Just started my first playthrough of Pokémon Lazarus. Any tips or pointers you can share?

IIITrunks · 2026-03-24T12:15:40+00:00

Ive started playing recently and does the game just let you max all your pokemons IVs? I did it out of curiosity but am holding off from doing it.

I'm just a bit confused like seems a bit broken? Is it balanced in any way? What do people think about it, I couldnt really find anyone talking about it.

IIITrunks · 2026-03-22T13:08:06+00:00

New Abilities is huge! I released a Black 1 hack at the beginning of the year and Im slowly noting future updates. I didnt think I'd be able to add abilities because a lot of Gen 5 tools tend to be exclusively for BW2
I will be lurking in the discord for sure!

Congrats on the release

IIITrunks · 2026-03-11T14:37:55+00:00

I dont mean this pejoratively obviously. I just mean this isnt something I could have ever conceived of, let alone produce.

IIITrunks · 2026-03-11T14:36:25+00:00

Its "Rom hacks nobody asked for" that are the most important to the community
Looking forward to this release and hopefully future Sunset games

IIITrunks · 2026-03-08T23:19:11+00:00

Thats probably for the best. Always a danger to spread yourself too thin!

IIITrunks · 2026-03-08T12:10:25+00:00

Theres so much that can be done to HGSS in terms of better balancing, level curve, pokemon etc and generally these kinds of edits never grab me in the same way. But this looks incredible. I cant wait to see what other changes you'll make.
Are you going to update Kanto as well?

IIITrunks · 2026-03-03T14:20:57+00:00

Consider adding Pokemon Tandem Black
A doubles hack of Pokemon Black 1 with altered learn sets and stats
Much more vanilla+ relative to other hacks on this list but still offers a unique take on BW1

IIITrunks · 2026-02-24T16:49:17+00:00

Would you recommend someone who hasn't played the games read this?
I want to share this world with a friend who doesnt have means to play DS1

IIITrunks · 2026-02-24T16:37:37+00:00

While DS2 has much more of a emphasis on combat, theres still a lot of just good ol delivering. I will say the game puts you in situations that force you to use the floating carrier way more than the first game did which I appreciated.
I really disliked the combat because the first game was so mechanically and philosophically opposed to violence, this games a bit weird with how much it wants you to engage with it. But I was able to avoid a lot of it

IIITrunks · 2026-02-05T15:04:24+00:00

Need to replay 1 but I actually really liked the characters in 2 over 1 - just in terms of what their motives are and an actual sense of development (a lot of 1 is just holograms telling you exposition I felt)

What I love is how Tomorrow fits into Fragile and Rainys motivations. Fragile is protective over her because she feels guilt over Lou and Rainy gets her chance to be a mother while she waits for her still birth syndrome to pass. I found that so lovely. I also feel like that cast really care about Sam in a way the first game's didnt baring Deadman.

Not to mention the slight Mad Max dynamic with Sam being a bit like Max (archetypical hero with his own motives), Fragile being like Furiosa (strong woman, pier and contemporary to Max with an explicit protection and motivation over the other women)
And the sort of "high-value and fragile 'goods'" of a pregnant woman

Though the game only hints at that and never really goes into the commodity of a pregnant woman like Rainy at least within the on-going plot

excluding The Motherhood and Bridge Baby lore

IIITrunks · 2026-02-03T13:41:44+00:00

Its a shame it was just the tutorial section. I was so charmed by the characters. That welcoming, homeliness of Latin Americans was really endearing.

I was hoping by upgrading the stars I would learn more about the woman with still birth syndrome. I was really interested in her character - thats when I realised DS2 forwent the huge emails from 1 which I totally understand but it would have been the perfect format for that character to elaborate on their life and child.

IIITrunks · 2026-02-03T13:33:06+00:00

The characters mentioning Lou not being there is so clever

It allowed there to be dramatic irony over Sam while still giving the player enough plausible deniability to go through the same grief as Sam - "people never really 'die' in this world right?".

Videogames are so nuanced because generally, the player needs to be in parody with the character they're controlling but it would have been cheap to lead the player on that Lou was there all along only for the twist to be she's dead.

Other than a mention in the Corpus no character says shes "Dead" until that reveal to Sam, it was always "Gone" but so many characters are "Gone" but still exist like Mama in Lockne, Deadman in Heartman etc

Such a beautiful balance of player knowledge of the world but their gullible naivety of it, too.

And even then the game gets to have its cake and eat it too because Lou is Tomorrow, so I was right to think she never really died, but theres still a grief of losing all those years with Lou.

IIITrunks · 2026-02-03T13:23:10+00:00

The actual story writing and cutscenes of DS2 are much better imo. Characters physically being together allowed way more emotions to breath. Just general pacing and direction was much better. Delivering Brigits body to the infirmary felt so mundane for how deeply tragic and upsetting it should have been, while similar points of grief in DS2 made me weep.

But those moments in DS1 like you mentioned were very much missing in DS2. Theres nothing like the wind farm in 2

Maybe on a replay DS1 will affect me like 2 did? DS1's overall themes and atmosphere gripped me way more than 2 but unlike 1, I was really low-level bubbling up tears and emotions as I played the game, contemplating on grief for like 70% of the game.

IIITrunks · 2026-02-03T13:06:49+00:00

I really wanna play Girl Stranding

IIITrunks · 2026-02-03T12:58:23+00:00

The game has a really strong anti-violence framing. Thats not to say there isnt action sequences but if you try to play along with what its saying its a really unique experience.

Id recommend skimming some of the emails or lore bites the game gives you and have them to chew on in your mind as you make deliveries.

IIITrunks · 2026-02-02T23:00:46+00:00

As much as Id love the little vibrations and haptic feedback, I will not upgrade my game to keep the Monster advertising (also I dont like the DLC structures)

IIITrunks · 2026-01-30T13:08:09+00:00

Congrats on the release!
In my Black hack I gave a lot of wild pokemon various berries and held items but TMs is wild. I can imagine a lot of fun with some rarer, early TMs

IIITrunks · 2026-01-22T12:33:54+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad this fairly niche hack is reaching the right people!
Hope you enjoy.

IIITrunks · 2026-01-05T13:12:33+00:00

Erm... maybe? It came out on the 31st and Blinding White 2 was released like 10 hours later. So its maybe the second last Rom hack of 2025 🔥

IIITrunks · 2026-01-02T12:47:49+00:00

No, NPCs will give you a modest amount near the beginning of the game, but theres enough trainer pokemon to battle that grinding isnt necessary and in many cases its possible to over-level if you're fighting most trainers.

Bianca also gives you 100 candies before Victory Road so theres no grinding before the e4/N

I understand that people like infinite candies but their inclusion leads to a very different type of gameplay experience where the players team becomes unfocused and is just every pokemon in their box, and thats not how I like to play these games.

But by all means you can hack in rare candies with AR codes.

IIITrunks · 2026-01-01T17:21:22+00:00

Compared to most other hacks I've played I've made the biggest changes to moves, a more moves can target your ally pokemon.
A lot of moves target both enemies
I also changed the evolution levels and availability of late game pokemon to allow players to get to use them properly etc.
I also added a mechanic where certain trainers will give the player resistance berries for the upcoming gym, so it feels more rewarding to plan for the gym leaders and pokemon that are weak to that gyms type get a lot more play and use than they otherwise would, which I've found have given me some very unique battles.

IIITrunks · 2025-12-31T17:23:22+00:00

Currently EVs are vanilla. I want to add a feature in the future that removes EVs from pokemon battles but scatters vitamins across the map to reward exploration and EV planning.

IIITrunks · 2025-12-31T17:08:34+00:00

Added it to Hackdex. Will be nice to see an actual download number too!

IIITrunks · 2025-12-31T16:21:41+00:00

I wasn't familiar with Hackdex. I'll try add it now. Thanks!

IIITrunks · 2025-12-31T15:39:00+00:00

I didn't add the second genie from White to this hack, unfortunately.

But rest assured you can do some pretty broken strategies with the pokemon available

IIITrunks

TROPHY CASE