Pokémon Aquamarine FAQ

Pokémn Aquamarine FAQ:

Q: What game is this?
A: This is Pokemon Aquamarine, it is a FRLG-based ROM hack, and was created by AquamarineVaporeon. The most recent version (v3.0) came out on November 21st, 2023.

Q: Aquamarine? How come the title screen says Topaz?
A: There are nine “skins” or variants of Aquamarine, each corresponding to a different Eeveelution. They are: Opal (Eevee), Aquamarine (Vaporeon), Topaz (Jolteon), Garnet (Flareon), Amethyst (Espeon), Onyx (Umbreon), Turquoise (Leafeon), Quartz (Glaceon), and Zircon (Sylveon).

The only differences between them are the possible choices of Eeveelution the rival gets. These are in trios: Garnet/Aquamarine/Topaz, Turquoise/Quartz/Opal, and Amethyst/Onyx/Zircon. Between the trios, two other rival team members (Kalos and Sinnoh starters) change based on which Eevee you pick (Chesnaught/Empoleon or Delphox/Torterra or Greninja/Infernape)

The route works best with the Delphox/Torterra duo (right Eevee) and the Eeveelution Rival gets doesn't matter, so you can run any of the versions, though Amethyst, Onyx and Zircon are a bit slower and riskier as these give the Rival Umbreon, which is both an additional (super effective) text box and can be a range.

Q: What Pokemon will you use in the run?
A: You start with an Eevee equipped with a Lucky Egg, which makes the route work substantially better. I’ll use that for the first 30 mins or so, evolving it into Leafeon, which is one of the fastest evolutions and also matches up well in the fights it has to do. I will then catch a Drilbur/Excadrill and use that for the rest of the run. If you’re familiar with Gen 5 or Gen 8 speedruns, you know why Excadrill is insanely good.

I will also pick up an Abra from the Game Corner for Teleport, and catch two additional mons - a Snubbull or Growlithe for Intimidate (actually necessary), and another Eevee, which I will evolve into Glaceon to take advantage of its Ability, Snow Warning.

For E4R2 I pivot to Kyogre, which comes at L70 and is much better equipped to handle the second round of the E4 than Excadrill.

Q: Snow Warning? You actually WANT hail damage?
A: Opponents can have random abilities as well as natures, and one of the E4 members has 3 mons that can have Sturdy. Two of these three would end the run if you rolled Sturdy.

Q: Are there any interesting mechanics in this hack?
A: This hack draws a lot of later gen mechanics, including the physical special split, Choice items, Gen 5+ style repels, and X items boosting two stages rather than one. Crits, however, are still double damage, and type boosting items (such as Soft Sand) only boost 10% rather than 20%. There is also an NPC in the Game Corner who gifts you 4000 coins, so you can buy a very convenient Iron Head TM for Excadrill.

The most exciting mechanics that are in this hack are the glitches/sequence breaks! Firstly, in double battles (which there are quite a few, as the evil team exclusively fights in this format), if you only have one non-fainted Pokemon in your party, it will be “duplicated” for the battle, meaning I don’t need a doubles partner. If one of them faints, you black out, so it can be risky. The biggest glitch is the repel trick! In this hack, if you hold a direction while refreshing a repel, the player will take an extra step as the repel is reapplied. If the tile the player steps into while the repel is refreshing is where a trigger is (such as the Ghost in the tower), you can skip that trigger completely.

Q: How many things are skipped in this route?
A: Quite a lot! The biggest one is badge checks before Victory Road. If you do the Repel trick before the first badge checker, he and the remaining badge checkers will not stop you to check your badges! Unfortunately, we cannot skip all the badges, as there are three HMs needed to access the Elite Four - Cut, Surf and Strength.

Thus, we also skip five of the eight badges! The first badge is skipped by bypassing the guy who walks you to the Gym. We just don’t get the badge that lets you Fly, but luckily Teleport helps a ton here. The other three badges are skipped by virtue of the badge check skip.

For E4R2, we get six badges, as a badge is required for Rock Smash, another to access the "Sevii" Islands, and we do get the badge that lets you Fly as it would be slower to skip it.

Other skips are 4 additional Rival fights, the "Saffron" gate house guards, as well as the Ghost in the tower. There are probably other skips elsewhere in areas that aren’t visited in this run. In E4R2 we skip an additional Rival fight (Silph Rival) as well as getting the Secret Key.

Q: What are the hardest fights?
A: The E4 for both rounds is pretty rough, this is where Intimidate as well as Glaceon come in. They're high level, have good stats, lots of weather effects, and also the random natures and abilities make things tricky.

Q: Goal time?
A: Sub-1:45 for Any%, sub-2:50 for E4R2.