What is Hoenn Gaiden?
Welcome! Hoenn Gaiden is a Pet Mods format centred around gen 3 battle mechanics, and it is loosely based off of the tier of ADV OU as a reference point. Because of this, Hoenn Gaiden is a tier which strongly resembles ADV OU, but with some key notable additions + minor changes. Hoenn Gaiden, on top of its gen 3 engine, provides access to new custom content, such as buffed gen 3 Pokemon, later generation Pokemon, and even buffed later generation Pokemon. There are also a small few notable new attacks and new items as well that have been added to the mod as bonus content.
Okay cool, but what IS Hoenn Gaiden???
In a simple catch-all phrase, it's a hyper-charged ADV OU. It is the "platonic ideal of pet mods" (
Ema Skye), it is the "Project M of competitive Pokemon" (
DkKoba), it is "crazy" (
kiru_dakas).
Hoenn Gaiden has been formed from initial parts of a for-fun pet mod. Initially, a now long-faded userbase had added Pokemon that people thought would be nice to experience in gen 3, without much in the way of testing these experiments out. However, over time, the mod started to take itself really seriously; a few heads bashed together to start tidying up the experience and gen-3-ifiying the tier to keep it feeling primarily like ADV, rather than a tier which has been upgraded to a later generation tier with custom content.
And thus, we have ourselves current Hoenn Gaiden. It includes (at the time of writing) 15 slates worth of new content, now with hundreds of changes all outlined in the spreadsheet changelog in the OP. This is a tier where you can experience the raw power of Pokemon like Zapdos-Galar in generation 3, or maybe you'd prefer to see what a pure water + weather immune Cloyster is capable of? There are many changes and many new things to explore in deviation to ADV OU over here.
Generally speaking, there are two types of submissions that exist with in this mod (and a bonus category), and two camps of philosophical design stemming from this as a result:
1. Custom additions.
These are slated designs which stray away from the original design of the Pokemon to make something that fits the Hoenn Gaiden metagame in its own unique way. You'll see these kinds of additions exist as an example in the form of Sylveon (who is now a dragon type glass cannon), Parasect (who is now a fast bug/ghost type) and Deoxys (which has received a reduction to its base stats). As you can tell, this affects current and new Pokemon in the mod alike.
2. Devamped additions.
These are Pokemon which take the pure design of the later-generation Pokemon and adjust it to be more 'gen-3-like'. This includes Pokemon like Silvally, Jellicent and Golurk which otherwise are identical to their later-generation counterparts, but with movepool adjustments to make them make sense in the context of the 3rd generation. For example, Silvally gains access to moves such as Secret Power and Mimic, moves which are universal in gen 3, but it loses access to moves such as Signal Beam and Heat Wave seeing as there is no logical way for Silvally to obtain these attacks in an actual gen 3 environment.
3. Bonus additions.
This covers a vast array of categories and is mostly now a philosophy which the mod's community is no longer interested in exploring as it causes inconsistencies in previous knowledge to newer players (something which the battle simulator cannot account for on behalf of the player). It includes features such as new items, new (non-signature abilities), and movepool adjustments to existing OU-viable Pokemon. I regard these to be 'bonus' as the remaining parts of this have been mostly welcomed by the community, bar some slightly polarising additions.
How can I start playing this Pet Mod?
Hop onto the Dragon Heaven server, hop onto our Discord server, load up some sample teams! We have a relatively active playerbase that would be happy to talk you through the tier and offer some practice games.
Server which hosts Hoenn Gaiden
Discord Server
Sample teams listed below [todo!]
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That's about it for the introduction, if there are any other questions feel free to shoot em my way or to any other council members. Have fun!
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Submissions: how do they work, and what is (and isn't) allowed?
Historically, this mod has taken the approach of running 'slates' in order to introduce new Pokemon into Hoenn Gaiden. A theme would be suggested by the slate-runner, and users would submit whatever fits the theme. Users would then cast votes on their favourite submissions and these would then be added into the mod. Through trial and error and quite a lot of historical data to back things up, there are some rules that are adhered to when a slate is ran for Pokemon, and they are as follows:
1. The Pokemon must at least somewhat resemble its original design.
Basically, this means that a custom Pokemon shouldn't stray too far away from its design. Submitting Ferrothorn as a Fighting/Flying glass cannon for example wouldn't be permitted, but a steel/fighting ferrothorn with similar stats to its base design would be considered fine. Pokemon have historically gained attacks to fit their STAB profile, and as the mod has developed I have gently nudged people away from doing this and to instead try to work with the limitations behind the mod's available resources. This is only gen 3 after all..!
2. Signature moves and abilities are permitted to be brought down to Hoenn Gaiden.
This just means that stuff like Chatter for Chatot can be submitted, or Comatose for Komala, as they are a defining part of the Pokemon's design.
3. Certain attacks, abilities and stat distributions should be justified.
Certain moves, signature moves, abilities, and stat patterns are straight-up pre-vetoed, and these are:
Abilities: Magic Guard, Wonder Guard, Arena Trap, Shadow Tag, Magnet Pull, Sand Stream, Snow Warning, Drizzle, Drought, Desolate Land.
Moves: Tail Glow, Psycho Boost, Spikes, Bolt Beak, Fishous Rend, Geomancy, Lunar Dance, Steam Eruption, plus others at the council's discretion.
Stats: Base Attack and Special Attack cannot be above 135.
We are strict on the justification of distribution of the following moves, as they have historically warped the balance of the tier in a poorly received manner:
Superpower, Knock Off, Recover + similar, Will-o-Wisp
^ with all said above, the submission process is likely to be altered as time goes on to be more accommodating for the newer playerbase. Keep in mind that this mod is beginning to reach a saturation point, so submissions are slow and quality-checked various times. Please don't be offended if we take your submission into our own hands to balance it once it has been added! (this is only done in extreme circumstances anyway)
4. Anything not explicitly stated as part of the Pokemon's design is assumed by the mod leaders.
This means that unless explicitly stated by a submitter, we will assume movepools for your submissions in the case of competitively unviable moves, by cross-referencing them with available move tutors, TMs etc of the 3rd gen games so that they fit the flavour of the mod. This mostly means that your Pokemon 99% of the time will have access to Secret Power, Mimic and Double Edge, but it does have some impact on lesser viable moves in some instances, such as Dynamic Punch for Pokemon with hands, etc.