Emerald hack: Pokémon Emerald Horizons - Emerald Difficulty Hack [Complete, v1.10 ft. New Rocket Storyline, Boss Gauntlet, Gen 1-8, Side Quests, and QoL features]

[DualWieldNinja]

I forgot to beat Giovanni before completing sootopolis gym, can I never get z moves and are the rest of my side quests from here on locked?

 

[mrmoonbeam]

I do love this game, a lot. For those moaning about the lack of casual viability, it is literally described as a difficulty hack. I finished v 1.03 recently right to the very last task and I am looking forward to starting anew. One thing I'd like for future editions is IV/EV/natures brought back into play, as well as inclusion of more legendaries even if they are just static encounters. I hope the OP doesn't mind but rather than just posting my final EF team, I'd like to include all my major boss teams.

 

[JesseNoEyes]

I'm having a hard time evolving Riolu. I've given him like 50 berries, and leveled up in the day time. Caught around 40, hes level 60 now. No leveling at the level trainer.

What berries are you feeding it? Only the EV-lowering berries like Qualot and Grepa berries raise friendship. Successful battles always raise friendship no matter where they are, so battling the level grinder would also work. Ultimately the fastest and most consistent method would be to just run back and forth for a little while with Riolu in your party. Though this is a bit tedious, I'd imagine you're quite close to the 220 friendship threshold already. You can always check with the lady in the lower left of Verdanturf.

 

[Riddic]

What berries are you feeding it? Only the EV-lowering berries like Qualot and Grepa berries raise friendship. Successful battles always raise friendship no matter where they are, so battling the level grinder would also work. Ultimately the fastest and most consistent method would be to just run back and forth for a little while with Riolu in your party. Though this is a bit tedious, I'd imagine you're quite close to the 220 friendship threshold already. You can always check with the lady in the lower left of Verdanturf.

I've done the stat lowering ones. Along with checking in town and she says it couldn't be happier. He's close to 80 now, along with running around with him for a couple of hours and no luck yet. It is "daytime"

 

[BrandonXL]

I forgot to beat Giovanni before completing sootopolis gym, can I never get z moves and are the rest of my side quests from here on locked?

You can still battle Giovanni! The side quests are ongoing and can be completed at any time, so don't worry :)

I do love this game, a lot. For those moaning about the lack of casual viability, it is literally described as a difficulty hack. I finished v 1.03 recently right to the very last task and I am looking forward to starting anew. One thing I'd like for future editions is IV/EV/natures brought back into play, as well as inclusion of more legendaries even if they are just static encounters. I hope the OP doesn't mind but rather than just posting my final EF team, I'd like to include all my major boss teams.

Definitely wanting to roll out more legendaries in v1.07 in some way. I'd love to see all of your major boss fight teams! I can't add them to the Hall of Fame, but I always enjoy reading write ups about the unique approaches and comps players used. They might also serve as some good inspiration for people that are stuck!

I've done the stat lowering ones. Along with checking in town and she says it couldn't be happier. He's close to 80 now, along with running around with him for a couple of hours and no luck yet. It is "daytime"

RSE are kinda weird in that day evolutions are defined between the hours of 12:00 p.m. - 11:59 p.m and not the usual morning times. Try those and let me know if it works for you!

 

[mrmoonbeam]

Do the wild pokemon held items match up to latest gen only? i.e is it pointless me trying to find Nuggets and Big Pearls on Mewoth and Gulpin?

 

[BrandonXL]

This was my Roxanne team (at lvl 15, just forgot to screenshot)

View attachment 155210\

Ah, this is super creative! By the way, would you be able to put all of your teams in a single post? I'm not fully aware of the rules, but I just didn't want you to get in trouble for spam or something. I'll also upload the species info document with wild hold items when I get back.

 

[kudiep.alone]

I love this hack. But you have to nerf Kyogre in Archie fight.

For someone get stuck there. Grab a Torkoal with drought. Thunder wave, Assault vest is your friend

 

[JesseNoEyes]

Second playthrough, this time on 1.06. Even better than the first. :D Went out of my way to challenge myself and include some less common mons on my team throughout Hoenn and into the E4. I definitely appreciated the changes, specifically to Wallace. Team building and strategizing were a lot of fun with some self-imposed rules, like restricting myself to only one Water counter for the Champion. Looking forward to future updates and playthroughs.

Do you have any plans to disable the trainers calling you periodically on the Pokenav?
Also, the character appears to walk atop the water when you're inside the Lavaridge hot spring. Maybe it's that way in vanilla, but thought I'd let you know.

Thanks as always for the work you do! (:

 

[JesseNoEyes]

I love this hack. But you have to nerf Kyogre in Archie fight.

For someone get stuck there. Grab a Torkoal with drought. Thunder wave, Assault vest is your friend

Drought Torkoal. Or Snow Warning Alolan Ninetales. Or Abomasnow. Or use his rain against him with Swift Swim Ludicolo. Or Choice Scarf Manectric with 100% accurate Thunder. There's a dozen different ways to handle the Kyogre. How you gonna say it needs nerfed and then delineate a specific effective counter for it? lmao

 

[mrmoonbeam]

My signifcant teams along the way

Roxanne:

Spoiler:

Hail was the key

-
Brawley

Spoiler:

Brawly leads with H-Sneasel that always starts with Fake Out, Inner Focus Golbat prevents flinching

Wattson

Spoiler:

Sandstorm sandaconda, Excadrill most then Fire counter with Carkol or alternative for Rotom and Electrode

Mt Chimney Maxie

Spoiler:

]

 

[kudiep.alone]

Drought Torkoal. Or Snow Warning Alolan Ninetales. Or Abomasnow. Or use his rain against him with Swift Swim Ludicolo. Or Choice Scarf Manectric with 100% accurate Thunder. There's a dozen different ways to handle the Kyogre. How you gonna say it needs nerfed and then delineate a specific effective counter for it? lmao

Thank you capt obivous, do you play latest version?
I share my method for someone need it. Not everybody are competitive player.

 

[BrandonXL]

View attachment 155231

Second playthrough, this time on 1.06. Even better than the first. :D Went out of my way to challenge myself and include some less common mons on my team throughout Hoenn and into the E4. I definitely appreciated the changes, specifically to Wallace. Team building and strategizing were a lot of fun with some self-imposed rules, like restricting myself to only one Water counter for the Champion. Looking forward to future updates and playthroughs.

Do you have any plans to disable the trainers calling you periodically on the Pokenav?
Also, the character appears to walk atop the water when you're inside the Lavaridge hot spring. Maybe it's that way in vanilla, but thought I'd let you know.

Thanks as always for the work you do! (:

Love the three first timers! Who was the MVP of the run? I know the PokeNav is annoying for some, but I personally like it and think it adds a little "life" to the game, so for the time being I plan to keep it.
You know, before the v1.0 released, a friend of mine did extensive bug testing for me that lead to a lot of balance changes and bug fixes. I think your two runs have uncovered a lot of necessary changes; as I said previously, thanks for helping clean up the game! The Lavaridge thing is NOT vanilla; originally, Misty was supposed to be in there, but she was floating. I just never moved the old folks back. The game is in a better spot because of you :)

Edit: just to clarify, 1.06c fixes that minor Lavaridge bug. It is the first backwards compatible patch in forever lol

 

[mrmoonbeam]

Has theif been removed from the game? Difficulty hacks are great but grinding when money is at a premium just makes it a little tedious. Still having fun.

 

[JesseNoEyes]

Love the three first timers! Who was the MVP of the run? I know the PokeNav is annoying for some, but I personally like it and think it adds a little "life" to the game, so for the time being I plan to keep it.
You know, before the v1.0 released, a friend of mine did extensive bug testing for me that lead to a lot of balance changes and bug fixes. I think your two runs have uncovered a lot of necessary changes; as I said previously, thanks for helping clean up the game! The Lavaridge thing is NOT vanilla; originally, Misty was supposed to be in there, but she was floating. I just never moved the old folks back. The game is in a better spot because of you :)

Edit: just to clarify, 1.06c fixes that minor Lavaridge bug. It is the first backwards compatible patch in forever lol

I'm glad I've been able to make even a small contribution to this hack being the best it can be. :)

The MVP was undoubtedly Mimikyu. I had never used one prior to this game, so I wasn't familiar with how powerful it can be. I originally brought it primarily for Phoebe, but found it to be invaluable on all five fights. Disguise basically makes it a free pivot to any stronger mon if I need, so I found myself often leading with it (especially in the Boss Rush). That, along with a Focus Sash and priority Shadow Sneak, means it can reliably deal three hits of damage before dying if it needs to. Also having Poltergeist, Play Rough, and Shadow Ball to round out its moves means it has decent coverage and can deal physical or special damage. Add in the fact that it has two immunities, and it basically makes its lackluster stats pretty irrelevant. Unfortunately, Stealth Rocks and Spikes can pretty quickly break its advantage, but the AI can usually be manipulated out of setting those up with a little planning. I'll definitely be making use of it more in the future.

That also reminds me of a potential bug I stumbled upon. During the Giovanni fight, I died to the Mega Mewtwo's Shadow Ball when I didn't think I should have. Which made me remember dying the same way last run. So I ran the calcs, and it seems I was correct. It was a max-level Gardevoir against max-level Mega Mewtwo X. Both of us had just switched in with neutral stats. Gardevoir was holding a Choice Specs, which doesn't factor in here. It went down instantly to one Shadow Ball, no crit. Maybe I'm completely missing something like terrain I'm unfamiliar with or a hidden ability, but Gardy should only take 55-65% damage. I suspect maybe the Mewtwo's Shadow Ball is being calculated as physical like it would be in vanilla Gen 3. That would make the math make sense, and a physical Shadow Ball would kill 100% of the time. From what I could tell in my brief testing, this would only be true for the opponents' Shadow Balls. The player's TM correctly identifies Shadow Ball as a special move and calculates damage correctly as expected.

Has thief been removed from the game? Difficulty hacks are great but grinding when money is at a premium just makes it a little tedious. Still having fun.

As far as I can tell, Thief isn't in the game. I think an effort was made to remove item-stealing moves and abilities as being able to obtain strong items from boss battles would negatively impact the curve and cheapen quest rewards. I personally noticed that Grimmsnarl and Hisuian Sneasel no longer have Pickpocket as a hidden ability (being replaced with Sheer Force and Poison Touch respectively). However, depending on where you are in your game, Ursaluna knows Covet as a level 1 move. This may actually be an oversight and comes pretty late game, but it is in the game nonetheless. :)

 

[Riddic]

How do you get to the isle of armour?

 

[BrandonXL]

Has theif been removed from the game? Difficulty hacks are great but grinding when money is at a premium just makes it a little tedious. Still having fun.

Thief has been removed from the game for the reason JesseNoEyes stated; basically, I wanted to lock battle items behind quests as an incentive for people to try the additional content and feel rewarded for doing so.

I'm glad I've been able to make even a small contribution to this hack being the best it can be. :)

The MVP was undoubtedly Mimikyu. I had never used one prior to this game, so I wasn't familiar with how powerful it can be. I originally brought it primarily for Phoebe, but found it to be invaluable on all five fights. Disguise basically makes it a free pivot to any stronger mon if I need, so I found myself often leading with it (especially in the Boss Rush). That, along with a Focus Sash and priority Shadow Sneak, means it can reliably deal three hits of damage before dying if it needs to. Also having Poltergeist, Play Rough, and Shadow Ball to round out its moves means it has decent coverage and can deal physical or special damage. Add in the fact that it has two immunities, and it basically makes its lackluster stats pretty irrelevant. Unfortunately, Stealth Rocks and Spikes can pretty quickly break its advantage, but the AI can usually be manipulated out of setting those up with a little planning. I'll definitely be making use of it more in the future.

That also reminds me of a potential bug I stumbled upon. During the Giovanni fight, I died to the Mega Mewtwo's Shadow Ball when I didn't think I should have. Which made me remember dying the same way last run. So I ran the calcs, and it seems I was correct. It was a max-level Gardevoir against max-level Mega Mewtwo X. Both of us had just switched in with neutral stats. Gardevoir was holding a Choice Specs, which doesn't factor in here. It went down instantly to one Shadow Ball, no crit. Maybe I'm completely missing something like terrain I'm unfamiliar with or a hidden ability, but Gardy should only take 55-65% damage. I suspect maybe the Mewtwo's Shadow Ball is being calculated as physical like it would be in vanilla Gen 3. That would make the math make sense, and a physical Shadow Ball would kill 100% of the time. From what I could tell in my brief testing, this would only be true for the opponents' Shadow Balls. The player's TM correctly identifies Shadow Ball as a special move and calculates damage correctly as expected.


As far as I can tell, Thief isn't in the game. I think an effort was made to remove item-stealing moves and abilities as being able to obtain strong items from boss battles would negatively impact the curve and cheapen quest rewards. I personally noticed that Grimmsnarl and Hisuian Sneasel no longer have Pickpocket as a hidden ability (being replaced with Sheer Force and Poison Touch respectively). However, depending on where you are in your game, Ursaluna knows Covet as a level 1 move. This may actually be an oversight and comes pretty late game, but it is in the game nonetheless. :)

I'm getting 55-65% on my Gardevoir switch-ins; I do believe you were getting one shot, but I can't replicate it on my end. There's probably some other factor we aren't accounting for, but I do believe moves are behaving as intended.

How do you get to the isle of armour?

Hey, that area has been added due north of Pacifidlog! I should probably add some in-game references to it being there.

 

[Riddic]

My HoF first clear

 

[JesseNoEyes]

I'm getting 55-65% on my Gardevoir switch-ins; I do believe you were getting one shot, but I can't replicate it on my end. There's probably some other factor we aren't accounting for, but I do believe moves are behaving as intended.

 

[BrandonXL]

View attachment 155266
My HoF first clear

Love to see it! Glad you put that Shiny Charm to use and welcome to the Hall :)

Yeah, this is quite odd. I've been trying on 1.06 with different scenarios to replicate this, including switch ins, fainting, and already using Gardevoir with Specs. Currently, I'm unable to reproduce it, but I also can't deny the video in front of me. I'll try to test it further, but at the moment I'm not able to do so. Thanks for sharing this with me, though.