Hack Series: Pokémon Eternal X & Wilting Y [Version 2.67 Released]

[IYNH]

Almost done with the 2nd run through Wilting Y insanity using Froakie as the starter - the only things left I believe would be the ice gym and the league. My team composition sadly didn't change a whole lot, with Aegislash, Klefki and Serperior all managing to survive. The important thing however, is that now that I'm almost 2 runs into this romhack, I believe that it's safe for me to harp on a bit about the Fennekin line's performance for a bit:

I definitely do see that the Fennekin line has quite a lot of potential as a special based Fire slot, given that Fire options are rather rare early on, and most of the other early Fire choices either are usually physical (Blaziken, Mega Charizard X, Talonflame) and thus having to deal with pretty nasty Flare Blitz recoil later on, have negative synergy with most of your mons (Mega Charizard Y), or just plain useless (Pyroar, Magmar). The main problem I can see for Delphox would be that, for being supposedly a witch, her offensive powers are still very much mediocre:
- Her attack movepool is actually quite decent with a good amount of coverage this time around and her speed tier is quite good. The only improvement I could see here would be to give her Heat Wave in one way or another, as she is rather quite bad in doubles without it.
- 114 spec.atk is really not that spectacular without a Nasty Plot up. And speaking of Nasty Plot, trying to set that thing up just feels like a lost cause because Delphox has a pretty hard time trying to find opportunities to set that up with her middling bulk and defensively questionable Fire/Psychic typing. Plus, quite a lot of mons out there like Blaziken, Mega Charizard X, Infernape, Aegislash, Manaphy are just better at doing the whole setup thing, while having either more power or versatility. I could definitely see the spec.atk being bumped up a fair bit to at least 135 or higher at the cost of atk/sp.def points, just to make her more attractive as a Life Orb candidate instead of a rather mediocre setup sweeper.
- Magician is useless and should be replaced with an actual good ability. Seriously.

Side note: I can't seem to find Ferroseed/Ferrothorn anywhere on the wild list pdf. Does anyone know where it can be found?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Almost done with the 2nd run through Wilting Y insanity using Froakie as the starter - the only things left I believe would be the ice gym and the league. My team composition sadly didn't change a whole lot, with Aegislash, Klefki and Serperior all managing to survive. The important thing however, is that now that I'm almost 2 runs into this romhack, I believe that it's safe for me to harp on a bit about the Fennekin line's performance for a bit:

I definitely do see that the Fennekin line has quite a lot of potential as a special based Fire slot, given that Fire options are rather rare early on, and most of the other early Fire choices either are usually physical (Blaziken, Mega Charizard X, Talonflame) and thus having to deal with pretty nasty Flare Blitz recoil later on, have negative synergy with most of your mons (Mega Charizard Y), or just plain useless (Pyroar, Magmar). The main problem I can see for Delphox would be that, for being supposedly a witch, her offensive powers are still very much mediocre:
- Her attack movepool is actually quite decent with a good amount of coverage this time around and her speed tier is quite good. The only improvement I could see here would be to give her Heat Wave in one way or another, as she is rather quite bad in doubles without it.
- 114 spec.atk is really not that spectacular without a Nasty Plot up. And speaking of Nasty Plot, trying to set that thing up just feels like a lost cause because Delphox has a pretty hard time trying to find opportunities to set that up with her middling bulk and defensively questionable Fire/Psychic typing. Plus, quite a lot of mons out there like Blaziken, Mega Charizard X, Infernape, Aegislash, Manaphy are just better at doing the whole setup thing, while having either more power or versatility. I could definitely see the spec.atk being bumped up a fair bit to at least 135 or higher at the cost of atk/sp.def points, just to make her more attractive as a Life Orb candidate instead of a rather mediocre setup sweeper.
- Magician is useless and should be replaced with an actual good ability. Seriously.

Side note: I can't seem to find Ferroseed/Ferrothorn anywhere on the wild list pdf. Does anyone know where it can be found?

I can definitely give Delphox access to Heat Wave; it probably should have had that already as that's its best egg move. 135 Sp. Atk is a bit too much for a starter; before Primarina the highest attacking stat on a starter was Emboar's 123 Attack, and Delphox had the highest Sp. Atk (not including megas of course). I could certainly give it an extra 10 points to reach 124 though. Ability wise I'd consider giving it Trace, Magic Guard or maybe Illusion.

Ferroseed is in the usual place - it drops from the ceiling in Reflection Cave and Glittering Cave. Those encounters aren't listed in the document as I don't know how to edit them and can't give accurate encounter rates for them.

 

[IYNH]

I can definitely give Delphox access to Heat Wave; it probably should have had that already as that's its best egg move. 135 Sp. Atk is a bit too much for a starter; before Primarina the highest attacking stat on a starter was Emboar's 123 Attack, and Delphox had the highest Sp. Atk (not including megas of course). I could certainly give it an extra 10 points to reach 124 though. Ability wise I'd consider giving it Trace, Magic Guard or maybe Illusion.

Magic Guard is definitely the best of the 3 I believe; Illusion could give Delphox an extra turn to set up, but it's rather unreliable and I really don't think destroying its signature ability status would be the best idea. Trace is rather iffy in that it only results in Delphox getting an useful ability a fraction of the time, and unlike stuff like Mega Gardevoir or Mega Alakazam, she isn't really having a failsafe in case that thing fails. Plus, Magic Guard has the word "Magic" in it, which sounds fitting for a magician.

 

[Buffel Saft]

Magic Guard is definitely the best of the 3 I believe; Illusion could give Delphox an extra turn to set up, but it's rather unreliable and I really don't think destroying its signature ability status would be the best idea. Trace is rather iffy in that it only results in Delphox getting an useful ability a fraction of the time, and unlike stuff like Mega Gardevoir or Mega Alakazam, she isn't really having a failsafe in case that thing fails. Plus, Magic Guard has the word "Magic" in it, which sounds fitting for a magician.

Agreed; I'd prefer not to have two fox-based Pokemon lines with Illusion and Magic Guard is definitely the strongest of the three abilities. I've got a small update ready for the games so I'll add that change to them before releasing it.

 

[diegobaddy]

Can I play this in other languages or I'm stuck in English?

 

[Zahiid]

This is awesome, i going to try this
i would never try to hack 3ds xd it seen so hard

 

[Buffel Saft]

Can I play this in other languages or I'm stuck in English?

You can play in any language you choose. The title screen and a few minor text changes won't appear in non-English languages, but all the important features will work just fine.

This is awesome, i going to try this
i would never try to hack 3ds xd it seen so hard

Thanks, hope you have fun! It's a lot easier to hack the 3DS games than you might think, pk3DS does most of the hard work.

 

[Murkrow]

how do i randomise encounters/starters in your hack? i try to use pk3ds to edit the folders after applying the hack patch but citra is unable to open the saved game file.

edit: ok nvm seems i have to rename the .code.bin back to code.bin and it works.

 

[RyoTruesdale]

I have some problems.

I'm an Italian owner of an Italian Y cartridge.
I have the latest version of Luma.
First of all I removed my Y update.
I downloaded the files, created a luma folder and put them in.
Afterwards, I enabled game patching and opened up the game but nothing seemed to change.
I backuped my file and deleted my game to play in English and see if the title screen changed. Not at all.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[Buffel Saft]

I have some problems.

I'm an Italian owner of an Italian Y cartridge.
I have the latest version of Luma.
First of all I removed my Y update.
I downloaded the files, created a luma folder and put them in.
Afterwards, I enabled game patching and opened up the game but nothing seemed to change.
I backuped my file and deleted my game to play in English and see if the title screen changed. Not at all.

What am I doing wrong?

All of the steps you've taken are correct except for creating a luma folder - there should have been one on your SD card already, and copying the files over should have put them in the right place in that folder automatically.

The contents of your luma folder should look something like this:

Luma shouldn't even work without this folder as far as I know, so I'd suggest making sure it exists somewhere on your SD card and then copying the hack's luma folder to the root of your SD card to merge the two folders. You may need to delete the luma folder you created to make sure the files aren't merged into that again.

I hope that's helpful, but let me know if not.

 

[Kholdy322]

I just finished EX on rebalanced and I'll give you some feedback that may be helpful for your next hack series: the bad first then the good.

The bad

• Everything has Confuse Ray or Swagger. I understand that you're trying to make movesets challenging, but due to all random trainers having pokemon with status, it's even more punishing when you decide to use slow pokemon. People who are used to using only fast pokemon won't care, but I used a Clawitzer and I can't lead with it, since it will be confused/paralyzed on the first turn guaranteed. Good example of status: Prankster Klefki appearing twice in Laverre gym. Don't give Swagger to every Pokemon that can learn it.
• I'm pretty sure that all restaurants in Lumiose City have pokemon higher level than normal. As a result, when you eat once, you fight lots of pokemon higher level than you and end up overleveled. I believe the 1 star restaurant has lvl 25 pokemon, but for sure the 2 star restaurant has lvl 50 Audino/Chansey/Blissey, when Clemont, the gym leader, has lvl 46 pokemon!
• Although a goal of rebalanced is to make all pokemon obtainable without trading, some are still extremely annoying. I had the misfortune of trying to use a Gourgeist. As you know, Pumpkaboo is encountered pretty far into the game, at lvl 46-48. Then I looked up how to evolve it, and it evolves...with high friendship. I am way too far in the game now to begin the process of evolving that way, Friend Ball or not, and I was expecting an easier evolution method such as Dusk Stone. This is just an example, there may be others, but I recommend that you look into this.
• Some adjusted pokemon have their rebalanced changes come online way too late. I used Gourgeist because I wanted to experiment with its Flare Boost. However, I then realized that you get Flame Orb at...Snowbelle, which sort of defeats the purpose of me trying out Gourgeist. EDIT: I just realized that you can steal Flame Orb from Slugma with a 50% chance. I give you credit for considering this point. I'll keep this here just in case someone else prefers other Snowbelle items to be available earlier.
• I know that you already converted a bunch of "useless" TMs into better ones and relocated post-game TMs, which is great. Some other recommendations are historically popular move tutor moves such as Zen Headbutt, Signal Beam, Aqua Tail, Iron Head, etc... It feels sort of weird after playing ORAS and having a much wider movepool and then go back to XY without move tutor.
• As a follow up to the above point, I'm not sure if you can do this, but it would be amazing if you can move the Move Reminder back a few towns so many Pokemon can get their more interesting moves earlier.

The good

• Despite the long and detailed list of "bad", I enjoyed the game very much and would play this instead of the original XY when I want to replay it again.
• Gameplay is decently challenging (not too hard or too easy) if you use fast Pokemon. So basically, the concept of the rebalanced patch was executed successfully.
• Levels are adjusted to consider EXP Share perfectly. It was super close. In every gym, I was only behind or ahead 2 levels maximum! That's amazing.
• Because gym leaders have 6 pokemon and gameplay isn't super easy, you are incentivized to train a party of 5 or 6. This indirectly makes the game less boring because you're not just spamming A on a STAB move using 1-2 pokemon like you would in the normal games.
• I like the little changes that seemingly makes no difference, such as putting Cherish Balls in Aquacorde store. Also, I believe that when you changed the Echoed Voice TM to Drain Punch, you also changed the NPC text, which is nice.
• And finally, I appreciate the fact that you have documentations. While some people, including me, enjoy playing a hack "blind", it's better to have documentations to look through when you're stuck instead of posting on the forums and waiting for the creator to get back to you. This is just a personal preference.

Random details about my run

• I picked a party that avoids the typical overpowered Pokemon on purpose, so I may have had a more difficult time with rebalanced than many others. Specifically, I ditched my starter, didn't use mega evolution, and never caught a legendary.
• Coincidentally, I had a party that didn't really take advantage of the new/replaced TMs. None of my Pokemon used elemental punches well nor Smack Down/Drain Punch, but Gourgeist at least benefited from the early Giga Drain and Fire Blast.
• It's very evil of you to let Flash Cannon, Sludge Bomb, and Sludge Wave TMs obtainable only after beating Valerie.
• Viola was easy and I never needed the nerf patch plus I don't need you need to offer it. No matter what your team is, you can still grab the Farfetch'd via trade and destroy Viola. If that's not enough, Litleo is on Route 22.
• The hardest fight in the game is in the Pokeball factory because I didn't look at documentations and wasn't expecting a 12 vs. 12, which is actually an 11 vs. 12 since I haven't captured my final Pokemon yet.

I've played both of your patches and gave feedback them. I look forward to your next one.

 

[Xinnys]

Hey! Can I encounter shiny Xerneas in Team Flare Secret HQ during completion story line?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Hey Kholdy! Responses in bold.

I just finished EX on rebalanced and I'll give you some feedback that may be helpful for your next hack series: the bad first then the good.

The bad

• Everything has Confuse Ray or Swagger. I understand that you're trying to make movesets challenging, but due to all random trainers having pokemon with status, it's even more punishing when you decide to use slow pokemon. People who are used to using only fast pokemon won't care, but I used a Clawitzer and I can't lead with it, since it will be confused/paralyzed on the first turn guaranteed. Good example of status: Prankster Klefki appearing twice in Laverre gym. Don't give Swagger to every Pokemon that can learn it.
  That should only be the case with Team Flare Grunts (who were intended to be annoying) and anyone with a Prankster mon. Outside of that I did try to avoid having that sort of nonsense moveset on most trainers, though any trainer without custom movesets could have confusion-inducing moves if their Pokemon learn them by level up.
• I'm pretty sure that all restaurants in Lumiose City have pokemon higher level than normal. As a result, when you eat once, you fight lots of pokemon higher level than you and end up overleveled. I believe the 1 star restaurant has lvl 25 pokemon, but for sure the 2 star restaurant has lvl 50 Audino/Chansey/Blissey, when Clemont, the gym leader, has lvl 46 pokemon!
  The intention there was to make them usable as a source of extra EXP later in the game too, as that restaurant is the only fast way to level up before post game, and the few extra levels means quite a bit more EXP per run. It is a bit messy though!
• Although a goal of rebalanced is to make all pokemon obtainable without trading, some are still extremely annoying. I had the misfortune of trying to use a Gourgeist. As you know, Pumpkaboo is encountered pretty far into the game, at lvl 46-48. Then I looked up how to evolve it, and it evolves...with high friendship. I am way too far in the game now to begin the process of evolving that way, Friend Ball or not, and I was expecting an easier evolution method such as Dusk Stone. This is just an example, there may be others, but I recommend that you look into this.
  That's something I hadn't considered, thanks for bringing it up. There are ways to quickly boost friendship at that level, but as they're all once per day events making Pumpkaboo a stone evolution would be much better.
• Some adjusted pokemon have their rebalanced changes come online way too late. I used Gourgeist because I wanted to experiment with its Flare Boost. However, I then realized that you get Flame Orb at...Snowbelle, which sort of defeats the purpose of me trying out Gourgeist. EDIT: I just realized that you can steal Flame Orb from Slugma with a 50% chance. I give you credit for considering this point. I'll keep this here just in case someone else prefers other Snowbelle items to be available earlier.
• I know that you already converted a bunch of "useless" TMs into better ones and relocated post-game TMs, which is great. Some other recommendations are historically popular move tutor moves such as Zen Headbutt, Signal Beam, Aqua Tail, Iron Head, etc... It feels sort of weird after playing ORAS and having a much wider movepool and then go back to XY without move tutor.
  I did try to add as many of those moves as possible to level up learnsets, but there's a maximum of 25 moves per Pokemon so a lot of them couldn't be included. I probably could find a few more TMs to replace though (does anyone ever actually use Flash?).
• As a follow up to the above point, I'm not sure if you can do this, but it would be amazing if you can move the Move Reminder back a few towns so many Pokemon can get their more interesting moves earlier.
  I'd love to do that, but AFAIK no one has figured out how to edit scripts properly on the 3DS games, so it's not something I can do yet. A lot of the items in marts would be in item balls instead if that was an option.

The good

• Despite the long and detailed list of "bad", I enjoyed the game very much and would play this instead of the original XY when I want to replay it again.
• Gameplay is decently challenging (not too hard or too easy) if you use fast Pokemon. So basically, the concept of the rebalanced patch was executed successfully.
• Levels are adjusted to consider EXP Share perfectly. It was super close. In every gym, I was only behind or ahead 2 levels maximum! That's amazing.
• Because gym leaders have 6 pokemon and gameplay isn't super easy, you are incentivized to train a party of 5 or 6. This indirectly makes the game less boring because you're not just spamming A on a STAB move using 1-2 pokemon like you would in the normal games.
• I like the little changes that seemingly makes no difference, such as putting Cherish Balls in Aquacorde store. Also, I believe that when you changed the Echoed Voice TM to Drain Punch, you also changed the NPC text, which is nice.
  Thanks! That's all really good to hear, especially the level curve being so close. It's hard to tell how well it'll work for different people and play styles.
• And finally, I appreciate the fact that you have documentations. While some people, including me, enjoy playing a hack "blind", it's better to have documentations to look through when you're stuck instead of posting on the forums and waiting for the creator to get back to you. This is just a personal preference.
  I definitely agree with you on this. It's also nice to have documents to refer to once a hack's creator has left the ROM hacking community.

Random details about my run

• I picked a party that avoids the typical overpowered Pokemon on purpose, so I may have had a more difficult time with rebalanced than many others. Specifically, I ditched my starter, didn't use mega evolution, and never caught a legendary.
• Coincidentally, I had a party that didn't really take advantage of the new/replaced TMs. None of my Pokemon used elemental punches well nor Smack Down/Drain Punch, but Gourgeist at least benefited from the early Giga Drain and Fire Blast.
• It's very evil of you to let Flash Cannon, Sludge Bomb, and Sludge Wave TMs obtainable only after beating Valerie.
  Haha, I originally had those TMs in Laverre City but thought it made things a little too easy.
• Viola was easy and I never needed the nerf patch plus I don't need you need to offer it. No matter what your team is, you can still grab the Farfetch'd via trade and destroy Viola. If that's not enough, Litleo is on Route 22.
  I agree; you can also use an evolved starter or elemental monkey with one of the new TMs (Fire Punch, Thunder Punch or Smack Down work wonders), or even a Sudowoodo. Quite a few people requested it though, so I made it an optional change.
• The hardest fight in the game is in the Pokeball factory because I didn't look at documentations and wasn't expecting a 12 vs. 12, which is actually an 11 vs. 12 since I haven't captured my final Pokemon yet.

It's always interesting to hear how players' runs went, thanks for taking the time to share!

I've played both of your patches and gave feedback them. I look forward to your next one.

Thanks again for the feedback! My next patch will most likely be for Emerald later this year; I'll make sure it has less Swagger users in it than this one.

Hey! Can I encounter shiny Xerneas in Team Flare Secret HQ during completion story line?

Hi! Yes you can, the shiny lock on all static encounters has been removed.

 

[Kholdy322]

Hi, I forgot to ask, but did you change the leveling rate (slow, erratic, medium fast, etc...) of Pokemon?

 

[IcyDragon27]

Hey, where I can find Torchic in the beggining? because I dont encounter Torchic in route 2, or whats the % to encounter him?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Hi, I forgot to ask, but did you change the leveling rate (slow, erratic, medium fast, etc...) of Pokemon?

I did, the full list is near the top of the Pokemon Changes document. Generally weaker Pokemon level up faster than others, and a few Pokemon like Milotic require more exp than usual to prevent them from breaking the later parts of the game. The fluctuating group is gone entirely because of how awful it becomes past level 50.

Hey, where I can find Torchic in the beggining? because I dont encounter Torchic in route 2, or whats the % to encounter him?

It's a 100% encounter chance, but only the first time you walk into the grass. After that it's a common horde encounter on Route 11. If it wasn't on Route 2 something may not be working correctly; which version are you playing?

 

[IcyDragon27]

How can i see the version?

 

[Buffel Saft]

How can i see the version?

Oh I meant version as in X or Y, Rebalanced or Legal, etc. As in which one did you choose to install? If it's a problem with the game I can take a look and fix it if I know which one you're playing.

 

[IcyDragon27]

Oh I meant version as in X or Y, Rebalanced or Legal, etc. As in which one did you choose to install? If it's a problem with the game I can take a look and fix it if I know which one you're playing.

Pokemon Wilting Y, Insane Rebalanced

 

[Buffel Saft]

Pokemon Wilting Y, Insane Rebalanced

I can't see any problems with the static encounters file. Are you playing on citra or a 3DS? I'd suggest just rebuilding/reinstalling the hack to make sure everything's working. Bear in mind that once you've encountered something on Route 2 the Torchic can't reappear in that save file.