in Special Defense IVs) already.
Charizard Y was used for the Elite 4, Timid Nature with EVs maxed out in Special Attack & Speed (moves Roost, Air Slash, Solar Beam, Flamethrower) .
Flygon (Levitate) held Focus Sash / Soft Sand, Adamant Nature maxed EVs in Attack & Speed (moves Dragon Dance, Fire Punch, Earthquake, Dragon Claw).
Persian held Amulet Coin, Jolly Nature maxed EVs in Attack & Speed (moves Fake Out, Bite, Play Rough, and U-turn/Return; Return was only used for the final Battle).
Mismagius held Leftovers/Spelltag/Choice Specs, Timid Nature maxed EVs in Defense & Speed (moves Mean Look, Perish Song, Pain Split, Shadow Ball) [it worked great against Agatha and Perish Song would do good Phasing & troll the opponent's last Pokemon with Persian's Fake Out, but it was usually a load otherwise]
Breloom held Toxic Orb, Careful Nature maxed EVs in Defense & Special Defense (moves Spore, Leech Seed, Substitute, Focus Punch).
Melmetal held Assault Vest / Expert Belt / Weakness Policy, Careful Nature maxed EVs in Attack & Special Defense (moves Double Iron Bash, Earthquake, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch)