Mystery Dungeon Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Explorers of Skies

[Staro]

   Hello! 

I'd like to showcase my first ever ROM hack - A slight difficulty and quality of life hack for Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky.

My main goal with this hack is to introduce quality of life changes, new dungeon variety, new Pokémon spawn lists all while making the original game harder! (But not Kaizo hard) I am also trying to steer away from unnecessary dialogue additions and anything that could take away from a player's experience or ruin immersion. While not directly influenced by Drayano or his hacks, this ROM hack shares similarities in the way Drayano approaches hacks, keeping the original game vanilla and building onto it's gameplay systems all while slightly increasing difficulty.

Exact specifications of what has and will be changed will be included with every version I release with previous changes always archived in each and every changelog as there already is way to much for me to include as is without keeping this post short and simple. The hack is fully completed in terms of revamping every dungeon and improving the base game, but additional features are to be added in the future. 

Trailers:

 

Spoiler

 

Special features include: 

- Arceus is now in the game! Recruit the Alpha Pokemon at the top of Destiny Tower!

- Exp. Points are now distributed to the entire team -- including off-roster team members! (Like in Gates to Infinity and Super!)

- You can now select whatever starter you want if you don't like your Personality Quiz result! (Like in Super!)

- Complete Team Control, You can manually control your partner and team members turns in dungeon!

- New postgame events! -- Revisit the Future after recruiting Dialga, Explore a new Ruin dungeon after defeating Regigigas, visit new unique Far Away dungeons after recruiting Palkia or explore the Magnagate after collecting all Seven Treasures!

- New moves! Unused moves like Spin Slash and Excavate are back in the game!

- Fairy Type moves with custom move animations:

- Sweet Kiss, Charm, Moonlight, Dazzling Gleam, Disarming Voice, Fairy Wind, Play Rough, Draining Kiss, Moonblast, Crafty Shield, Baby-Doll Eyes and more!
 

- Moves from future generations too:

- Petal Blizzard, Bulldoze, High Horsepower and more!

- Fairy Type, with Fairy Type gummis in game too!

- Sylveon!

- Custom Frames!

- Revisitable Future -- with recruitable shiny Celebi!
 

- The weather trio now have their exclusive moves, Precipice Blades, Dragon Ascent and Origin Pulse!

- The Luxio Tribe is back from Time/Darkness, fully replacing the Manectric gang. (Complete with a Luxray Clear Mark icon.)

- New dungeons! Explore the all new Metal Crag, Magic Alcove, Avian Terrene, Drake Fjord, Poison Bog and Battle Hill!

- All starter evolutions now have overworld sleeping sprites for the postgame (Including gender differences!).

- All new spawnlists, revamped difficulty, and a whole new way to play the game!

- Some dungeons now have certain gimmicks, EX: Drenched Bluff has a dangerous 6th floor, Waterfall Cave is always rainy and max darkness, there's no food in the Northern Desert, etc.

- Alolan Vulpix has replaced normal Vulpix as a starter/partner

- A quick tunnel from Sharpedo Bluff to Crossroads
- Espurr is now a partner Pokemon!

- Chikorita isn't useless now!
- Completely reworked Marowak Dojo system!
 

- All Starters and Partners have reworked level up movepools, and will always have access to a powerful STAB move at level 50. Some starters/partners have had ability reworks like Eevee having Anticipation instead of Run Away, Skitty having Scrappy instead of Normalize, and Riolu having Own Tempo instead of Inner Focus!

- Quality of Life improvements. Tired of all those tips trying to help you out? Say no more, they're all disabled thanks to DisableTips. Want to hold the L button and use one of your four moves without opening the move menu? Move Shortcuts has got you covered! Ever wanted to have a partner that matches your type? SameType Partner allows you to do just that! Tired of watching and suffering through Spinda's Café animation every time you want to make a drink? I removed it! Tired of Far-Off Pals taking too long to play out? It's quicker now! Kangaskhan Rocks in the Marowak Dojo Hub and Spinda Cafe!

- Revamped Item values

- Vitamins, Joy Seeds and Ginsengs now rarely appear in the Kecleon Shop

- Revamped Rank-Up rewards!

- All Evolution Items now have an equal chance to spawn in the Kecleon Wares Shop
- Xatu now unboxes faster!
-Optional dungeons are automatically unlocked after graduating!
- Seven Treasure dungeons are unlocked after Dark Crater!

- Aegis Cave is no longer full of unnecessary unowns!

- Mt. Blaze and Mt. Thunder are back in the game! Along with Zapdos and Moltres boss fights!

- Region Variants! (Note that these new varients DO NOT replace the original games Pokémon, normal Vulpix/Ninetales are still in the game, just no longer a starter/partner.)

- Zero Isles now have rare evolution items at the end of the dungeon to reward players for exploring them!

- Destiny Tower now allows recruiting, has had it's grudge traps removed, and has had wonder tiles added into upper floors.

- All dungeons have been revamped!

 

 

 

Special Thanks:

*** Thank you to End45 for creating the Move Shortcuts, DisableTips, and SameType Partner patches. 

*** Thank you to Irdkwia for creating the ChangeMoveStatDisplay, ChangeEvoSystem, ExpandPokeList, Exp. Share, Fairy Type, and Choose Starter patches. Thank you for also working on Move Shortcuts.

*** Thank you to Cipnit for creating the Complete Team Control patch.

*** Thank you to NeroIntruder for creating Espurr, Meowstic (Male and Female), and Alolan Ninetails portraits/sprites.

*** Thank you to DunkinDo for creating Arceus sprites, Galar Corsola sprites, Cursola sprites and my commissioned Regidrago/Regieleki sprites.

*** Thank you to CamusZekeSirius for creating Regidrago and Regieleki sprites.

*** Thank you to Davilos for creating Arceus portraits.

*** Thank you to Emmuffin for creating Sylveon and galarian Corsola portraits. 

*** Thank you to EZERART for creating Cursola's portrait.

*** Thank you to MonochromeKirby for creating Victini's sprites and portraits.

*** Thank you to whoever created Sylveon's sprites, I'm unable to find whoever originally submitted it.

*** Thank you tofor creating art and a menu background featuring Silveon, Espurr and Alolan Ninetales!

 

Massive thank you to my Discord community for feeding me ideas, suggestions, advice and inspiration to keep working this hard!
Thank you to the reader for reading all of this and mayhaps even playing my take on the game!

 

Here's a hyperlink to my Discord where you can report any issues, suggestions, or problems with the game and talk directly to me. We also have a channel with instructions on how to patch and what you will need (We do NOT distribute ROMS):

v v v v v v v

>>>>>>    My Discord    <<<<<<

 

^^^^^^^^

 

 

 

PLEASE DO NOT USE SAVE STATES, IF YOU USE SAVE STATES THOSE SAVES WILL NOT BE COMPATIBLE WITH ANY FUTURE RELEASES/PATCHES. SAVE WITH THE IN-GAME SYSTEM IF YOUR EMULATOR SUPPORTS IT. 
 

 

Downloads:
 

Version 1.17.1 (12/11/2021)
Explorers of Skies Patch (V1.17.1).xdelta
 
Changelogs contain ALL changes made, and documents the newest changes as well.

Version 1.17 Changelog

 

ChangelogV1.17.txt

 

 

There are multiple versions of Explorers of Sky, this Hack uses a specific one, you can read more below.

Instructions on how to patch

Patching Skies for Dummies.txt

(You can also get help through my Discord with the link above)

 

 

Known Issues:

Dungeons that reset the player to Level 1 don't restore when being defeated -- This can be fixed by using Chimecho's Assembly.
 

 

Screenshots/Pictures:

Spoiler

New Dungeons:

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Staro

[theSLAYER]

This information is for the sake of future posts/edits:
For the sake for other viewers (typically mobile viewers), please place large images in a spoiler. (I've done that for you this time.)
Also, you can directly upload patches to our site. No need to complicate things and use external links.
Cheers.
 

[Rochet D Ascap]

Love this, was looking something like this for a long time.

Are you gonna // did you change the abilities of pkemon in this rom? Like new abilities, hidden abilities and have new attacks?

[Staro]

12 hours ago, Rochet D Ascap said:

Love this, was looking something like this for a long time.

Are you gonna // did you change the abilities of pkemon in this rom? Like new abilities, hidden abilities and have new attacks?

Thank you!
Move/Ability creation and editing isn't a thing. The only abilities changed are partner/starter abilities and are documented in the changelog.

[Blob55]

I have an issue trying to patch. I'm using the ***

[theSLAYER]

30 minutes ago, Blob55 said:

I'm using the ***

Piracy. Piracy is frowned upon here. Check our rules before continuing to post.

[Blob55]

2 minutes ago, theSLAYER said:

Piracy. Piracy is frowned upon here. Check our rules before continuing to post.

Huh? But the topic creator mentioned it.

[theSLAYER]

4 minutes ago, Blob55 said:

Huh? But the topic creator mentioned it.

well, thanks for pointing it out. I shall remove the accursed line. Still. Piracy. No go. Previous mods missing the line, doesn't exempt you from mentioning it.

[Staro]

On 2/16/2021 at 11:23 PM, Wleohy said:

Hey, Staro, I was wondering if there was a more vanilla version of this mod with only Alolan Vulpix/Ninetales added.

Nope! I don't plan on making anything like this until I finish all the regional forms/Arceus fight.

[orlattae]

Hey, I just want to say thank you very much!!!
I have been trying to modify original ROM for years! Very depressing, have been failing all the time. Now, your mod is EXACTLY what I need! Damn, you even added fairy type!!! THIS!!! I am writing this in happy tears, no jokes, I am just so excited because playing this exact rom was my DREAM since I ever played the original one!!
i want to try to modify this ROM too, to add my pokesona - the only thing this mod doesn’t have. Can I try? Modded file will most likely not be shared with anyone, I just want to have my pokesona for myself, because it’s very important for me.
Can I support the project anyhow?
Thank you again!!

[Staro]

23 hours ago, orlattae said:

Hey, I just want to say thank you very much!!!
I have been trying to modify original ROM for years! Very depressing, have been failing all the time. Now, your mod is EXACTLY what I need! Damn, you even added fairy type!!! THIS!!! I am writing this in happy tears, no jokes, I am just so excited because playing this exact rom was my DREAM since I ever played the original one!!
i want to try to modify this ROM too, to add my pokesona - the only thing this mod doesn’t have. Can I try? Modded file will most likely not be shared with anyone, I just want to have my pokesona for myself, because it’s very important for me.
Can I support the project anyhow?
Thank you again!!

Sure, go crazy!

[orlattae]

Hello again, I wanted to ask one question; 
How did you manage to add fairy type? What values did you change to add it, and how? 
I tried to add new type too, and had a lot of problems in this part. Maybe your answer will help me with my future attempts to modify something!

[XModxGodX]

The latest beta build for sky temple has access to new patches like this you can access them by applying for the beta on their discord server. It goes without saying but it can be a bit unstable.

[Spectral Fox]

Hey, just wanted to tell you that I’ve been playing this hack and have been really enjoying it.  Might be my preferred way to play Sky atm.  Thanks for all your hard work!

 

I’d like to give a suggestion for a future update though.  I don’t know if it’s possible yet, as I am not a hacker, but I’d like it if all Pokémon were available to both genders (being able to play as a male Eevee/Skitty/Vulpix and a female Shinx/Riolu/Phanpy), and well as being able to select the gender for your partner (hate how many males there is compared to females).  I know it doesn’t affect much, but it was a nice QoL feature that DX introduced that I’d love to see in your game, and can really help with immersion.

 

Once again, thanks for all your hard work!

[Unowey14]

I know it might be hard, but I have a macbook and it sucks but I cannot patch this onto my mac since I cant use any of the programs to patch it and I really do want to play this so I was wondering if you could post a rom of this or send me a private message with the rom since i have no way to play this without it. If not I totally understand, Thanks!!

[HopeFragment]

I ADORE this hack and I'm having so much fun with it. I love PMD Sky so much and this makes it even better. I'm just about to begin the expedition and I'm psyched to not have to worry about my recruits falling behind in levels during this part. Do you mind if I make some suggestions for future things to add? These are just suggestions, I don't know how hard these would be to do but here's some I thought of while playing.

- Renaming recruits. I hate when I come up with a better nickname for a recruit later but there's no way to change it. Or if I have nothing in mind immediately for the name I can just put it on the backburner for later and continue playing the game. PMD DX lets you do this and it was great.

- Favorite recruits. I don't know if this is possible, but it would be cool if you could "star" certain recruits so they always show up on top of the assembly list.

- Move tutors. Especially an egg move tutor. I think it would be really cool if Pokemon had access to their egg moves. I know Pokemon hatched from eggs can have them, but that is the only way to get egg moves on Pokemon and you can't even choose the moves, or the Pokemon you're even getting for that matter. Mons recruited any other way never have a chance to get egg moves, especially starters. Which brings me to my next suggestion...

- Give all heroes/partners one egg move at the start. Modern PMD games do this, but in Sky, only the nonstandard hero/partners get them. This would immensely help out starter Pokemon that have lackluster movepools. In my game my hero is a Cyndaquil and I am hard pressed trying to give her varied move types, whereas her partner Munchlax had the egg move Zen Headbutt at the start. 

I think the tutors would be really cheap if there was immediate access to it so maybe there could be some item you give in exchange, like how Super Mystery Dungeon has gold bars. I don't know how hard that would be to implement but the simplest might be to add some kind of rare item to the game and they can be given in exchange for the leaning the move. Maybe Gold Ribbons? Then they would have a use.

[RedMageCole]

Watched TheZZAZZGlitch's video on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Laughed about how you could very rarely encounter a one-room Monster House in Mt. Steel, saying that'd be just about the worst luck. (Made black text as a spoiler alert for this amazing hack, don't highlight it if you haven't gotten past Drenched Bluff)

Same day, start getting the itch to play Explorers of Sky, but modded because that game really needs QoL.

Stumble across this hack, getting excited.

Get absolutely clobbered in Beach Cave.

"Well, at least it gets better once I've trained up!"

"Wait, what did Chatot say about Drenched Bluff?"

Spoiler

I'm almost at endgame and I absolutely love this hack. Don't think I can ever play PMD Sky vanilla anymore, especially not with Manual mode being a thing. Thanks so much! I agree with most of the ideas posted by HopeFragment, but I'd also like to suggest the idea of possibly giving each starter a set of two abilities instead of just one. My thoughts behind this is that it'd hopefully give some Starter Pokemon a much-needed edge (take Phanpy for example, stuck with Pickup until it evolves and even then Sturdy's not the most useful ability even if it were to be made into its Gen V+ version). Riolu and Lucario could also have a different set of abilities (since Inner Focus basically makes Steadfast useless). As a suggestion, maybe go off of their Hidden Abilities? I always wanted to have Chlorophyll as a Bulbasaur starter, please give Bulbasaur Chlorophyll, it's definitely not a broken overpowered ability I swear

[Chao_chap]

 I'm not one to post on these things often, in fear of seeming rude, but I just need to ask you to please re-implement the ability to change leaders like in rescue team, that would be fantastic. I know someone did it with a code for the eu version. Just an idea.

[Shemar4245]

@StaroDoes the Special Episode dungeons have improvements, like extra dungeons, increased difficulties, or possible boss battle, for example Dark wasteland had 4 floors, are there any extra floors or is it he same? Finally can you able to revisit special episode dungeon, like you can revisit the future dungeon from the story?

[RubyMassride]

Does anyone inform of Espurrs move set.

[Romhackplayer]

Hello i recently played through this hack and loved it. Still where do i find and fight palkia? I've recruited dialga and gotten all the 7 treasures. Also is magnagate supposed to just kick you out at level b15?

[Colleague_From_The_CIA]

I just made this account to thank you for the wonderful work you put out! Really had a blast playing around with all the additional content.

[StarlessSky]

Wow! This looks amazing and exactly how I’ve been wanting to play PMD for a while. The updates you’ve made look incredible!

I do have one question though! Are the hero Pokémon still gender-locked? One of the things that always soured my enjoyment of the original Explorers of Sky (and of PMD1) was that the Pokémon I wanted to play as were locked to being female. I actually would choose to play Time/Darkness over Sky when I was younger just so I could play as a male Skitty—even though I would much rather play Sky as Vulpix or Eevee. And especially since here you have Alolan Vulpix and Sylveon! I would love to be able to play this game as a male Alolan Vulpix!

If they are still gender-locked, would someone be able to point me in the direction of a way to possibly modify that just for myself? It would make this an absolute must-play experience for me!

 

 

[Miiyabox]

Hello Stalo. Currently playing it, it seems there's a softlock currently preventing me from continuing playing.

After reaching chapter 9 (Mystery of the fog lake), the checkpoint on the dungeon soft locks both me and my partner.
They get locked in the position as if they're asleep when a day is over/begins.
Making it impossible to move or do anything.
Currently playing as Pikachu & Espurr.
(Can Provide pictures later)

[Staro]

On 9/21/2021 at 7:32 AM, Miiyabox said:

Hello Stalo. Currently playing it, it seems there's a softlock currently preventing me from continuing playing.

After reaching chapter 9 (Mystery of the fog lake), the checkpoint on the dungeon soft locks both me and my partner.
They get locked in the position as if they're asleep when a day is over/begins.
Making it impossible to move or do anything.
Currently playing as Pikachu & Espurr.
(Can Provide pictures later)

Sorry about that, this bug is fixed in the beta version listed below 1.16.

 

On 9/8/2021 at 2:50 PM, StarlessSky said:

Wow! This looks amazing and exactly how I’ve been wanting to play PMD for a while. The updates you’ve made look incredible!

I do have one question though! Are the hero Pokémon still gender-locked? One of the things that always soured my enjoyment of the original Explorers of Sky (and of PMD1) was that the Pokémon I wanted to play as were locked to being female. I actually would choose to play Time/Darkness over Sky when I was younger just so I could play as a male Skitty—even though I would much rather play Sky as Vulpix or Eevee. And especially since here you have Alolan Vulpix and Sylveon! I would love to be able to play this game as a male Alolan Vulpix!

If they are still gender-locked, would someone be able to point me in the direction of a way to possibly modify that just for myself? It would make this an absolute must-play experience for me!

 

 

Thanks! No promises on the gender-locked starters/partners (because the game has limited slots for either genders) however it is something I also want and am looking into.

 

On 8/19/2021 at 1:38 PM, Colleague_From_The_CIA said:

I just made this account to thank you for the wonderful work you put out! Really had a blast playing around with all the additional content.

Thank you!

 

On 7/31/2021 at 2:02 AM, RubyMassride said:

Does anyone inform of Espurrs move set.

You can use SkyTemple to view changed/new movesets, way too many changes to document/track myself.