Gym Leader Rework

[Shizeria]

Hello everyone!

 

Every Gym Leader has been reworked! The following has been changed:

 

• Gym Leaders now have better dialogs and more balanced teams.
• An often requested feature, Gym Leader can now be rechallenged after completing their region! They're stronger than regular trainers, but weaker than bosses.
• Every Gym is now assigned a unique TM, both used by the Gym Leader and sold by the Gym Guide. Due to this, various TMs and Tutor Moves may now be obtained from different locations.

 

Furthermore, a new NPC, Copycat Lamsie, makes her appearance nearby Gyms. She will copy the team of the latest player who won against the Gym Leader, and you will be able to fight her for experience every time she copies a new team.

 

Here's the specifics for each change.

Regular Gym Leader Challenge:

• Most Gym Leaders got their dialogs rewritten, to be more complete and in-character.
• Money is always rewarded during battle instead of outside, and therefore scales with their level.
• Just like before, Gym Leaders will no longer give experience after you lose to them. However, they will give experience again if you wait a full day before rechallenging them.
• Their teams have been balanced to be better adapted for their level. Some of them have also changed level to better fit the expected level of the player.
• Gym Leaders now have EV points spread into all their stats. The higher their level, the more EV points they have, without going over the normal 510 limit.

Gym Leader Rematch:

• Gym Leaders are now available to be battled again once you complete the Elite Four of their region.
• You can expect them to be as strong as the Champion, if not a bit more.
• The final Gym Leader of a region is slightly stronger, and always have one Mega Pokemon in their team.
• Gym Leader Rematches reward experience and items related to their type, but no money. They might be good for getting the last few levels of a Pokemon?
• Gym Leader Rematches have a cooldown of 7 days, regardless of if you have won or lost.

TM Sellers:

• Every Gym now has a unique TM assigned to it, which cannot be purchased anywhere else. Due to this design decision, certain Gym Leaders were assigned TMs that they never used in the original games.
• The first purchase of a TM is half price, making it easier of access during story. The next purchases are full price, or 5 for the price of 4, just like before.
• Due to the new distribution of TMs, some TMs such as Roost are no longer available outside of the Gym, while other moves such as Energy Ball are now taught or sold elsewhere. Every TM and Move Tutor available before the update still remain available somewhere.
• We have also balanced the prices to be more consistent and representative of the power of the move. Right now, this is only applied on the affected TMs and Tutors, but it is planned to rebalance all of them in the future.
• Department Stores now have two TM sellers, one of which always have the same selection of TMs regardless of the region. The more badges you have completed in the region, the better the TMs they will sell!
• A new TM seller is now in Fuchsia City. She sells TMs that were exclusive to Generation 1, and as such, that can only be taught to the original 151 Pokemon.

Copycat Lamsie:

• Lamsie becomes available to fight whenever you defeat the corresponding Gym Leader.
• Her team will be the exact same as the team of the player who last defeated the Gym Leader. However, she will ignore teams that she judges are too strong, usually as a result of trading with another player.
• Fighting her rewards experience, but no money. It can be a cool way to gain levels if you feel you're too weak, or if you want to train a new Pokemon.
• Her cooldown lasts until she copies a new team. That is, the more people are doing Story, the smaller her cooldown will be.

Specific changes:

• The stats of Viridian's Gym Leader's Pokemon have been adjusted. It now has less offensive stats, but a lot more HP, just like a mini-boss. This should make it easier for many Pokemon to be able to contribute to the fight without relying to cheese strategies.
• Just like in the original games, Blue replaces Viridian's Gym Leader after completing Kanto's Pokemon League. He will be the one offering the rematch instead of the original Gym Leader.
• Tate and Liza are no longer separate NPCs to fight. You will fight both of them at the same time, although still as a regular battle style.
• Juan has been removed. You only need to fight Wallace to receive Sootopolis' badge.

 

If you have any feedback regarding the Gym Leader rework, let us know! I'm particularly looking for the following feedback:

 

• Is there any Gym Leader that you feel is too strong or too weak?
• Have you found any team copied by Copycat Lamsie that you feel should have been ignored?

 

We will be keeping track of your feedback and may adjust the features as needed to keep everything balanced.

[Starlight]

I like the specific changes except the Juan part - please bring back Juan as GL (or at least as a boss somewhere in Hoenn?), I like him

 

Maybe have a rotation where every 7 days the Sootopolis GL changes between Juan and Wallace?

[Unionjess]

Love these additions, Copycat should help make things a lot less grindy for new players going through Hoenn/Sinnoh. 

Edited June 19, 2021 by UnionJess

[Shizeria]

16 minutes ago, Starlight said:

I like the specific changes except the Juan part - please bring back Juan as GL (or at least as a boss somewhere in Hoenn?), I like him

 

Maybe have a rotation where every 7 days the Sootopolis GL changes between Juan and Wallace?

 

Yeah, I'm aware some people could prefer one over the other, but this was the logical choice. From a story point of view, Juan only replaced Wallace because he became the Champion, but we still have Steven as the Champion. Furthermore, there has never been any Gym that required the challenger to fight two Gym Leaders separately. From a gameplay point of view, they just had similar teams, so there was no point to fight both.

 

That said, Juan is still a character that exists in the world of PRO. We'll definitely look into seeing how we could potentially reintroduce Juan, maybe as a Boss, or as a Quest character. For now, the focus was on giving a new life to the Gym Leaders and all that rotates around them.

[Finlandguy]

I do like about Gym leader rework and its possible that i can show my skills to gym leader that i once fought them before, but i'm jealous that some of TMs and Tutor moves have been removed from gyms, like Thunderbolt from vermilion gym, Flamethrower from cinnabar gym, Toxic from fuchsia gym, Psychic from saffron gym, Earthquake from viridian gym and Ice beam from mahogany gym. if i'm not able to find and buying them from those gyms anymore, then where else i can buy them?

[Shizeria]

2 minutes ago, finlandguy said:

I do like about Gym leader rework and its possible that i can show my skills to gym leader that i once fought them before, but i'm jealous that some of TMs and Tutor moves have been removed from gyms, like Thunderbolt from vermilion gym, Flamethrower from cinnabar gym, Toxic from fuchsia gym, Psychic from saffron gym, Earthquake from viridian gym and Ice beam from mahogany gym. if i'm not able to find and buying them from those gyms anymore, then where else i can buy them?

 

Don't worry, all the TMs are still available somewhere! Making the players search for them is not one of the goals, so we're looking to update you all with the information. In the meanwhile, I'm open to answer regarding specific TMs.

 

For the TMs you have asked, Toxic, Psychic and Earthquake have not moved, they are still available in the same Gyms. Flamethrower, Thunderbolt and Ice Beam are now available in every Department Store, but you will need at least 6 badges of the corresponding region.

[Kandamaas02]

Damn should drop some money even just for 500

[Shizeria]

30 minutes ago, kandamaas02 said:

Damn should drop some money even just for 500

The Gym Leaders do drop money for their Badge battle, although it now happens inside the battle window instead of outside. As such, the amount scales with the level of their Pokemon. The received amount may thus be lower for the earlier gyms, and higher for the later gyms.

 

As for rematches and Copycat Lamsie, we preferred to have them focused as a leveling up method, along with item rewards for the Gym Rematches. It could be something to add for the rematches, but for Copycat Lamsie, since she's a trainer that you can technically keep battling over and over as players keep doing Story, it would potentially become a large money income, hence why we preferred to keep her specialized as a leveling method.

[Masqueradeball]

where is energy ball tm/tutor?

[Shizeria]

1 hour ago, MasqueradeBall said:

where is energy ball tm/tutor?

Energy Ball got swapped directly with Grass Knot. So Grass Knot is now at Eterna Gym, while Energy Ball is at one of Love Island's Houses.