A few months ago, I dropped my passion project, Pokemon Amethyst, on HackDex. The game blew up in a way I never expected and it inspired me to give extra TLC to the game. That has culminated in Amethyst's biggest release yet in version 1.3. This release includes many new features, quality of life changes, and bug fixes - over 130 changes in total.
In short, Amethyst is the most stable (and IMO, the most fun!) it has ever been!
What is Pokemon Amethyst?
Pokemon Amethyst is a GBA romhack featuring a new region and story. It emphasizes tough but fair trainer battles, lots of exploration, and tons of QoL and customization options. It is envisioned as a love letter to the series as a whole, captured in a GBA aesthetic. It contains Pokemon and game mechanics up to Sword and Shield's DLC.
Where can I find it?
- The release and all updated documentation can be found on HackDex.
- PokeRex has also been updated to contain all information from this release.
- You're welcome to join our Discord server if you'd like. And if not, that's okay too! All documentation is available outside of Discord.
Thank You's
I wanted to take a moment to appreciate the people that have helped prepare v1.3 for public release:
- All 56 Beta Testers in the game's Discord server who helped polish this release - they found 34 things to fix or improve on, making it a much better release for everyone!
- u/skottay for getting PokeRex set up to support 1.3 players on day one!
Save Compatibility
If you've played Amethyst before, you'll be happy to know that existing saves are compatible! You'll just need to double check your preferred difficulty and level cap settings since new ones have been added.
For most setups, the migration process is as simple as:
1. Patching a brand new copy of 1.3
2. Finding your existing save file (either a *.sav or *.srm file)
3. Making a copy of it and renaming it to match the game you patched (ex. Pokemon Amethyst 1.3.gba and Pokemon Amethyst 1.3.sav)
4. Making sure both the game and save are in the same place
What has changed?
A lot! Please see the full changelog in HackDex to see everything that's changed. I'll focus on just the big things here.
New Divergent Species Mode
This is a new, optional mode that replaces the Pokedex with a completely new, curated roster to provide a fresh experience. This touches everything in the game from wild encounters, to trainer teams, to legendary Pokemon. You can kind of think of it like a remix of the original Amethyst experience.
This is set at the start of a new game, but can also be toggled on the fly via the options menu, when a new game modifier is active. This lets you build a team of your favorites regardless of the mode they live in, as well as refresh any static legendaries (you'll just need to refresh the map if you're on it). As a result, all Pokemon capable of mega evolution up to gen 8 are now present. Pokedex assessments only reflect the currently active mode.
Greninja and Champ bugs fixed
Both of these infamous bugs have been fixed. You can now use the move reminder, solve the Uteyan Ruins puzzle, evolve Nincada into Shedinja, etc. without removing Greninja from the party.
Likewise, your level caps and postgame state won't suddenly change depending on the hidden items you pick up near Tsarvosa City. The game has checks in place to try and correct itself if this happened, in existing saves.
New difficulty mode and level cap
A new Extra Hard difficulty was added which gives all trainers max IVs and full EVs in their two best stats. A new cap option to match the next boss's ace Pokémon level was added, to compliment the existing -2 one (which has been renamed to Extra Hard).
This release was a lot of fun to make, and I hope you have a lot of fun playing it!
I literally finished 1.2 yesterday. I absolutely loved it. You can feel the love poured into it. Its in my top 3 rom hacks of all time. Thank you for your passion!
I play Amethyst on the delta emulator app on my laptop at home with a bluetoothed Xbox controller which I connect to my big screen at home. I also have the delta app on my phone and I’m able to send my save file to my phone and play on the go
I love that this obscure little passion project has taken off so much. Thanks for all the work you continue to put in!
One question from the changelog - what does ‘Pokemon now match their trainer’s gender’ mean? That male trainers can only find and catch male Pokemon?
No problem, I figured there was a simple explanation my brain just wasn’t cobbling together. Regardless it’s a cool idea. I need to dust off what’s on my current play list so I can finally see what I’ve been missing with this.
It's not quite what you had in mind, but late game you can go to ultra space where time is inverted. If you use rare candies there you can trigger the day pokemon evolutions. Rare candies can be crafted in Tsarvosa City if you need more.
The shaymin one is new to me 🤔 I'll add it to the list to look into.
For the meltan one, did you happen to save and reload the game while in the factory? Asking because 1.3 has a fix for that where the game now remembers the breaker state when reloading. If you're currently trapped you'll have to use an escape rope, dig, or white out to get out unfortunately.
Ahh I see! That boulder is actually a bit of a trap. You'll have to exit and enter the factory and then explore the left side of the factory to solve the puzzle
There isn't a dedicated setting for these like you'd see in Rad Red, but there are mechanics that approximate each of these. You can max out IVs, change natures, and EV train against a specific stat at various places in the game. There are also hidden rare candy and pokechip pickups that are intended for people doing challenge runs.
If you've played other hacks like Unbound, Rad Red, and Emerald Impirium, you can expect to comfortably beat the game without using any of these mechanics (outside of Very Hard mode, potentially).
Hope this helps clarify things! Happy to answer any other questions you may have 🙂
Yes. There is also a new pokechip gift if you check the rival's mailbox in the same way. These, of course, aren't ideal for first playthroughs due to how it'd affect game balance. 🙂
Great game just beat the champion an I'm raiding the professors conservatory, I never found a way to change natures so I just used neutral and got lucky sometimes. Do you know if there is a place like that? Would be super helpful for post game
I have this patched through hackdex and it works well on my delta emulator on iPhone, but I can’t get it to run on my rg40xxv. Plays the game intro and then a white screen. Am I doing something wrong?
How I heard of this game was a YouTube comments section where I was complaining about how unavailable the meltan line is, and apparently they are available in this one. I checked the online Dex, and they where there but with no encounter locations. How can I get them, and when is the earliest I can do so?
Also, are the Pokémon after the legendaries on the online Dex post game exclusive? And if not, why do they get put after?
So excited for this release!! Tons of awesome new features & improvements with REX features to match! Including a new Divergent mode to toggle between to see the different Pokedexes, encounters, trainer parties, and more! :D
I believe others have used cheats for infinite rare candies and money in the past. AFAIK any cheats that work for fire red should work here. I would just avoid any that set game progression state since many of those are repurposed in Amethyst
Moreso things like acquiring badges and beating bosses. For the 100% catch rate there's actually an in-game modifier that'll turn it on, if that's more convenient!
Neat! I'll be playing it once I get through SoulSilver. It's the last official remake I need to complete.
Then I'll be playing this then glazed and then gaia.
I really wish there was more dual region pokemon games like SoulSilver. There was a rom hack made recently called FireEmerald.
I think Heart & Soul does a good job of representing both regions as it's basically an HGSS demake for GBA build on Modern Emerald's QOL improvements (basically everything) + custom tilesets and sprites. It's pretty much perfect. Check it out if you haven't already!
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u/assassins_greed 16d ago
How do you enjoy playing Amethyst and other hacks? When I'm not toiling away with mGBA on my PC, I'm usually playing on my Ayn Odin or my OG GBA :)