Hello everyone! So, picture this. Its 9am, I'm having breakfast and doomscrolling reddit (a time honored tradition), and I come across a post on the pokemon romhacks subreddit about a hack called Pokemon Financial Stability. With that great of a name, I decide to check it out and play it. Five hours of gameplay later, I realize this is one of the most fun rom hacks I've played in a long time, and that I really want to do a Let's Play of it. So, without further ado, lets get into it!
This will be a vanilla playthrough, although with Battle Mode = Set and no using the bag in battle. Also, if anyone is interested, the documentation for the hack is right here.
Now lets get into it!
Once again, brilliant, brilliant name for a hack.
Standard standard standard
The Potion in the PC has been replaced with one Level Candy.
The starter options are Sentret, Rattata and Zigzagoon. Furret has been given Huge Power in this hack, so it is clearly the best choice for that, however, we are not actually going to use any of these. We also dont want to give our rival a Huge Power Furret, so we cant pick Rattata. That lowers the pool down to Sentret and Zigzagoon. Now, it is much better to have a Run Away mon in the early game, and Zigzagoon doesnt get Run Away, so we do indeed just end up going with Sentret, resetting until we get one with Run Away.
Nature and stats do not matter
We win the first battle down to the wire, and get $80 for our trouble.
Theres a hidden Nugget right here that we pick up.
There is also a nugget here in Viridian that we pick up.
We deliver Oak's package, and we get 5 pokeballs for our trouble. This is actually really important, because we want to spend as little money on misc items as possible. 5 Pokeballs with resetting means we can catch 5 pokemon for free, essentially. And I already know which 5 I want.
Our first stop is the Mart. After selling our two nuggets, we have 13580. The Amulet Coin is incredibly important to have, so we buy that right away.
After that, we spend all our remaining money on Level Candies.
We also pick up a Potion from this guy.
Our bag looks like this afterwards.
Now to do some catching!
Theres absolutely nothing on Route 1 that is worth our limited catching power, so I reset in the newly added grass of Viridian City until we can encounter our first team member.
Swampert has had 20 taken from its attack to put 10 into both defenses, but it is still a powerhouse of a pokemon to have here. Mudkip can have either Swift Swim or Torrent. I reset until I get a Swift Swim one.
Next, we go to Route 22, and reset until we can catch this nice Modest Bellsprout. Bellsprout is useful because it is fast, has Chlorophyll, and learns both Sleep Powder and Poison Powder. Bulbasaur also fills these rolls, but Bellsprout comes at Level 12, while Bulbasaur comes at Level 10, and I felt saving 1k was worth a slightly inferior mon.
Treecko is our next pickup. We reset until we get one with Serene Grace. Sceptile has had 20 taken from attack and put into Sp.Atk, giving it a 125 Sp.Atk stat. In addition, it is now a Grass/Dragon type. Sceptile can have either Serene Grace or Hustle. Since it has lower attack to begin with now, Serene Grace is clearly the better option for Dragonbreath and the like.
There is also this dude in Viridian who is walking on water. Excited to see what his deal is when we pick up Surf.
The next thing we do is give Mudkip the Amulet Coin and go do the optional Rival fight on Route 22.
I forgot to record how much money he gives us. We will be better about that in the future.
There is also this new house in Viridian City.
OH NO
Ah shit...
Hmm. Nevermind.
(also yes I remembered to Amulet Coin this battle).
Even if the choice of a free mon wasnt worth our time, the prize money of 4000 for this free battle 100% is.
Now, we can catch all the starter mons in the wild. In here, however, whichever mon we pick up is going to be at Level 5. Wild starter mons are Level 10. Thats $2500 to get whatever we choose here upto just the starting point, vs just the 200 of a pokeball for the wild pokemon. I wouldnt even bother with any of these choices, except that Squirtle gets Drizzle. Even at Level 5, that makes it an insane supporting choice. Blastoise is probably also really good, but I feel like the other weather starter (Drought Charmander) leans a little more offensive, so its more important for Charm to be higher level. So I decide to just pick Squirtle here.
Lets goooo
Shame the +Sp.Atk nature was wasted on a level 5 mon tbh but whattarya gonna do.
Next, we head to Route 2 to pick up our next mon.
This thing is SUCH an insane pickup so early. Jolly Nature is pretty good, I would have preferred something +Def or +Atk, but -Sp.Atk is about as good as I could hope for.
Skarm has also been buffed from Vanilla in this. It gets -5 in HP, but +40 in Defense, bringing it up to 180 defense. I dont think there is anything else as broken as this in the early game, phenomenal mon.
I pick up a couple more hidden items on Route 2.
Theres also an Antidote in Viridian Forest.
Now, we have one more pokeball left before our stock from Oak runs out. And theres one clear winner in Viridian Forest.
Another insane early game pickup for us.
Heracross stats are unchanged, but it gets some nice movepool additions early that we will take advantage of.
We sell our Nugget and spend all our money on Level Candies, bringing our total upto 36.
And now to start using them.
We use 5 candies on Bellsprout to get it to Level 17, teaching it Sleep Powder and Poison Powder. We use another 7 on Skarmory, bringing it up to Level 13, where it learns Swift. It also learn Sand Attack on the way, which has been changed to be a 10BP damaging ground type move that always lowers accuracy, and has been changed to have 5PP.
Our party looks like this at the end (I put Squirtle in the box).
And now, its time to go to Viridian Forest.
We have 368 to start.
We pick up this hidden Nugget here (the map has been redone)
We put the Amulet Coin on Skarmory, who solos the entire forest. This guy has a Level 13 Weedle and a Level 13 Spinarak.
The other guy (on the left) has a Caterpie, Surskit and Wrumple at Level 13.
This guy has a Cascoon and a Silcoon, both Level 19. Very annoying honestly, since Harden has been nerfed to 5PP, making them both Struggle, which has been buffed to 70PP. Peck doesnt do a lot to even +1 cocoons.
This guy has Kakuna and Metapod, Level 19, and Ledyba Level 15.
There is also a Nugget here that I forgot to record picking up.
This guy has a full team. They are: Butterfree 15, Beedrill 15, Dustox 16, Beautifly 16, Ledian 17, Ariados 17. I healed to full before this fight, but this still took a toll on poor Skarm, who is underlevelled as hell right now.
And now Pewter City!
There are some nice pokemon to catch here, but we should get the gym out of the way first.
Also, lore update I guess
Wtf is Brock doing here if hes not the leader
Interesting
He has a Geodude and an Onix. Onix is Rock/Dragon with 55/45/170/20/170/80 stats. Very annoying to take down, so I use Bellsprout Vine Whip to one shot the Geodude. Then I Poison Powder the Onix before going down to 2 Dragonbreaths. Skarm comes in and spams Sand Attack, then Peck until Onix dies to Poison, narrowly avoiding getting taking down itself. For our trouble, we get a nice 4000.
Skarm and Bellsprout have taken us this far, but they will need some help for the rest of the gym.
So I sell off my nuggets, and use all my remaining money to buy Level Candies. I get 24 in total, bringing my total upto 48. After that, I use 16 candies on Heracross, getting it to Level 23. It learns Twinneedle, Brick Break and Counter. After this, we have 32 Candies remaining.
Roxanne has a very threatening Level 18 Corsola, and a Level 20 Nosepass. Corsola is now a Ghost/Rock with 105/55/105/65/105/35 stats. We use Bellsprout to Poison it and Vine Whip it before it goes down to HP Ice. After that, we use our Level 10 Mudkip to whittle away at it before it dies, after which Hera comes in and Twinneedles it twice, taking a HP Ice in the process. Nosepass comes in afterwards. Nosepass has been changed to Rock/Steel here, so it goes down handily to a single Brick Break.
Leader time!
He has two Pokemon: a Level 1 FEAR Rattata with Focus Band instead of Focus Sash, and a Level 20 Banded Rattata with Quick Attack.
Two Brick Breaks. In truth, there was nothing to fear from the FEAR rattata, it does not try to use Endeavor on the first turn, so even if the Focus Band procs, it would need to proc two times in a row for the strategy to work.
We get Rock Tomb for our trouble
I also remember and go back and pick up this one nugget on Route 1 that I forgot earlier.
We buy two pokeballs, then spend the rest of our money on Level Candies, bringing our total to 55.
And we will leave it off at that!
5
10
23
13
10
17
5
Thats all for this update! See you guys soon!
Pokemon Financial Stability is a romhack of Pokemon FireRed with a very fun twist on the formula: You cannot gain EXP or EVs through battle. Instead, you can purchase Rare Candies (renamed to Level Candies because they are not rare lmao) at every pokemart. All ways to get infinite money have been removed from the game, and the creator has added multiple hidden nuggets to the various routes and towns. Pokemon have been rebalanced, moves have been added and changed, and all pokemon from gens 1-3 are available in the wild. The story seems to be the same so far, but there are new maps for most areas that I've discovered, and new boss battles that are tougher. Regular trainers are also bumped up from vanilla.
All in all, the game rewards preparation and long term thinking, as well as conserving the resources you have. The balancing changes are a mix of unique and fan favorites, and it really incentivizes exploration and fighting all the trainers you can, which is something I really love in a hack.
All in all, the game rewards preparation and long term thinking, as well as conserving the resources you have. The balancing changes are a mix of unique and fan favorites, and it really incentivizes exploration and fighting all the trainers you can, which is something I really love in a hack.
This will be a vanilla playthrough, although with Battle Mode = Set and no using the bag in battle. Also, if anyone is interested, the documentation for the hack is right here.
Now lets get into it!
Once again, brilliant, brilliant name for a hack.
Standard standard standard
The Potion in the PC has been replaced with one Level Candy.
The starter options are Sentret, Rattata and Zigzagoon. Furret has been given Huge Power in this hack, so it is clearly the best choice for that, however, we are not actually going to use any of these. We also dont want to give our rival a Huge Power Furret, so we cant pick Rattata. That lowers the pool down to Sentret and Zigzagoon. Now, it is much better to have a Run Away mon in the early game, and Zigzagoon doesnt get Run Away, so we do indeed just end up going with Sentret, resetting until we get one with Run Away.
Nature and stats do not matter
We win the first battle down to the wire, and get $80 for our trouble.
Theres a hidden Nugget right here that we pick up.
There is also a nugget here in Viridian that we pick up.
We deliver Oak's package, and we get 5 pokeballs for our trouble. This is actually really important, because we want to spend as little money on misc items as possible. 5 Pokeballs with resetting means we can catch 5 pokemon for free, essentially. And I already know which 5 I want.
Our first stop is the Mart. After selling our two nuggets, we have 13580. The Amulet Coin is incredibly important to have, so we buy that right away.
After that, we spend all our remaining money on Level Candies.
We also pick up a Potion from this guy.
Our bag looks like this afterwards.
Now to do some catching!
Theres absolutely nothing on Route 1 that is worth our limited catching power, so I reset in the newly added grass of Viridian City until we can encounter our first team member.
Swampert has had 20 taken from its attack to put 10 into both defenses, but it is still a powerhouse of a pokemon to have here. Mudkip can have either Swift Swim or Torrent. I reset until I get a Swift Swim one.
Next, we go to Route 22, and reset until we can catch this nice Modest Bellsprout. Bellsprout is useful because it is fast, has Chlorophyll, and learns both Sleep Powder and Poison Powder. Bulbasaur also fills these rolls, but Bellsprout comes at Level 12, while Bulbasaur comes at Level 10, and I felt saving 1k was worth a slightly inferior mon.
Treecko is our next pickup. We reset until we get one with Serene Grace. Sceptile has had 20 taken from attack and put into Sp.Atk, giving it a 125 Sp.Atk stat. In addition, it is now a Grass/Dragon type. Sceptile can have either Serene Grace or Hustle. Since it has lower attack to begin with now, Serene Grace is clearly the better option for Dragonbreath and the like.
There is also this dude in Viridian who is walking on water. Excited to see what his deal is when we pick up Surf.
The next thing we do is give Mudkip the Amulet Coin and go do the optional Rival fight on Route 22.
I forgot to record how much money he gives us. We will be better about that in the future.
There is also this new house in Viridian City.
OH NO
Ah shit...
Hmm. Nevermind.
(also yes I remembered to Amulet Coin this battle).
Even if the choice of a free mon wasnt worth our time, the prize money of 4000 for this free battle 100% is.
Now, we can catch all the starter mons in the wild. In here, however, whichever mon we pick up is going to be at Level 5. Wild starter mons are Level 10. Thats $2500 to get whatever we choose here upto just the starting point, vs just the 200 of a pokeball for the wild pokemon. I wouldnt even bother with any of these choices, except that Squirtle gets Drizzle. Even at Level 5, that makes it an insane supporting choice. Blastoise is probably also really good, but I feel like the other weather starter (Drought Charmander) leans a little more offensive, so its more important for Charm to be higher level. So I decide to just pick Squirtle here.
Lets goooo
Shame the +Sp.Atk nature was wasted on a level 5 mon tbh but whattarya gonna do.
Next, we head to Route 2 to pick up our next mon.
This thing is SUCH an insane pickup so early. Jolly Nature is pretty good, I would have preferred something +Def or +Atk, but -Sp.Atk is about as good as I could hope for.
Skarm has also been buffed from Vanilla in this. It gets -5 in HP, but +40 in Defense, bringing it up to 180 defense. I dont think there is anything else as broken as this in the early game, phenomenal mon.
I pick up a couple more hidden items on Route 2.
Theres also an Antidote in Viridian Forest.
Now, we have one more pokeball left before our stock from Oak runs out. And theres one clear winner in Viridian Forest.
Another insane early game pickup for us.
Heracross stats are unchanged, but it gets some nice movepool additions early that we will take advantage of.
We sell our Nugget and spend all our money on Level Candies, bringing our total upto 36.
And now to start using them.
We use 5 candies on Bellsprout to get it to Level 17, teaching it Sleep Powder and Poison Powder. We use another 7 on Skarmory, bringing it up to Level 13, where it learns Swift. It also learn Sand Attack on the way, which has been changed to be a 10BP damaging ground type move that always lowers accuracy, and has been changed to have 5PP.
Our party looks like this at the end (I put Squirtle in the box).
And now, its time to go to Viridian Forest.
We have 368 to start.
We pick up this hidden Nugget here (the map has been redone)
We put the Amulet Coin on Skarmory, who solos the entire forest. This guy has a Level 13 Weedle and a Level 13 Spinarak.
The other guy (on the left) has a Caterpie, Surskit and Wrumple at Level 13.
This guy has a Cascoon and a Silcoon, both Level 19. Very annoying honestly, since Harden has been nerfed to 5PP, making them both Struggle, which has been buffed to 70PP. Peck doesnt do a lot to even +1 cocoons.
This guy has Kakuna and Metapod, Level 19, and Ledyba Level 15.
There is also a Nugget here that I forgot to record picking up.
This guy has a full team. They are: Butterfree 15, Beedrill 15, Dustox 16, Beautifly 16, Ledian 17, Ariados 17. I healed to full before this fight, but this still took a toll on poor Skarm, who is underlevelled as hell right now.
And now Pewter City!
There are some nice pokemon to catch here, but we should get the gym out of the way first.
Also, lore update I guess
Wtf is Brock doing here if hes not the leader
Interesting
He has a Geodude and an Onix. Onix is Rock/Dragon with 55/45/170/20/170/80 stats. Very annoying to take down, so I use Bellsprout Vine Whip to one shot the Geodude. Then I Poison Powder the Onix before going down to 2 Dragonbreaths. Skarm comes in and spams Sand Attack, then Peck until Onix dies to Poison, narrowly avoiding getting taking down itself. For our trouble, we get a nice 4000.
Skarm and Bellsprout have taken us this far, but they will need some help for the rest of the gym.
So I sell off my nuggets, and use all my remaining money to buy Level Candies. I get 24 in total, bringing my total upto 48. After that, I use 16 candies on Heracross, getting it to Level 23. It learns Twinneedle, Brick Break and Counter. After this, we have 32 Candies remaining.
Roxanne has a very threatening Level 18 Corsola, and a Level 20 Nosepass. Corsola is now a Ghost/Rock with 105/55/105/65/105/35 stats. We use Bellsprout to Poison it and Vine Whip it before it goes down to HP Ice. After that, we use our Level 10 Mudkip to whittle away at it before it dies, after which Hera comes in and Twinneedles it twice, taking a HP Ice in the process. Nosepass comes in afterwards. Nosepass has been changed to Rock/Steel here, so it goes down handily to a single Brick Break.
Leader time!
He has two Pokemon: a Level 1 FEAR Rattata with Focus Band instead of Focus Sash, and a Level 20 Banded Rattata with Quick Attack.
Two Brick Breaks. In truth, there was nothing to fear from the FEAR rattata, it does not try to use Endeavor on the first turn, so even if the Focus Band procs, it would need to proc two times in a row for the strategy to work.
We get Rock Tomb for our trouble
I also remember and go back and pick up this one nugget on Route 1 that I forgot earlier.
We buy two pokeballs, then spend the rest of our money on Level Candies, bringing our total to 55.
And we will leave it off at that!
Level Candy: 55
Pokeball: 2
Nuggets: 2
Pokeball: 2
Nuggets: 2
5 10 23 13 10 17 5Thats all for this update! See you guys soon!
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48
40
16
55
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