Dynamax & Max Raid Battles [Essentials v18.1]

[Golisopod User]

Looks Insane! But may I ask what is the KO Counter for? It makes sense when you have 4 people in the Raid but not if you have only 1 player. Also isn't 7 shields a bit much?

 

[Lucidious89]

Looks Insane! But may I ask what is the KO Counter for? It makes sense when you have 4 people in the Raid but not if you have only 1 player. Also isn't 7 shields a bit much?

The KO counter works much like it does in the main series. Each KO strengthens the "storm" surrounding the Raid Pokemon, and once the storm becomes too powerful, you get blown out of the den, and the battle ends as a loss. I think it's a valuable part of the Raid mechanic that is worth keeping, because not only do you need to focus on offense (to break through shields), but you need to keep defense in mind too (to prevent KO's), as well as juggling the timer. Without the KO counter, Raid battles would just be 100% about offense, and the gameplay would become somewhat one-dimensional.

As far as the shields go, yes, it's a lot. That's why I'm in the balance phase right now. I made the shield HP able to go as high as 8 (and can activate up to twice per battle), but I don't plan on giving any Pokemon that much shield HP in reality. It's gonna scale though based on the raid level, just like the main games. So this example with Mewtwo is extreme, yes, but a level 20 Pikachu raid is only gonna have like, 3 shield HP.

I'm trying to find a good balance between shield HP, shield frequency, turn count, and KO count, and striking a balance that makes sense for single player. And implementing it in a way that can just automatically scale based on the difficulty. However, I'm also adding in the ability to easily customize these settings, so you can just manually adjust the base turn count/KO count/shield HP as you see fit, and the script will just scale them up from there for stronger Pokemon. So far I think im in a good spot, but I have to make up some mock party configurations and do some play testing for each level of raid difficulty. I still also have to go back and re-test everything else in the original script to make sure nothing was broken with these new additions.

 

[Speccy]

For some reason... Gigantamax doesn't appear to be working for me. I've tried toying around with the script but it's not working.

 

[Lucidious89]

For some reason... Gigantamax doesn't appear to be working for me. I've tried toying around with the script but it's not working.

Can you elaborate? What is it that youre trying to do? What are you testing, and in what context?

Gigantamax will only occur in the specified species IF they have G-Max Factor. Sprites for the Gmax forms arent included, so the only way youll be able to tell if theyre Gigantamaxed is if they have their respective G-Max move instead of the regular Max Move. If youve added your own sprites and they arent showing up, make sure the sprites are properly numbered.

 

[Lucidious89]

Update: Max Raid Battles
This update builds upon the initial Dynamax script to now include Max Raid battles. This will allow you to set up complex battle challenges for the player with simple tools that you can customize to your liking.

In the main series, Max Raid battles pits you and three others up against a wild Dynamaxed Pokemon. These Pokemon have increased HP, as well as special battle mechanics such as shields, and need to be taken down for an opportunity to capture it. If the Dynamax Pokemon KO's your Pokemon a certain number of times, or if a certain number of turns have passed, you and your allies get blown out of the den, and the raid ends.

Obviously, Essentials does not support multi-battles such as this, so I made several liberties in adapting Max Raids into a single player environment. Because of this, this feature doesn't perfectly replicate how the main series portrays Max Raids, but the spirit behind the gameplay remains the same. You're still pitted up against a wild dynamax Pokemon, and almost all of the gameplay elements from the main series (shields, capture mechanics, den spawns, etc) has been replicated as closely as possible, with details changed for balance adjustment purposes.

I have, however, introduced a brand new feature that is not present in the main series: Hard Mode Raids.

In Hard Mode, Raid Pokemon will have access to a bevy of new options that add extra challenges during the fight. This includes new forms of healing, boosting stats, and dealing residual damage. Clearing a Hard Mode raid will often yield better rewards and better quality Pokemon, as well as offering a higher challenge for players.

Max Raid Mechanics

Spoiler:

Accessing a Max Raid

Spoiler:

To initiate a Max Raid battle, you must enter a Raid Den. Raid Dens can be set up by running a simple script in an event (pbMaxRaid). Once triggered, the event will display the den entry page, as shown here:

This page shows the type and silhouette of the species that lurks within the raid den. The bottom right corner displays the battle conditions of the fight, if you choose to initiate the battle. Pressing the Z button will bring up the party menu, and allow you to prepare for the battle. If you choose to exit the raid, the Raid will reset and the Pokemon will be lost. So choose wisely if you want to leave or not.


Raid Levels
In the top left hand corner, a certain number of stars will be displayed. This indicates the Raid Level of this den. Dens with a Raid Level of 1 are the easiest, with 5 being the hardest. Higher Raid Levels scale in difficulty, often meaning the Pokemon will be of higher levels, have larger HP pools, or have access to more options. The Raid Pokemon is guaranteed to have 1 perfect IV for each star of the raid's level. Rewards for clearing the raid will also scale based on the den's Raid Level. There is also a hidden sixth level raid that isn't displayed (it still shows as 5 star) that functions the same as a regular 5 star raid, except the wild Pokemon will always be a legendary Pokemon, and always be level 70.


Gigantamax Raids
Sometimes, you may come across a Gigantamax Raid. These function identically to a regular raid, except the species you encounter is guaranteed to have the G-max Factor and appear in its Gigantamax form. These raids are fairly uncommon, however, and only have a chance of appearing in 3 star raids and above, unless manually set otherwise. 5 star raids have the best chances of spawning a Gigantamax Raid. Gigantamax Raids are indicated by the G-Max icon appearing in the upper right corner as seen here:

Hard Mode Raids
If hard mode is enabled, this will be displayed on this screen to indicate the increase in difficulty for this raid. Hard Mode needs to be set in the event for this to appear. However, Legendary Raids (level 6 raid) will always work under Hard Mode rules by default, and cannot be toggled off.

Battling a Raid Pokemon

Spoiler:

While battling a Raid Pokemon, you will notice a new window where a Pokemon's level would usually be displayed. This window displays the turns and KO's you have remaining before the raid ends. If you fail to drop the Raid Pokemon's HP to 1 before the turn count ends, or before it has reduced its KO count to zero, then you will lose the raid and be kicked out. Both the turn count and KO count may fluctuate depending on the Raid Level. If you're kicked out of a raid, the Raid Pokemon will flee, and cannot be fought again.

Raid Pokemon Attacks
In the main series, a Raid Pokemon can attack multiple times per turn, and select between normal moves, Max Moves, or even moves that in normally doesn't learn naturally, such as TM's and TR moves. I decided not to include the multiple attacks per turn mechanic, since it would be far too strong in a single battle where there's only one target taking all the attacks. However, I did make it so that the Raid Pokemon can select between both its regular moveset and its set of Max Moves. Each turn, it has a 50% chance of using either a regular move, or a Max Move, meaning that a Raid Pokemon has potentially 8 different move selections to choose from each turn. In addition to this, I made it so that every Raid Pokemon will have 1 random TM move present in their moveset that they are capable of learning. This move will always be a damaging move with over 60BP. This not only helps make Raid Pokemon more unpredictable and different with each attempt, but it also ensures that the Pokemon will have at least one offensive option in its movepool, if it's capable of learning an offensive TM. So you might go into a Lapras raid thinking you will be able to wall its attacks with your own Water-type, only to discover that it randomly knows the move Thunder, and can also use Max Lightning on you because of that.

It's also worth noting that certain moves will always fail when used in a Max Raid Battle, regardless of whether the move is being used by you or the Raid Pokemon. This list of banned moves is mostly pulled from the main series, but I added a few of my own that I felt would break things.

Spoiler:

• Bug Bite
• Pluck
• Incinerate
• Knock Off
• Explosion
• Self-Destruct
• Final Gambit
• Memento
• Perish Song
• Destiny Bond
• Roar
• Whirlwind
• Circle Throw
• Dragon Tail
• Super Fang
• Curse (when used by a Ghost-type)

Raid Shields
When the Raid Pokemon's HP drops to half its total hp, it will become shielded by a mysterious barrier. While behind this shield, Raid Pokemon take significantly reduced damage from your attacks, and become completely immune to your status moves. The Raid Pokemon is also immune to additional effects of your moves while behind their shield, so moves that have a chance to burn or lower stats, etc. won't ever activate those additional effects. Max Moves ignore this however, and will still activate their secondary effects through the Raid Pokemon's shields. You must break their shield before you can resume dealing normal damage to them. The number of hits a Raid Pokemon's shields need to be broken scales with the difficulty level of the raid. Any damaging move will reduce the Raid Shield by 1 bar, regardless of the strength of the move. However, Max Moves used by a Dynamax Pokemon will reduce these shields by 2 bars per hit. When a Raid Pokemon's shield is broken, their Defense and Sp.Def will drop by two stages, as well as taking a small portion of damage.

In higher difficulty raids, the Raid Pokemon may activate two rounds of shields. The first round will be triggered when its HP drops to 4/5ths or below of its total HP, with the second round triggering at half HP as before. Planning out when to utilize your Dynamax turns plays a more crucial role in these higher raids, since the raid timer becomes more difficult to manage when you have two separate rounds of shields to deal with.

I've made one small change to Raid Shields, however, that differs to the main series in regards to the move Max Guard. Usually, if the Raid Pokemon uses Max Guard while its shields are up, it loses no shield bars from the moves it protected itself from. However, from my testing, this proves to be way too good in a single-player environment where the AI loves to spam Max Guard every opportunity it gets. So I decided to make a compromise and make it so that if you use a Max Move on a Raid Pokemon when it's under the effects of Max Guard, they will still be protected from the attack, but their shields will take damage as if they got hit (removing 2 bars). From my testing, it was just way too devastating to have a Raid Pokemon Max Guard twice in a row (it's weirdly lucky with that) and eat up two of your precious Dynamax turns, and basically make the match unwinnable because of it. This is also necessary since you don't have any allies with you to pick up the slack on any missed attempts at shield pressure, like you do in the main series. So having a single turn of Dynamax being wasted in this often means you're at a serious disadvantage.


Wave Attacks
In addition to shields, Raid Pokemon have access to another mechanic that I've simply called "Wave Attacks". In the main series, only one such wave attack exists. What this did was not only nullify your Pokemon's ability, but also undo any positive stat changes it may have. In addition to this, this effect would also clear away any status conditions the raid Pokemon may have had. I have replicated this mechanic here, and Raid Pokemon will periodically utilize this wave attack during battle. However, I have added three additional wave attacks that I custom built for Hard Mode raids. These were included in part to make up for the fact that the Raid Pokemon may only attack once per turn, unlike in the main series.

Here are all of the included Wave Attacks:

Spoiler:

• Neutralizing Wave (Standard)
  This is the main wave attack taken from the main series, with the effects outlined above. A Raid Pokemon won't start using this until its taken around a quarter of its HP worth of damage. Once it has, it has a 20% chance each turn to begin the round with this wave attack. The odds of the Raid Pokemon using this will increase if it has its shields up, or if it's suffering from a status condition. Unlike the main series, I've also made it so that this wave attack will also remove the Attract and Leech Seed effects from the Raid Pokemon. Attract is actually pretty powerful in a one on one setting where the Raid Pokemon cannot choose a different target, or rely on spread moves. And Leech Seed has some ridiculous healing potential with Dynamax targets due to their HP pools, and can make your Pokemon nearly unkillable in some situations. So I made this wave attack remove these effects to try and balance this out.
  
  This wave attack can be performed multiple times in a battle, even during the same turn that a different wave attack is performed. This wave attack has the highest priority, and will always come out first before the others, or before the Raid Pokemon even attacks.
  
  
• Malicious Wave (Hard Mode)
  This wave attack occurs every time the Raid Pokemon uses a damaging move while its shields are down. The power behind its attack is so high that it causes shockwaves that ripples through the den, causing a second hit of additional damage to your Pokemon after the Raid Pokemon attacks. This damage cannot be blocked (not even by Pokemon with Magic Guard), and will still harm your Pokemon even if the initial attack used by the Raid Pokemon missed, or was ineffective. The damage dealt by this wave attack is equal to 1/16th your Pokemon's total HP. However, this damage doubles to 1/8th if the Raid Pokemon has exhausted all of its shields.
  
  
• Invigorating Wave (Hard Mode)
  This wave attack is a once-per battle buff that triggers once the Raid Pokemon drops to 1/2 its total HP or less. If so, it will release this wave attack to boost all of its stats by 1 stage. This ignores the reverse effects of the Contrary ability.
  
  
• Immobilizing Wave (Hard Mode)
  This wave attack is a Raid Pokemon's final desperate attempt to stop your victory. Once per battle, if all of the Raid Pokemon's shields have been exhausted, it releases an immense wave that can immobilize your Pokemon, forcing them to skip their action this turn. This may snatch a victory away from you by eating up a precious turn of the raid timer. Dynamax Pokemon are immune to this wave attack, however. So it's often a better idea to save your Dynamax till the endgame of the battle when playing in a Hard Mode raid. This wave attack won't do anything if you happen to switch or use an item on the turn it was to be performed.

Other Hard Mode Mechanics:
Raid Pokemon have some other passive bonuses while battling them in Hard Mode.

Spoiler:

• HP Regeneration
  While a Raid Pokemon's shields are up in Hard Mode, it will recover 1/16th of its total HP at the end of each turn until its shields are broken. This puts extra pressure on you to blow through these shields asap, to prevent the Raid Pokemon from recovering back too much HP. This healing can be negated with Heal Block, however.
  
  
• KO Boost
  Each time a Raid Pokemon KO's one of your Pokemon, it will grow in power, gaining +1 Attack and Sp. Atk. This stacks with abilities like Moxie. This effect can quickly cause a Raid Battle to snowball out of your control, and places extra emphasis on valuing defense as much as offense. Sometimes its worth taking up a turn healing or switching, or even activating Dynamax early to prevent any unnecessary KO's.

Catching a Raid Pokemon
Raid Pokemon will deflect any Poke Balls thrown at them until they're weak enough to be caught. To weaken a Raid Pokemon, you must battle it until it's down to a single hit point (Raid Pokemon will always survive with 1 HP, and cannot actually faint, so don't hold back). Once the Pokemon has been reduced to this state, whether through direct attacks, effect damage, or even self-harm; it will be reduced to a vulnerable state where it can be caught. This is the only time during the battle where a Raid Pokemon may be caught. You will be prompted to throw a ball at it, and immediately be brought to the ball pocket in your bag. After selecting a ball, you will throw it and capture the Pokemon. Raid Pokemon have a 100% capture rate while in this weakened state. However, in Hard Mode, the Pokemon only has a 20% capture rate, regardless of ball (except Master Ball). If the raid Pokemon fails to be caught, or if you choose not to capture it, the Pokemon will flee into the depths of the den. Whether you capture the raid Pokemon or not, the rewards will be the same. However, you will be kicked out of the den and receive no rewards if you fail. After clearing a raid, your party will be fully healed (but not if you lost the raid).

Completing a Raid

Spoiler:

Upon completing a Raid, you will be taken to the results screen. If the Raid was completed, this will display the Pokemon and its level/ability (if caught), as well as all the rewards you gained from completing the raid. The rewards scale based on the difficulty of the raid, and will mostly yield Exp. Candies, Rare Candies, Dynamax Candies, EV Reducing Berries, Vitamins, various training items (Ability Capsule, Bottle Caps, etc), and may also include expensive valuables to sell. Very rarely, this may also include Max Soup. If you don't have some of these items implemented into your game, don't worry, the script will automatically filter out any items that don't exist.

Results screen for capturing a Raid Pokemon:

Results screen for defeating a Raid Pokemon:

Results screen for failing a raid:

Once the raid is done, the event will be complete, and automatically turn on self switch "A".

Resetting a Raid
After a raid has been completed, you can force it to reset by throwing a Wishing Piece into the den. If so, self switch "A" will be toggled off, allowing you to access the Raid den once more.

Setting Up a Raid Den Event

Spoiler:

To implement a Raid event in your game, all that must be done is to input "pbMaxRaid" as a script in an event. Then create a second page in the event, and check off its self switch "A" to "on". In this second page, add the script "pbMaxRaidReset". And you're done. Simple as that. However, keep in mind that you must be on a Dynamax-capable map (handled by the POWERSPOTS setting, or DMAX_ANYMAP) for this event to work. If you try triggering this event on a map that doesn't support Dynamax, the event will tell you that the den doesn't appear active.

However, if you want to customize your raid dens, there are a variety of parameters you can add in the "pbMaxRaid" script to control the properties of each individual raid event. This is what allows you to set up specific kinds of encounters. Here's what all the parameters look like:

pbMaxMove(raidlvl=nil,poke=[nil,nil],treasure=[nil,nil],gmax,hardmode)

This may look like a lot, but I'll break it down. It's really quite simple, there's just a lot to go over.

Parameters

Spoiler:

Parameter 1: "raidlvl"
This parameter decides the level of the raid, which dictates the level range of the raid Pokemon and the overall difficulty of the raid. You can set this to a number from 1-6, with 1-5 being the number of stars the raid has, and 6 being exclusively used for Legendary Raids. If you leave this parameter set to "nil", this will instead choose a random star level for the raid. Level 6 will never be selected in this way, however, only raid levels 1-5. However, this randomized choice will scale with your badge count. If you have 6 or more badges, 1 Star raids will no longer appear. If you have 8 or more, then 2 Star raids will stop appearing too. This mirrors how raid spawns work in the main series. Of course, if you hard code this parameter to be a specific number, it will always produce that level of raid, regardless of your badge count. Here are the level ranges for each raid level:

Spoiler:

if raidlvl==1

• The raid Pokemon's level will be between 15-20.
• The Pokemon is guaranteed to have at least 1 perfect IV.
• The Raid's Turn Counter is equal to whatever MAXRAID_TIMER is set to.
• The Raid's KO Counter is equal to whatever MAXRAID_KOS is set to.
• The raid Pokemon's Shield HP will be equal to whatever MAXRAID_SHIELD is set to.

if raidlvl==2

• The raid Pokemon's level will be between 30-35.
• The Pokemon is guaranteed to have at least 2 perfect IV's.
• Gains an additional bar to shields.
• Additional turn(s) are added to the Turn counter.

if raidlvl==3

• The raid Pokemon's level will be between 40-45.
• The Pokemon is guaranteed to have at least 3 perfect IV's.
• The Pokemon has a 20% chance of having its G-Max Form, if any.
• Gains an additional bar to shields.
• Gains a second round of shields.
• Additional turn(s) are added to the Turn counter.

if raidlvl==4

• The raid Pokemon's level will be between 50-55.
• The Pokemon is guaranteed to have at least 4 perfect IV's.
• The Pokemon has a 20% chance of having its Hidden Ability.
• The Pokemon has a 30% chance of having its G-Max Form, if any.
• Gains an additional bar to shields.
• Additional turn(s) are added to the Turn counter.

if raidlvl==5

• The raid Pokemon's level will be between 60-65.
• The Pokemon is guaranteed to have at least 5 perfect IV's.
• The Pokemon has a 50% chance of having its Hidden Ability.
• The Pokemon has a 50% chance of having its G-Max Form, if any.
• KO counter is reduced by 1.
• Additional turn(s) are added to the Turn counter.

if raidlvl==6

• The raid Pokemon's level will always be 70.
• The Pokemon is guaranteed to have flawless IV's.
• The Pokemon has an 80% chance of having its Hidden Ability.
• The Pokemon has a 50% chance of having its G-Max Form, if any.
• Hard Mode features enabled, and cannot be changed.
• Gains an additional bar to shields.
• Additional turn(s) are added to the Turn counter.
• If the player has less than 8 badges, this will just act as a level 5 raid instead.

Parameter 2: "poke"
This is the most complicated parameter of the bunch, so I'll go over this one in the most detail. This parameter is listed as an array, but can be also set to a number or name. It's a bit complicated to explain what you can do with this, but I designed it to be as inclusive as possible, to allow for a huge number of configurations with just one parameter.

Spoiler:

Setting "poke" to a Number or Name:
If you just set this to a dex number, or the internal name of a species (something like "pbMaxRaid(1,:PIKACHU)"), then the raid will always spawn that specific Pokemon. Simple enough. However, if you leave this parameter blank, or set to [nil], it will spawn a randomized Pokemon for the raid instead. The species isn't completely random, however. It will first check what "raidlvl" was set to, and then randomize a Pokemon based on the difficulty level of the raid.

So if "poke" is omitted, or set to [nil], and...

Spoiler:

if raidlvl==1

• The raid will spawn a random species who's base stat total equals 365 or less. This excludes Wishiwashi, as well as legendary Pokemon Cosmog and Meltan.

if raidlvl==2

• The raid will spawn a random species who's base stat total equals 479 or less. Includes everything from raid level 1, but excludes legendary Pokemon Cosmoem, Poipole, and Kubfu.

if raidlvl==3

• The raid will spawn a random species who's base stat total is equal to or between 480 and 535.

if raidlvl==4

• The raid will spawn a random species who's base stat total equals anything above 480. This also includes Slaking and Wishiwashi, but excludes legendary Pokemon.

if raidlvl==5

• This includes all the species from raid levels 3 and 4.

if raidlvl==6

• The raid will spawn a legendary or Ultra Beast species who's base stat total is anything above 570. This also includes Manaphy, Naganadel, and Urshifu.
  How this is decided is that it checks for Pokemon in this range and sees if they're part of the "undiscovered" egg group, which is exclusively occupied by legendary Pokemon at this stat range. If you happen to be using my Legendary Breeding scripts, this also checks for Pokemon who are in a legendary egg group too, for compatibility.

If both "raidlvl" and "poke" are left as nil, the raid will still spawn an appropriate species based on the randomized raid level. So you can simply enter "pbMaxRaid" in an event without setting any of the parameters, and you'll still get a randomized raid of appropriate level and species without having to manually fuss with things.

Setting "poke" as an Array:
Ok, so that takes care of half of what you can do with this parameter. Now comes what you can do with it as an array. As an array, this parameter can be used differently, and used to instead search for a random Pokemon of a specific type, instead of a specific species. So for example, setting "poke" to [:WATER] (brackets necessary) will cause the raid to spawn a random Water-type species, instead of a specific species. This means that every time you access the raid, it will be randomized with a new species of a chosen type, allowing you to have a single raid that rotates daily on a timed event with a predictable pool of Pokemon.

To visualize this, this is what that example would look like when actually inputted into an event:

pbMaxRaid(1,[:WATER])

This will create a level 1 raid event that will only ever spawn Water-type species that have a base stat total of 365 or less. Regardless of what raid level you set this event to, the Pokemon it spawns will only be Water-types. So if you make this a level 6 raid, for example, it will only search for Water-types that fit the "legendary" criteria, meaning it'll only spawn things like Kyogre or Manaphy. If you set this to a level 5 raid, it'll only spawn Water types with a base stat total of 480 or higher. And so on, and so on. You can do this for any type.


So that takes care of the first item in our poke=[nil,nil] array, but what is that second nil for? Well, that one's interesting. I made it so that this second item determines the scope of which Pokedex list the first "nil" is searching through.

"0" will search through the Kanto Dex only (or whatever Region 0 is set to).
"1" will search through the Johto Dex only (or whatever Region 1 is set to).
"nil" will search through the entire National Dex (you can simply omit this second nil as shown in the Water example to produce the same effect).

So to continue with our example, if you changed the raid event to look like this:

pbMaxRaid(1,[:WATER,0])

Then the raid event will spawn a random Water-type species that meets the level 1 raid criteria, but ONLY those that exist in the Kanto Dex. Any other Water-types will be excluded. With this, you can have certain species locked out from appearing until certain dexes are unlocked, even if you choose to make a randomized raid of a specific type.

However, it's worth noting that in situations where you input a certain combination that would yield no results (Example: A Kanto-only Poison-type legendary raid), then the raid will always default to being a Ditto raid. This is necessary to prevent crashes if you put in some weird combination of factors that would produce a Pokemon that doesn't exist.

Parameter 3: "treasure"
This parameter is another array, but it works much simpler than the Pokemon array. All this is used for is for adding customized rewards to your raids. By default, raids only rewards items like Exp. Candies, Berries, and vitamins. However, you can add unique rewards to specific raids if you wish by utilizing this parameter. Using it is fairly simple. The first "nil" is set to whatever item you want to add to the raid's rewards. The second "nil" is the quantity of that item that should be awarded. If you leave the quantity blank, it will just default to a quantity of 1. Here are some examples:

Spoiler:

pbMaxRaid(nil,:SABLEYE,[:DARKGEM,5])

This will produce a random level Sableye raid that rewards 5 Dark Gems in addition to the base rewards.

pbMaxRaid(3,:MAROWAK,:THICKCLUB)

This will produce a level 3 Marowak raid that rewards 1 Thick Club in addition to the base rewards. Notice you don't need to put the item in brackets if you only want to reward 1 of that item.

pbMaxRaid(nil,[:DRAGON,1],[:DRAGONFANG,6])

This will produce a random level Johto Dex-only Dragon-type raid that rewards 6 Dragon Fangs in addition to the base rewards.

pbMaxRaid(1,:LUVDISC,[:HEARTSCALE,1+rand(20)]

This will produce a level 1 Luvdisc raid that rewards a random number of Heart Scales (out of 20) in addition to the base rewards.

Parameter 4: "gmax"
This is a simple true/false parameter that toggles Gigantamax raids. When set to "true", this raid event will always produce a Gigantamax Pokemon, if possible. If the raid spawns a Pokemon that doesn't have a Gigantamax form, this parameter is ignored.

Parameter 5: "hardmode"
This is another true/false parameter that toggles Hard Mode difficulty. When set to "true", this raid event will always have Hard Mode features turned on. Hard Mode features are turned off by default, except for Legendary raids (level 6), which always have Hard Mode activated, and cannot be turned off even with this parameter.

Examples

Spoiler:

Ok, so that was a lot, but it's quite simple once you've got the grasp on how to use this script and customize it to your liking. Here are some examples with everything working together to help visualize everything at once:

pbMaxRaid(4,:MAGMAR,:MAGMARIZER)

This will produce a level 4 Normal Mode Magmar raid that rewards 1 Magmarizer.

pbMaxRaid(5,[:FIGHTING,0],:EXPERTBELT,true,true)

This will produce a Level 5 Hard Mode raid that spawns only Fighting-types found in the Kanto Dex, rewards 1 Expert Belt, and will always be a G-Max raid if able (basically only when it's Machamp).

pbMaxRaid(nil,[nil,1],[:ENIGMABERRY,5],false,true)

This will produce a randomized level Hard Mode raid with a random Pokemon found in the Johto Dex, and rewards 5 Enigma Berries.

pbMaxRaid(nil,:BUTTERFREE)

This will produce a random Level Normal Mode Butterfree raid. If the raid level randomizes to a 3 or higher, there's a chance that it'll naturally spawn a Gigantamax raid, since Butterfree has a G-Max form. The gmax parameter is only used to force a G-Max raid, but they can still happen naturally by chance without it.

pbMaxRaid(1,:PIKACHU,nil,true,true)

This will produce a Level 1 Hard Mode G-Max Pikachu raid with no bonus rewards.

pbMaxRaid(2,:CHARIZARD,:CHARIZARDITEX)

This will produce a Level 2 Normal Mode Charizard raid that awards a Charizardite X. Note that Charizard wouldn't normally show up in a Level 2 raid if the species was randomized, but you can force any species into any level raid if you manually set it as such.

pbMaxRaid(6)

This will produce a Level 5 Legendary raid with a random legendary out of the entire National Dex. This raid will also be in Hard Mode despite the hardmode parameter being absent, since legendary raids are always in Hard Mode.

pbMaxRaid(nil,[:DARK,0])

This tries to produce a random Level Normal Mode Kanto Dex-only Dark-type raid, but will produce a Ditto Raid instead. This is because there are no Dark-types in the Kanto Dex, so the raid will always default to a Ditto raid when the parameters can't produce any results.

pbMaxRaid

When no parameters are set, this will produce a random Level Normal Mode raid, with a random species out of the National Dex (based on what the raid level is randomized to), with no bonus rewards. Keep in mind that randomized Raid levels scale with your badge count, so this will only ever produce 1 star raids if you have no badges, for example.

New Additions

Spoiler:

• Item:Wishing Piece
  The PBS information for this item has been added to allow it to be used to reset raid dens.
  
  
• Item: Exp. Candy
  The PBS data for all the variety of Exp. Candies have been added. The EFFECTS for these items have not, merely the PBS data to allow them to appear. These aren't required for anything in the raid update to work, so I merely added them here for consistency.
  
  
• Graphics: Various Raid screens and icons
  New graphics for the Raid entry/rewards screens have been added, as well as the battle graphics for raid shields and counters. The Dynamax battle icon has also been changed so that it will no longer overlap with other battle icons such as status effects/shiny markers. The Dynamax button to activate the mechanic in battle has also been updated to look more like how it does in the main series. I've kept the original button graphic though, in case you prefer it.
  
  In addition, the "databox_normal_foe" graphic has been updated, and can replace your old one. This graphic is identical to the old one, except its dimensions have been changed to allow for the raid shield graphic to appear.
  
  
• Audio: Max Raid Battle
  Audio has now been added to the installation that includes a battle music track, and an intro track.
  
  
• Mechanics: All Max Raid features
  Now implemented and functional.
  
  
• Mechanics: Hard Mode Raids
  Now implemented and functional.
  
  
• Script Settings
  
  Spoiler:

  The following have been added in the settings section of the Dynamax script:
  

  • MAXRAID_KOS
    This sets the base number of KO's a Raid Pokemon requires to defeat you in a Max Raid battle. This number is set to 4 by default. The lowest this number can be is 1 (it will default to 1 if set any lower), and cannot be higher than 6 (it will default to 6 if any higher). Keep in mind that this is just the base number, so harder raids may scale this number for difficulty purposes.
    
    
  • MAXRAID_TIMER
    This sets the base number of turns a Raid can last before you are kicked out. This number is set to 12 by default. The lowest this number can be is 5, and the highest it can be is 25 (it will cap at those numbers even if set outside that range). Keep in mind that this is just the base number, so harder raids may scale this number for difficulty purposes.
    
    
  • MAXRAID_SHIELD
    This sets the base number of bars a Raid Pokemon's shield has during a Max Raid. This number is set to 2 by default. The lowest this number can be is 1, and the highest it can be is 8 (it will cap at those numbers even if set outside that range). Keep in mind that this is just the base number, so harder raids may scale this number for difficulty purposes.
    
    
  • MAXRAID_PKMN
    This is the variable number used to store a Raid Pokemon's data so that it may be displayed in the raid results screen.
    
    
  • MAXRAID_SWITCH
    This is the switch number used to toggle Max Raid Battles.
    
    
  • HARDMODE_RAID
    This is the switch number used to toggle Hard Mode Raids.
  
  
• Custom Raid Pokemon
  I've included a template in the settings section for adding specific moves, items, natures, etc. for specific species you may encounter in a Raid Den. Follow the instructions there if you want to tune specific species to function in a particular way during a Raid encounter.

Other Updates

Spoiler:

• Item: Max Soup
  This item effect has been updated. It can now be used on a Pokemon that already has G-Max Factor to remove that G-Max Factor. Previously, it could only grant this attribute, but could not take it away.
  
  
• Move Effects: Psychic Terrain
  The placeholder effect for Psychic Terrain was incorrectly categorized as an "active side" effect, rather than an "active field" effect. This has been fixed.
  
  
• Move Effects: G-Max Vine Lash, Wildfire, Cannonade, Volcalith
  Fixed a glitch where the end of round effect would cause errors. I also fixed a glitch that let you re-apply this effect infinitely each time you used one of these moves before the initial effect ended. They should now work properly and won't reapply until the original effect ends.
  
  
• Move Effects: Pain Split, Endeavor, Super Fang
  The updated code for these moves found in the "Additional Installations" section was bugged previously, but has now been fixed. Please reinstall the changes to those moves.

Installation
Check the installation section in the main post. It has been updated with new instructions. Any step of the installation that has been changed, added, or must be redone has been tagged with a red label.

I didn't label this in the instructions, but the code changes to the moves Pain Split, Super Fang, and Endeavor in the "Additional Installation" section have been updated to perform properly. The old code was bugged. Please redo those steps as well.




I've prepared video examples below to demo Max Raid battles. Note that these are sliiightly outdated, because I've made some fine tuning to the mechanics since I made these videos, but they get the idea across.

Video 1: Normal 4 Star Raid (vs. Salamence)
Link:https://youtu.be/bSoVlPgcuj4

This battle is what made me realize I needed to nerf Leech Seed.

Video 2: Hard Mode Legendary Raid (vs. Articuno)
Link: https://youtu.be/1oVLDgIpDBE

I'm still salty about Articuno waiting to use Max Guard until the VERY turn I'm out of Feint PP lol

 

[Subhajit]

You are best bro thanks

 

[Devil Monster]

Lmao this is unrelated but Meloetta's Dynamax cry literally just sounds like a real woman singing. I need to go through some of these, some of them are surprising haha.

I am very very thankfull to creators like you but i am very new in this field so pls help me by sending me your script here

 

[Golisopod User]

This is the best thread i have ever seen sir but i am very new in this field and i am just a 10 th standard student and i need your help so pls help me by sending your script sir

Just go the main post and install it.

 

[Lucidious89]

Small update: Just made some minor tweaks to both scripts to fix some small inconsistencies I found. Should be good to go now, unless somebody finds an issue I overlooked.

 

[RayCo]

Hi, I got this message when I try to use any moves

[Pokémon Essentials version 17.2]
Exception: NoMethodError
Message: undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass
PokeBattle_Battler:3009:in `pbTarget'
PokeBattle_Battler:2925:in `pbFindUser'
PokeBattle_Battler:4081:in `pbUseMove'
PokeBattle_Battler:4504:in `pbProcessTurn'
PokeBattle_Battler:4503:in `logonerr'
PokeBattle_Battler:4503:in `pbProcessTurn'
Battle Mechanic Compatibility:950:in `pbAttackPhase'
Battle Mechanic Compatibility:936:in `each'
Battle Mechanic Compatibility:936:in `pbAttackPhase'
Battle Mechanic Compatibility:924:in `times'

 

[Lucidious89]

Hi, I got this message when I try to use any moves

Were you able to use the Dynamax script before the new update? Or is this your first time installing? Also, does this happen when selecting a move, or just selecting "Fight" in general?

In either case, I don't know what I can suggest other than to carefully follow the instructions and re-install. I uninstalled and re-installed everything into a default copy of Essentials, and tested on both old and new save files, and could not replicate this error. If you're working on a customized project, you may have something creating conflicts if it does something to rework the battle system.

The only new areas of the script that the Max Raid update touches that the old Dynamax script didn't are "def pbProcessMoveAgainstTarget", "def pbReduceHPDamage", and some things in PokeBattle_Scene (which don't seem relevant, since your error doesn't seem to be pointing to anything there). So I'd check if you have anything installed that does something to change those two areas in the script.

 

[RayCo]

Were you able to use the Dynamax script before the new update? Or is this your first time installing? Also, does this happen when selecting a move, or just selecting "Fight" in general?

In either case, I don't know what I can suggest other than to carefully follow the instructions and re-install. I uninstalled and re-installed everything into a default copy of Essentials, and tested on both old and new save files, and could not replicate this error. If you're working on a customized project, you may have something creating conflicts if it does something to rework the battle system.

The only new areas of the script that the Max Raid update touches that the old Dynamax script didn't are "def pbProcessMoveAgainstTarget", "def pbReduceHPDamage", and some things in PokeBattle_Scene (which don't seem relevant, since your error doesn't seem to be pointing to anything there). So I'd check if you have anything installed that does something to change those two areas in the script.

maybe I got lost in the process, sorry for the inconvenience

 

[#Not Important]

Wow...
You really pulled it off!

 

[Lucidious89]

Some more minor tweaks to the code. All I did was make it so that Shedinja wouldn't be randomly chosen as a raid boss if using a random raid event. You auto-win the raid after attacking Shedinja once, so it's basically just free rewards for no effort. You can still manually force a Shedinja raid if you want, but it seems more balanced to me to remove it from being randomly selected, at least.

I also changed the success checks for certain moves in Max Raid battles. The following will now only fail when used ON a Max Raid Pokemon:

• Bug Bite
• Pluck
• Incinerate
• Knock Off
• Super Fang

The following will now only fail when used BY the Max Raid Pokemon:

• Explosion/Self-Destruct
• Final Gambit
• Memento
• Destiny Bond
• Roar/Whirlwind
• Circle Throw/Dragon Tail

The following will now fail when used by ANY Pokemon in a Max Raid battle:

• Curse (when Ghost-type)
• Perish Song (requires an edit in PokeBattle_MoveEffects; added to instructions)

It makes sense to separate the moves out like this (rather than before where I just made all these moves fail regardless of user), because a lot of these moves have no reason to fail when used by the player in a 1v1 environment (you don't have teammates to troll by using Explosion on them, for example). Perish Song isn't prevented from being used in the main series, but I added it here because in the main series you will automatically lose to Perish Song (since all of your teammates will be KO'd too), so it makes sense to allow it. But in a 1v1 environment Perish Song is an auto-win (since you will always win if you still have 1 Pokemon left to switch to), so it needs to be banned from being used to prevent all of the Raid battles from being cheesed.

 

[MQuetzal]

This update is amazing.

I noticed two things testings raid battles. One maybe is something that I did in the wrong way:

1 - I don't know why, but I can't see the shields when the raid pokemons got it. But the barrier is there, only I can't see the graphics.

2- If a raid Pokemon use teleport, it will scape from battle.

And now, two questions.

Is there any way to make that trainers in "Max Zones" don't dinamax their Pokes?

And the other one... Trainers always dinamax their first pokémon. Is there a way to change this?

Thanks for everything.

PD: I writted this before, but the text was weird, so I deleted and posted again

 

[Golisopod User]

Issue 1 - I don't know why, but I can't see the shields when the raid pokemons got it. But the barrier is there, only I can't see the graphics.

Issue 2- If a raid Pokemon use teleport, it will scape from battle.

Question 1-Is there any way to make that trainers in "Max Zones" don't dinamax their Pokes?

Question 2-And the other one... Trainers always dinamax their first pokémon. Is there a way to change this?

Thanks for everything.

For issue 1
You should check if you put the shield graphics in the correct place and the name of the graphic matches that of the script.

For issue 2
Go to the Teleport Function code and add

if attacker.isDynamax?
    @battle.pbDisplay("But it Failed")
    return
end

For question 1
Just don't give the opponent a Dynamax Band

For question 2
Look for this in the Dynamax.txt

def pbEnemyShouldDynamax?(index)
   return pbCanDynamax?(index)
end

And edit the conditions over there. Currently its set up so that the Enemy Dynamaxes his/her Pokemon if its capable of Dynamaxing.

 

[MQuetzal]

First of all, thanks for answering and the fixes.

For issue 1
You should check if you put the shield graphics in the correct place and the name of the graphic matches that of the script.

For issue 2
.....

For question 1
Just don't give the opponent a Dynamax Band

For question 2
....

Issue 1: The graphics are in the correct places with the correct name. I've added the corrections to Pokebattle_Scene too, of course.
Maybe something is interfering. I'll check it and write here if I find it.

Question 1: I don't give Dynamax Band to the opponents. Normally, if they are on a power spot, they can Dynamax their Pokémons. That's why I'm asking this.

 

[Lucidious89]

This update is amazing.

I noticed two things testings raid battles. One maybe is something that I did in the wrong way:

1 - I don't know why, but I can't see the shields when the raid pokemons got it. But the barrier is there, only I can't see the graphics.

2- If a raid Pokemon use teleport, it will scape from battle.

And now, two questions.

Is there any way to make that trainers in "Max Zones" don't dinamax their Pokes?

And the other one... Trainers always dinamax their first pokémon. Is there a way to change this?

Thanks for everything.

PD: I writted this before, but the text was weird, so I deleted and posted again

1) If the raid shield graphics aren't showing up, it means your databox_foe_normal graphic isn't the right size. I included a resized version of this graphic in the download. The dimensions for this graphic needs to be changed to have a length of at least 82 pixels. Make sure this graphic has the right dimensions.

2) I completely forgot about Teleport, I'll add that.

3) I haven't put any focus on NPC Dynamax, maybe ill include something in a new update. But Golisopod pointed you in the right direction.

 

[MQuetzal]

Yup, that was the problem. The databox.

Now all works well. Thanks!

 

[Lucidious89]

Yup, that was the problem. The databox.

Now all works well. Thanks!

Cool, I figured that's all it was.

In regards to NPC trainers, I thought it was gonna be a pain to figure out, but I actually already came up with something so I'll just post it here.

def pbEnemyShouldDynamax?(index)
    return false if !$game_switches[NPC_DYNAMAX]
    ret=0
    for i in @party2
      ret+=1 if i.fainted?
    end
    if [email protected]
      return pbCanDynamax?(index)
    end
    return false
  end

Replace the old Enemy Dynamax code with this. Then add this in the Settings at the top of the script:

NPC_DYNAMAX   = 507

This will make it so that you can toggle NPC's ability to trigger Dynamax in battle with a control switch. By default, this switch is off, so no opposing trainers will activate Dynamax. However, if you you turn it on for specific battles, they will Dynamax (assuming all other conditions are met). But now, instead of Dynamaxing turn 1, they will always Dynamax their final Pokemon instead. So now you can save this for the trainer's ace Pokemon. For example, if you battle Brock, he will always save Dynamax for Onix, and not waste it on Geodude (unless you do something to alter his party order with something like Whirlwind).

Trainers with just a single Pokemon will just use their Dynamax right away like before.

Also, I fixed some things in regards to Max Raid Pokemon inheriting TM moves, and I made it so you can no longer flee from Max Raids (as was intended). I somehow overlooked that the ability to run was still enabled.

Also, I made it so Teleport will now fail when used in Max Raids (by both you and the Raid Pokemon). I added it to the instructions. It's a very simple edit, just go to the code for Teleport and next to the line "if @battle.opponent ||" add:

$game_switches[MAXRAID_SWITCH] ||

The Dynamax script in the download link has been updated with all of these changes.