Hack Series: Pokémon Photonic Sun & Prismatic Moon

[gorasgard]

This hack is so much harder than I expected. It feels so much more rewarding when I make progress however.

 

[#Not Important]

Haven't actually played (I don't have a 3DS😅) but it looks amazing! Wish I had some of these Ideas before I read this!

 

[DanF2000]

Hey, just wanted to give an update 😊 I haven't really played much since commenting here, only getting up to the fire trial, restarting after leaving for a bit, and now up to Melemele Meadow. I'm not enjoying it that much since I'm trying 3 rules:

1. Only catch the first pokemon in each area
2. After every trial or grand trial swap the 2 highest leveled pokemon with 2 pokemon unused in the PC
3. Set battle style

Problem is if I didn't use those rules I'd catch everything, by now having around 60 pokemon in the PC and spending hours deciding which pokemon to use 😅 I just feel like I'm not playing the game right, and I need a different mindset for playing it. I mean - for me, Platinum is incredibly hard, where my last run and current playthrough I've had multiple team wipes before the Elite 4. Maybe it's my team, maybe being underleveled, etc but I don't know...

Any advice you could give?

 

[Rayquaza Master 384]

Maybe something of an odd question, and maybe one you've already answered, but do you by any chance plan to update evolution methods for Pokemon like Vikavolt to what they are in Gen VIII? I'm recalling you already have Leaf Stone for Leafeon and Ice Stone for Glaceon but I'm not remembering that for certain. Building off of that it might also be handy to follow in the same pattern with an Ice Stone to evolve Crabrawler into Crabominable and a Thunder Stone to evolve Nosepass into Probopass and Magneton into Magnezone.

EDIT: Unrelated but I just discovered that you don't have Mina's team information listed in the important trainers document.

 

[Buffel Saft]

Rough Skin is a nightmare for Sash users lol. I'll be relieved and sad at the same time if that is removed

It'll still have Rough Skin as an option, Strong Jaw will just be added as its second ability.

Haven't actually played (I don't have a 3DS😅) but it looks amazing! Wish I had some of these Ideas before I read this!

Thanks! It can be emulated too if you've got a decent PC.

Hey, just wanted to give an update 😊 I haven't really played much since commenting here, only getting up to the fire trial, restarting after leaving for a bit, and now up to Melemele Meadow. I'm not enjoying it that much since I'm trying 3 rules:

1. Only catch the first pokemon in each area
2. After every trial or grand trial swap the 2 highest leveled pokemon with 2 pokemon unused in the PC
3. Set battle style

Problem is if I didn't use those rules I'd catch everything, by now having around 60 pokemon in the PC and spending hours deciding which pokemon to use 😅 I just feel like I'm not playing the game right, and I need a different mindset for playing it. I mean - for me, Platinum is incredibly hard, where my last run and current playthrough I've had multiple team wipes before the Elite 4. Maybe it's my team, maybe being underleveled, etc but I don't know...

Any advice you could give?

Maybe try choosing a team of six and sticking with it? There'd be quite a bit of grinding involved in swapping out your team members that often, and being too underlevelled doesn't sound like much fun in this hack.

Maybe something of an odd question, and maybe one you've already answered, but do you by any chance plan to update evolution methods for Pokemon like Vikavolt to what they are in Gen VIII? I'm recalling you already have Leaf Stone for Leafeon and Ice Stone for Glaceon but I'm not remembering that for certain. Building off of that it might also be handy to follow in the same pattern with an Ice Stone to evolve Crabrawler into Crabominable and a Thunder Stone to evolve Nosepass into Probopass and Magneton into Magnezone.

EDIT: Unrelated but I just discovered that you don't have Mina's team information listed in the important trainers document.

Yeah Eevee already uses the stones for Leafeon and Glaceon, and Crabrawler uses the Ice Stone too. I'll add the Thunder Stone as an option for Nosepass and Magneton, but Vikavolt got some major stat buffs so I'll likely make that an option for it in the standard versions but not rebalanced.

Ah yeah I'd been told about Mina's team being missing and completely forgot to fix it, I'll make sure it gets sorted next update. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[#Not Important]

It'll still have Rough Skin as an option, Strong Jaw will just be added as its second ability.
Thanks! It can be emulated too if you've got a decent PC.

Really?!
Using what?

 

[james19]

I can confirm this, yes. In a previous playthrough that's how I got a shiny Yveltal.

Did you check if was shiny even after resets? Because thats how normal pokemons behave on ultraworm holes. Basically i'm asking so I can Soft reset the shit out of legendaries or if they reeplace a normal pokemon, just do the minigame every time. It's very different the mechanic behing normal and legendaries (and here another legendaries reeplace the normal pokemons lol)

 

[DanF2000]

Maybe try choosing a team of six and sticking with it? There'd be quite a bit of grinding involved in swapping out your team members that often, and being too underlevelled doesn't sound like much fun in this hack.

Thanks for the advice! I'm still unsure if I'll change this team around, but how do you reckon this would work in the game? Decidueye, Vikavolt, Golduck, Shiny Scrafty, Togekiss and Excadrill. I might see if I can EV train my pokemon and use SOS to get some better IV pokemon to help out.

 

[james19]

Hi Buffel! Can I ask you a question? Have you consider to make Berry piles pokemons not exclusive to them? Because the system to find them sucks: you have to wait 24 hours, you can check if there are differencs between sometimes (soft resets are useless in my experience) and most of the time I only get a Crabawler. Aipom, Burmy, Cherubi, I tried to find them for 4 days, and so far nothing. It's extremly tedious. Is there any chance to add them to another place? I'm doing a living dex btw

 

[Buffel Saft]

Really?!
Using what?

Citra: https://citra-emu.org/. It's pretty good at this point, still has a few minor issues but the Pokemon games work well enough for a playthrough.

Thanks for the advice! I'm still unsure if I'll change this team around, but how do you reckon this would work in the game? Decidueye, Vikavolt, Golduck, Shiny Scrafty, Togekiss and Excadrill. I might see if I can EV train my pokemon and use SOS to get some better IV pokemon to help out.

That team would work great, it'll definitely be good enough to handle the game.

Hi Buffel! Can I ask you a question? Have you consider to make Berry piles pokemons not exclusive to them? Because the system to find them sucks: you have to wait 24 hours, you can check if there are differencs between sometimes (soft resets are useless in my experience) and most of the time I only get a Crabawler. Aipom, Burmy, Cherubi, I tried to find them for 4 days, and so far nothing. It's extremly tedious. Is there any chance to add them to another place? I'm doing a living dex btw

Hey, there isn't much space left in the grass at this point; I could either have their evolved forms show up late in the game, or bump up the encounter rates for things that aren't Crabrawler to 100% in a few places. A few people have had problems with the berry encounters so they definitely need to be changed.

 

[#Not Important]

Oh thanks!

 

[Rayquaza Master 384]

Do you plan to update movesets with what was found in the Pokemon Home datamine recently, like Psychic Fangs Feraligatr and so forth?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Do you plan to update movesets with what was found in the Pokemon Home datamine recently, like Psychic Fangs Feraligatr and so forth?

Definitely, it'd be a shame to have half the dex missing their new moves.

 

[james19]

Please don't forget about the Berry Piles issue too! I still can't find anything but crabrawler on every. single. god damn. forsaken of god. route. lol

 

[Buffel Saft]

Please don't forget about the Berry Piles issue too! I still can't find anything but crabrawler on every. single. god damn. forsaken of god. route. lol

I'll make sure I go through the thread before updating so anything like that doesn't get missed.

 

[Jk Howling]

Heya! Doing another run through the game, something I noticed:

You boosted Walrein's physical attack to 90, but didn't give it any physical stab! The best it gets is Ice Fang, which is pretty weak being only 65bp.
I think he'd benefit a lot from learning Icicle Crash at some point. Aqua Tail would also be nice via levelup, instead of being locked to the very last beach out on Ula'ula, as that's pretty late in the game iirc.

These both combined with its access to Curse and the boost to its physical attack would make it fun to run, I think, especially given the coverage it already gets naturally in Crunch, Earthquake, etc.

 

[Rayquaza Master 384]

Heya! Doing another run through the game, something I noticed:

You boosted Walrein's physical attack to 90, but didn't give it any physical stab! The best it gets is Ice Fang, which is pretty weak being only 65bp.
I think he'd benefit a lot from learning Icicle Crash at some point. Aqua Tail would also be nice via levelup, instead of being locked to the very last beach out on Ula'ula, as that's pretty late in the game iirc.

These both combined with its access to Curse and the boost to its physical attack would make it fun to run, I think, especially given the coverage it already gets naturally in Crunch, Earthquake, etc.

Liquidation would be a good choice also. Looking at its level up set, maybe Aqua Tail around 40, Icicle Crash in the 50s, and Liquidation at 68 or so?

 

[Buffel Saft]

Heya! Doing another run through the game, something I noticed:

You boosted Walrein's physical attack to 90, but didn't give it any physical stab! The best it gets is Ice Fang, which is pretty weak being only 65bp.
I think he'd benefit a lot from learning Icicle Crash at some point. Aqua Tail would also be nice via levelup, instead of being locked to the very last beach out on Ula'ula, as that's pretty late in the game iirc.

These both combined with its access to Curse and the boost to its physical attack would make it fun to run, I think, especially given the coverage it already gets naturally in Crunch, Earthquake, etc.

Liquidation would be a good choice also. Looking at its level up set, maybe Aqua Tail around 40, Icicle Crash in the 50s, and Liquidation at 68 or so?

Those all sound like good ideas, I'll give it Avalanche and make Crunch an evolution move too. Didn't realize just how bad Walrein's level up move pool was.

 

[Jk Howling]

Also just noticed Paniola Town is missing from the Wild Pokemon Locations document. Is the fishing spot there unchanged in terms of encounters? Normally it's just Magikarp or Barboach there.
I don't see Hau'oli City's surf table listed either. Nvm found that under a different section oops.

 

[bdknight]

I'm looking for a Dartrix in the Vast Poni Canyon but in both patches of grass I only find Torracat. Can someone else confirm this?

I'm playing Photonic Sun Rebalanced :)

I managed to find it :D
If anyone else is also looking for it, it should be found in the grass located to the right of the location shown in the screenshot present in the documentation (there's also a black belt trainer next to it).

When you follow the story and enter the canyon, you will find 2 patches of grass (before the ones referenced in the screenshot) where Torracat is.

That for the great hack. I'm having a lot of fun! :D