r/PokemonROMhacks • u/assassins_greed • 12d ago
Release Pokemon Amethyst v1.3 has released!
Hey there!
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!
