hack Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Explorers of Alpha (2.0 Patch Notes, still under heavy development)

[Alphadaemon]

I'll showcase here my first PMD Hack: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Alpha! This hack is named after the Alpha Pokemon Arceus, and you got it: the crux of this hack is the implementation of Arceus in the game as the final battle. Already present in the game, but unused and lacking both sprites and portraits, I first wanted to add Arceus to the game. But that's not the main goal of this hack.
I've spent a lot of time in my childhood playing Explorers of Sky, grinding mons up to stats cap by hand, figuring out the game mechanics etc... But I felt like the game could be optimized and made harder, with more QoL features and Pokemon reworks like you could see in Drayano hacks.

2.0 Patch Notes (STILL UNDER HEAVY DEVELOPMENT):

FYI: Explorers of Alpha has a Twitter where I post updates from time to time !
Follow @EoA_off on Twitter if you wish to see more updates on Alpha ! SkyTemple's Discord is the PMD Discord I'm active on, so don't hesitate to hang out here for informations about my work too !

I know it's been a while I haven't shown anything here about the new Explorers of Alpha version. Supposedly 1.3 before, the amount of implemented stuff convinced me in changing the naming for 2.0 (a kind of Explorers of Alpha: Platinum Version if you want).
No ETA, I'm having issues with my life but still slowly working on my new update !
However, because I know there are people thinking this project is dead, I will post patch notes about Explorers of Alpha 2.0 down below.
Without further ado, let's get started.
 

Spoiler

QoL:
- Save Files will carry over 1.2 to 2.0 ! Thanks Fafnir for letting me borrow his save file for that purpose !
  For that, you MUST save in Crossroads in 1.2, and save once again in 2.0 to apply everything you need to continue your journey on 2.0.
- you can now choose the starter you want as a player (credits go to Irdkwia for this patch)
- personality test is now skipped at the start
- added Post-Game Chapter Screens + Special Mission / Special Recruits Backgrounds
- updated Normal and Special Episodes icons
- finished TM compatibility
- evolved starters have sleeping animations (requested in DMs)
- you can freely swap between Alternate Form and Origin Form on Giratina. For that you need to Maximize Giratina's IQ and go in Luminous Spring
- a new NPC in Spinda Café available after you unlock Destiny Tower: Gliscor, trading the best items in the game for rarities... and something else sometimes
- Sharpedo Bluff's base warp lets you go to Crossroads or Beach, but you can chose to go to Sharpedo Bluff's outside still
- Level-Recruit boost now scales instead of being a constant between two level ranges. Level 1 has 0.1% recruit boost, Level 2 has 0.2% recruit boost, ..., and level 100 has 25.5% recruit boost. As a result, Kecleon is slightly easier to recruit !
- Golden Mask boosts recruitment rate up by 25%, World Treasures by 30%
- World Treasures denomination is now the correct denomination for Treasures: there's more than Seven Treasures ! As such, there's more treasure dungeons and new events with them !
- Amber Tear has been replaced by the Holy Lyre, granting a 100% recruitment boost
- Evolution is now unlocked earlier. You can choose to evolve your starter once after Sky Peak events from an optional one-time dungeon.
- an egg move tutor will be added to Chansey's menu (to be implemented but may not make the cut)

QoL additions:
After finishing Beach Cave and registering as a new Exploration Team, you will be given the possibility to choose your game options:
- you can select game challenges ! You can access trials for unlocking them after beating Final Maze.
  In New Game +, you can select one blue challenge and one red challenges together AT THE TIME ! Here are the challenges down below:
  Blue challenges: You can select them but not unlock them after finishing Final Maze.
    - Recruit 'em All: recruitment rate is boosted, you also are given the Holy Lyre, granting a 100% Recruit Boost when held
    - Ironman: your save file will be deleted when you lose in a dungeon
    - Solorun: self-explainatory... except you chose at the start of each dungeon if the one exploring is your leader or your partner.
  Red challenges: You can unlock them after finishing a trial post Final Maze
    - One-Item Challenge: you always have one-item bag. Some help is provided for you to deal with this challenge.
    - Glass Cannon: you deal tremendous damage but you are at 1 HP
    - Pacifist Challenge: you can't attack or use orbs but are able to endure any normal hit. You are given a specific bag with items everytime you enter a dungeon to win this challenge
    - Time Attack: you are poisoned when you enter a floor. As a result you have limited turns to finish a dungeon.
NOTE: Challenges are disabled after Story completion !
- you can select the difficulty you want when playing the game !
    Vanilla:
        More in line with the original game. If you want to experience Alpha without ever feeling the need to grind, this difficulty is for you.
        Most of the added difficulty such as Field Effects or dojo anti-abuse will also be disabled for you.
    Difficult:
        Slightly harder than your average Mystery Dungeon game, with additions specifically made for Explorers of Alpha available to you.
    Expert:
        All the difficulty from previous versions with Alpha 2.0 additions and rebalancing.",
        This used to be the original difficulty of the game and is still the default one in Alpha 2.0
    Hardcore:
        Expert but everything goes wrong. This game mode is designed to be a near impossible task.",
        Higher spawn rate, higher enemy density, higher trap density, forced scaling in both stats and moves, aggressive anti-cheat...
        At many points it will feel like an unfair or tedious challenge. This was the intent so prepare yourself to lose many many times!
- an internal dynamic randomizer has been implemented: you can now randomize Items, opposing Pokemon's species, abilities and moves in dungeons, Ground mode NPCs (to be implemented)
- a dynamic level scaling option is available. The nature of the scaling depends on your difficulty:
    Vanilla:
        Enemy levels are set to 4/5 your highest party level if they are supposed to be higher level, else they are at their base level times 4/5.
    Difficult:
        Enemy levels are always equal to your highest party level.
    Expert & Hardcore:
        Enemy levels scale based on your highest party level if your level is higher.
    Hardcore:
        Enemy stats scale based on your stats, if they are lower, they will match yours. Doesn't affect HP.
  NOTE: you can toggle this option On/Off anytime you want in Difficult and Expert difficulties. This option is always toggled On in Vanilla and Hardcore difficulties.
- a Speedrun mode has been added (this mode is incompatible with One-Item challenge). This mode gives you the opportunity to start all the basic supplies needed to run through the game, from Big Apples to Reviver Seeds, but also Escape Orbs to pass days, etc...
  The "speedrun bag" can be redeemed from a NPC in Crossroads anytime you want. NOTE: you cannot redeem this bag during Future events, Hidden Land, Sky Peak and Spacial Rift stretches.
  A quick speedrun toggle is available when selecting your game options.
  Speedrun mode is disabled after story completion. You are also offered a quick restart prompt after beating either Dialga or Darkrai.
- God Mode is also available when toggling Speedrun mode ONLY. This mode is a no post-game mode and cannot be disabled. That means your save file will always disappear after beating Darkrai.
  X-Ray Specs, Mobile Scarf, Goggle Specs, Tight Belt, Golden Apple and Quick Seed effects are indefinitely active on your team when this mode is on.
  You can unlock this mode after clearing Tower of Perfection.
- Sandbox Mode has been added. This mode lets you get any supply you want from a NPC in Crossroads or Porygon2 in Special Episodes.
  This mode is a minimal grinding mode, replacing Wonder Mail S.
  You can unlock this mode after clearing a Trial after finishing Main Story, all World Treasure dungeons and all trial dungeons.

R-trigger in Overworld has been repurposed to have a menu for options (but you can also select the "Talk with Partner" option).
This new menu has extra options:
- you can enable or disable recruitment (anytime, recruitment is still disabled in story dungeons)
- you can enable Exp. Share or not (default amount is 50%)
- you can forfeit challenges (if the challenge can be forfeited), or change challenges if you unlocked some of them
- you can enable/disable Level Scaling
- you can toggle On/Off Inverse Mode. In Inverse mode, type matchups are reversed. This mode is unlocked upon recruiting Palkia.
- you can change your difficulty:
    Before Darkrai, you can only lower your difficulty in case your difficulty is too high for you.
    All difficulties are unlocked after beating Darkrai in maingame.
    Vanilla and Difficult, however, can be switched independently.

Pokemon-related changes:
- implementation of Fairy-Type, Fairy Gummi and Fairy Type-Relationships (credits go to Irdkwia), Fairy-exclusive items
- addition of Fairy-Exclusive items and typings updated. Ninetales, Meganium, Bellossom, Illumise, Swablu, Altaria, Absol, Mismagius, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, and Cresselia are now half Fairy-Type Pokemon
- addition of Sylveon, being recruitable in Hidden Highland, Happy Outlook, and Starglow Cavern. Sylveon has an exclusive item being Sparkly Collar, which recovers HP when Sylveon is hit by Steel Type moves
- Alolan forms are now playable and have an actual sprite, have valid exclusive items and so on: Vulpix, Ninetales, Grimer, Muk, Geodude, Graveler, Golem, Marowak (credits go to NeroIntruder and Emmuffin for the sprites and Audino for the tool)
- Alolan-Vulpix is now an option as a starter
- removing Defender and Aggressor from S IQ Group
- adding Alpha IQ Group for Arceus
- Nidoking-line, Dewgong-line, Blissey-line, Pelipper-line, Plusle, Minun, Roserade-line, Wailord-line, Lunatone no longer have this infinite PP recovery exclusive-item thingy (credits go to Nightingale for pointing this out)
  This Exclusive item effect is on Mew's Life Ring only now.
- Changed Ice Sash, now halving damage taken from Special Hits, and Steel Sash, now having a chance to reflect status moves back to the user
- Regidrago and Regieleki have been added to the game, with their own Exclusive items: Volt Sash and Drake Sash, protecting them from Stat Reduction

Starter changes:
- as mentionned before, evolution is unlocked earlier
- Starter animations have been added for all starters as such
- in Vanilla difficulty, some starters and bosses have ability changes:
  Vulpix + Alolan-Vulpix: Cute Charm -> Drought/Snow Warning
  Treecko-line: Steadfast -> Unburden
  Torchic-line: Limber -> Speed Boost
NB: Primal-Dialga/Primal-Palkia: Clear Body/Unaware -> Pressure/Intimidate in Vanilla difficulty aswell
- in Expert/Insane difficulty, some starter evolutions have nerfed abilities before story completion:
  Ninetales + Alolan-Ninetales: Drought/Snow Warning -> Cute Charm
  Lucario: Adaptability -> Scrappy
NB: these changes are player-side ONLY
- middle stages have now dual typings and movepool according to their typing:
  Bayleef: Grass/Fairy
  Croconaw: Water/Dark
  Grotle: Grass/Ground
- Starters now evolve with specific items. Ascending Stone Mark I evolve Vulpixes, Riolu, Phanpy, Skitty and Pikachu, Mark II and Mark III evolve the 3 stages starters.
  When completing the optional dungeon after Sky Peak, you will obtain 2 Mark I stones and 2 Mark II stones to evolve.
  Afterwards, you must either make a wish in Starglow Cavern or clear Zero Isle Center to get Mark I, Mark II and Mark III stones (4 of each of them)

Moves changes:
- move fixes
FIXES: Growth, Morning Sun, Moonlight, Synthesis, Tail Glow
- following move fixes come new moves
NEW MOVES: Sludge Wave, Quiver Dance, Psystrike, Coil, Low Sweep, Scald, Shell Smash, Volt Switch, Bulldoze, Work Up, Drill Run, Dual Chop, Snarl, Hurricane, Mystical Fire, Origin Pulse, Precipice Blades, Dragon Ascent, High Horsepower, Breaking Swipe, Flip Turn, Dual Wingbeat, Scorching Sands, Hex, Triple Axel, Electro Ball, Psychic Fangs, Liquidation, Body Press, Mind Crush (being Psychic special counterpart of Body Press), Power-Up Punch, Petal Blizzard, Icicle Crash, Electroweb
- following Fairy-Type implementation come fairy moves. Move being Fairy-type since Gen VI are updated to be Fairy-Type:
FAIRY MOVES: Moonblast, Dazzling Gleam, Disarming Voice, Play Rough, Sparkly Wind (Silver Wind but Fairy-type), Moon Slash (physical High crit rate Fairy-move), Draining Kiss
Note: Dazzling Gleam is a TM aswell
About Sparkly Wind: The particles look a bit weird
- another new move has been implemented as a TM:
Lucky Draw is an universal TM which is a random stat boosting move (boosting either Attack, Defense, Special Attack and Special Defense by 1 stage), and has 1% chance of boosting all stats by 1 stage, speed included on top of that
- some usually useless moves were removed
Kinesis, Sharpen, Spider Web, Barrage, Vacuum-Cut are no longer in the game
- barring Lucky Draw, all these moves will be added to learnsets as either level-ups or egg moves
Arceus has access to a new move being Trinity Star, you'll see its effect ingame
- regular attack has now sure-hit accuracy. As a result Sure-Hit Attacker IQ Skill will be replaced
- new items: S-Vitamins, maximizing a pokemon stat (HP-Drink and Ginseng S exist aswell)
- Y-Ray Specs, Hunger Seeds and Vanish Seeds are now banned from boss fights in Expert and Hardcore difficulties because of the unfair advantage they give to the player
- changed Exclusive Items: Stern Sash, Afire Collar, Barrier Bow, Friend Torc, Fairy Bow

Dungeon changes:
- Spawnrate changes depending on the difficulty
- other new items include Heavenly Apple, replacing Mime Jr in Bazaar. This item is purely dungeon exclusive and will be removed after you leave a dungeon
- replaced some orb effects
- after reviving Luminous Spring, you will be given a passive x2 Experience Boost
- added an optional event after completing Sky Peak, this event is related to evolution
- added a fourth section in Aegis Cave, a zone for Regidrago and Regieleki. Just like the other Aegis Cave sections, there's no puzzles in it
- added a dungeon prior to Spacial Rift: Chaotic Wilds. This dungeon is like Hidden Land, it's a test before Spatial Rift, with a boss in first visit
- special areas like Spatial Rift and Hidden Land have a permanent dungeon field effect at first visit:
  Hidden Land (only) has x8 Exp boost in floors 1-8 and x3 Exp boost in floors 9-15, and your stats are at +1 in every difficulty except Hardcore (in Hidden Land, Highland, Temporal Tower, Spire)
  Spatial Rift and Chaotic Wilds are Inverse mode dungeons.
- Dark Crater tilesets have been changed to be even more "Volcanic"
- Training Grounds' farming floor has been changed and can be repeated indefinitely if you want
  A x4 Exp Boost is applied to the farming floor if you have finished the Destiny Tower quest (currently applied everytime)
- Worldcore has been removed. The boss rush is now located in Tower of Perfection.
  Mythical Field has been added, it's a dungeon where you can get Dragon and Fairy-type exclusive items
  Type-exclusive items are present twice in dungeons they're in. That means exploring them once will let you Swap a 3* Type-Exclusive item for Torkoal's quest
- Zero Isle North proposes a new restriction: you're given a survival bag, and your goal is to finish the dungeon with it. At the end of the dungeon, you will keep the said bag.
- an emergency bag is available in Hidden Land dungeons and Spacial Rift/Dark Crater if you are defeated
- a new dungeon is available one time everytime you need to rescue yourself in Pelipper Island: Island of Salvation, where you can farm Exp, Reviver Seeds, etc.
  A x2 Exp Boost is applied in Island of Salvation.
- Final Maze has been made easier and nerfed in Stat boosting items, buffed in TM/HMs rarity. It's now a mini "Destiny Tower" with 48 floors.
- Trial dungeons have been added to unlock challenges.
- Trial of Mastery, on the other hand, is a daily stat-boosting dungeon (before beating Destiny Tower).
  Upon entering a floor, you will be given permanent stat gains, the same way you are given IQ points when holding IQ Booster.
- new treasure dungeons let you recruit some legendaries easier than before. They also offer new encounter tables and new gimmicks
- added a Darkrai rematch in Dark Crater, giving Primal Dialga's, Primal Palkia's and Antagonist Darkrai's exclusive items as a reward
- added a reward for Special Episode 4 completion: Lopunny, Gardevoir and Medicham exclusive items. The first time you clear Special Episode 4, you will recruit Team Charm.
- added a reward for Special Episode 5 completion: Partner Grovyle, Antagonist Dusknoir and Shiny Celebi exclusive items. The first time you clear Special Episode 5, you will recruit Future Trio.
- a manual mode indicator has been added, HP bar has been revamped to show the HP ratio instead of the first 112 HPs (credits to Irdkwia and End for helping me out on implementing this)
- plenty of AI fixes upon move usage, Gap Prober fix with walls (to be implemented)
- Scizor will now play its part when it comes to Treasure Dungeons post-Darkrai (to be implemented)
- story dungeons will have GtI (puzzle) rooms in the middle of them (to be implemented)
- Mysteriosity system from GtI will be in the game (to be implemented)
- a new Ginseng system will be implemented (to be implemented but may not make the cut)
- Tower of Perfection is the ultimate dungeon. It's unlocked after beating Destiny Tower.

Ability Changes:
Sturdy: prevents attacks from killing in one-hit if the pokemon is at full HP (Gen V+ behavior)
Illuminate: gains an evasion boost when entering a floor (player-side only)
Stall: reduces damage taken by 20% but prevents you from using ranged moves if you're not leader
Gluttony: default Belly size is 120
Truant: reduces damage taken by 20% but inflicts you Paused status after every Attack/Orb
Klutz: Deals 25% more damage if holding an item but disables its effect
Slow Start: Slowed down status lasts earlier
Normalize: Applies a 20% damage increase like in main series
Anticipation: deals 25% more damages if the target has a Super Effective move against you
Frisk: deals 25% more damages if the target has an item
Speed Boost: Takes 100 turns to get a speed boost instead of 250
Swift Swim: damage reduction under Rain (75%)
Chlorophyll: damage reduction under Sun (75%)
Unburden: damage reduction if you hold no Item (75%)
Shed Skin: reduced chance of shooking off status (50% -> 30%)
Solar Power, Weathers: increased damages (3 HP -> 5 HP)
Huge Power: increased chance of getting a Physical Attack boosted (33% -> 60%)

Removed duplicate abilities and renamed the new ones:
Huge Power/Pure Power -> Huge Power
Filter/Solid Rock -> Solid Guard
Shell Armor/Battle Armor -> Battle Armor
White Smoke/Clear Body -> Healthy Body

New abilities:
Royal Majesty: Halves damage at full health (Lapras Male, Dragonite, Meganium, Lugia, Wailord Female, Vespiquen)
Adaptate: Normal-type moves become your second type and deal 20% more damage (still in development)
Strong Jaws: Biting moves deal 20% more damages (Ice/Thunder/Fire/Poison Fang, Crunch, Bite, Hyper Fang, Psychic Fang) (Aerodactyl, Feraligatr, Snubull-line Female, Mightyena, Manectric Male, Sharpedo, Shinx-line Female)
Blade Mastery: Blade moves deal 20% more damages (Psycho Cut, Cut, Slash, Leaf Blade, Night Slash, False Swipe, X–Scissor, Fury Cutter, Moon Slash, Wide Slash) (Farfetch'd, Scizor Female, Sceptile, Absol, Gallade)
Multitype: Powers-up the moves you use by 20%. Changes your typing according to the type of the move you're using. Grants Stat reduction and critical-hit immunity, plus super-effective damage reduction.

Boss Field effects:

Bosses have more gimmicks !

IMPORTANT TO NOTE:
You can no longer PP Stall bosses (except in Vanilla). That has been made so you cannot abuse Spite forcing them to struggle.
Field effects are disabled in Vanilla.
There's (currently) no indicator for the active field except in the message log

- Muks: Your team is badly poisoned during the whole fight
- Gyarados: Abilities are disabled.
- Kabutops + Omastars: They now have a Focus Energy status, allowing them to score more critical hits
- Articuno: Aurora Veil protects Articuno. As a result, damage taken by Articuno are halved.
- Zapdos: Zapdos is always under Charge status. Abilities are disabled.
- Moltres: Moltres is now Berserk. As a result, damage dealt by Moltres are doubled. Ignores Flash Fire and Thick Fat.
- Mew: You have to fight with Cross-Eyed status condition
- Raikou + Entei + Suicune: Aura Boost grants +1 All-Stats.
- Lugia: Riptide covers battlefield, granting Lugia a 60 HP recovery per turn.
- Ho-Oh: Rainbow Sun covers battlefield, granting Ho-Oh a 60 HP recovery per turn.
- Celebi: You have to fight with Cross-Eyed status condition
- Regirock: Regirock's Aura Boost grants it +2 Defense.
- Regice: Regice's Aura Boost grants it +2 Special Defense.
- Registeel: Registeel's Aura Boost grants it +1 Defense and Special Defense.
- Regidrago + Regieleki: Their Aura Boost grant +1 Attack and Sp. Attack
- Lati@s: Damage dealt by Special Attacks from Lati@s are doubled, and damage taken by Special Attacks are halved.
- Kyogre: Kyogre's Aura Boost grants it +1 Sp. Attack, Sp. Defense and Movement Speed. Its attacks are boosted at +3. Abilities are disabled.
- Groudon: Groudon's Aura Boost grants it +1 Attack, Defense and Movement Speed. Its attacks are boosted at +3. Abilities are disabled.
- Rayquaza: Rayquaza's Aura Boost grants it +1 Attack, Sp. Attack and Movement Speed. Its attacks are boosted at +3. Abilities are disabled.
- Jirachi: Periodic Orbit covers battlefield, increasing its offensive stats by one stage and allowing Jirachi to move twice per turn.
- Deoxys-Normal: Normal form's Aura Boost grants +1 All-Stats (barring Speed) (still in development)
- Deoxys-Attack: Attack form's Aura Boost grants +2 Attack and Sp. Attack but -1 Defense and Sp. Defense (still in development)
- Deoxys-Defense: Defense form's Aura Boost grants +2 Defense and Sp. Defense but -1 Attack and Sp. Attack (still in development)
- Deoxys-Speed: Speed form's Aura Boost grants 4x speed (still in development)
- Luxray + Manectric: Abilities are disabled.
- Porygon-Z: Porygon-Z's Download is replaced by Normalize. The battle is Inverse Mode.
- Dusknoir + Sableyes: Dusknoir and Sableyes have Mini-Counter status, allowing them to reflect 1/4 the damage they receive
- Froslass: Froslass' Aura Boost grants it +2 Evasion
- Uxie + Illusory Groudon: Immune to Stat Drops
- Mesprit: Immune to Stat Drops
- Azelf + Grovyle: Immune to Stat Drops
- Dialga: Dialga's Aura Boost protects him from Status and boosts Movement Speed by 1. Dialga cannot miss moves.
- Palkia: Palkia's Aura Boost protects him from Status and boosts Movement Speed by 1. Palkia cannot miss moves.
- Heatran: Heatran's Aura is afflicts a Burn to everyone on the field
- Regigigas: Regigigas' Aura Boost grants everyone +1 All-Stats. Regigigas isn't affected by Slow Start.
- Giratina: Giratina's Aura afflicts Curse
- Cresselia: Clear Moon covers battlefield, which inflicts 10% your max HP each turn if you aren't part Normal, Psychic or Fairy-type (still in development)
- Darkrai: Blood Moon covers battlefield, which inflicts 10% your max HP each turn if you aren't part Ghost, Poison or Dark-type (still in development)
- Shaymin: Shaymin's Aura Boost grants it +1 Movement Speed
- Arceus: Arceus' Aura Boost Grants it +2 All Stats and +1 movement speed.

I'm not mentioning bug fixes for now, it's not needed and the patch notes are already full of things to read lol
I may have forgotten some stuff because the next update is full of things I've implemented in Alpha...
But I hope you are hyped for the next update. Just remember there's no ETA, but it should be out by June (I think)

1.2 Patch Notes:

Spoiler

- Fixed IQ Group B not having Gap Prober for some reason
- Fixed a crash during Regice, Regirock, Registeel and Regigigas boss fights, as well as fixed Regigigas Chamber scripts sometimes throwing once again Team Charm's script even before a rematch
- Fixed legendary recruitment rate, especially for randomizer's sake
- Fixed Shiny legendary recruitment rate so you have theoretically 1% chance to recruit a shiny legendary at level 100
- Fixed Purple Kecleon recruitment rate
- Fixed Lapras cutscene graphical bug during scenario
- Fixed Destiny Tower unlock script
- Fixed Worldcore fixed rooms
- Fully fixed mission generation for World Abyss and Mt. Avalanche
- Enhanced some bosses movesets
- Enhanced some starter and niche pokemon movesets
- Player is now forced to use main leader and partner during post-game scenario dungeons
- Nerfed Agility, Tailwind, Rock Polish and Dragon Dance, now having way less PPs than before
- Nerfed Legendaries, no longer being an easy pick for Level reset dungeons, especially Zero Isle South
- Vanish Seed is now banned from Boss Fights, mainly because of being an unfair mechanic to use for boss fights
- Added a permanent shop accessible from Porygon2 at Spacial Rift Entrance, Hidden Land Entrance, and Shaymin Village
- Added new TMs, along with their compatibility
- Added a shiny system for gender-exclusive pokemon
- Growlithe and Magikarp evolution line, Glalie, Huntail are now male-only
- Ponyta and Feebas evolution line, Gardevoir, Gorebyss are now female-only
- Added Warp Seed to the list of farmable items in Beach Cave
- Revamped the UI
- Completely reworked Special Episodes 4 and 5, as well as some scenario cutscenes
- Exp. Share from Gates of Infinity is now in the game (credits go to Irdkwia)
- Complete Team Control patch is now in the game (credits go to Cipnit)
- Spawn rate has been changed from 6 to 5
- Text Speed is 4 times faster, in-dungeon camera transitions are now 3 times faster
- Allies can now step and activate unrevealed traps
- Fixed a couple of text strings
- Burn damage now occur every 10 turns
- All speed relative effects (both raises and drops) linger earlier
- Hotfix: fixed Dusk Forest Porygon2 sometimes crashing the game in Special Episode 5
- Hotflix: fixed Shaymin Village Porygon2 Shop

1.1 Patch Notes:
 

Spoiler

- Fixed post-Darkrai's script unlocking dungeons the wrong way
- Fixed Training Grounds and Worldcore being closed because of the way this script is built
- Edited Tower of Demise last floors (small fix, not a big issue)
- Fixed Arceus quest not setting some dungeons as OPEN_AND_REQUEST: Arceus quest can now be fullfilled!
- Gem Items are banned during story missions. If you try to bring them in dungeon anyway, they'll be removed from your inventory
- Fixed Mission Ranking: every dungeon including new ones now have the correct mission ranking, mission reward, and all this stuff. Also includes mission unlock fixes. (huge thanks to Irdkwia)
- You can no longer recruit Heatran and Phione before unlocking Marine Resort
Because of this fix, here are the main fixes that come to play:
- Mewtwo, Jirachi, and Suicune Challenge Letter behave the way I intended
- Mission Board unlocks and Spinda Juice Bar should unlock dungeons when I want them to be unlocked

1.0.1 and 1.0.2 Patch Notes:
 

Spoiler

- Fixed the bag shrinking after scenario events. As a result, new rewards were added during these events (mostly money).
- Fixed some dungeon issues: Dungeons supposed to be available later in the game are now prevented to be entered before it's intended. It's fixed in a way, but because of mission generation not being changed, a message mail will pop in case you're supposed to unlock the dungeon introducing about the issue
- Prevented Spinda Juice Bar from unlocking some dungeons before it's intended by me. A mail will tell you when you were supposed to unlock a dungeon
- Fixed Spinda Juice Bar softlocking the game in some circumstances
- Added a daily limit for Mazes before you beat Dialga, a daily limit for Final Maze before you beat Darkrai
- Fixed Ice/Ground Maze only having money on ground
- Mazes offer more gummies as you go deep in it. As a result, Mazes are made way harder, but offer more exp too
- Reworked Oran Forest (now named Nectar Forest): you can farm IQ in this dungeon daily, along with Dojo IQ farm
- Added a check so you can't cheat in order to unlock Destiny Tower early
- Fixed Spawn Rate being set to 3 instead of 6
- Changed Beach Cave so you can farm useful stuff in it easier
- Reworked Mt. Bristle layouts
- Fixed Chatot text strings in Foggy Forest Base Camp telling you about Kangaskhan Rock instead of Porygon 2
- Rebalanced Brine Cave Pit boss fight
- Fixed a bug where you can recruit in Hidden Land dungeons before post-Dialga
- Revamped Zapdos postgame fight
- Reworked Crevice Cave Statue now having options it's intended to have
- Nerfed Boss Recruits levels
- Intimidator IQ Skill is now 24% proc instead of 32%
- Fixed Future Sight and Doom Desire move descriptions being swapped, as well as Air Slash not being referenced as a Line of Sight move
- Fixed post-Dialga cutscene looping indefinitely
- Fixed starter movesets now being more diverse, and some starter bugs such as Shinx having Quick Attack twice
- Fixed Zero Isle North still having Key Rooms for Silk
- Nerfed Manaphy (now having Rain Dish instead of Swift Swim), and Support (no longer benefits from constant double speed Status)
- Changed titlescreen music
- Fixed Shadow Punch having incorrect Base Power and Thunder having a different reach than expected
- Reworked a couple of moves so they work as intended
- Reworked endgame dungeons
- Added a countermeasure to infinite Dojo farming when you have a story mission going on
- Fixed an issue where Aegis Cave loops indefinitely when the dungeon mode is not OPEN_AND_REQUEST

Here are the features this game has so far

Global dungeon related features:
- you can now change leader after graduation in a large majority of dungeons
- an increased spawn rate: in base games, an enemy spawns every 36 turns and a Kecleon spawns every 3 turns. Now an enemy spawns every 5 turns and a Kecleon spawns every turn.
- as a result you will have to face more enemies and use more moves: moves PP and move Accuracy have been increased for a large majority of them, some other deserved nerfs like Imprison or Teleport being great all around moves.
- along with Accuracy and PP fixes come what I'd call "AI Fixes" of Blizzard, Powder Snow and Ice Shard, not being handled correctly by the AI
- moves are updated so they behave like in Rescue Team DX or Super Mystery Dungeon in terms of range (Light Screen benefits to the whole team, Air Slash is a line of sight move)
- Gen 6+ Steel-Type
- recruitment rate is higher in dungeons
- post-credits Kecleon shops now feature all evolutionary items, including Sun Ribbon and Sun Stone
- Shiny System: now some gender-exclusive pokemon have a shiny form, working in a similar way as Strong Foes in RTDX during early main dungeons. Way stronger than normal, they have a low spawn rate and a very low recruitment rate, which as a result gives you 1/4000 chance to recruit a shiny without any recruitment boost applied

Pokemon related features:
- Pokemon having an hidden ability already present in Gen 4 now have this ability in some way. This include Drought Ninetales for instance, but doesn't include Unburden Sceptile for Balancing reasons
- gender dependant abilities
- Pokemon having a mega now have their mega typing (Normal/Fighting Lopunny or Grass/Dragon Sceptile). Other pokemons deserving a better typing are changed aswell, following some of Drayano hacks changes (Electric/Dark Luxray for instance)
- a large majority of Pokemons now have a moveset according to their Gen 8 movesets. It includes (but isn't limited to) Close Combat Lopunny, Brave Bird Ho-oh or Earth Power Venusaur. Other Pokemon having their types changed now learn stab moves more frequently (like Dragon Pulse Charizard as Level-up) or even learn new moves (like Bug Buzz Flygon)
- new TMs: Icy Wind, Fire Punch, ThunderPunch, Ice Punch, AncientPower, Aqua Tail, Earth Power, Gunk Shot, Heat Wave, Iron Head (1.2.1), Outrage, Seed Bomb (1.2.1), Signal Beam (1.2.1), Superpower (1.2.1), Zen Headbutt (1.2.1), Super Fang, Helping Hand, Hyper Voice, Low Kick, Megahorn, Close Combat, Aura Sphere, and Power Whip. Note that only a few are available in 1.2.0, but all will be available in 1.2.1 with a new NPC
- egg moves are now part of level up moves
- pokemon have a better stats curve/better base stats, so they are easier to grind for endgame dungeons (still need to implement stats curve for a large majority of final evolutions tho). That means as the game goes, pokemon are better all-around.
- experience buffs to some final evolved mons, to stick with the global level curve of the hack
- legendary Pokemon now have a shiny form with other abilities and better stats

QoL features:
- you start the game with a 48-Sized bag and 1000 slots in Storage
- your starting bag has a plethora of useful items
- GtI experience share, giving Standby Pokemon 50% the exp gain you get in dungeon (credits go to Irdkwia)
- Move Shortcuts, Disable Tips and Same Type Partner patches are included in this hack
- Beach Cave now allows the player to farm useful supplies quickly and easily, in order to prepare yourself for Scenario dungeons
- IQ gains are increased: Wonder Gummi gives +50 IQ, same type Gummies give +25, favored type Gummies give +16, neutral type Gummies give +9, unfavored type gummies give +4, Nectar gives +25
- Dojo Dungeons have a high replay ability, permiting an easier gummi farm for Type-Exclusive Mazes, and an easier vitamins farm for Final Maze
- though Mazes are restricted to one visit per day before you beat the game. The purpose of this change is mainly because of Gummies being present in here, virtually allowing a quick and infinite Stat boosts farm
- Juice Bar animation has been cut
- an Experience farming dungeon is unlocked after beating the full game (not Dialga mind you). You can grind your team here, as well as farming gummies and Reviver Seeds in the second floor
- you have an higher chance to have a Big Win in Spinda Café
- Sentry Duty rewards are more generous
- Kangaskhan Rocks are replaced by Porygon2 in dungeons, having more options for the player
- IQ Groups have been reworked: Lava Evader and Course Checker are replaced by Multitalent and Gap Prober for every IQ group. IQ Groups already having these skills now have other skills, PP Saver or Erratic Player for example
- a new IQ Group: Group S. This group has an unique combination of IQ Skills and is exclusive to shiny legendaries and some other specific species
- Mission ranking now follows the real difficulty of the game. Mission rewards are now more relevant for harder missions.
- Kecleon Supply shop now offers better items at the end of the game
- Surrounded Sea have 2 Blue Gummies in first visit (yes, it's a QoL feature lol)
- you can now recruit Shiny Celebi and Purple Kecleon

Gameplay related features:
In order to offer a better experience to the player, this game proposes hard-but-fair challenges:
- Complete Team Control Patch from Cipnit, you can now control the whole team, permiting new strategies and combinations. You can toggle on and off full team control by pressing Start at the beginning of a turn
- allies can now trigger traps
- dungeon have new gimmicks (weather oriented dungeons, debuffing enemies, PP consuming dungeons, etc...)
- in these dungeons, some floors have Reviver Seeds guaranteed to spawn (Quicksand Pit B10F for instance)
- dungeon partners are more reliable (Cresselia is no longer a burden lol)
- some dungeons now have a completely revamped spawn table according to a specific "property" of the species in it (typing, IQ Group, abilities, starter exclusive dungeon, sudo exclusive dungeon, etc...)
- dungeons now have increased IQ enemies (expect 330 IQ enemies after Chasm Cave)
- Burn damage now occurs every 10 turns
- Intimidator IQ Skill now activates 24% of the time instead of 32% of the time
- you can no longer stall bosses: you have a low number of turns required to beat a boss (50 Turns for Spiritomb, 30 for Dialga)
- bosses are made harder and also have new gimmicks
- Aegis Cave puzzle has been removed
- new quests and endgame challenges
- speed related effects last earlier, it does include Slow Start
- level curve adapted to the fact you gain more exp. Expect yourself to be level 100 by the end of the story!
- an anti-cheat was added: you can no longer use Type-Exclusive gems in story dungeons. If you try to bring them to a dungeon, they'll be removed from your inventory before post-Dialga, and removed from your bag during story missions
- along with that, you can no longer enter Wonder Mail S from the main menu. If you try to generate basic missions for first floors in order to have free Exploration Points, it'll not work anymore. You can't generate missions targeting the first floor of a dungeon too.
- some dungeons have more floors, it includes Seven Treasures dungeons, Surrounded/Miracle Sea, and Spacial Rift Depths
- Zero Isle has been made harder (North doesn't allow rescues and items when entering it, South scales up to level 45, Center expects you to beat it in one blow with IQ Skills disabled)
- Destiny Tower is now SPMD one, allows recruiting and has unique species in it

Screenshots:

Title screens were changed so they use HGSS' Mystri Stage cutscene images

Spoiler

UI has been revamped: it's now constant dark mode

Spoiler

This hack features Item Icons like in SPMD (patch made by me)

Spoiler

Here's a screen showing other QoL features

Spoiler

More diverse recruitment tables, along with recruitment enabled in a large majority of dungeons, and even new species recruitable!

Spoiler

New dungeons, and even more boss battles/gimmicks

Spoiler

Speaking of bosses, here are screenshots of harder boss fights

Spoiler

In order to make the game harder, some bosses were changed

Spoiler

New events showcase, including new boss fights

Spoiler

Bosses are now indefinitely repeatable, and now give better rewards

Spoiler

New exclusive items for new Pokemon, along with Arceus exclusive items

Spoiler

New TMs, with flavor text. Here are 4 examples
 

Spoiler

Shiny System and more!
 

Spoiler

As of 1.2.0, here are the main "issues" you can expect:
- Arceus still has the dummy sprite
- Rotom-Forms have Rotom sprite, though portraits, stats, movesets and typings are implemented
- You can't enter Spacial Rift from Crossroads with more than 24 items
- Some TMs may have incorrect compatibilities/some compatibilities missing, don't hesitate to DM me on Discord so I can correct these moveset errors on further releases
- 1.0 and 1.1 Saves may have some pokemon reverted to Shiny in 1.2
- I haven't uploaded any documentation yet

Here's the to do list:
- adding Arceus and Rotom forms sprites (since I'm not a spriter, it doesn't depend of me)
- for 1.3: finish new TMs compatibility, add the reward intended for Special Episode 5 completion, improve the Dojo anti-abuse check, custom move effects, custom moves such as Shell Smash, and move fixes like Gen 5+ Tail Glow
- documentation

Special thanks:
The most important part of this post for me! Because this project wouldn't have made this far without them!
- Parakoopa: he's SkyTemple developer and always here to help when it's necessary for me. The community around SkyTemple is so kind and so cheerful that I couldn't thank him enough for that. Here's the link of SkyTemple Discord.
- PsyCommando: one of the very first to research and investigate PMD Sky in this post. His tool gfxcrunch helped me with sprite editing in the early days.
- UsernameFodder: the author of this Google Doc where you can find a useful list of IDs by index for quite everything, from Item IDs to Dungeon IDs. A great help when scripting!
- Audino: he programmed SpriteBot featuring a more than never easy way to import sprites in a PMD Sky Rom
- gromcrunch for Tilesets
- Fable_Amare for Arceus portrait and Rotom Forms portrait. Make sure to check their work!
- Lumi for Grovyle's asset

Lasts but no least:
- Cipnit/Jirt: The one who made this Complete Team Control Hack
- techticks: worked on an ASM Editor which works similar to softs like algobox. It still lacks a lot of structures, but for now the UI itself is huge to build at least 80% of Gen V+ move effects along with eos-move-effects project examples
- Irdkwia: he helped the community a real lot recently with his research. Fixed Room, Mission Ranking, Treasure Town Shops and a plethora of sprite assets are editable thanks to him. GtI experience system and future custom move effects ASM hack are by him.
- End45: this man is cracked. Without him, half of this hack features wouldn't be possible. I'll list all the help he provided to me: IQ Gain table editing, Type Table editing, IQ Groups editing, Doom Desire move effect, exclusive items editing, control patches, and even more! Always knowledgeable, and always reseaching a ton of stuff, helping others to succeed in their own research, I think we can't thank him enough for all the stuff he's doing for the community

The xdelta patch is found here (last update: 2/22/2021): PMD Explorers of Alpha 12.xdelta. You need to patch an US Explorers of Sky Rom in order to make it work.
This hack is expected to be played on an emulator so I'm clueless about playing it on real hardware (it seems to work on real hardware from what I've heard).
Don't hesitate to join SkyTemple Discord if you want to ask me for help or report any bug (Discord Tag: Solace?#7229 or Mond#3823), however even with my Discord tag, I highly recommand you to join SkyTemple Discord since I'm mostly active here

Edited May 4, 2022 by Alphadaemon
Show 2.0 Patch Notes

[Ryoung42]

Hey I Can Help You With The Sprites And The Portraits Since Im A Spriter

[Cygnus_Harvey]

Hey, this seems legit amazing. I know documentation is not ready yet, but could you tell me some of the starters's changes? I'd like to know what I can get before choosing anyone!

[H4Hyena]

I have no idea how to patch the game but it looks really cool so I hope i can get some help

[shrimpy]

is it possible to make pokemon evolve like in the regular games? always found it odd how a shinx can beat dialga or whatever.

[Wark]

Hi!

If I can make a little criticism, i think that the increased spawnrate is a little bit frustrating, it dramatically slows down the gameplay and makes the experience less enjoyable.

It is really a shame considering the amount of amazing stuff you added to the game! 

Anyway, i also wanted to ask if there's actually the possibility to obtain a shiny starter and/or partner. Thx in advance!

[Alphadaemon]

6 hours ago, Wark said:

Hi!

If I can make a little criticism, i think that the increased spawnrate is a little bit frustrating, it dramatically slows down the gameplay and makes the experience less enjoyable.

It is really a shame considering the amount of amazing stuff you added to the game! 

Anyway, i also wanted to ask if there's actually the possibility to obtain a shiny starter and/or partner. Thx in advance!

I've been told about spawnrate being frustrating in the second and third dungeon, at the start of the game, haven't heard anyone complaining about spawnrate being an issue afterwards (maybe in Mt. Horn it's an issue but I've heard no complain about Mt. Horn so...). That's one of the main goals of the hack and you have to get used to it. Other "hardmodes" still spawn a pokemon each 36 steps which makes the hack ridiculously easy.
I wanted this hack to be a real hardmode and chose the difficulty over the potential "slow gameplay" you're mentioning.
Gameplay isn't "slow" as you're stating here later in the game so I assume you've just started playing, but I admit it's slower and sometimes frustrating early in the game because of layouts being basic and restricted in their generation
As I stated in the post, Shiny are only for Gender Exclusive pokemon like Gallade or Vespiquen and a few exceptions, and I don't think you will ever get a shiny of your starter in Explorers of Alpha...

On 2/11/2021 at 1:54 PM, shrimpy said:

is it possible to make pokemon evolve like in the regular games? always found it odd how a shinx can beat dialga or whatever.

Sadly not yet, maybe one day we'll have a way to evolve pokemon during the scenario (after Luminous Spring revives for instance), but for now it's not possible

On 2/2/2021 at 4:30 PM, Ryoung42 said:

Hey I Can Help You With The Sprites And The Portraits Since Im A Spriter

If you want to help, you should join SkyTemple Discord and submit the sprite you made under spritebot section here. That's the best way you could help me here

[Ryoung42]

Can I Randomized This Game

[20alever]

Hello! I have ran into an issue while playing through this hack. The hack is wonderful, and I really do enjoy playing through it. When I beat Dialga, I ran into an infinite loop with the cutscene after you beat him. There is no way for me to get around it. It really is a shame, as it took me so long to reach him. Has the issue already been fixed?

 

[Alphadaemon]

7 hours ago, 20alever said:

Hello! I have ran into an issue while playing through this hack. The hack is wonderful, and I really do enjoy playing through it. When I beat Dialga, I ran into an infinite loop with the cutscene after you beat him. There is no way for me to get around it. It really is a shame, as it took me so long to reach him. Has the issue already been fixed?

Issue already fixed since 1.0.1. It's written in changelogs above. Friendly reminder for future posts:

- updating your game will solve your issue 99% of the time since I fixed a ton of bugs between versions, and I'll fix a ton of bugs again if needed

- look for bug fixes to see if your issue is referenced in

- some bugs occur when you downgrade your game and port a save from current version to previous ones. Check if these bugs are present in the last version of the game before reporting it

 

That being said, I'm happy to tell you you can beat Dialga once again in an updated version and resume your journey !

[Corvo]

Where is the latest version so that I can patch it.
Sorry still kind of new to all of this

 

[Alphadaemon]

On 3/1/2021 at 2:45 AM, Corvo said:

Where is the latest version so that I can patch it.
Sorry still kind of new to all of this

 

At the very end of the post, there's a xdelta. It's the patch you need, and you need to apply it on a NDS Explorers of Sky Rom

[Cupshadow]

Thanks for making this hack. Although i am having a problem with certain dungeons. I am having a good time with it.

[Burningocean2012]

Amazing!I was hoping something like this would get created when SkyTemple had that sweet update.

[Corvo]

Is there a discord for this hack development?

 

 

[JasonTheHero]

On 2/24/2021 at 8:51 AM, Wark said:

Hi!

If I can make a little criticism, i think that the increased spawnrate is a little bit frustrating, it dramatically slows down the gameplay and makes the experience less enjoyable.

It is really a shame considering the amount of amazing stuff you added to the game! 

Anyway, i also wanted to ask if there's actually the possibility to obtain a shiny starter and/or partner. Thx in advance!

This is my same complaint. I really want to play the game out, but I'm at waterfall cave and if I go the wrong way, I end up stuck in a mob of pokemon. Its not hard, its boring. It took me 10 minutes with the game on 1.5x just to get to level 5. I really think the spawnrate needs to be 75% or 50% of what it is now.

 

Other than that, this looks and plays really well. I can't wait to see the end game

[AtlasCrushed]

Loving the hack so far. Just a quick note, I think I may have found a bug involving moves like flamethrower and sludge bomb that fire in a line. Whenever my partner sees an enemy in front, he'll use it, even if I'm between him and the enemy so I get blasted. Just wondering if you know about it.

Edited May 7, 2021 by AtlasCrushed

[Dimedime]

On 5/6/2021 at 11:35 PM, AtlasCrushed said:

Loving the hack so far. Just a quick note, I think I may have found a bug involving moves like flamethrower and sludge bomb that fire in a line. Whenever my partner sees an enemy in front, he'll use it, even if I'm between him and the enemy so I get blasted. Just wondering if you know about it.

I've also had this happen to me on one occasion. The Celebi escort in the story gets Aura Sphere (line of sight move), and if I use manual team control to make them use it when I'm between an enemy, I'm the one who gets hit. The Gap Prober IQ skill (enabled by default for all Pokes at 0 IQ) is supposed to allow it to attack through teammates, but maybe it doesn't apply for escorts?

Anyways, this hack is super fun. The development time really shows, looking forward to 1.3. I got a lot of shiny legendary recruit grinding to do in the meantime, along with waiting for Entei's challenge letter.

[Alphadaemon]

On 5/7/2021 at 5:35 AM, AtlasCrushed said:

Loving the hack so far. Just a quick note, I think I may have found a bug involving moves like flamethrower and sludge bomb that fire in a line. Whenever my partner sees an enemy in front, he'll use it, even if I'm between him and the enemy so I get blasted. Just wondering if you know about it.

This issue comes from Gap Prober, it's an issue I can't fix by myself for now unfortunately

On 4/28/2021 at 12:09 AM, JasonTheHero said:

This is my same complaint. I really want to play the game out, but I'm at waterfall cave and if I go the wrong way, I end up stuck in a mob of pokemon. Its not hard, its boring. It took me 10 minutes with the game on 1.5x just to get to level 5. I really think the spawnrate needs to be 75% or 50% of what it is now.

 

Other than that, this looks and plays really well. I can't wait to see the end game

It's gonna be 40%, I have found another way to deal with spawning

On 5/12/2021 at 5:01 PM, Dimedime said:

I've also had this happen to me on one occasion. The Celebi escort in the story gets Aura Sphere (line of sight move), and if I use manual team control to make them use it when I'm between an enemy, I'm the one who gets hit. The Gap Prober IQ skill (enabled by default for all Pokes at 0 IQ) is supposed to allow it to attack through teammates, but maybe it doesn't apply for escorts?

Anyways, this hack is super fun. The development time really shows, looking forward to 1.3. I got a lot of shiny legendary recruit grinding to do in the meantime, along with waiting for Entei's challenge letter.

I'm glad you like my take on EoS!
Celebi has IQ Group I, which means I still have this issue with Course Checker being in this IQ Group. It'll be fixed in 1.3
Speaking of 1.3, I'm slowly working on it. Being busy with real life and personal issues has delayed my project a lot, though I'm slowly but gently coming back into it with more new stuff

[Attila0501]

I have a problem. After completing the 1st Special episode, the game softlocks while looking up the Jobs Bulletin Board. Why does this error keep happening?

Nevermind. Problem solved somehow.

Edited May 23, 2021 by Attila0501

[sunvalkyrie]

Hello. I've been playing Explorers of Alpha for over 40 hours now and I am really grateful for all the hard work put into this amazing game. 

I've been wondering for a while now, but are there specific pokemon that can be shiny, while others can't, or is it absolutely random?

For me, I've found at least 30 shinies in one run in Surrounded Sea, and I found 7 shiny Milotics before being able to recruit one. And yet I've been looking for a favorite of mine which is Mawile, but I've had no luck. Its a question I been worrying over, and I'm grateful for any information.

I've ran into a few softlocks regarding job bulletin and outlaw missions, both when looking for missions as well as completing them, but nothing that grave that would make me unable to play. I took the habit of saving often hehe.

Also it would be really helpful if there was a IQ group table and which pokemon belongs to what group. Building a team for some missions or situations would be much more efficient with a simple table.

I apologize if it sounds like I'm complaining. I'm loving the game thus far, and just to imagine that there will be more updates to it makes me even more excited. Thank you very much for the game, and I hope all the best for you and your team. Cheers.

Edited June 18, 2021 by sunvalkyrie
Typos

[Bardish]

Hi there, hoping you are well!

I downloaded the original rom, downloaded the patch, applied it with (I think) with an xdelta UI programme, it works fine when I run it on my PC's emulator, but I figured I'd also try to use it on the emulator on my phone. The rom worked prior, but when I use the patched version, it crashes the app on startup. Do you happen to know of any way around this or can this version not be played via a mobile (Android by the way)

Thanks!

[Alphadaemon]

10 hours ago, sunvalkyrie said:

Hello. I've been playing Explorers of Alpha for over 40 hours now and I am really grateful for all the hard work put into this amazing game. 

I've been wondering for a while now, but are there specific pokemon that can be shiny, while others can't, or is it absolutely random?

For me, I've found at least 30 shinies in one run in Surrounded Sea, and I found 7 shiny Milotics before being able to recruit one. And yet I've been looking for a favorite of mine which is Mawile, but I've had no luck. Its a question I been worrying over, and I'm grateful for any information.

I've ran into a few softlocks regarding job bulletin and outlaw missions, both when looking for missions as well as completing them, but nothing that grave that would make me unable to play. I took the habit of saving often hehe.

Also it would be really helpful if there was a IQ group table and which pokemon belongs to what group. Building a team for some missions or situations would be much more efficient with a simple table.

I apologize if it sounds like I'm complaining. I'm loving the game thus far, and just to imagine that there will be more updates to it makes me even more excited. Thank you very much for the game, and I hope all the best for you and your team. Cheers.

I've ran into a few softlocks regarding job bulletin and outlaw missions, both when looking for missions as well as completing them, but nothing that grave that would make me unable to play. I took the habit of saving often hehe.
Could you give me some examples about this one? Wasn't it only with Job Bulletin?

Also it would be really helpful if there was a IQ group table and which pokemon belongs to what group. Building a team for some missions or situations would be much more efficient with a simple table.
I haven't changed IQ Groups, they are all vanilla aside of Purple Kecleon being S-Group, Shiny Celebi being I group, and all Shiny Legendaries being S-Group

Shinys are as follows (+ locations!):

Spoiler

Nidoran Male: Mt. Bristle 8F
Nidoran Female: Mt. Bristle 9F
Nidorino: Mystifying Forest 12F
Nidorina: Mystifying Forest 13F
Nidoking: Concealed Ruins 28F
Nidoqueen: Concealed Ruins 29F
Growlithe: Shimmer Hill 18F
Arcanine: Inferno Cave 28F
Magnemite: Chasm Cave 8F
Magneton: Spacial Rift 8F
Ponyta: Shimmer Hill 19F
Rapidash: Giant Volcano 37F
Voltorb: Amp Plains 10F
Electrode: World Abyss B44F
Chansey: The Nightmare 8F
Kangaskhan: Mt. Travail 19F
Jynx: Crevice Cave 10F
Tauros: Marine Resort 23F
Staryu: Brine Cave 8F
Starmie: Sea Shrine 42F
Magikarp: Miracle Sea 20F
Gyarados: Bottomless Sea 59F
Porygon: Chasm Cave 8F
Porygon2: Spacial Rift 8F
Smoochum: Blizzard Island 20F
Miltank: Marine Resort 24F
Blissey: The Nightmare 16F
Gardevoir: Happy Outlook 19F
Meditite: Lost Wilderness 16F
Medicham: Mt. Travail 18F
Volbeat: Steam Cave 8F
Illumise: Steam Cave 7F
Solrock: Starglow Cavern 65F
Lunatone: Starglow Cavern 66F
Baltoy: Northern Desert 14F
Claydol: Shimmer Desert 58F
Feebas: Surrounded Sea 23F
Milotic: Lake Afar 23F
Glalie: Treacherous Waters 18F
Gorebyss: Bottomless Sea 45F
Huntail: Bottomless Sea 46F
Beldum: Crystal Cave 10F
Metang: Sealed Ruin 8F
Metagross: Sky Stairway 56F
Mothim: Mt. Mistral 18F
Vespiquen: Treeshroud Forest 19F
Lopunny: Mystery Jungle 48F
Bronzor: Crystal Cave 6F
Bronzong: Temporal Tower 12F
Happiny: The Nightmare 8F
Magnezone: Southeastern Islands 24F
Porygon-Z: Spacial Rift - Depths 12F
Gallade: Spacial Rift 14F
Froslass: Mt. Avalanche 39F
Rotom: Midnight Forest 24F
Rotom Forms: Worldcore 2/4/6/8F

 

50 minutes ago, Bardish said:

Hi there, hoping you are well!

I downloaded the original rom, downloaded the patch, applied it with (I think) with an xdelta UI programme, it works fine when I run it on my PC's emulator, but I figured I'd also try to use it on the emulator on my phone. The rom worked prior, but when I use the patched version, it crashes the app on startup. Do you happen to know of any way around this or can this version not be played via a mobile (Android by the way)

Thanks!

It was tested on Mobile and works, I really don't know what's the cause of this issue honestly...
Alpha works on real hardware, Phone and PC emulators, all these were tested and work

Edited June 18, 2021 by Alphadaemon

[sunvalkyrie]

13 hours ago, Alphadaemon said:

I've ran into a few softlocks regarding job bulletin and outlaw missions, both when looking for missions as well as completing them, but nothing that grave that would make me unable to play. I took the habit of saving often hehe.
Could you give me some examples about this one? Wasn't it only with Job Bulletin?

Well, it stopped softlocking after mid-game / post game. It was pretty random. But the instances where a softlock happens is Opening the bulletin board / outlaw board at any time while in town, and also after a mission, before you even receive items or rescue mission points. The text wouldn't even appear, but the music plays normally. Everything else works normally, haven't had any issues with anything else. Shutting down the game solves it, but it stopped happening at all lately, so I guess it wasn't a bug or anything.

Also thanks for the table and all the information. Gonna start shiny hunting hehe. I appreciate it a lot.

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by sunvalkyrie

[Dimedime]

 

Wow, thanks for the progress report.

Spoiler

On 1/28/2021 at 10:01 AM, Alphadaemon said:

- changed spawnrate from 5 to 9, increased initial enemy spawn in dungeon, allowed imperfect rooms to be generated in most dungeons

Cool. Spawn rate's still low enough to recruit grind, and depending on how much initial enemy density increases, this might mean less enemies encountered, and therefore easier PP management.

On 1/28/2021 at 10:01 AM, Alphadaemon said:

- new items: S-Vitamins, maximizing a pokemon stat (HP-Drink and Ginseng S exist aswell)
- a new NPC in Spinda Café available after you unlock Marine Resort: Gliscor, trading S-Vitamins against money or other items

Well, Jirachi grinding (for money) just got another use. I must wonder what items you have to swap, considering a ton of items are really de-valued after you unlock Marine Resort:

Spoiler

• X-Ray Specs are re-obtainable in Sentry Duty
• Some dungeons exclusive to this hack have monster houses full of Golden Apples and Wonder Gummies, you literally never run out of them
• Training Grounds has farmable Joy Seeds and Wonder Gummies
• Jirachi has tons of farmable items once you get a good team going to do its dungeon over and over again.

On 1/28/2021 at 10:01 AM, Alphadaemon said:

- regular attack has now sure-hit accuracy. As a result Sure-Hit Attacker IQ Skill will be replaced

I'll take any Drifblim buff. Seems to be a slight buff to player-controlled Pokemon only, as enemy IQ increases high enough that they get Exclusive Move User anyway

 

On 6/18/2021 at 3:37 PM, Alphadaemon said:

Shinys are as follows (+ locations!):

Much appreciated. Just another addendum to this list:

Spoiler

Shiny Grovyle (with Unburden!!) and Pink Celebi can be found in Time-Leap Garden
Some shiny Pokemon can be found in World's Edge (even or odd-numbered floors, depending on if the Pokemon is exclusively male or female, respectively)
A lot of shiny Pokemon (+ legendaries) can be found in Destiny Tower. It's not ideal, because no IQ/Items + there are monster houses everywhere

 

Edited June 20, 2021 by Dimedime
not done, accidentally hit crtl+enter to post