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Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Spirit


MaxSchersey

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SkyTemple Hack of the Year 2022 Award Winner For:

- Hack of the Year

- Best Narrative

- Best Character (Main Character)

- Best Cutscene Direction

- Best Boss Fight (Final Boss Sequence)

- Nominee for Best Single Cutscene (Sharpedo Bluff Scene)

- Nominee for Best Single Dungeon (The Aurascape)

 

---

 

What is the spirit?

 

Explorers of the Spirit is the first ever playable full-length PMD story hack, starting development in mid-2020 and now reaching a 1.0 release a little under two years later. The team behind the hack has put a lot of love and effort into this thing, and we really hope that you'll enjoy it.

 

Features:

Spoiler
  • A new story about our familiar comforts and uncomfortable changes
  • An expansive cast of characters
  • A strong emotional core and plenty of memorable set pieces
  • End/Irdkwia's move shortcuts patch and starter selection patch
  • Unique dungeon design that simultaneously encourages freedom of playstyle and pushes for creative strategy
  • A slightly increased level curve relative to Explorers of Sky. All testing for this hack was done with no grinding and jumping straight to the next story dungeon without any usage of gummis/the cafe, TMs, or the shop. However, all of these tools, as well as grinding spots, are still available for those that wish to use them. We do not consider this a Kaizo hack, or even much of a difficulty hack.
  • Exp gain from dungeon mons has also been normalized on its own gradually increasing curve throughout the story
  • Monotype dungeons - All types present in Explorers of Sky have their own themed dungeon present during the main story
  • All traps and random monster houses are GONE!
  • Failing out of a dungeon no longer removes items or Poke from your inventory!
  • The base stats (and sometimes moves/abilities/IQ groups) of all enemy Pokemon have been adjusted to better fit the intended dungeon experience. No moves or abilities absent from Explorers of Sky movesets have been added to these respective mons, but some problematic ones have been removed to better fit the context. In other words, no Unburden mons in the first dungeon.
  • Three guests will occasionally join you during dungeons throughout the story. A rule that we had during development is that these guests can NEVER be a hindrance, only a way to try new things with dungeon design, and I think we stayed true to that.
  • About a million other things that we don't want to spoil

 

Starter Pokemon Adjustments:

Spoiler

The starter pool is the same that's present in Explorers of Sky, with the added option to select your preferred starter after completing the personality quiz.

Changes (as of 1.01):

  • Bulbasaur
    • Added Sludge as a move learned at Level 1
  • Eevee
    • Secondary ability changed from Run Away to Null
    • Increased HP stat growth
    • Increased Def stat growth
    • Increased SpDef stat growth
  • Chikorita
    • Added Flail as a move learned at Level 1
    • Increased Def stat growth
    • Increased SpDef stat growth
  • Phanpy
    • Added Mud-Slap as a move learned at Level 1
    • Added Ice Shard as a move learned at Level 1
    • Secondary ability changed from Null to Sand Veil
    • Increased HP stat growth
    • Increased Atk stat growth
  • Mudkip
    • Added Rock Throw as a move learned at Level 1
  • Turtwig
    • Secondary ability changed from Null to Shell Armor
  • Munchlax
    • Added Counter as a move learned at Level 1

 

Launch Trailer:

Spoiler

 

 

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Capture.PNG.3e10cf8eea15e1ab0b1ee0d1bb443b3e.PNG

Capture2.PNG.575bb4d817b3f8ea1b8f306524d36294.PNG

 

Special Thanks/Abbreviated Credits:

Spoiler

As of 1.01 (English)/1.0 (Spanish)

Creative Team:

  • MaxSchersey
  • Pazkallan
  • SNOW
  • Filthy
  • Espik

EoS ASM Patches:

  • Irdkwia
  • End
  • psy_commando (SkyTemple QOL patches)

Promotional Material:

  • OJ
  • dede6giu

Backgrounds:

  • OJ
  • Team Portal (Miju, Filthy, Pazkallan, ReapersYnergy, MarcoLina)

Portraits:

  • JaiFain
  • barroness faron
  • Audino
  • Murpi

Icons and Objects:

  • SNOW
  • Mond

Spanish Translation:

  • Everson
  • Wolf Igmc4

 

Download (CURRENT VERSION: 1.01 - May 6, 2022) - Includes an XDELTA patch for the US version of Explorers of Sky, detailed instructions for patching and transferring saves between versions, a changelog, and a list of known bugs as of the current release

 

EOTS RELEASE 1.01.zip

 

Traducción al Español por Everson y Wolf Igmc4

https://whackahack.com/noticia/pokemon-mundo-misterioso-exploradores-del-espiritu-completo-en-espanol-nds-para-descargar/

 

Abbreviated dungeon/mechanic change reference guide (last updated 3/16/24):

Explorers of the Spirit v1.01 Dungeon Docs.pdf

 

We'd love to hear your thoughts on the hack! Join the discussion on the EotS Discord: https://discord.com/invite/pDxrBVryky

 

Edited by MaxSchersey
Added dungeon doc reference guide
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Hey, I think you also commented on our YT channel with this question. FYI for anyone else wondering, manual mode is not in this hack because we didn't balance around it. It's definitely a cool option, just doesn't fit exactly what we were going for.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey all, we've had a few FAQs pop up in our Discord, so I thought I'd post those here as well for those that don't want to join the server. These will all appear in the known bugs txt file in the next patch.

1) There are some weird backgrounds (ex: solid blue, actors clipping into walls, etc) appearing for some reason
    
You are using the incorrect base rom. Follow the patching instructions in the txt inside your download, and do not force patch an incompatible rom. Online patchers don't do a validity check like desktop xdelta does, so if you're using that method, you need to make sure that you have the correct base by manually checking. See #patching-issues in the Discord if anything else comes up.

2) The game crashes during a cutscene in Chapter 3

You are most likely using TwilightMenu++. The reported fixes for this are either switching to DSi mode or using a different loading method for original hardware.

3) The postgame dungeons won't let me in for some reason

We forgot to put a message there saying that you need to only bring two mons with you. Fix coming next patch.

 

Edited by MaxSchersey
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Just played this hack in its entirety today and yesterday (yes I do have no life, thank you very much!), and well, I love it, probably the best hack of any game I have ever played, not that I have played that many, but you get the idea! In fact, I am pretty sad that it ended, but I still have those extra dungeons to do!

I wanted to post my thoughts about this hack so I made this account to do just that. I split it up into groups under spoiler tabs to save room on this page, there shouldn't actually be any major spoilers, very minor at worst. 

Gameplay/Combat

Spoiler

The gameplay was fun and challenging at times, with the enemies hitting fairly hard, with mistakes and over confidence being quite punishing. I also found the throwing items (like spikes and rocks) to be useful for the first time ever for me, but that may be because I was playing as Shinx and had no good ranged options for most of the game, since I did not get a shock wave TM (note: I am not talking about seeds, those are very clearly busted). Food and PP are never a problem since those items spawn like crazy in the dungeons, healing and reviver seeds became my main issue towards the end, but I never ended up needing them for the final stretch.

The boss fights were for the most part pretty easy, and I had little trouble with most of them, there were two that slaughtered me, but I wont go into detail because spoilers. The last couple of fights were complete jokes, because my partner Mudkip got Endeavor at LV 46(?), which pretty much just ends the fight right away, since it works on bosses, reducing their HP down to like ~100, which naturally means they die quickly. Having that move, kind of took all the tension away from the end game, might want to remove that from his LV list maybe?

The one main complaint I would have is that their is no patch to make Spinda drinks faster. Like it takes ages to use all your gummies, some other hacks like "Explorers of the Skies", significantly speeds up the drink making, which makes it a LOT less painful. Its a small thing, since emulator speed up exists, but it is something to consider, not sure how hard it would be to implement. 

Story (minimal/minor spoilers, nothing too major, mostly stuff you would see by the very early parts of the game)

Spoiler

I loved the story, I pretty much figured out the "twist" from the start, but it was cool to see it unfold and be proved right as the story went on. It really made me want to keep playing, which killed my sleep, but that is a sacrifice I was willing to make!

The MC being, as Zubat puts it "screwed in the head", was pretty great, it made the MC actually memorable and different then the MCs of the normal game, who are all pretty boring goody-two-shoes that trust everyone. Having a MC that is hostile, aggressive and ruthless, and also cunning/untrusting was a nice change of pace, loved the dialogue they were given as well, being silent would have not suited them at all. Honestly, made them my favorite character next to best boy Breloom. 

Other than that I loved the hack, it was a blast to play, and I will likely play it again in a couple of months, to remind myself of all the great dialogue and such. So thanks for the fun time!

Edited by pizzagod13
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Hey there! I didn't originally plan to sign up on here, but since I played your hack, enjoyed it, and wanted to give my thoughts on it, I figured I might as well.

 

It was overall a good experience! The story was interesting and the dialogues were definitely well-written, I'd even say it's one of the stronger points of this hack.

As previously said, the twist is pretty easy to figure out early on but it's not necessarily a bad thing; instead, if you do figure it out early on, it makes you wanna know even more about how and why that happened.

 

[MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW]
 

Spoiler

About Darkrai (not the hero one), great job actually making them a compelling and charismatic villain, whereas they're cruelly underdeveloped in the original PMD2. It was also great to see relatively minor characters like Team AWD, Team Charm and Breloom being given more important roles. Ampharos and Mawile being in the survey team and later leaving off to probably form the Expedition Society was a really nice touch, too.

Although, as much as I enjoyed the story, I somehow feel like there was lost potential and the ending felt pretty rushed. As a heads-up, there might be things that actually come up in the extra sidequests just before the Hidden Land, so if that's the case ignore everything that I say (I didn't do them because I felt too underleveled for it), but I'd have loved to learn more about things like Team AWD's past, about what happened to Team Skull after Amp Plains or about Breloom's past in the guild. It's kind of a shame Breloom (who is easily one of the best characters of the game) never really settled things with Chatot and the guild one way or another (in Brine Cave, I actually expected the heroes to run into Chatot, who would get into an argument with Breloom and then shield the latter from the Kabutops Gang or the other way around, to make for a dramatic scene in which they both apologize for their past mistakes).

Also, this is just me being nitpicky, but I was surprised when Darkrai, as cunning as they're supposed to be, didn't have another backup plan in case they and Giratina lost against the protagonists and the hero resisted the urge to become a Darkrai like them.

In any case, I feel like this hack badly needs a postgame, which obviously wouldn't be as easy to make as it sounds. You already did a fantastic work with the main story anyways!

 

Gameplay-wise, I wasn't too bothered by the lack of Manual Mode. However, I did feel like there was something wrong with the wild pokemon's spawn rate (at some point I got stuck battling an army of pokemon for like 2 minutes in a hallway, on a floor that wasn't even that small) and the monotype, lengthy dungeons sometimes make for a painful experience, especially when it's just you and your partner (it was really not fun being a Riolu in the poison and bug dungeons). And yes, speeding up the process of making drinks at Spinda's Café would have been nice too.

 

Despite my misgivings, I still really liked it, so thanks for making this hack!

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Fun stuff. I'll chime in with my own thoughts. Very refined experience for a blind playthrough, seems like all those betatesting phases I've read about over the last few months paid off.

Gameplay:

Spoiler

Really does reward preparation and certain gameplay styles. Mine in particular is the explore-every-floor-while-killing-as-many-enemies-as-possible-with-linked-moves-to-mazimize-EXP-gain kind of exploration. No PP-Zero traps removes nearly all risks with keeping linked moves, and you're typically stocked with enough Max Elixirs to get by using only them. I liked that line of dialogue where the partner mentions using linked moves. They are essential for reaching 1HKO thresholds on enemies to avoid counterattacks, and for making dents into bosses.

Phanpy starter is slightly less miserable, but still pretty bad. Can't even learn Dig via TM like all the Hoenn starters. At least I can say that the game is quite accommodating if you're locked to 1-range. Most enemies' moves were modified to be less problematic (see my spoiler below regarding my data scraping), but there are still some enemies that stand out (Bronzor's annoying bulk + Hypnosis, Bug Bite + Pluck users). At the very least you have some counter-play.

I squeezed ~1.1 million EXP (around level 65) out of 34 adventures, with one defeat in one of the custom dungeons because I ran out of food. I really like the selection of items in dungeons, they are truly tailor-made to be useful in the dungeon you're in (Vacuum-Cut and Wide Slash TM's, weather orbs, etc.). There are even some rare drops in dungeons...

Also noteworthy were some rather inappropriately-timed item tooltip hints. Apparently, I picked up my first violent seed in the last story dungeon, and my first vile seed in one of the postgame dungeons. Item distributions are all RNG, so I probably just got (un?)lucky.

Very solid music choices all around. Made the most of PMD2's tunes.

Also, I'm very thankful of nerfed Exploration Rank requirements. Makes the postgame content more accessible.

Postgame things:

Spoiler

Really nothing to write home about. See my point regarding linked moves and landing 1HKO's, and having enough PP, and they should be smooth sailing. Watch out for enemy IQ skills though. I think enemy IQ was pretty minimal throughout the story, but here, you really do start to feel if Counter Basher/Hitter kicks in, or if an adjacent Bodyguard means you'll take an extra hit. Be careful. Can't name any specific threats besides Aggressor + Sharpshooter + Sniper Kingdra, which also gets Exclusive-Move User because of the dungeon floor it's in. One crit if you're weak to water is a pretty solid 1HKO. Definitely use your pure seeds or other get-out-of-jail-free cards if you made an awful starter choice like me.

The dungeons are all pretty cool. I really like the one that's a buffed version of Marine Resort. Makes the rewards, well, actually rewarding.

That level 1 dungeon is definitely a breathtaking experience. Can't really Warp Scarf cheese it, so you're left fighting your way through. Really sad to lose a bunch of 80F+ runs to that one enemy above, but the satisfaction of beating it is all the same.

 

There doesn't seem to be any documentation regarding changed the changed Pokemon attributes in the OP as of writing this, so I figured I'd use my Python skills + the SkyTemple library to dig in for myself! (spoilers, obviously)

v1.0 changes:

Spoiler

Really, don't stress these details. As the OP said, they're for a smoother gameplay experience. But if you're wondering about specific changes...

Abilities:

note: not every Pokemon is recruitable (unless you want to spend ages in Spinda's Cafe or grinding egg missions to get recruits), so most of these just affect gameplay experience when facing them as enemies.

Spoiler
  • Arbok lost Shed Skin
  • Tentacool lost Liquid Ooze
  • Pontya lost Run Away
  • Dodrio lost Run Away
  • Drowzee lost Forewarn (less boss RNG, yay)
  • Starmie lost Illuminate
  • Jynx lost Forewarn
  • Eevee lost Run Away
  • Chinchou lost Illuminate
  • Sunflora lost Chlorophyll
  • Quagsire lost Damp
  • Scizor lost Technician
  • Phanpy got Sand Veil
  • Electrike and Manectric lost Static
  • Absol lost Pressure
  • Pachirisu lost Run Away
  • Drifblim lost Unburden
  • Lumineon lost Storm Drain

IQ groups:

Spoiler
  • Gardevoir F -> B
  • Sabeleye C -> D
  • Lopunny D -> B
  • Spiritomb G -> A
  • Dusknoir F -> A
  • Cresselia H -> B
  • Darkrai I -> A

Base stats / moves

Spoiler

Too many to list, obviously, but they're pretty balanced around the difficulty curve of the game. Ghosts are heavily nerfed (some Pokes lost tons of stats + Spite), and problematic moves (Fury Swipes/Attack, Magnitude, Earth Power/Quake, Powder Snow, Comet Punch, Agility) have been stripped from most Pokemon (watch out for the few Pokemon that still have them haha), and Togekiss has a full level-up movepool.

I've noticed that most boss enemies are changed to have specific moves when you face them i.e. almost all level-up moves are gone, so they all have 3-4 consistent moves between playthroughs. It's pretty clear this hack isn't designed around "recruiting them all", and that's perfectly fine. It's amazing to experience the story / custom cutscenes and not have to worry about being a completionist :D

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I tried this one and am really enjoying it especially since it reminds me of an old headcanon I had about Skies storywise not going to spoil of course.I would have liked to have the starters not be gender locked though because I would have enjoyed being a male Eevee. :)

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Version 1.01 is available now as the new download in the OP. In the weeks following 1.0, it became very obvious to us that our early testing group had a higher difficulty tolerance than the general public, so we made a lot of changes to make things easier across the board. The patch notes below will contain spoilers for the entire hack, so reader beware!

 

Features:

Spoiler
  • Failing out of a dungeon no longer removes items or Poke from your inventory!
    • Credit to End for finding out how to change this. We really wanted to include this in 1.0, but just couldn't figure out how to do it until now.
    • While PMD's resource loss penalty on death creates an interesting tradeoff between keeping the XP from a failed run or reloading to keep those resources, both of these choices have their own frustrating downsides. Eliminating the XP can make a dungeon seem impenetrable and lead players to believe that they need to level grind to progress, while eliminating items can quickly snowball into near-softlock situations in certain dungeons that expect a level of inventory management. We're choosing to forego that tradeoff and let players get the best of both worlds, hopefully getting rid of these frustrations.
    • Another bonus: Players that would otherwise reload their save no longer have to skip through those lengthy intro cutscenes every time they fail out!

 

Bug Fixes:

Spoiler
  • Removed EU ROM patch compatibility
    • We have received some reports that this patch doesn't work on the listed checksum. We couldn't figure out why this is, so in the meantime, this patch has been removed altogether to eliminate some confusion during the patching process.
  • Changed the tile set switch in Dusk Forest to properly reflect the halfway point of the dungeon
  • Added a warning before entering Nectar Meadow, Apple Alcove, and Offshore Chasm stating that only the leader and partner may enter
  • Disabled recruiting in Offshore Chasm
  • Corrected the master rank dungeon unlock scripts to properly reflect the new dungeons
  • Changed Wolf Igmc to Neizel (their new screen name) in the credits
  • Fixed various dialogue formatting errors and typos

 

Balance Changes - Starters

Spoiler
  • Phanpy
    • Added Ice Shard as a move learned at Level 1
    • Increased HP stat growth
    • Increased Atk stat growth

Despite already getting a few healthy buffs in 1.0, it looks like Phanpy is still a cut below the rest, so we're trying out a few more aggressive changes. Phanpy now has automatic access to Ice Shard (formerly limited to being an egg move, aka functionally inaccessible), giving them not only a ranged option but also coverage for pesky grass and flying types that resist Mud-Slap. Attack growth has been increased to make the new Ice Shard, along with Phanpy's normal type options, more effective when the situation calls. HP growth has been increased to bring them up to par with most other starters.

 

  • Chikorita
    • Increased Def stat growth
    • Increased SpDef stat growth

While Chikorita's kit suggests some interesting utility as a hard support mon, we think that their stats just weren't enough to support such a passive strategy. Because of this, we gave them some extra bulk.

 

  • Eevee
    • Increased HP stat growth
    • Increased Def stat growth
    • Increased SpDef stat growth

In 1.0, Eevee had some very impressive offensive and support options, but this cannon was just a little too glassy to avoid some potentially frustrating one-hit KOs. This might catapult Eevee's viability a little higher than intended, but that's a better alternative than having a starter option that actively works against our dungeon design.

 

  • Turtwig
    • Changed secondary ability from Null to Shell Armor

Turtwig seems to be a fairly strong mon in early game, but their lack of viability in non-attacking moves has been rearing its ugly head by the time players approach the end of the hack. Since Turtwig already has access to plenty of ways to heal, as well as two moves that increase defense, we thought it made sense to make sure that Turtwig can't get crit to cut through their Withdraw or Curse setup by adding access to their hidden ability, Shell Armor.

 

  • Bulbasaur
    • Added Sludge as a move learned at Level 1

Like Turtwig, we found that Bulbasaur begins to fall off a bit as the game progresses for numerous reasons. Their damage output isn't anything special due to a lack of usable buffs, their signature Sleep Powder is negated by key bosses like Cresselia, Team Charm, and Darkrai/Giratina, and that defensive typing isn't doing them any favors. Because of this, we're giving Bulbasaur access to Sludge (formerly an egg move). This gives Bulbasaur both a poison STAB option and a special move that can actually get buffed by Growth. As a result, Bulbasaur can still feasibly run a number of non-attacking moves without being locked into a hard support role, since Chikorita already does that better anyways.

 

  • Munchlax
    • Added Counter as a move learned at Level 1

A lot of people will be quick to point out that Munchlax isn't actually a bad mon in this hack due to Pickup, but there's a delicate balance to be had when so much of a mon's viability is tied into something that can be ignored. We found that players tended to keep an item on Munchlax for the whole hack, missing out on Pickup entirely, and in that case Munchlax is only left with limited room for creativity and moveset progression. Since Munchlax has some good bulk, we thought that giving it Counter could offer some interesting strategies that the rest of the starters can't offer, particularly during boss fights when Pickup wouldn't come into play anyways.

 

Balance Changes - Dungeons/Enemies

Spoiler
  • Beach Cave
    • Wooper
      • Lowered base SpAtk

We've had some reports of fire starters getting OHKO'd in Beach Cave, and it seems like Wooper is the culprit. This is obviously unacceptable, so let us know if there's anyone else doing insane damage in the first dungeon.

 

  • Drenched Bluff
    • Skorupi
      • Lowered base HP
      • Lowered base Atk

Skorupi's Poison Sting seems to be a bit much for grass starters, so we toned them down a bit.

 

  • Mt Bristle
    • Increased general item spawn rate
    • Tauros
      • Removed Horn Attack from learnset
      • Lowered base Atk

Mt Bristle is intended to be an introduction to this hack's expectation of item usage, but we may have gone a bit overboard on this one. Items are now easier to find, and encountering Tauros in a hallway is a lot less likely to be a death trap.

 

  • Craggy Coast
    • Link Boxes can now spawn

As stated before entering Amp Plains, linking moves is expected in this hack in order to keep up with damage output and the intended XP curve. This aspect of dungeon design wasn't actively factored in until Amp Plains, but we figured that it wouldn't hurt to let players get acclimated with linking before reaching that point.

 

  • Team Charm's Hideout
    • Increased general item spawn rate
    • Link Boxes can now spawn
    • TMs can now spawn
    • Cresselia
      • Lowered SpAtk
      • Lowered SpDef

Teams of two special attackers have it a lot rougher than intended against Cresselia, especially after a Calm Mind is set up. Because of this, we're toning down her pre-Calm Mind special stats, as well as offering a few more options to keep players from getting pseudo-softlocked here if they came in underprepared.

 

  • Horn Valley
    • Hitmonlee
      • Removed Double Kick from learnset
    • Makuhita
      • Removed Belly Drum from learnset

Hitmonlee's not normally a huge problem in this dungeon, but their max roll with two crits on Double Kick was disgusting enough for us to take the move out of the hack. Makuhita's Belly Drum isn't a huge problem in a vacuum since their unboosted attack is fairly low, but this no-drawback attack boost proved to become an issue due to Makuhita's relative bulk, giving them too many chances to unload big damage.

 

  • Murky Forest
    • Swinub
      • Lowered base SpAtk
    • Weavile
      • Increased HP
      • Increased Def
      • Increased SpDef

Swinub's Mud Bomb and Powder Snow are probably the two scariest moves in this dungeon, and it's pretty clear that they both needed to be toned down. As for Weavile, we found that players were oddly hesitant to take advantage of her high attack stat and opted to keep her from taking damage instead. We hope that these changes will promote a little more faith in the thief.

 

  • Treasure Town Ruins
    • Pinsir
      • Lowered base Atk
    • Kricketune
      • Removed Fury Cutter from learnset
      • Lowered base Atk

Treasure Town Ruins is not kind to grass type starters, in large part due to these two. Pinsir's crit X-Scissor and Kricketune's Swarm X-Scissor or crit/Swarm Fury Cutter do just a bit too much damage to veer into OHKO territory. These OHKO rolls should no longer be possible.

 

  • Dark Crater
    • Added additional hallway density to floor layouts
    • Added additional room density to floor layouts
    • Increased Kecleon Shop spawn rate
    • Kecleon Shops now sell Link Boxes
    • Nidoqueen
      • Removed Double Kick from learnset
    • Muk
      • Removed Sludge Bomb from learnset

Aside from the problematic max rolls and linking encouragement, this dungeon has had a fairly drastic shift in play flow due to the floor layout changes. Instead of getting long stretches of hallway and needing to fight enemies in a line all the time, there are now more chances for both room fights and wrong directions for the enemies to take when traversing the dungeon. The downside to this is that it's now less likely for a player to spawn in or near a stair room, but we think these changes average out to a more pleasant experience.

 

  • Dusk Forest
    • Increased Wide Slash TM spawn rate
    • Banette
      • Lowered base SpAtk
    • Grovyle
      • Removed Dig from moveset (Applies only for this dungeon, and is re-added once reaching the midpoint).
    • Spiritomb
      • Changed IQ Group from A to D
      • Removed Imprison from learnset
      • Added Smokescreen to learnset

There's been a lot of hair pulling when balancing this dungeon during early testing, but we think these changes move a lot in the right direction. Some players reported never finding a Wide Slash TM, which is obviously problematic for those that don't have access to many other options to hit ghosts in the walls. Since there's other helpful items here that share the item pool with Wide Slash, we didn't want to make its drop rate too high, but it should be much harder to avoid seeing this TM. Grovyle's Dig was ripped away from him due to a majority of the enemies here having Levitate as their ability. Spiritomb can now be put to sleep by Breloom's Spore, and their borderline insta-loss Imprison has been replaced with a move that has a similar debuffing effect on the player without completely removing their control.

 

  • Deep Dusk Forest
    • Reviver Seeds can now spawn
  • Road to Shaymin Village
    • Increased Kecleon Shop spawn rate
    • Kecleon Shops now sell Link Boxes
    • X-Eye Seeds can now spawn

These are a few changes to make the end of the dream world less punishing for those that already exhausted most of their resources.

 

  • Serenity River
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
  • Landslide Cave
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
    • Floor 2 mission rank changed from D to 2-star
    • Floor 3-5 mission rank changed from C to 2-star
    • Floor 6-9 mission rank changed from C to 3-star
    • Floor 10-12 mission rank changed from C to 4-star
  • Lush Prairie
    • Floor 1-2 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
    • Floor 3-4 mission rank changed from E to 3-star
    • Floor 5-6 mission rank changed from E to 4-star
  • Tiny Meadow
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
    • Floor 2-3 mission rank changed from D to 3-star
    • Floor 4-5 mission rank changed from C to 4-star
  • Oran Forest
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
  • Ludum Gradu
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star

All changes to make rank grinding a bit easier. We think that it's important to promote some rank-ups in order for players to naturally unlock the master rank dungeons and prepare themselves for the postgame fights against Salamence, Team Basil, and Team Fire Spark.

 

Just a reminder that we're always open to feedback and having active conversations about the hack on the EotS Discord. We don't know if there's an issue unless you tell us. Thanks for the support!

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Hello! 

I need some help getting this to work on a luma3ds, I was using TwilightMenu but experienced a crash during a cutscenes, came here, seems to be a known error. How can I play this on my n2ds? Is there another emulator or similar that works?

Thanks!

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On 5/9/2022 at 1:57 PM, Sasha said:

Hello! 

I need some help getting this to work on a luma3ds, I was using TwilightMenu but experienced a crash during a cutscenes, came here, seems to be a known error. How can I play this on my n2ds? Is there another emulator or similar that works?

Thanks!

In Twilight Menu press Y on your game and turn on Run in DSi mode,works for every Sky Romhack I've played. :)

Edited by Burningocean2012
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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 months later...
On 5/4/2022 at 4:50 AM, Burningocean2012 said:

I tried this one and am really enjoying it especially since it reminds me of an old headcanon I had about Skies storywise not going to spoil of course.I would have liked to have the starters not be gender locked though because I would have enjoyed being a male Eevee. :)

 

On 5/6/2022 at 5:37 AM, MaxSchersey said:

Version 1.01 is available now as the new download in the OP. In the weeks following 1.0, it became very obvious to us that our early testing group had a higher difficulty tolerance than the general public, so we made a lot of changes to make things easier across the board. The patch notes below will contain spoilers for the entire hack, so reader beware!

 

Features:

  Reveal hidden contents
  • Failing out of a dungeon no longer removes items or Poke from your inventory!
    • Credit to End for finding out how to change this. We really wanted to include this in 1.0, but just couldn't figure out how to do it until now.
    • While PMD's resource loss penalty on death creates an interesting tradeoff between keeping the XP from a failed run or reloading to keep those resources, both of these choices have their own frustrating downsides. Eliminating the XP can make a dungeon seem impenetrable and lead players to believe that they need to level grind to progress, while eliminating items can quickly snowball into near-softlock situations in certain dungeons that expect a level of inventory management. We're choosing to forego that tradeoff and let players get the best of both worlds, hopefully getting rid of these frustrations.
    • Another bonus: Players that would otherwise reload their save no longer have to skip through those lengthy intro cutscenes every time they fail out!

 

Bug Fixes:

  Reveal hidden contents
  • Removed EU ROM patch compatibility
    • We have received some reports that this patch doesn't work on the listed checksum. We couldn't figure out why this is, so in the meantime, this patch has been removed altogether to eliminate some confusion during the patching process.
  • Changed the tile set switch in Dusk Forest to properly reflect the halfway point of the dungeon
  • Added a warning before entering Nectar Meadow, Apple Alcove, and Offshore Chasm stating that only the leader and partner may enter
  • Disabled recruiting in Offshore Chasm
  • Corrected the master rank dungeon unlock scripts to properly reflect the new dungeons
  • Changed Wolf Igmc to Neizel (their new screen name) in the credits
  • Fixed various dialogue formatting errors and typos

 

Balance Changes - Starters

  Reveal hidden contents
  • Phanpy
    • Added Ice Shard as a move learned at Level 1
    • Increased HP stat growth
    • Increased Atk stat growth

Despite already getting a few healthy buffs in 1.0, it looks like Phanpy is still a cut below the rest, so we're trying out a few more aggressive changes. Phanpy now has automatic access to Ice Shard (formerly limited to being an egg move, aka functionally inaccessible), giving them not only a ranged option but also coverage for pesky grass and flying types that resist Mud-Slap. Attack growth has been increased to make the new Ice Shard, along with Phanpy's normal type options, more effective when the situation calls. HP growth has been increased to bring them up to par with most other starters.

 

  • Chikorita
    • Increased Def stat growth
    • Increased SpDef stat growth

While Chikorita's kit suggests some interesting utility as a hard support mon, we think that their stats just weren't enough to support such a passive strategy. Because of this, we gave them some extra bulk.

 

  • Eevee
    • Increased HP stat growth
    • Increased Def stat growth
    • Increased SpDef stat growth

In 1.0, Eevee had some very impressive offensive and support options, but this cannon was just a little too glassy to avoid some potentially frustrating one-hit KOs. This might catapult Eevee's viability a little higher than intended, but that's a better alternative than having a starter option that actively works against our dungeon design.

 

  • Turtwig
    • Changed secondary ability from Null to Shell Armor

Turtwig seems to be a fairly strong mon in early game, but their lack of viability in non-attacking moves has been rearing its ugly head by the time players approach the end of the hack. Since Turtwig already has access to plenty of ways to heal, as well as two moves that increase defense, we thought it made sense to make sure that Turtwig can't get crit to cut through their Withdraw or Curse setup by adding access to their hidden ability, Shell Armor.

 

  • Bulbasaur
    • Added Sludge as a move learned at Level 1

Like Turtwig, we found that Bulbasaur begins to fall off a bit as the game progresses for numerous reasons. Their damage output isn't anything special due to a lack of usable buffs, their signature Sleep Powder is negated by key bosses like Cresselia, Team Charm, and Darkrai/Giratina, and that defensive typing isn't doing them any favors. Because of this, we're giving Bulbasaur access to Sludge (formerly an egg move). This gives Bulbasaur both a poison STAB option and a special move that can actually get buffed by Growth. As a result, Bulbasaur can still feasibly run a number of non-attacking moves without being locked into a hard support role, since Chikorita already does that better anyways.

 

  • Munchlax
    • Added Counter as a move learned at Level 1

A lot of people will be quick to point out that Munchlax isn't actually a bad mon in this hack due to Pickup, but there's a delicate balance to be had when so much of a mon's viability is tied into something that can be ignored. We found that players tended to keep an item on Munchlax for the whole hack, missing out on Pickup entirely, and in that case Munchlax is only left with limited room for creativity and moveset progression. Since Munchlax has some good bulk, we thought that giving it Counter could offer some interesting strategies that the rest of the starters can't offer, particularly during boss fights when Pickup wouldn't come into play anyways.

 

Balance Changes - Dungeons/Enemies

  Reveal hidden contents
  • Beach Cave
    • Wooper
      • Lowered base SpAtk

We've had some reports of fire starters getting OHKO'd in Beach Cave, and it seems like Wooper is the culprit. This is obviously unacceptable, so let us know if there's anyone else doing insane damage in the first dungeon.

 

  • Drenched Bluff
    • Skorupi
      • Lowered base HP
      • Lowered base Atk

Skorupi's Poison Sting seems to be a bit much for grass starters, so we toned them down a bit.

 

  • Mt Bristle
    • Increased general item spawn rate
    • Tauros
      • Removed Horn Attack from learnset
      • Lowered base Atk

Mt Bristle is intended to be an introduction to this hack's expectation of item usage, but we may have gone a bit overboard on this one. Items are now easier to find, and encountering Tauros in a hallway is a lot less likely to be a death trap.

 

  • Craggy Coast
    • Link Boxes can now spawn

As stated before entering Amp Plains, linking moves is expected in this hack in order to keep up with damage output and the intended XP curve. This aspect of dungeon design wasn't actively factored in until Amp Plains, but we figured that it wouldn't hurt to let players get acclimated with linking before reaching that point.

 

  • Team Charm's Hideout
    • Increased general item spawn rate
    • Link Boxes can now spawn
    • TMs can now spawn
    • Cresselia
      • Lowered SpAtk
      • Lowered SpDef

Teams of two special attackers have it a lot rougher than intended against Cresselia, especially after a Calm Mind is set up. Because of this, we're toning down her pre-Calm Mind special stats, as well as offering a few more options to keep players from getting pseudo-softlocked here if they came in underprepared.

 

  • Horn Valley
    • Hitmonlee
      • Removed Double Kick from learnset
    • Makuhita
      • Removed Belly Drum from learnset

Hitmonlee's not normally a huge problem in this dungeon, but their max roll with two crits on Double Kick was disgusting enough for us to take the move out of the hack. Makuhita's Belly Drum isn't a huge problem in a vacuum since their unboosted attack is fairly low, but this no-drawback attack boost proved to become an issue due to Makuhita's relative bulk, giving them too many chances to unload big damage.

 

  • Murky Forest
    • Swinub
      • Lowered base SpAtk
    • Weavile
      • Increased HP
      • Increased Def
      • Increased SpDef

Swinub's Mud Bomb and Powder Snow are probably the two scariest moves in this dungeon, and it's pretty clear that they both needed to be toned down. As for Weavile, we found that players were oddly hesitant to take advantage of her high attack stat and opted to keep her from taking damage instead. We hope that these changes will promote a little more faith in the thief.

 

  • Treasure Town Ruins
    • Pinsir
      • Lowered base Atk
    • Kricketune
      • Removed Fury Cutter from learnset
      • Lowered base Atk

Treasure Town Ruins is not kind to grass type starters, in large part due to these two. Pinsir's crit X-Scissor and Kricketune's Swarm X-Scissor or crit/Swarm Fury Cutter do just a bit too much damage to veer into OHKO territory. These OHKO rolls should no longer be possible.

 

  • Dark Crater
    • Added additional hallway density to floor layouts
    • Added additional room density to floor layouts
    • Increased Kecleon Shop spawn rate
    • Kecleon Shops now sell Link Boxes
    • Nidoqueen
      • Removed Double Kick from learnset
    • Muk
      • Removed Sludge Bomb from learnset

Aside from the problematic max rolls and linking encouragement, this dungeon has had a fairly drastic shift in play flow due to the floor layout changes. Instead of getting long stretches of hallway and needing to fight enemies in a line all the time, there are now more chances for both room fights and wrong directions for the enemies to take when traversing the dungeon. The downside to this is that it's now less likely for a player to spawn in or near a stair room, but we think these changes average out to a more pleasant experience.

 

  • Dusk Forest
    • Increased Wide Slash TM spawn rate
    • Banette
      • Lowered base SpAtk
    • Grovyle
      • Removed Dig from moveset (Applies only for this dungeon, and is re-added once reaching the midpoint).
    • Spiritomb
      • Changed IQ Group from A to D
      • Removed Imprison from learnset
      • Added Smokescreen to learnset

There's been a lot of hair pulling when balancing this dungeon during early testing, but we think these changes move a lot in the right direction. Some players reported never finding a Wide Slash TM, which is obviously problematic for those that don't have access to many other options to hit ghosts in the walls. Since there's other helpful items here that share the item pool with Wide Slash, we didn't want to make its drop rate too high, but it should be much harder to avoid seeing this TM. Grovyle's Dig was ripped away from him due to a majority of the enemies here having Levitate as their ability. Spiritomb can now be put to sleep by Breloom's Spore, and their borderline insta-loss Imprison has been replaced with a move that has a similar debuffing effect on the player without completely removing their control.

 

  • Deep Dusk Forest
    • Reviver Seeds can now spawn
  • Road to Shaymin Village
    • Increased Kecleon Shop spawn rate
    • Kecleon Shops now sell Link Boxes
    • X-Eye Seeds can now spawn

These are a few changes to make the end of the dream world less punishing for those that already exhausted most of their resources.

 

  • Serenity River
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
  • Landslide Cave
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
    • Floor 2 mission rank changed from D to 2-star
    • Floor 3-5 mission rank changed from C to 2-star
    • Floor 6-9 mission rank changed from C to 3-star
    • Floor 10-12 mission rank changed from C to 4-star
  • Lush Prairie
    • Floor 1-2 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
    • Floor 3-4 mission rank changed from E to 3-star
    • Floor 5-6 mission rank changed from E to 4-star
  • Tiny Meadow
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
    • Floor 2-3 mission rank changed from D to 3-star
    • Floor 4-5 mission rank changed from C to 4-star
  • Oran Forest
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star
  • Ludum Gradu
    • Floor 1 mission rank changed from E to 2-star

All changes to make rank grinding a bit easier. We think that it's important to promote some rank-ups in order for players to naturally unlock the master rank dungeons and prepare themselves for the postgame fights against Salamence, Team Basil, and Team Fire Spark.

 

Just a reminder that we're always open to feedback and having active conversations about the hack on the EotS Discord. We don't know if there's an issue unless you tell us. Thanks for the support!

Would be possible to deactivate the gender lock for the pokemon that the protagonist can be? 

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  • 1 month later...

I wonder whether its possible to change a version of this hack to include monster houses and traps again? Cause while they may be annoying to me they are an essential part of the vibe of the base game. Especially monster houses makes approaching situations/teambuilding more important.

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  • 6 months later...
On 3/22/2022 at 11:48 PM, MaxSchersey said:

Hey all, we've had a few FAQs pop up in our Discord, so I thought I'd post those here as well for those that don't want to join the server. These will all appear in the known bugs txt file in the next patch.

1) There are some weird backgrounds (ex: solid blue, actors clipping into walls, etc) appearing for some reason
    
You are using the incorrect base rom. Follow the patching instructions in the txt inside your download, and do not force patch an incompatible rom. Online patchers don't do a validity check like desktop xdelta does, so if you're using that method, you need to make sure that you have the correct base by manually checking. See #patching-issues in the Discord if anything else comes up.

2) The game crashes during a cutscene in Chapter 3

You are most likely using TwilightMenu++. The reported fixes for this are either switching to DSi mode or using a different loading method for original hardware.

3) The postgame dungeons won't let me in for some reason

We forgot to put a message there saying that you need to only bring two mons with you. Fix coming next patch.

 

Im having trouble with the game looping and not allowing me to go to chapter 4 on a desume emulator 

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  • 3 months later...

Just finished playing through the main story, and I really enjoyed it overall, it really does tell a genuinely fun and interesting story, and I'll have to consider on if I want to try out some of the post-game dungeons as well.

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