Other Tiers The Kanto Expansion Pak (Playable on Dragon Heaven!)

Plague von Karma

Banned deucer.
Approved by emma I think
With KEP v1.1's launch coming within a few hours after having some good ol' time in the tank, it's time for this thread to do so as well!

The Kanto Expansion Pak (KEP) is a Gen 1 SoloMod that expands the chromatic generation with scrapped Pokemon, regional variants, and cross-gen evolutions. It attempts to remain as faithful as possible to the game's design specification while doing this, ensuring that RBY OU does not deviate significantly from its roots. Thus, it doesn't include generational gimmicks like Mega Evolution, it simply aims to port what is technically possible in a vanilla Gen 1. It also aims to be compatible with any Gen 1 metagame, allowing tiers like Monotype, LC, NFE, Nintendo Cups, and more to be at least playable for the average user. The original Pokemon are left completely unchanged and balanced around.

This mod is also updated with new-gen releases! For example, if Pokemon Scarlet and Violet add new Kanto forms or evolutions, KEP will receive an update to include them.

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Ruleset
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  • Sleep Clause: Cannot inflict sleep on more than one Pokemon.
  • Freeze Clause: Cannot inflict freeze on more than one Pokemon.
  • Species Clause: No two Pokemon of the same species.
  • Evasion Clause: Minimize and Double Team are banned.
  • OHKO Clause: Horn Drill, Guillotine, and Fissure are banned.
  • Endless Battle Clause: Endless Battles will result in a tie (eg. Two Transform Pokemon in a last-Pokemon situation)
  • Cleric Clause: Pokemon are healed before a battle (no pre-status or pre-damage)
  • Invulnerability Clause: Dig and Fly are banned.
  • Tradeback Clause: Tradeback moves from GSC are not allowed.
  • Uber Pokemon: Mewtwo, Mew, Lickilicky, Porygon-Z, Porygon2, Blissey

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Changelog
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Click the links to access the update's respective GitHub Pull Request, which includes a useful, detailed changelog I write in every description.
  • 24th July 2022 - Release Date!
  • 29th August 2022 - V1.1
  • 1st October 2022 - V1.2

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Scrapped Pokemon
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Gen 1 has 39 scrapped Pokemon, of which 34 have had designs either leaked or officially revealed. These have been restored in KEP for competitive use, remaining true to their source material while taking creative deviations to complete them in a way that ensures they can be relevant. Some are designed to be flavourful for the purpose of fostering a potential lower-tier. These Pokemon are eligible for balancing updates in the case they are either too poor or generally could use with some touching-up. We use the PokeThon hack's interpretations of some Pokemon that only had their back sprites leaked occasionally, so for example, Croakozuna is in this mod!

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Cross-Gen Evolutions
& Regional Variants
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KEP adds all regional variants and cross-gen evolutions to Gen 1. This is done with as much consistency as possible, down to tracking Special stat progression to ensure every Pokemon gets the correct stat. While this does result in some casualties, Pokemon like Galarian Articuno have seen some great results so far! There's a really interesting mix! Albatross has been helping by making Gen 1-styled sprites for a lot of these, ensuring that we don't lose that trademark Kanto look on Dragon Heaven!

Given the mod's ties to the SpaceWorld 1997 demo of GSC, cross-gen evolutions are also factored in from there. Particularly, among fully-evolved Pokemon, Purakkusu, Madaamu, Animon, and Tsubomitto are featured.

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Type Additions
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KEP adds Dark, Steel, and Fairy to RBY, mainly because it is generally unfeasible to not, unused type slots exist, and there were ways to do it in a balanced manner. Fairy is identical to its modern form, but will always stick with XY's should the type receive changes down the line.

However, the way Dark and Steel has been conducted is unlike other mods, primarily for historical accuracy and a more RBY-like feel.
This is because the modern Dark and Steel were made after the Nintendo Cup 1997 National Tournament at the SpaceWorld event of that year, which led to the types being excessively buffed. The pre-tournament types - which we know of thanks to the SpaceWorld '97 build of Gold and Silver - are closer to RBY and assist with metagame balance. Generally, everything happens to line up, we don't want Galarian Moltres and Alolan Persian having a rave party over Alakazam's corpse.

Moves that have identical effects to RBY moves - to the letter - are directly imported to RBY and distributed among the new Pokemon. Some moves are imported but not actually distributed, such as Nature's Madness and Dark Void. This will likely be updated as new releases occur.

Thus, you get these;
  • Category: Special​
  • Weak to: Normal, Bug, Dark, Fairy
  • Resists: Psychic, Ghost
  • Super effective against: Psychic, Ghost, Dark
  • Not very effective against: Normal
Available moves: Brutal Swing, Dark Void, Fake Tears, False Surrender, Feint Attack, Nasty Plot, Night Slash
Fully Evolved Pokemon:
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:moltres-galar::muk-alola::persian-alola::raticate-alola::umbreon:
  • Category: Physical
  • Weak to: Water, Electric
  • Resists: Poison, Fighting
  • Immune to: Steel
  • Super effective against: Rock
  • Not very effective against: Water, Electric
Available moves: Bullet Punch, Iron Defense, Iron Head, Magnet Bomb, Metal Sound, Mirror Shot, Smart Strike
Fully Evolved Pokemon:
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:dugtrio-alola:
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:magnezone:
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:perrserker:
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:sandslash-alola::scizor::steelix:
  • Category: Special
  • Weak to: Poison, Steel
  • Resists: Bug, Dark, Fighting
  • Immune to: Dragon
  • Super effective against: Dark, Dragon, Fighting
  • Not very effective against: Steel, Poison, Fire
Available moves: Charm, Dazzling Gleam, Disarming Voice, Draining Kiss, Fairy Wind, Nature's Madness, Play Rough, Sweet Kiss
Fully Evolved Pokemon:
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:ninetales-alola:
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:rapidash-galar::sylveon::weezing-galar:

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Basic Strategy
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KEP is designed in a way that ensures that OU Pokemon remain competent; in fact, Chansey, Snorlax, and Tauros still see use on a significant majority of teams. While not as mandatory as they were, you can get into KEP simply by upgrading existing teams with their new evolutions. For example, MieDon teams can simply upgrade to Rhyperior and go on their merry way. Cloyster, Kantonian Zapdos, Gengar, Alakazam, Exeggutor, and Starmie all remain very relevant as well! It's all very familiar, but with a breath of fresh air at the same time.

However, some new faces do very much enter the fray! Here are some Pokemon to expect...

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Cryithan was a menace in V1.0, and while nerfed, I expect it to remain a powerful force. It was designed to be a Water-type without access to Ice-type attacks, thus not "skipping the type chart" like others, while still remaining very powerful. With access to moves like Glare, Slash, and more, this speedy Water/Dragon is certainly something to consider when building your teams.

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Tangrowth profits greatly from the Special importation system I use, having a BST just below Dragonite's. It's your usual Tangrowth antics: powders, amazing physical coverage, and overall eye-watering bulk, but now with Bind pivoting and the ability to run Swords Dance more viably. The things keeping this bulk monster in check are its Ice weakness, lack of reliable recovery, and 4MSS. Regardless, Tangrowth is certainly an attractive alternative to Exeggutor!

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Trampel is Normal / Ground and has amazing bulk, the former of which means it's immune to the main forms of paralysis progress: Body Slam and Thunder Wave. This makes it long and far the best Substitute user in the game, allowing it to take a Rhyperior-adjacent role without completely overtaking it due to having a worse Grass matchup.

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The Galarian Birds have all seen experimentation. Galarian Articuno is a Psychic-type with access to Hypnosis and Recover, which alone makes it incredibly useful for teams; its Light Screen access is also handy occasionally. Galarian Zapdos has a slew of new Fighting-type moves bestowed upon it by yours truly, which makes it arguably the first viable Fighting-type available in RBY. Galarian Moltres is by far the worst though, firmly kept in check by a weakness to Hyper Beam, but with equally Moltres-like power when its checks are removed without much that can really stop it. They all do require a bit of careful thinking though, as Species Clause does exist!

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Viability Rankings
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Comment to be written.

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Sample Teams
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Comment to be written.

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F.A.Q
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Q: Where are the Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves, Dynamax, etc?!
Well, there isn't a button for the gimmick of the year in RBY, is there? No held items, either! Generally, these mechanics are very un-RBY and don't expand the generation in a productive manner, so they were left out.

Q: Why are the vanilla Pokemon not changed?

Because I wanted to balance around them, not cause powercreep that's impossible to keep up with. It's why there aren't that many new tier despots: Kanto generally balances itself around having a low power ceiling, so there's no need to bust it open. It does mean a lot of Pokemon get worse, but the ones that do are usually the ones that weren't going to see usage anyway. The scrapped Pokemon are altered because there usually weren't any stats or movepools to begin with, and if they have any, then I maintain them and work from there. This does mean the Pokemon don't receive the new types of moves, but right now, none of them are that valuable offensively. Some are altered indirectly through added babies, but these are minimal and do not change the Pokemon's game plan.

Q: Why don't you add equivalent moves from later generations to the old types?
Same reason as above right now. This means adding things like Scorching Sands, Magma Storm, Snap Trap, and Thunder Cage, which are monumentally powerful when placed in Gen 1. Furthermore, this would likely mean altering the vanilla Pokemon and/or creating significant powercreep, which is undesirable in a generation that has such fragile balancing.

Q: A new type and/or Dark/Steel/Fairy move was released! What do?
New types will get added raw, and some scrapped Pokemon may see minor tweaks to accommodate it. Moves are imported if they have effects identical to ones in RBY's code, including unused ones. For example, Feint Attack is a Dark-type Swift, so it gets added, but Dark Pulse has a 20% chance to flinch, so it isn't. This is very strict and kind of arbitrary, but hey, it's how I made it.
 
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