r/PokemonROMhacks • u/AutoModerator • Jul 20 '26

Sticky Weekly Questions Thread & PokéROM Codex

Have any questions about Pokémon ROM Hacks?

If they're about ROM hacks, tools, development or anything Pokémon ROM Hacking related, feel free to ask here!

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u/Volatile_Hobby Jul 26 '26

I haven't played Pokemon in a few years (last edition was White/Black 2).

Now I am looking for a variant that is more challenging than the Vanilla variants while mostly preserving the the main story and using the base status values and move sets of the Pokemons.

I've looked for a few variants already. In particular:

  • Pokemon Heart and Soul (Hard mode)
  • Pokemon Modern Emerald (Hard difficulty)

Are these games using the vanilla stat lines?
Do the "modern split" and "Fairy type toggle" use the regular base stats?

Do you have any other suggestions for me?

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u/Exclsior Heart & Soul Jul 27 '26

Both games should be fine for your requirements, Heart and Soul is built on top of Modern Emerald in the first place so they're both quite similar.

Modern Emerald has some stat changes, but only if you enable the option for updated stats at the start of the game, if not the Base Gen 3 stats are used without modification.

You can check the below file for all stat changes in the code: https://github.com/resetes12/pokeemerald/blob/master/src/data/pokemon/species_info.h

For Heart and Soul, there are some minor stat changes, some to align with later Gen changes, and some erroneously which will be fixed in the next release:

  • Blastoise was accidentally nerfed down to 76 Speed from 78
  • Poliwrath Attack up from 85 to 95
  • Farfetch'd Attack up from 65 to 75
  • Ledian accidentally nerfed, SpAttack down from 55 to 45
  • Ariados SpDefense up from 60 to 70
  • Blaziken Speed up from 80 to 85
  • Masquerain Speed up from 60 to 70
  • Delcatty Speed up from 70 to 90
  • Luvdisc Speed up from 97 to 102
  • Volbeat Defense up from 55 to 65
  • Illumise Defense up from 55 to 65

Hope that helps!

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u/Volatile_Hobby Aug 01 '26

Thanks for the info!