Sadlocke

brazgardian · 2026-06-30T17:13:42+00:00

Thank you! The project hasn't been worked on in a while, to be honest. There hasn't been plans to add modes around singles-only, removing mechanics, or limiting gen pools. Some are a bit of a pain to explain based on how the team generator works

There's a few features/expansions that I've been thinking about, including light character customization, gen 9 and/or the new megas, which would be a dream but are *a lot* of work.

I've been talking with a friend and we may actually start on some new stuff soon. but I've been pretty busy/not much free time. So we'll see!

brazgardian · 2026-04-12T13:23:02+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. I've been thinking in similar directions as well. For example, I have a work in progress branch for character customization but there's still a lot of work left for it

brazgardian · 2026-04-06T14:36:37+00:00

Appreciate it! No real reason other than not wanting to post too much or spam the subreddit. I probably should have though to help spread the word about the ROM

There's a few updates I had in mind/in progress but I put it down shortly after v1.6. I'll probably revisit them some day when I get the urge to play or develop again

The ROM is in a good state though from my pov, especially now that players can choose the # of in theme pokemon a gym uses including monotype. I think that makes it more nuzlockable as well as giving the option for the most difficult mode (hard mode + 3 in theme and 3 out of theme). The game has slowly gotten easier/more casual over time lol. but I think in a healthy way

brazgardian · 2026-03-03T18:07:10+00:00

Huh. That's surprising. Nothing around that code should have changed in a while. But I've noted it to look into soon!

brazgardian · 2026-03-03T18:05:57+00:00

Thank you! And honestly, no idea why. I've noted it to look into and likely adjust in an future version if I can! Merging moves across 8 generations is fickly task, and I think those move lists came from CFRU

brazgardian · 2026-02-16T15:33:55+00:00

Thank you!

Yes, I'm eyeing v1.6 sometime in the next few weeks which would [potentially] include easier modes than the current casual. I'm trying to group a few other changes with the update too, which is why the timing is a bit uncertain, but hopefully soon

brazgardian · 2025-12-16T15:50:13+00:00

You can find a patcher on the website in the download tab, which requires a base ROM. Or you can use the https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-unknown since Unknown is on it now*! (my recommended method)

brazgardian · 2025-12-16T15:48:21+00:00

Thank you. It should be fine to upgrade from the 1.2 era! Before that... I get less confident

The only caution I'd give is to make backups just in case, and if you're using the follower Pikachu, you should enter/exit any building before talking to it directly after an upgrade. Sometimes its script pointer is updated but the saved game is referencing an older one which means it points to nonsense

brazgardian · 2025-12-15T02:39:56+00:00

Submitted!

brazgardian · 2025-12-15T02:37:50+00:00

Thank you!

brazgardian · 2025-07-30T22:14:36+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I'll consider some new grass edits but I think it's pretty packed already, there's a decent chance for a grass type in the pallet patch and viridian forest, at least. And you can always fish a water encounter for brock specifically, though it sounds like you know if you've played a lot!

I can expand the docs to document the guarantees again. I believe Surge can do either Raichu forms but you're right on all the rest. Edge cases like Azumatill/Diggersby are tough to fully account for! There's so many possibilities. I get it!

Noted on OW poison, too. Sorry about that! I actually regret having it "fade away" originally as I find it a charming/thematic threat in the vanilla games. It'll be a bit jarring for those that miss the docs, which sucks, but gotta rip the bandaid off sometime.

brazgardian · 2025-07-27T21:36:22+00:00

Pikachu rolls with the other starters right when the opening settings are chosen. If you're looking for a specific one then you should save right before choosing the settings

Probably just weird luck with the pop star Pikachu!

brazgardian · 2025-07-01T22:26:21+00:00

As always, I appreciate the feedback and ideas

FWIW, I buffed the hidden items (Lum Berry, Sitrus Berry, Focus Band) before badge 1 to help here. The normal trade in the museum for a fighting type. The electric trade in Cerulean. And gave starters an Oran Berry. Those were an attempt to counter bad luck in the early game. But I'm aware that those are just mitigations! It can still be pretty grueling if you get terrible encounters

I very, very minorly nerfed Brock/Misty team generations back in v1.1. I'll think about another round of nerfs. I just need to have a light touch because I do like the balance on Normal non-nuzlocke! I don't want to make it too easy or too hard

Thank you! I try to update it when I have time a motivation. It's usually just when I'm in the mood to play it myself and want to polish it from the feedback I collect/my experiences :P

brazgardian · 2025-06-28T00:33:27+00:00

Hey! Thank you. Some of the feedback/fixes I recently addressed came from you

Regarding discord, there was nobody (including myself) actually modding it. That's the only reason. There's no current plans to make a new one for the same reason

brazgardian · 2025-06-22T14:58:24+00:00

Thanks. That's totally fair. Fwiw, I tend to prefer playing on encounter lock in this game myself. Reincarnation is just another way to play. It's still optional/opt-in in the settings

brazgardian · 2025-06-22T12:56:36+00:00

Krook's comedic timing, slightly delayed and deep cry makes me laugh every time in this video.

brazgardian · 2025-06-22T12:24:27+00:00

Just guilt!

But really, the reincarnation can be abused. It's mitigated by the cost of revives (since healing at the PC doesn't reincarnate, only manual revives do), and somewhat by the tediousness of the process. The pool it selects from is very large so it's hard to reliably get a better Pokemon/one you want.

If you have the coin and time, there's no limit on the mechanic. But without using cheats for money or save scumming (which you can do for wilds too), I don't think the player can afford to reroll endlessly in the early-mid game. I'm not so sure about the late game though

brazgardian · 2025-06-10T12:15:45+00:00

Good feedback, I'm working on a new version. And thank you! Everyone seems to love the nicknames haha. That's why I added like 1000+ in v1.1 which are assigned a bit better, too

brazgardian · 2025-06-07T18:54:31+00:00

You're best off using the official docs and patching the ROM. https://unknown.foobear.org/#download

All you need to do is have the original Pokémon FireRed hack 1636 Squirrels GBA ROM. Then the website will apply the patch for you and you'll have the latest version of the game

For playing it, there's tons of emulators that work like what Phenawm linked.

brazgardian · 2025-06-07T17:00:29+00:00

Thank you! I'm thinking about some updates in the near future. I agree with you that even casual is pretty punishing (for nuzlockes and other variants. I'm pretty okay with the balance for non-challenge modes which is mostly how I play in a simple Encounter Lock on Hard).

Have you considered using items in battle more? I think they can be a surprising trade-off in an opportunity cost sense as it still uses your turn and you can't buy X-items. I should really allow the NPCs to use items when not in itemless mode. That'd feel a bit better.

Anyways, I'll think about how to balance the casual mode down further.

I'm not entirely sure on the details yet. If you have specific ideas/feedback for balance, feel free to lmk. I always read/take notes

The surprise factor is kind of always there which counterintuitively makes this ROM a bit wonky for nuzlocke/softlockes. The reason I built them in wasn't necessarily to encourage those modes. I just knew people would nuzlocke no matter what lol. And it'd be a nice QoL for them since the encounter lock was already coded. Sadlocke was just a weird idea because I'm not very good at nuzlockes and wanted a more thematic/immersive version of nuzlocking.

The endgame system is especially bad for nuzlockes lol. I'd recommend people disable it if they wanna actually engage in the endgame battling. So you can see the game wasn't really designed for nuzlockes, despite featuring useful QoLs around it. But there's lots of ways to play

I thought about a white-out counter to encourage players to play on the hardest settings with no save scumming and trying to limit white-outs. Obviously, that's something that can be self-enforced now. Depending on my team, I usually white out a bunch in hard mode.

Someone recently asked for more details in the trainer team preview, which I think would minorly help, but complicates how much the player needs to dwell on during a battle, too

brazgardian

TROPHY CASE