Emerald hack: Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack [Complete, v1.09 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]
- Thread starter BrandonXL
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Spoiler:
Ursaluna, as with most (not all) Hisuian mons, can only be received by interacting with an NPC.
I have an encounters sheet and evolution document on the drive, which you can access here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/2/folders/1ZSY3YUbTMMOZsLOKZVWACxiqJcGNVgc7
Hope this helps :)
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Thanks for the hack. I really enjoyed it. I particularly liked the optional bosses and reward progression. I was impressed that even without the Fire Red Project you still improved quality of life over those hacks in some ways. The respawning hold items that you can't lose in wild battles really deserve to be universal but somehow aren't, so thank you for finally doing that.
Spoiler:
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Finished my third run, this time using a bit more planning to get all the items I needed and using some more of my favorites, from left to right/top to bottom:
Klefki - Prankster - Air Balloon
An important switch in on Ground types which threaten Ampharos and Poison types which threaten like half of my team, along with resisting Ice types, uses Screens to allow other pokemon to survive stronger threat, along with crippling pokemon with Thunder Wave and getting a couple of kills off of Foul Play (Spectrier in particular)
Azumarill - Huge Power - Muscle Band
Standard azumarill set with priority and high damage, although this one focuses more on coverage than raw power, since no bosses are weak to water among the elite four.
Ampharos - Static (Mold Breaker) - Ampharosite
Good Defenses and a very high special attack, along with a nice set of coverage options in dragon and electric, cotton spore can be used to lower opponents speeds in a similar way to Thunder Wave.
Breloom - Technician - Choice Band/Grass Gem
Incredible utility (Spore) held back by low bulk and low speed, which is why choice band is in place, dies instantly to almost any attack in the late game, but can get priority kills with Mach Punch or Incredibly high power on Technician/Grass Gem boosted bullet seeds
Gardevoir - Telepathy - Misty Seed
Generally good special attacking pokemon, along with running Misty Terrain for use while Azumarill is out, although it may not be really good considering its utility allies both use status (Breloom and Klefki)
Minior - Shields Down - Flying Gem
Incredibly good sweeping pokemon, especially when used in conjunction with klefkis screens, shell smash into its extremely good flying and ground coverage is excellent.
If I had to rate these pokemon from best to worst in my opinion it goes:
Klefki
Minior
Breloom
Azumarill
Ampharos
Gardevoir
Nothing against some of the lower ranked ones, but they simply did not carry as much weight as the excellent support options klefki gets
👍
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I LOVE THIS HACK!!! Possibly my all time favorite Emerald difficulty mod.
It kicked my butt at the start, mostly during the Roxanne battle (that level cap is a KILLER if you pick Torchic since it cannot evolve; after 25-30 losses I managed to pull it off with an all ice team), but now that I've gotten a pretty good team with coverage (Blaziken, Gardevoir, Gallade, Excadrill, Quagsire, and Staraptor) I'm really enjoying it! Surprisingly, having expected the worst for the infamous Route 110 rival battle, I had a surprisingly easy time with it. So far my one minor (extremely minor because I liked how it was instead a Trick Room set and think it needs no changing; honestly, you've done a phenomenal job with the team composition in every single battle thus far) criticism is that Miror B, who is my absolute favorite surprise boss besidesWalter White Blaine, did not have his iconic Ludicolo in his battle.
Just about to challenge Norman, and I am very excited to see how the (in my opinion) hardest gym battle in the vanilla series was made even more difficult!
One quick question: for the "One Small Step" portion of the Rocket storyline, what exactly should I be looking for? Is the secret fieldhouse an actual house, or something a bit more hidden?
Thank you so much! This is easily a 9.5/10 hack and one I will be recommending to all my friends who play Pokemon. Keep up the awesome work!
It kicked my butt at the start, mostly during the Roxanne battle (that level cap is a KILLER if you pick Torchic since it cannot evolve; after 25-30 losses I managed to pull it off with an all ice team), but now that I've gotten a pretty good team with coverage (Blaziken, Gardevoir, Gallade, Excadrill, Quagsire, and Staraptor) I'm really enjoying it! Surprisingly, having expected the worst for the infamous Route 110 rival battle, I had a surprisingly easy time with it. So far my one minor (extremely minor because I liked how it was instead a Trick Room set and think it needs no changing; honestly, you've done a phenomenal job with the team composition in every single battle thus far) criticism is that Miror B, who is my absolute favorite surprise boss besides
Just about to challenge Norman, and I am very excited to see how the (in my opinion) hardest gym battle in the vanilla series was made even more difficult!
One quick question: for the "One Small Step" portion of the Rocket storyline, what exactly should I be looking for? Is the secret fieldhouse an actual house, or something a bit more hidden?
Thank you so much! This is easily a 9.5/10 hack and one I will be recommending to all my friends who play Pokemon. Keep up the awesome work!
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Another great entry and another round of new first timers! Reading how your team covers the weaknesses is absolutely brilliant. Tbh, the team you used this time around was very atypical for an endgame team, but the fact that you did it is a testament to the idea that you can really use any mon in this game. Was this on the newer patch (to do any of the revised content)?
First off, I just want to say I am truly humbled by this response. You'll see me say this in other responses too, but the truth is any time I get such kind feedback, I feel honored. Emerald Horizons was and always will be a passion project of mine, and sharing it with the community and seeing people enjoy it has far exceeded any expectation of mine. This game certainly does have its moments where you get ticked off, but you can definitely persevere with a few team adjustments! I'll leave my responses in spoilers.
Regarding Ludicolo:
Spoiler:
Regarding Walter:
Spoiler:
Fieldhouse:
Spoiler:
Thanks again for the kind words :) I look forward to hearing about your continued journey and seeing your team in the Hall of Fame!
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Wanted to give an update on my progress- I am still loving this game!! I am just about to storm the Magma Hideout, so I got a good chunk of the midgame down today but not as much story progress because I kept going out of my way to explore and complete quests. I am still running the same team (Blaziken, Staraptor, Gardevoir, Gallade, Excadrill) except that I subbed Dragapult, whom I am hoping will help carry me through the Mossdeep City Gym, for Quagsire.
A few more comments: While it slightly frustrated me at first that I could not find them (I've been going mostly blind besides TM Locations so I kept hoping I could get them earlier and make my life easier LOL), I like that the really good items (in my case, Choice items and Life Orb) are locked behind quests- it really gives a level of satisfaction in beating the "boss" teams, which gives me incentive to push through and try different strategies before they click. The placement in later-game is also good (as much as I wanted them earlier at a few points) for balancing sake, if they were available earlier then a few challenges would have been far too easy. Once I realized the quality of rewards for beating the quests, I try not to progress in the story until all of them are beaten, and I think that's a really clever and creative way of making Horizon Emerald stand out from the rest of the Emerald hacks I've played.
I will keep you posted on how my journey through Hoenn continues, but until then, thank you for making such an excellent game- I am sure you have heard this so many times but I am really really enjoying it, especially going into this almost entirely blind.
A few more comments: While it slightly frustrated me at first that I could not find them (I've been going mostly blind besides TM Locations so I kept hoping I could get them earlier and make my life easier LOL), I like that the really good items (in my case, Choice items and Life Orb) are locked behind quests- it really gives a level of satisfaction in beating the "boss" teams, which gives me incentive to push through and try different strategies before they click. The placement in later-game is also good (as much as I wanted them earlier at a few points) for balancing sake, if they were available earlier then a few challenges would have been far too easy. Once I realized the quality of rewards for beating the quests, I try not to progress in the story until all of them are beaten, and I think that's a really clever and creative way of making Horizon Emerald stand out from the rest of the Emerald hacks I've played.
I totally understand and honestly, I loved the trick room set (it reminded me of Blaze Black 2 Caitlin)! Probably was even more of a challenge for me than a rain team, since I tend to run faster teams lol. I think I said it earlier, but I really like how well-composed and thought out every major battle is. It's clear that you spent a lot of time thinking up ways to make them difficult but not impossible with the right strategy, and I am very impressed by them all.
I can tell! Two other boss battles that really stood out were the WWE style fight in the Scorched Slab and a certain fight in Lilycove City that cracked me up when it popped up on the Quest Log and had me consistently smiling as I kept getting my butt kicked by two certain legendaries.
Once I knew it was an actual house, it gave me incentive to walk into every one I came across until I triggered the story, which I really liked! Now I'm just waiting to find the "waterlogged" area (don't tell Team Magma!) and meet Looker to progress the Rocket storyline. I think I might know where it is, and I am very curious to see how that story wraps up. I like how they have Z Moves when we don't, and thus feel like an actual powerful threat to face. Really good stuff!
The love you have for Pokemon, pop culture, and this hack shines through in literally every single second of gameplay and text, including quest names and description. You should be proud of creating such a well-made game. As for persevering with a few team adjustments, well, I'm stubborn and don't like to do that often once I have a full team picked out, but I can safely say that you can persevere by just adjusting movesets and strategies, which I think is even better and far more fun of a challenge :)!
I will keep you posted on how my journey through Hoenn continues, but until then, thank you for making such an excellent game- I am sure you have heard this so many times but I am really really enjoying it, especially going into this almost entirely blind.
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No sadly, I started it before the patch so I couldn't do any of the team rocket stuff. I am doing my fourth playthrough currently, aiming to use some weird/unused pokemon for the game (Along with Azumarill again of course)
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60 hours later
Elite 4
Incineroar was hands down the mvp of the E4. The mix of Intimidate + Fake Out + Parting Shot helped immensely during EVERY battle (except Team Aqua). It helped all of my team members survive hits they otherwise wouldn't have, and single handedly was the reason I was able to beat the Elite 4. And I greatly appreciate that the E4 wasn't purely legendary spam, and was able to remain challenging.
Money/Leveling
One of this rom hacks main purpose was to create a more streamline experience with having to worry less about the perfection of competitive natures and ivs, and this game was able to achieve this perfectly.
One common issue that came up with me through the entire play through was the audino leveler, and almost never having enough money to use it whenever I needed. This was on part, my fault, as I tried to use the pokemons I liked that aren't particularly strong. Nearly every kanto/johto boss battle, and all the hoenn gym leaders had to have separate teams made for them. So when you're using money to level up the pokemon you want to use the most, you don't have enough money to level up different pokemon that'll give you the biggest advantage for all the different kanto, johto, and hoenn gym leaders (These battles are EXTREMELY difficult if you don't use all pokemon with type effectiveness and resistances, so you can see how you'd need to create a new team for every boss battle or gym leader.) Specifically, from the 3rd gym to about the 7th gym, I was always extremely short on money and almost never hit the level caps, thus needing me to grind out money/exp on wild pokemon for a long amount of time. The only level caps I were able to hit without completely running out of money are levels 80-100. As well as only having 1 pokevial through 90% of the game, this makes buying potions and revives mandatory unless you have the patience to take many trips back to the pokecenter. I'd say only the late game was a "streamlining" experience. The 3 main rom hacks that I believe this game was inspired from were Radical Red, Pokemon Unbound, and Inclement Emerald. These all have systems that allow you to have a constant exp stream throughout the entire game. Radical Red nearly eliminates all needs to buy potions and revives with its 6 use pokevial, and the extra battles with varying difficulty make sure your pokemon always stay up with the level cap. Radical Red also has wild Audinos in multiple places in case you can't afford the Audino leveler in Lavender Town. And if all else fails, you can always use the custom cheat for infinite Rare Candies. Pokemon Unbound nearly eliminated a need for potions and revives as well, as it has many chansey healers scattered throughout different routes so you dont have to worry about buying heals and constantly running to pokecenters. They are also very generous with the amount of battles and amount of money you get, along with allowing you to recieve the amulet coin. This makes sure you're always stacked on money, and you'll always have money to spare for the Audino trainer. Inclement Emerald has the Training Band, Lucky egg, gen 8 exp system, and wild Audinos to keep you up in levels. Along with more battles to keep you caught up with the level caps. What I'm trying to say is that all these roms have incredible systems that keep you caught up in levels, and all but guarantees you have the money and levels to always stay competitive through out the game, and makes sure there is absolute minimal grinding, and this is exactly what I believe the creator of this rom hack wanted this to be, but ultimately failed to balance the mid-game behind this.
Difficulty
I greatly underestimated the 6/10 difficulty rating. I don't have many complains with the difficulty, except maybe clarify that the early game is probably the most challenging parts of the rom hack (specifically the Carvanha that has Emerald Kaizo-like coverage moves that are absolutely insane at level 16). Radical Red, Unbound, and Inclement Emerald all kept the same stream of difficulty throughout the entire game, while I found that this rom hack, although was very grindy for me at mid-game, progressively got easier from early, to mid, to late game. The 6/10 difficulty rating isn't completely accurate, as the game as a whole doesn't feel like it remains a 6/10 all throughout.
Others
Ultimately, I truly did enjoy this rom hack and the variety it brought to the table. It is extremely hard to balance out difficulty hacks, so I give my props, as a damn good difficulty hack was made. I didn't finish the team rocket storyline, but I enjoyed what I did play and I'll definitely see it through on another play through. The additions of the kanto and johto boss battles were great as well. The Boss Rush was an AMAZING addition, and I loved being able to test how well I was able to balance my team against other extremely strong teams, and I greatly appreciate the attempt to create post-game content to make up for having no battle frontier. The no IVs/Evs/Nature were also extremely new takes on my gaming experience, and it was a little relieving to not have to worry about crafting the exact perfect pokemon. Though I suggest maybe making a documentation that has all the pokemon whos egg moves were added to their movepool, and what egg moves got added to the movepool. There were a couple pokemon I would have used if I knew some of their egg moves were either egg moves, or in their movepool, but I just couldn't spare the resources at the time so I had to pass up on them. Overall, amazing rom hack and I will definitely challenge myself with another play through sometime soon.
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First off, welcome to the Hall of Fame! A LOT of first timers in this run; not sure if that was by design or not, but congrats nonetheless!
Thank you so much for a very well thought out response. I'll comment on a few things that stuck out to me:
Regarding difficulty, a lot of people have commented that the midgame/late game kind of smooths out. I think this is due in part to two things: access to pretty good resources in the early midgame (Mega Rings) and access to fairly decent sweepers early on. I think in future projects, it'll be something I look to balance better, but my ultimate intention was that the game still had its share of challenges here and there. Hopefully there were a few roadblocks here and there for you :)
Money is a valid concern; I added the side quests as a way to provide additional funding and content, but I know of people who had backup teams that ran into the same issue. As I'm working through 1.05, I'm thinking of ways to make this less of an issue as well.
Documentation is something I've admittedly been pretty bad about. Is it coming? Yes! The question remains when. I still want to get a few more patches in before I work on providing quality documentation, as things are changing here and there. Finally, I'm glad you liked the Boss Rush! I played a lot of games where this was a feature growing up, like Smash Bros Brawl and the Kirby GBA games, so I knew I always wanted to do something of this sort.
P.S.: This probably is a bit too late, but the Energy Ball TM is a quest reward, which you may have already obtained by now.
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Regarding the difficulty as well, I mentioned that I did use mostly "unviable" pokemon so this caused me to have to create whole new teams for different gym leaders, different boss battles, and sometimes even different trainers. So yes I can greatly see how the mid game would be smooth for others (Seeing as I abandoned trying to use my favorite pokemon, and only started using megas at Flannery). All in all very balanced.
Also, if there is ever a need for help on documentation, I would gladly be able to help.
P.S.: I know probably not because I can imagine how much of a nightmare it would be, but are there plans to reintroduce the battle frontier at some point? And did you just remove Sticky Web entirely from the game? Ive found that Ribombee Galvantula and Shuckle don't learn it.
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I did it! Thoroughly one of the most enjoyable rom hacks I've ever played. This goes up with the Drayano hacks in terms of quality.
Huge thanks to my team (most of whom I have had since the start of the game): KFC the Blaziken (starter), Brave Birb the Staraptor (caught on Route 103), Gardy the Gardevoir (caught on Route 102), FleshValnt (Flesh Valiant but I ran out of characters, also caught on Route 102), 6.02x10 23 the Excadrill (caught in Rusturf Tunnel), and Yeetus the Dragapult (caught at Mt. Pyre). Banded Dragapult is a MONSTER and singlehandedly tore through Wally and Drake's teams, and was easily my MVP for the latter half of the game. I would not have been able to have beat the E4 without her. I did not use any Z moves, and alternated between the three mega evolutions as necessary. Honestly, this was a perfect hack and I would give it a 7/10 difficulty- certainly not impossible but very challenging in the most enjoyable way!
One minor note that I don't know if it is a bug or not, but I got the Scanner and gave it to Stern before the Diver Down quest became available, and now it's showing as "done" but still in the active section of the quest log. Attaching a screenshot for reference.
Seriously, thank you so much for this game, it is an absolute pleasure and I will no doubt revisit it the next time I want to journey through Hoenn. Keep up the amazing work!
Huge thanks to my team (most of whom I have had since the start of the game): KFC the Blaziken (starter), Brave Birb the Staraptor (caught on Route 103), Gardy the Gardevoir (caught on Route 102), FleshValnt (Flesh Valiant but I ran out of characters, also caught on Route 102), 6.02x10 23 the Excadrill (caught in Rusturf Tunnel), and Yeetus the Dragapult (caught at Mt. Pyre). Banded Dragapult is a MONSTER and singlehandedly tore through Wally and Drake's teams, and was easily my MVP for the latter half of the game. I would not have been able to have beat the E4 without her. I did not use any Z moves, and alternated between the three mega evolutions as necessary. Honestly, this was a perfect hack and I would give it a 7/10 difficulty- certainly not impossible but very challenging in the most enjoyable way!
One minor note that I don't know if it is a bug or not, but I got the Scanner and gave it to Stern before the Diver Down quest became available, and now it's showing as "done" but still in the active section of the quest log. Attaching a screenshot for reference.
Seriously, thank you so much for this game, it is an absolute pleasure and I will no doubt revisit it the next time I want to journey through Hoenn. Keep up the amazing work!
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Just started this hack and enjoying it so far (just beat Roxanne).
Probably a dumb question after reading through all these comments:
I know shiny odds are vanilla but does that mean dexnav chaining also have no increased odd? So getting an encounter level of 255 and then chaining 100 in a row will still be regular odds?
Thanks!
Probably a dumb question after reading through all these comments:
I know shiny odds are vanilla but does that mean dexnav chaining also have no increased odd? So getting an encounter level of 255 and then chaining 100 in a row will still be regular odds?
Thanks!
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Huge, huge congratulations on joining the Hall of Fame and thank you so much for the kind words :)
I was so happy to see that the core five of Blaziken, Staraptor, Gardevoir, Gallade, and Excadrill made it to the end; they definitely deserved another spot there! It was a lot of fun reading all of your updates.
Also, it hadn't occurred to me that you could technically Dive without HM Dive, so I reordered the quest unlocks so that isn't an issue. Thanks for letting me know!
Hey, no such thing as a dumb question! The DexNav will chain your odds a bit higher, but it's with respect to the vanilla Emerald rate (1/8192) as opposed to the modern (1/4096). Hope to hear more about your journey!
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Fourth run through of the game, had a lot of fun trying to use weird pokemon I wouldn't normally
From Left to Right:
Choice Specs Exploud - While its Sp.A is quite low, Exploud's signature move Boomburst can hit absurdly hard with Specs, combined with its signature move which makes Normal type moves hit ghosts, makes it a reliable trade against enemys not running Fighting type coverage.
Dragalge - Not too interesting in my opinion due to it lacking Venoshock to work well with toxic spikes, still hits quite hard with adaptability Draco Meteor. Worked as a switch in on fighting type moves for Exploud
Z-Dewgong - I did not expect Dewgong to be one of the most important pokemon on the team. Here are a couple of its uses: Revenge killer with dual STAB priority, Encore into Flip Turn to bring teamates in very safely, Sheer Cold as an instant kill, along with the general high power of Z-Sheer Cold (180 BP). My favorite thing it did was during the Glacia fight at the end of the game, switching this thing in against Galarian Darmanitan's Ice Spinner, since it would be locked into a 8X INNEFECTIVE move thanks to the ability Thick Fat and have to switch out since it would have to hit Dewgong like 20 times, letting me switch in whatever I wanted with Flip Turn.
Expert Belt Azumarill - I have done this three times before, Huge Power boosted coverage and priority on a semi-bulky pokemon
Air Ballon Drapion - So the creator gave this pokemon Wicked Strike, Urshifu's signature move that always crit. Drapion has Sniper, which makes all crit damage 100% instead of 50% extra damage. And Drapion has good bulk, with a weakness that can be removed with Air Balloon. Anyways this bucko was integral to the team, in particular setting up Toxic Spikes to help Azumarill and especially the last pokemon Beedrill turn enemys into mush.
Mega Beedrill - The main damage dealer in the team, BUSTED attack and speed at the expense of any bulk (I don't think he lived more than three attacks the whole game). Adaptability turns Poison Jab into a nuke, Fell Stinger insures that you get a bigger boost than Swords Dance whenever he switches in on an injured opponent, and Drill Run rounds out coverage. Several gyms, along with Champion Wallace, were essentially sweeped by just this one pokemon.
I have to say maneuvering around Beedrill was very fun, since it is not The fastest pokemon in the game, and several gym leaders either were double battles or had faster pokemon. In particular the psychic gym, where both Mega Alakazam and Deoxys outsped. My favourite however was working around Sidney's Yveltal in the elite four, since it could not be fought by Beedrill since its Sucker Punch instantly killed.
Ranking for each of the pokemon are as follows:
Beedrill
Drapion
Dewgong
Exploud
Azumarill
Dragalage
Really if dragalage had Venoshock it'd probably be higher
Thank you for making this Hack 👍👍👍
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I should be able to help with that, Rayquaza does not evolve from a mega stone actually, you have to teach it Dragon Ascent from a TM given to you by Red, from what I remember you have to beat most of the other quests for it to become active, then you go to the Ferry building in either Lilycove or Slateport