Emerald hack: Pokemon Emerald Kaizo
- Thread starter SinisterHoodedFigure
- Start date
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- Seen Aug 16, 2023
I'm very late into the game now and there are a lot of things I hate about it, and I wanted those shared here.
Catch rates:
Pokémon that make valuable assets like Wobbuffet, Vaporeon, Heracross and all pseudo-legendaries have catch-rates so low I would wager the catch-rate is something like 0.01%, if not lower. To put that in perspective, so far I found two shinies in this game, a shiny Absol and a shiny Jigglypuff, yet I could not catch a Wobbuffet I put to sleep and brought down to red bar after more than 200 tries. Keep in mind I used both turbo and savestates. This ruined the game for me, and I notice a trend where this creator utterly cocks up a portion of the game for no reason in particular other than to be obnoxious, like with the Cerulean Cave in Blue Kaizo, and how the encounter rate in that area is 100%, full of level 100 Pokémon that can't be avoided with repels, and how the area is a gigantic maze with nothing but dead ends and fake ladders. That's the type of bullshit that I can't be bothered with. Crystal Kaizo had the same problem where in one area all you'd find were Electrodes at level 100. Meanwhile in this game, you cannot find wild Pokémon unless you use Sweet Scent, which I eventually modded into one of my team member's movesets as I could not find and couldn't be bothered to catch a Sweet Scent user as they're few and far between and aren't great, plus that's one less precious moveslot that you will have to pay the price for in a battle.
Learnsets and TMs:
This is where this game went from "Okay, this isn't too bad," to "Why should I bother with the bullshit this game hurls my way?" Every learnset is designed such that important moves like Earthquake are missing or are otherwise queued up very late. Some Pokémon have their learnsets completely ruined like with Charizard not being able to learn a strong STAB flying move, not being able to learn Overheat and not being able to learn Earthquake naturally, while the opponent will always have access to those moves in addition to Hidden Power and sometimes they'll even have setup moves while there is no way to legitimately access them. Add to that the fact that you can only use TMs once, most are completely unavailable to purchase and all are one time use. Some, like Thunderbolt, I haven't even been able to find, neither for purchase, as a reward or out in the open. Oh, and Heart Scales? You know, your tickets to a usable moveset? Farming them is a nightmare, can only be done later into the game, and you can only find around 10 to 20 of them in the entire game, and they don't respawn. That was the point I had to make the decision between sticking to barren movesets and a miserable experience, using a save editor, or grinding to stand a chance against the garbage this game will shovel your way, especially later on.
Weather spam:
What's that? Two Pokémon in the entire game can learn a move that can change the weather? Oh, and there's a whole gym and two hideouts dedicated to abusing the weather mechanic? To be fair, you can get used to the weather spam, you just need the right party. It just felt cheap.
Note that Dragonite gets Thick Fat in this game, and it sports Extremespeed and Toxic later on. Have fun with that.
I think the worst this game has to offer are the catch-rates and learnsets. It should go without saying the game is grueling enough and that it would certainly benefit from these problems not being present. I believe the creator mentioned that somebody couldn't beat Crystal Kaizo without modding in good movesets and that is unfortunately what I had to do for this game. It was either that or I would have to either grind or savestate after every move, and that was completely miserable. If I can stand up to the opponent with the same moves they have, excluding setup moves, I think then it is a fair fight, and quite honestly that made the game actually enjoyable for me. The CPU is the real cheater in this game, and it can go fuck itself.
Can't stand the bullshit?
Try PKHeX.
Catch rates:
Pokémon that make valuable assets like Wobbuffet, Vaporeon, Heracross and all pseudo-legendaries have catch-rates so low I would wager the catch-rate is something like 0.01%, if not lower. To put that in perspective, so far I found two shinies in this game, a shiny Absol and a shiny Jigglypuff, yet I could not catch a Wobbuffet I put to sleep and brought down to red bar after more than 200 tries. Keep in mind I used both turbo and savestates. This ruined the game for me, and I notice a trend where this creator utterly cocks up a portion of the game for no reason in particular other than to be obnoxious, like with the Cerulean Cave in Blue Kaizo, and how the encounter rate in that area is 100%, full of level 100 Pokémon that can't be avoided with repels, and how the area is a gigantic maze with nothing but dead ends and fake ladders. That's the type of bullshit that I can't be bothered with. Crystal Kaizo had the same problem where in one area all you'd find were Electrodes at level 100. Meanwhile in this game, you cannot find wild Pokémon unless you use Sweet Scent, which I eventually modded into one of my team member's movesets as I could not find and couldn't be bothered to catch a Sweet Scent user as they're few and far between and aren't great, plus that's one less precious moveslot that you will have to pay the price for in a battle.
Learnsets and TMs:
This is where this game went from "Okay, this isn't too bad," to "Why should I bother with the bullshit this game hurls my way?" Every learnset is designed such that important moves like Earthquake are missing or are otherwise queued up very late. Some Pokémon have their learnsets completely ruined like with Charizard not being able to learn a strong STAB flying move, not being able to learn Overheat and not being able to learn Earthquake naturally, while the opponent will always have access to those moves in addition to Hidden Power and sometimes they'll even have setup moves while there is no way to legitimately access them. Add to that the fact that you can only use TMs once, most are completely unavailable to purchase and all are one time use. Some, like Thunderbolt, I haven't even been able to find, neither for purchase, as a reward or out in the open. Oh, and Heart Scales? You know, your tickets to a usable moveset? Farming them is a nightmare, can only be done later into the game, and you can only find around 10 to 20 of them in the entire game, and they don't respawn. That was the point I had to make the decision between sticking to barren movesets and a miserable experience, using a save editor, or grinding to stand a chance against the garbage this game will shovel your way, especially later on.
Weather spam:
What's that? Two Pokémon in the entire game can learn a move that can change the weather? Oh, and there's a whole gym and two hideouts dedicated to abusing the weather mechanic? To be fair, you can get used to the weather spam, you just need the right party. It just felt cheap.
Note that Dragonite gets Thick Fat in this game, and it sports Extremespeed and Toxic later on. Have fun with that.
I think the worst this game has to offer are the catch-rates and learnsets. It should go without saying the game is grueling enough and that it would certainly benefit from these problems not being present. I believe the creator mentioned that somebody couldn't beat Crystal Kaizo without modding in good movesets and that is unfortunately what I had to do for this game. It was either that or I would have to either grind or savestate after every move, and that was completely miserable. If I can stand up to the opponent with the same moves they have, excluding setup moves, I think then it is a fair fight, and quite honestly that made the game actually enjoyable for me. The CPU is the real cheater in this game, and it can go fuck itself.
Can't stand the bullshit?
Try PKHeX.
- 5
- Posts
- 4
- Years
- Seen May 13, 2022
I really enjoyed this experience. Many battles were really difficult, but I can agree with some of the users that the league was not as difficult as other battles (for example Flannery), mainly because near the endgame you have access to many more resources to beat the game. But I can guarantee that the REAL challenge comes with the Battle Frontier. I just got every gold symbol now, and it was PAINFUL. You can read what follows if you are interested in the matter.
8 reasons why the Battle Frontier is the HARDEST challenge in this game:
1: you don't have ANY ev. It means that your big Salamence sometimes will be slower than things like Glalie, Dragonite and Heracross. Most pokemon will feel really underwhelming because of this, both in dealing damage and withstanding hits. Your best shot probably is using pokemon with really high base stats and good typing (like Salamence, Metagross, Lati@s etc), and abusing their best moves with items like Choice Band for the former two. With perfect ivs and nature, their attack will go up to 504, with good moves like Meteor Mash, Air Slash and Earthquake to hit really hard. Trust me, sometimes this will not be enough.
2: You don't get any access to setup moves (with the exception of Swords Dance, but it costs 48 bp), so trying to cheese your way up to the symbols is not an option. Guess what? Almost every opponent does.
3: Moves like Counter, Mirror Coat, Explosion and Destiny Bond are everywhere, ready to end your run.
4: RNG is CRAZY. Double Team is EVERYWHERE, as well as hax items like Brightpowder, Quick Claw, Focus Band and Scope Lens. But it doesn't end here: I think there is some sort of manipulation of this to the extreme: those items will almost 100% activate when your opponents need them most, for example when you are in ko range of a move and the opposing Slowking has Quick Claw, and the same will happen with secondary effects (freeze etc) and CRITS.
5: Savefiles won't likely save you. I understood that every turn is SCRIPTED depending on which move you're going to use. There is no way to "fish" for a flinch or a crit (or to avoid one) with quickloads. In the Battle Palace it gets even worse, because you can't select your move. You will find that EVERY SINGLE TURN of the match is scripted. The only way to "manipulate" this consist in switching your pokemon (even multiple times) to change the script. I can guarantee it's an absolute nightmare and the only way to get it right is through trial and error with multiple saves. I can simply suggest to save when they ask you if you're ready for your next opponent: if it's not a Frontier Brain, you will always have to deal with a different team, just in case the game decides you can't win. And trust me, in that case nothing can save you.
6: Another annoying but known thing is that the more you advance with your win streak, the more your opponents will counter your lead. I've seen COUNTLESS Ice Beam users (even DUNSPARCE) leading against my Salamence. The game will also know what kind of pokemon can give you more trouble, and will throw it against your face a lot of times. The Battle Tower and the Battle Arena are the worst in this regard.
7: The Frontier Brains are usually not that difficult if you know their team, but there are some exceptions. Spenser (Battle Palace) is a complete nightmare: as I previously said, the entire battle will be scripted from turn 1, so the only way to manipulate it is by switching pokemon. His squad will almost always use the most useful move without losing turns. Arcanine will probably be faster than everything you have (to get over 289 you will need at least a base speed of 115 with 29 or more IVs and nature), and Overheat can almost 2hko a Salamence, while his Intimidate drops your attack and your pokemon sometimes will not move because of the Palace's bs, but Suicune is the absolute worst: sturdy as a diamond, will Calm Mind and click Surf or Blizzard on your whole squad. And guess what? He does have King's Rock, just to get some flinch chances into the scripts.
8: Another nightmare is the Battle Pyramid: because your pokemon have 0 EVs, you will likely be slower than some wild pokemon. Everything will try to defeat you with status spam and bs like Wobbuffet, Explosion spam, Destiny Bond etc, but at least you can prep a bit your team for the challenge because you know what kind of wilds you will encounter (using Gengar was key in the 8th round vs Explosion spam for example).
Other mixed considerations:
Battle Factory is pure fun as you finally have access to actual evs, and you can get your hands on some really, really broken movesets. To complete the run I mainly used Metagross, Salamence, Latias, Breloom, Raikou, Swampert, Gengar, Starmie, Blaziken and Wobbuffet. Without evs they felt really underwhelming, but things like a Choice Banded Meteor Mash/Air Slash (in this ROM it's a 80bp phisical move with flinch chance) are still good. Raikou with Leftovers is really good too, because the combination of his typing, Thunder Wave + Roar really helped against greedy set uppers (for example Anabel with her own Raikou and Snorlax) and wild pokemon like Wobbuffet in the Pyramid. I used Swampert only for my last challenge in the Pyramid vs Brandon because of his Rock Slide and his type advantage vs Zapdos and Moltres, but besides that it reeeaally felt underwelming with no evs. Breloom was fun because of Swords Dance and Spore, it helped me sometimes, while Wobbuffet was simply broken, so I didn't abuse it to get symbols, as using savefiles to use the right move (Counter or Mirror Coat) felt wrong (but you can trust me if I say that the cpu will still find a way to destroy your Wobba by hax or other bs).
8 reasons why the Battle Frontier is the HARDEST challenge in this game:
1: you don't have ANY ev. It means that your big Salamence sometimes will be slower than things like Glalie, Dragonite and Heracross. Most pokemon will feel really underwhelming because of this, both in dealing damage and withstanding hits. Your best shot probably is using pokemon with really high base stats and good typing (like Salamence, Metagross, Lati@s etc), and abusing their best moves with items like Choice Band for the former two. With perfect ivs and nature, their attack will go up to 504, with good moves like Meteor Mash, Air Slash and Earthquake to hit really hard. Trust me, sometimes this will not be enough.
2: You don't get any access to setup moves (with the exception of Swords Dance, but it costs 48 bp), so trying to cheese your way up to the symbols is not an option. Guess what? Almost every opponent does.
3: Moves like Counter, Mirror Coat, Explosion and Destiny Bond are everywhere, ready to end your run.
4: RNG is CRAZY. Double Team is EVERYWHERE, as well as hax items like Brightpowder, Quick Claw, Focus Band and Scope Lens. But it doesn't end here: I think there is some sort of manipulation of this to the extreme: those items will almost 100% activate when your opponents need them most, for example when you are in ko range of a move and the opposing Slowking has Quick Claw, and the same will happen with secondary effects (freeze etc) and CRITS.
5: Savefiles won't likely save you. I understood that every turn is SCRIPTED depending on which move you're going to use. There is no way to "fish" for a flinch or a crit (or to avoid one) with quickloads. In the Battle Palace it gets even worse, because you can't select your move. You will find that EVERY SINGLE TURN of the match is scripted. The only way to "manipulate" this consist in switching your pokemon (even multiple times) to change the script. I can guarantee it's an absolute nightmare and the only way to get it right is through trial and error with multiple saves. I can simply suggest to save when they ask you if you're ready for your next opponent: if it's not a Frontier Brain, you will always have to deal with a different team, just in case the game decides you can't win. And trust me, in that case nothing can save you.
6: Another annoying but known thing is that the more you advance with your win streak, the more your opponents will counter your lead. I've seen COUNTLESS Ice Beam users (even DUNSPARCE) leading against my Salamence. The game will also know what kind of pokemon can give you more trouble, and will throw it against your face a lot of times. The Battle Tower and the Battle Arena are the worst in this regard.
7: The Frontier Brains are usually not that difficult if you know their team, but there are some exceptions. Spenser (Battle Palace) is a complete nightmare: as I previously said, the entire battle will be scripted from turn 1, so the only way to manipulate it is by switching pokemon. His squad will almost always use the most useful move without losing turns. Arcanine will probably be faster than everything you have (to get over 289 you will need at least a base speed of 115 with 29 or more IVs and nature), and Overheat can almost 2hko a Salamence, while his Intimidate drops your attack and your pokemon sometimes will not move because of the Palace's bs, but Suicune is the absolute worst: sturdy as a diamond, will Calm Mind and click Surf or Blizzard on your whole squad. And guess what? He does have King's Rock, just to get some flinch chances into the scripts.
8: Another nightmare is the Battle Pyramid: because your pokemon have 0 EVs, you will likely be slower than some wild pokemon. Everything will try to defeat you with status spam and bs like Wobbuffet, Explosion spam, Destiny Bond etc, but at least you can prep a bit your team for the challenge because you know what kind of wilds you will encounter (using Gengar was key in the 8th round vs Explosion spam for example).
Other mixed considerations:
Battle Factory is pure fun as you finally have access to actual evs, and you can get your hands on some really, really broken movesets. To complete the run I mainly used Metagross, Salamence, Latias, Breloom, Raikou, Swampert, Gengar, Starmie, Blaziken and Wobbuffet. Without evs they felt really underwhelming, but things like a Choice Banded Meteor Mash/Air Slash (in this ROM it's a 80bp phisical move with flinch chance) are still good. Raikou with Leftovers is really good too, because the combination of his typing, Thunder Wave + Roar really helped against greedy set uppers (for example Anabel with her own Raikou and Snorlax) and wild pokemon like Wobbuffet in the Pyramid. I used Swampert only for my last challenge in the Pyramid vs Brandon because of his Rock Slide and his type advantage vs Zapdos and Moltres, but besides that it reeeaally felt underwelming with no evs. Breloom was fun because of Swords Dance and Spore, it helped me sometimes, while Wobbuffet was simply broken, so I didn't abuse it to get symbols, as using savefiles to use the right move (Counter or Mirror Coat) felt wrong (but you can trust me if I say that the cpu will still find a way to destroy your Wobba by hax or other bs).
- 2
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- 4
- Years
- Seen Aug 16, 2023
If you really want to go out of your way to catch those Pokémon, doing so legitimately will probably take you several hours, maybe days, as their catch rates are astronomically low, much lower than 1%, even if you use Ultra Balls, savestates and turbo. I don't take that approach, so I don't know how to help you.
- 1
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- 4
- Years
- Seen Jun 25, 2020
Does anyone know any heart scale locations? Or any way to farm them, or what the chance is that a luvdisc has heart scales? I need them pretty bad at the moment
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- 4
- Years
- Seen Mar 11, 2020
Sturdy in Gen 3 only prevented K.O. Moves like Fissure and Sheer Cold, it was either Gen 4 or 5 where it would also guard you from being oneshot by normal attacks
- 24
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- 5
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- Seen Mar 2, 2024
Anyone know where the fishing rods are because I need to find a magikarp to complete my team
- 2
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- 4
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- Seen Apr 11, 2020
Did you ever find ditto? I've had no luck.
- 368
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- 5
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- Seen Apr 9, 2024
That can't be true, I did no such thing on my recent Crystal Kaizo run and beat the game. My Tyranitar's unique in that it got Ancientpower, and that was through breeding. Ancientpower single-handedly destroyed Red's team for example, along with a lot of luck.
Emerald Kaizo's a nightnare, but Ever Grande City will be a bit like heaven because of the Rare Candies. You could then overhaul your team and get the best possible squad for the final battles. It's Hell to get there though. I do want to play Emerald Kaizo again.
- 1
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- 4
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- Seen Jun 5, 2022
Hey there! :)
I also started with Kaizo Emerald and I am very satisfied - the difficulty is very pleasant since I've played several other Kaizo Pokemon games already :D
For the moment I only have a few questions, since I'm in Mauville City currently:
1:) I wanted to grind a poison barb - I taught my Xatu TM 46 for Thief and tried it on countless Cacnea and Roselia, but it didn't work....did the Poison Barb get removed from them as hold Item? (5% usually doesn't take this long on a common Emerald Version)
2:) I've also tried my very first run some time ago and wasn't able to pass Flannery :/
My strategy for now was grinding for a Ground or Water 'mon, can anybody recommend a good one? I tried to grind for Flareon in the area around Lavaridge Town, since the Pokedex located it there. I also wasn't able to find one, I planned to hatch an Eevee for an egg to get Vaporeon since it learns hydro pump before reaching Lv 50.
Does anybody know how to get Flareon or another good coverage pokemon such like Trapinch, Staryu or Diglett to level them up for Flannery?
3:) Is there a something like a wild Pokemon encounter list? I love the surprise in Kaizo Version's, but without good preparation you're pretty fast f'cked in that version :S
4:) Where do I get a Harbor Mail to exchange it for the Coin Case?
Thanks in advance - the hack is really great! :P
I also started with Kaizo Emerald and I am very satisfied - the difficulty is very pleasant since I've played several other Kaizo Pokemon games already :D
For the moment I only have a few questions, since I'm in Mauville City currently:
1:) I wanted to grind a poison barb - I taught my Xatu TM 46 for Thief and tried it on countless Cacnea and Roselia, but it didn't work....did the Poison Barb get removed from them as hold Item? (5% usually doesn't take this long on a common Emerald Version)
2:) I've also tried my very first run some time ago and wasn't able to pass Flannery :/
My strategy for now was grinding for a Ground or Water 'mon, can anybody recommend a good one? I tried to grind for Flareon in the area around Lavaridge Town, since the Pokedex located it there. I also wasn't able to find one, I planned to hatch an Eevee for an egg to get Vaporeon since it learns hydro pump before reaching Lv 50.
Does anybody know how to get Flareon or another good coverage pokemon such like Trapinch, Staryu or Diglett to level them up for Flannery?
3:) Is there a something like a wild Pokemon encounter list? I love the surprise in Kaizo Version's, but without good preparation you're pretty fast f'cked in that version :S
4:) Where do I get a Harbor Mail to exchange it for the Coin Case?
Thanks in advance - the hack is really great! :P
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- 1
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- 4
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- Seen Mar 12, 2020
Hi, I was wondering where on earth do you find dratini?? I spent hours fishing with super rod in route 115 and even read about that patch of grass, but still no luck at all.
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- Seen May 20, 2021
@Katakuri
1) I believe Thief and Covet have both had their item stealing effect disabled and thus you may have to catch the pokemon in order to get the item you're after.
2 & 3) Page 3 in this thread has a .txt file that lists encounters in most areas.
4) I read somewhere that it isn't available until post-game. Admittedly I'm not sure where you get it even when you get there.
1) I believe Thief and Covet have both had their item stealing effect disabled and thus you may have to catch the pokemon in order to get the item you're after.
2 & 3) Page 3 in this thread has a .txt file that lists encounters in most areas.
4) I read somewhere that it isn't available until post-game. Admittedly I'm not sure where you get it even when you get there.
- 2
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- 4
- Years
- Seen Mar 11, 2020
As I was Nuzlocking this game I went to Flannery with Camerupt, Swampert, Lanturn, Vileplum, Primeape and Fearow
Camerupt was level 54 and Swampert 52 (to get EQ) the rest was around Lv. 48
Since all of them pack Solar Beam and everyone outsped Swampert, it was only useful for Castform.
(Ninetales has 120 Basespeed and the Firestarter all got Base 100)
Camerupt was the absolute MVP in that taking down 2 out of 6
She leads off with Ninetales which immediately fires off a Solar Beam, which Camerupt can tank pretty easily killing it with EQ (Earthquake)
Next came Typhlosion, who did EQ which Camerupt survived (strong girl!) sweeping with EQ, next came Charizard, where I swapped into Primeape to Rock Slide onto that quad weakness, Blaziken got Drill Pecked by Fearow, Arcanine had to tough out vs Lanturn, (Thunderwave and Spamming Shock Wave ftw) but it almost crushed Lanturn, so I swapped to Vileplum, who easily took a Solar Beam, since I outspeed it with my Chlorphyll ability I hit a big Sludge Bomb taking down Arcanine, lastly was Castform, where Swampert came in tanked a Solar Beam, living with 2(!) HP hitting that EQ making me win that gym.
As I started planning the nuzlocke, Flannery quickly became one of the biggest obstacles to overcome IMO, you can't use Water, Rock and Ground Types because of Solar Beam and Sun. You also don't get fast ground types before battling her. (Dugtrio and Flygon are only available in the desert, which you access after beating Flannery) making Camerupt (and also Lanturn) the best possible choice, since it either resists or neutrals everything except EQ. Where it can Tank one easily.
The Harbor Mail can later be bought in Lilycove City.
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