HeartGold hack: Pokemon WoofGold and MasterSilver (Complete)

[woofmasterarf]

A Vanilla Plus romhack meant to improve upon the game of my childhood in a variety of subtle ways. This is the most nostalgic game for me, and I wanted a version that lived up to my rose-tinted classes. Initially being inspired by the Crystal Legacy videos by SmithPlaysPokemon, I sought to do the same kind of thing here. There are some ideas taken from that, but as this hack progressed it diverged quite significantly.

Overall, if you love HeartGold and SoulSilver as much as I do and want a hack with a bit more mon-variety, more engaging boss fights, and a level curve, these are the roms for you!


Simple Version of the changes
-New encounters
-Level curve that more closely matches other games
-Redone Boss Battles
-Altered Evolution Methods
-Buffed stats, abilities, and movesets
-Hard Mode version of the roms


More in-depth explanation of the changes

New encounters: Every gen 2 Pokemon is available within Johto, some mons are available earlier (Larvitar via Union Cave BF1 instead of Safari Zone for example), and a couple more mons added to routed for flavor (like Chansey on the Day-Care route). Since how a route feels is largely determined by it's encounters, the common encounters are very similar to how they are normally. Most of the new encounters are about 5-20% likely, those the previously mentioned 2 are rare as are a few others. Some routes are already fine, so not much reason to change them.

Level Curve: by virtue of being a remake of an early Pokemon game, the pattern of the base game's level curve, especially with wild Pokemon. The level curve is a bit more normalized with the rest of the series, becoming more noticeable starting after Morty. It becomes especially noticeable in Kanto, which normally doesn't have a level curve really.

Boss Battles: The Gym Leaders are redone. They take more inspiration from how Whitney functions in base game, despite how infamous she is. Whitney's fight normally does a decent job showing personality, and being easy to beat if you try but annoying if you just press buttons. She acts as a gatekeeper to weed out players who don't use much strategy. The boss fights here achieve that level of difficulty while having bits to showcase personality and feel distinct from each other. This logic applies to the Kanto side of things as well.

Of notable exception is Jasmine, who is designed as if she's the 7th Gym leader. Like in base game, her, Chuck, and Pryce and be fought in any order. Jasmine is designed to be easily the hardest to do first, but you can do her first. Some dialogue has been altered to suggest her new role as a notably strong gym leader you can fight early.

The Rival Battles are also redone, along with bits of his dialogue. He uses Pokemon he's acquired since your last battle, and has sligtly altered dialogue to make his development feel a bit more natural. He uses different teams depending on starter choice. Worth noting in the mid-late Johto portion, he starts to fall behind the player more before he figures things out, at which point he starts to catch up.

One important thing, base game cheat codes do work. With this in mind, I did redo the Giovanni fight. While it is accessible before fighting Clair via the Celebi event, his Ace is level 77 in this version. This is the 2nd highest level fight in the game, think of it more like a supped up Jasmine in that you can fight him early but good luck.

Altered Evolution Methods: Evolution methods are redone to not require any trade evolution. All evolutions normally locked to post-game are no available before then. Some of these mons have a chance to be holding their Evo items in the wild, while the Up-Grade, Dubious Disc, Shiny Stone being added to the Pokéathlon on Sunday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday respectively.

Buffed Pokemon: A lot of Pokemon in HGSS are notoriously weak. I tried to help a lot of the more noticeable examples through smaller boosts. I wanted them to be better, but not in a way to where they'd feel like a different Pokemon. For example Magcargo has +30 bst distributed to 3 stats, a slightly altered level up movepool, and evolves 8 levels earlier. It's not completely different, it's a streamlined version of what it already is. I'm not one for massive boosts without specific reason. An exception is Ledian and Ariados, who to account for their later evolution than their Gen 1 counterparts were given +60 bst along with their other changes.

Some Pokemon are given moves for flavor. Typhlosion doesn't need Earth Power, but it's a cool option via Heart Scale.

Hard Mode: The game is balanced around it's normal mode, which aims to be harder than normal but still far from a difficulty hack. Because some thing I found interesting felt slightly off for this vision, I made a hard mode version. It's still not a difficulty hack, but every trainer has perfect IVs, and boss encounters have higher levels on the Pokemon that aren't their aces, improved move, extra items, and in some cases an extra Pokemon.


Version Exclusives are as follows

-Arcanine in Gold, Ninetales in Silver
-Ariados in Gold, Ledian in Silver
-Granbull in Gold, Persian in Silver
-Gliscor in Gold, Skarmory in Silver
-Mantine in Gold, Delibird in Silver.

Feedback: I've done rigorous playtesting and I think everything is where I want, but this is my first romhack and I'm using tools I'm unfamiliar with. If anyone finds something that contradicts the documentation, is a major bug, or just seems odd, let me know in this thread.


The Rom Patch Files can be found here.

WoofGold and MasterSilver Patch Files - Google Drive

drive.google.com

You'll want to use this website to apply the patches to a base rom of the version of your choice. https://www.romhacking.net/patch/

Here is the Documentation. There's no pages for headbutt encounters or special encounters like mass outbreaks or the Safari Zone, those are default.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rgHl6HbsE2eNy2v44TIlYKSayYdpT4d37cpG5-TLhPA/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you for your time.

Resources Used

PokEditor
DSPRE
HGEngine
Tinke
HxD Hex Editor
Delta Patcher
And the Kingdom of DS Romhacking Discord Server.

A Few Screenshots below

 

[woofmasterarf]

Note to mods:

I realize I forgot screenshots, getting some now.

Edit: Fixed that.

 

[dawnmidst]

This game is truly a masterpiece, had the pleasure of playtesting for my good friend WoofMaster and I had a great time from start to finish.

 

[Ace Trainer: Nox]

Do you still need HMs?

 

[woofmasterarf]

Do you still need HMs?

Yes, but a few are buffed. Notably Rock Smash always lowers Defense, Cut is Bug type which is appreciated by a few mons, and Rock Climb has more accuracy and Confusion chance.

 

[OmegaBlazerX]

If the hack was based on the Legacy hacks did you changed a Pokemon's type and moveset? I been playing Emerald Legacy so i have a good idea what to expect.

 

[frmtmz]

Great hack! Can't wait to play this. Should the patch be applied to the USA or EUROPE version of the rom?

 

[woofmasterarf]

If the hack was based on the Legacy hacks did you changed a Pokemon's type and moveset? I been playing Emerald Legacy so i have a good idea what to expect.

The idea for this was inspired by Crystal Legacy when those videos were still coming out, so some ideas are incorporated from that (such as the use of the Legndary Birds), but things did diverge as development progressed.


I'm less partial to type changes than Smith, as I think most of the types are actually fine and I prefer subtlety with mon buffs. I did often buff movesets and stats though.

For example Corsola got +10 HP, Special Attack, and Special Defense. This seems small, but is actually enough to matter quite a lot in regards to avoiding 2kos which let's it make better use of its strengths like Recover. Similar logic with Magcargo, who also gets Will-o-Wisp as an early level up move and an earlier evolution as well.

 

[woofmasterarf]

Great hack! Can't wait to play this. Should the patch be applied to the USA or EUROPE version of the rom?

I haven't tested with Europe, don't know if it works. This is based on the USA, so try that.

Glad you're excited to play!

 

[Ace Trainer: Nox]

I haven't tested with Europe, don't know if it works. This is based on the USA, so try that.

Glad you're excited to play!

Does Lapras still show up only on Friday's?

 

[woofmasterarf]

Does Lapras still show up only on Friday's?

Yes, all the fixed encounters are the same locations. Sudowoodo, your mascot legend, Suicune, and Mewtwo do see a level increase though.

 

[Oda93]

The base rom is too big..what do i do?

 

[woofmasterarf]

The base rom is too big..what do i do?

Where did you get the rom you're using? I know the xenophobia base roms aren't the best so that could be it. If not, I don't have access to my laptop right now so can't really test the issue, but I can test it sometime tomorrow.


Reminder to not link the base Rom since that's illegal. A name or the rom or website is enough.

 

[Oda93]

The base rom is too big..what do i do?

Nevermind, my mistake..got figured it out.. can't wait to start playing it

 

[woofmasterarf]

Nevermind, my mistake..got figured it out.. can't wait to start playing it

Happy to hear you fixed it, hope you enjoy!

 

[Guddodoy]

Where can you get the all evolution stones & other specific evolution items ?? The docs you provided didn't specify where to get them. Thanks. 😊

 

[woofmasterarf]

Where can you get the all evolution stones & other specific evolution items ?? The docs you provided didn't specify where to get them. Thanks. 😊

Yeah admittedly the doc was kind of a last minute thing, I'll add a page about that tomorrow. I thought putting that info in the notes next to relevant pokemon would be enough, but I can see how that is easy to miss.

If it's normally gotten before the post game, it's gotten the same way as normal. Items that are normally post-game are gotten via 1 of 2 ways.

1. The mon has a chance to be holding its Evo item when caught. For example, Misdreavus can be holding Dusk Stone when caught, and Electbuzz has a chance to be holding Electirizer.

2. The Up-Grade, Dubious Disc, Dawn Stone, and Shiny Stone are added to the pre-nat dex Pokeathelon on Sunday, Thursday, Saturday, and Friday respectively.

Notably the Dawn Stone is now used to evolve Glaceon, as is Leaf Stone for Leafeon.

 

[Guddodoy]

Yeah admittedly the doc was kind of a last minute thing, I'll add a page about that tomorrow. I thought putting that info in the notes next to relevant pokemon would be enough, but I can see how that is easy to miss.

If it's normally gotten before the post game, it's gotten the same way as normal. Items that are normally post-game are gotten via 1 of 2 ways.

1. The mon has a chance to be holding its Evo item when caught. For example, Misdreavus can be holding Dusk Stone when caught, and Electbuzz has a chance to be holding Electirizer.

2. The Up-Grade, Dubious Disc, Dawn Stone, and Shiny Stone are added to the pre-nat dex Pokeathelon on Sunday, Thursday, Saturday, and Friday respectively.

Notably the Dawn Stone is now used to evolve Glaceon, as is Leaf Stone for Leafeon.

Thanks for the info. I just started playing this ROM hack and I'm really enjoying my time with it. 😊

 

[woofmasterarf]

Thanks for the info. I just started playing this ROM hack and I'm really enjoying my time with it. 😊

I'm glad to here that! I'll try to expand the documentation when I have the time tomorrow.

 

[frmtmz]

I played a little and I absolutely love the hack. Great job! Is it possible for you to add level caps as well? That would be a great addition.