MaxSchersey

• 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!

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

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

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