Emerald hack: The Pit v2 - Roguelite Style Hack

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

Description:

This is a roguelite hack that is inspired by Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, in which the Pit of 100 Trials is an optional dungeon with 100 floors of battles. We have translated that concept into Pokemon with some twists.

In this challenge, you start with 3 random Pokemon and must fight through a random trainer gauntlet over 100 Floors. You and each trainer have random mons. There is a singles, doubles, and mixed mode as well as tons of other difficulty and challenge options. The Enemy trainer mon levels are tied to the floor number, with Lvl 1 being the minimum and Lvl 100 being the maximum. At the start of the challenge, there is only one trainer per floor, but as you progress, more of them will spawn (random number per floor, weighted to lower numbers), with a max of four per floor by the end of the Pit. After clearing each floor you will get one to three random item drops and then the next floor warp will activate letting you progress. Every 5th floor is a Heal/Shop floor where you will be able to rest and prepare for the next trial and on every 10 floors a Move Tutor NPC will appear. Every 25th floor, there is a random Boss battle with a harder trainer, if you defeat the boss you will be given an option to gain a party member.

If you do manage to beat the final trainer on Floor 100, you can choose to keep going and see how far you can get. That's all the info I've got. Hopefully, you have fun. If you're interested in discussing the hack make sure to join the Discord.

Feature List:

Spoiler:

• Three different game versions for Gen 3, Gen 5 and Gen 9 including all the vanilla behavior of those generations!
• choose from 16 different avatars or play as any Pokémon species
• extensive amount of game modes
  • singles/mixed/doubles
  • 3 mons only
  • no starter choice
  • 50 floors short experience
  • different difficulty settings (XP share values, Trainer EVs, cash rate, Stat changer, etc.)
  • different randomizer modes (moves, abilities, base stats, types, evos, battle weather
• new custom options added on top of the vanilla ones
  • battle speedup
  • randomized maps
  • randomized map music
  • follower mons (standard expansion feature nowadays)
• countless custom UIs with matching style
• text boxes were all changed to dark mode
• Random Map Arena System
• Random Boss System with predefined Aces
• Random Trainer System
• Random Item System (victory drops and held items)
• many additional songs for both the overworld and battles
• random overworld mons to interact with
• all species available (Shedinja can only be obtained by finishing the SEEN Dex)
• some evos have been altered so they are applicable. All info can always be found in the Dex! (tip: use the search option "PARTY")
• move tutors for all potential kinds of move acquisition: relearner, tutor moves, egg moves, pre evo moves
• TM merchant UI upgrade for QoL
• TM lists match the generation, including all 230 TMs for Gen 9
• all items, moves, abilities etc. available (standard expansion feature nowadays)
• overworld trainer counter
• HGSS Pokedex with additional filter modes for quick access of all relevant data
• Random Secret Base Options and Secret Base Shop with All Decorations
• Easter Egg Pokemon Pinball NPC

Changelog:

Spoiler:

Changes for v2.0.1:
* fixed Pokedex search option PARTY for regional forms
* added Hoenn Cap Pikachu overworld sprites
* fixed cross healing for confusion
* no Abra encounter before Boss floors
* fixed jirachi ending script if press B before choosing item
* fix Mega Boss Ace in Gen 3/5 Mode
* fix some map issues with potential softlocks if you go into a small hole and get seen by a trainer
* fix saving on Wild Encounter Floor causing Pokemon to sotflock you on returning

Changes for v2.1.0:
- added Progressive Mode where opponent trainers randomize their mons from a species tier list that increases with floors
- changed Normal/Hard mode to Hope/Despair and updated the texts accordingly
- changed Hope mode to a progressive run setup
- added a mono type run option for Custom runs
- added evolution stage choice for Custom runs (Basic and Fully evolved)
- added item drop option for Custom runs (random, always 1, always 3)
- move tutor now always spawns in the pit stops
- updated player mon avatar species list with some left out ones
- removed Palafin Hero as it shouldn't be available standalone
- added plenty missing forms (e.g. Ash Greninja)
- reworked Abra to only spawn 2 levels before a pit stop giving the option to skip 1 or 2 floors
- consumables are now getting restored for Gen 3 and 5 as well
- mints and ability changing items have been added to Gen 3/5 now
- added encounter floor for 3 Mon Mode to switch a member
- added encounter rates for special reward encounters like the Wonder Trade NPC so some can spawn multiple times during a run
- added Commander ability and Order Up move effect
- illusion mons now show the illusion effectivity in the moves details
- added Zygarde Cube item to allow form and ability change
- updated prices for ability changing items and made them to sell for buying price
- added 20 new trainer approach texts
- New Battle UI health boxes
- Rerolling in the Birch Case is possible for 50 BP now
- SLIGHT AI change to use less Status moves, still will use them though
- New HUD Sprite for showing when a mon reward encounter NPC is on the map
- several bugfixes

Release:

There are 3 versions of the hack, a version with just up to Gen 3 mons, a version with up to Gen 5 mons, and a version with all Gens Mons.
Google Drive
Discord
DO NOT USE VBA OR MYBOY. USE mGBA on PC or PizzaBoy/Lemuroid/RetroArch+mGBACore on Mobile

Credits:

Spoiler:

Core Team
Lead Dev: Archie
Co Lead: Wiz
Art Direction: Mudskip
Testing/Balance/QOL: Aereon
Mapping + Various: Nico
Various: RavePossum

Everyone Else Who Helped Out Directly or Indirectly
All battle / late Gen stuff / plenty more is from Edu and the Expansion Team at RHH, they do amazing work.
The decomps themselves were created by people at pret.
Nico made the Battle UI and helped with a ton of the mapping
RavePossum implemented the Gen 5 Summary Screen and the battle bgs as well .
Phantonomy with Testing the final versions.
Chairry/Livra/Logan/HighNoonMoon helped with the v2 Avatars and bosses, Lillie, Rosa, Nate, plus Valerie and Bugsy boss trainer sprites
Ghoulslash made the Item Desc Code + the UI shell code used for my UIs
Mudskip and I together made the Main + Start Menu / Pokeball Case UIs (Mudskip made the graphics)
Hyo/Poffin made the majority of the FRLG style sprites.
Nicolavs gave me the original cave tiles.
The rest of the tilesets come from TAAR: Credits Here. Here. and Here. There are too many people to list out in this post but all the credits are in these links.
Bsbob made the map pop-up branch.
Lunos the instant text branch.
Pokabbie made the Ingame Battle Animation Speedup Code.
Edu made the extra bag pockets branch.
MGriffin helped with my autosave code.
TheXaman wrote some of the randomizer and Party Menu code (graphics by me).
Devolov/Rioluwott/EliteRedux/Graion/PCG for various QOL additions, mostly battle related
Following Pokemon feature by Merrp, Edu, Gerben, Rahtak, and the Expansion Team.
Lucas/Dawn Sprites From Here Edited By Archie To Fit Gen 3 More
Cynthia sprites from Here by Aveontrainer and Here and Here by mid117
Ethan and Lyra from Eevee Expo resource Here
Oak backsprite adapated from Here
ShantyTown for the Pokeball Pinball code
TeOn Skip pokedex gaps code
Bassoonian preEvo tutor code
Special thanks to everyone in our Team Aqua Discord.
There are too many people to thank here, but this hack is built on community resources.
If you notice something here that you worked on and I didn't list your name and you would like me to, please reach out to me and I will make it happen.
Without all of them, this hack would not exist. Thank you all <3

Join the Pit Discord to talk about the hack or learn how to create your own.

 

[wiz1989]

Yeah baby, finally!
This is hype! Gonna grab a beta and give this a go!
Will report later.

 

[PCG - Pokémon]

This sounds like a really good ROM hack! Will surely give it a try tonight.

 

[iriv24]

TAH is known for their quality romhacks, definitely will be giving this a try!

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

Update: v1.2 ---- 05/10/2024

Now Normal vs Extra Random are decided in game before a run starts instead of being different patches.

There is a Doubles mode that is in beta but seems to be working, it will ask you which mode with the Extra Random question before a run.

Some QOL stuff like 3 random item drops instead of 2 per floor, move relearned NPC every 20 floors, Move names for TMs in shops, instant text as default (can be changed), Exp curves standardized to Medium Fast, Random item type chances balanced around heals more, Exp Share updated to be 75% of max instead of 50

 

[Thumbtrapper]

Super excited to play this, but it keeps crashing. I enter the first floor and it's as though the game is trying to enter a wild pokemon encounter before the screen looks like a CRT TV and freezes. I've tried both trashman and a different rombase to no success on myboy. Any help would be appreciated

Edit: tested the same rom on openemu and it works fine

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

Super excited to play this, but it keeps crashing. I enter the first floor and it's as though the game is trying to enter a wild pokemon encounter before the screen looks like a CRT TV and freezes. I've tried both trashman and a different rombase to no success on myboy. Any help would be appreciated

Edit: tested the same rom on openemu and it works fine

Yeah MyBoy just doesn't seem to work for it. I have no idea why as it works on all actually good emulators and it works completely fine on actual hardware. There are multiple other mobile emulators people have tested for it that work though.

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

Update v1.4 -- 05/18/2024

Lots of changes have been made.
Floor Movers have been added that let you pay to skip floors.
Trainer number per floor is now random instead of set.
Item drops are now random between 1 and 3.
A Hard Mode has been added with less Exp Share Gain.
Updated Learnsets for Normal Random so Mons can learn the other 50 TMs added. (wiz1989, Aereon)
Item balance changes (wiz1989)
Final Boss Trainer has all Evolved Mons.
Pokemon now start at Level 1 on Floor 1 and go up from there.

 

[wiz1989]

The new version is the perfect challenge!
Played on Gen5 normal mode, single and had a blast!
Gonna be really hard to win ngl!

 

[Shadowshu]

Hey so I tried the all gen and all gen random version but it crashes on myboy too.. I don't have another emulator but I got Meloetta. Now I can't get over it🤣

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

Hey so I tried the all gen and all gen random version but it crashes on myboy too.. I don't have another emulator but I got Meloetta. Now I can't get over it🤣

Yeah MyBoy doesn't work because it sucks. There are other mobile emulators that work, I'm unaware of any others that don't work other than MyBoy.

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

UPDATED: v1.5 ---- 06/02/2024

There are a bunch of updates coming in version 1.5 most of which were created by wiz1989.
Added new Mode Menu UI to set up different game modes. Added new Option Menu to match style of other UIs.
Random held items for opponent mons. Further price balancing. Added Move Tutor for Egg moves and special Tutor moves.
Update to Expansion Version 1.8.4. Implemented an Autosave Feature. New Bag UI + updated pocket management.
IV edit merchant for use in no stat editor mode. And various other changes.

 

[wiz1989]

Let's go!

@Players: Let's share your PB record screenshots in here!

Here's mine, even though it is not impressive lol



CUSTOM here means Normal XP mode (no chance I challenge Hard mode)

 

[Inner Rhymes]

This looks so sick! Love love LOVE the custom UI you've implemented!

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

This looks so sick! Love love LOVE the custom UI you've implemented!

Thanks! The UIs were a product of a lot of work from a lot of people in the community: Mudskip, RavePossum, Nico, TheXaman, Edu, Ghoulslash. Most of them are public feature branches as well you can find on the Team Aqua Asset Repo Github.

 

[WhitronPhenomenon]

This is very cool, I love seeing something new and different. I had almost avoided it because I saw it called a rougelite on reddit and that's not my jam, but idk I feel like this is a different, and who cares about semantics.

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

This is very cool, I love seeing something new and different. I had almost avoided it because I saw it called a rougelite on reddit and that's not my jam, but idk I feel like this is a different, and who cares about semantics.

Yeah thats fair, I labeled it "rogue-lite style" in the description just because it's the easiest way to explain the general gameplay loop you're in for to people. But it's just a random battle gauntlet where you level up as you go and fight increasingly harder trainers.

 

[Inner Rhymes]

So, I gave this a spin last evening, and my word, am I having the time of my life! I have never really enjoyed Fangames/ ROM hacks that took a full-blown Rogue approach as I found it far too overwhelming for me to keep up. This, however, hits the sweet spot I have been looking for. There's not much going on, and it's purely battle-centric which has me hooked. I love how the HP bars have been designed. There's something so satisfying in watching HP deplete from those segmented cubes. I do have a few questions/ suggestions to make if I may.

- Do you plan on including character customization or at least avatars for the player to choose from?
- Would you consider adding a jukebox feature before the run begins so players can choose what soundtrack they'd like played when a battle starts?
- I understand money scarcity adds to the survival component of this, but maybe include items like Stardust, nuggets, etc. to make a rare appearance?

I made it to floor 68 on my first run!

 

[Team Aqua Leader Archie]

So, I gave this a spin last evening, and my word, am I having the time of my life! I have never really enjoyed Fangames/ ROM hacks that took a full-blown Rogue approach as I found it far too overwhelming for me to keep up. This, however, hits the sweet spot I have been looking for. There's not much going on, and it's purely battle-centric which has me hooked. I love how the HP bars have been designed. There's something so satisfying in watching HP deplete from those segmented cubes. I do have a few questions/ suggestions to make if I may.

- Do you plan on including character customization or at least avatars for the player to choose from?
- Would you consider adding a jukebox feature before the run begins so players can choose what soundtrack they'd like played when a battle starts?
- I understand money scarcity adds to the survival component of this, but maybe include items like Stardust, nuggets, etc. to make a rare appearance?

I made it to floor 68 on my first run!

I have thought about adding a character customizer. I'm not sure if it will happen but it is definitely in the list of potential features.

I haven't really considered a jukebox, but I am likely going to make the battle tracks random each time, potentially including some of the battle songs from the Gen 4/5 music expansion branch.

I think having a rare chance for an item of large value like those might be good to have. I'll definitely run it by Wiz and see how he thinks it'll affect balance

 

[Inner Rhymes]

Thank you so much! I forgot to ask, is dazzling gleam an available TM in the game? I was looking through the TM Merchant's stock, and they did not have dazzling gleam on the list. Looking forward to the next update!