The Great TM Migration of 2019™ (Patreon)

and now, it's time for the thing i was procrastinating for days by implementing the password system

so you know how you get most  ™s in Reborn stupid late, right? i've said this from the start, but the reason for that (and for move tutor moves being so late over all) is because i wanted to save those items that i could give out at any time for later in the game after Pokemon have stopped learning new moves, so that players could feel like their team is consistently growing throughout the entire game. 

While I continue to be glad that I did this for the most part, it's become increasingly clear through the episodes that that the number of trash  ™s is Too Damn High ™, which is why we've got stuff like Aerial Ace after badge 15. I didn't account for how many were just, bad... 

So, it's been my plan for a long time since the interim of that becoming an issue to, once the full game was complete, take a full inventory of all ™s  in the game and swap them around to be more appropriate for their locations, point in the game, and so on. For this purpose and knowing so many things need to be earlier, I deliberately held off on adding a number of ™s  into the late game and E19, as well as some other things like the remaining Z and Mega Crystals. With all of these things in the mix, swapping them around like this basically causes the ™s  to backwash into earlier parts of the episode, meaning you get things much earlier.

Thus is the Great Migration ™

As a result of these changes, you basically get most ™s around 2-4 badges earlier, with some hot spots of new ™ locations added between florinia and shade, and again a little more around route 1. It's probably still a little bit behind the curve, but the placement should be much more power-appropriate now, while still holding off on the top tier ™s until the final parts of the game.

So, for example, Earthquake has replaced Shadow Ball as the reward of Kanaya's starter quest, and Ice Beam has replaced Psyshock as one of the Dex Quest rewards. And so those freed up, they become earlier, and so on working backwards pushing things earlier and earlier.

About 26 ™s (and naturally, the gym ™s) have not moved, but all of the rest have. Since I can't possibly properly account for which have been gotten or not like I normally would, I've just blanketly reset all of them for existing save files (including EQ/ Ice Beam for those who've already beaten those quests-- you can just grab them freely). It'll be a little messy for returning playthroughs, but should be much better for those going through the game again. It's possible I missed some in resetting... but we can troubleshoot for those in testing and such.

You should definitely be able to have all 100 ™s before the Elite Four, so if you don't, something may be wrong... assuming you haven't just not found 'em, that is.

The same opportunity was taken to make sure various quests and places were appropriately rewarding. The hot spring and underwater lakes come to mind as key points for that, as well as the greater ametrine area.

Here's some of the most relevant non-™ items that have shuffled:

• The EXP All is gotten from the Spinel Furniture Quest instead of the EXP Share
• The EXP Share is gotten as a bonus from the Sunkern trade
• The Electrizer and Magmarizer have been moved a badge or two earlier
• Eviolite can be gotten as early as the circus
• Flutes have been distributed throughout the game
• I am pretty sure I missed putting out the Starlight Field Readout... Someone please inform me if it's somewhere and both I and the item guide forgot. So that's in now.
• Altarianite and Beedrilite are a couple badges earlier
• Shell Bell can now be gotten at the circus
• Toxic Orb and Flame Orb are substantially earlier in the game
• A second Ice Stone has been added-- but it's pretty late, since you might get it from mining anyway.

...And More™ !

sooooooooooooo originally, I wasn't going to do any of the updates my like past three or four posts have been about until much closer to release, since they're kind of quick and sundry anyway (usually). 

the problem is, like I said, I got impulsive and wanted to play the game through again... so it's only reasonable to do all this stuff now so that I can test it while I feel like playing. for the theme this time, I was thinking about doing a Name Challenge ™  that a friend (who happens to have all of the same letters in his name, plus one) sent to me. basically, you only use pokemon that start with the first few letters of your name.
so A M E pokemon for me.
It probably won't be remotely too limiting but Big Shrug™
impulsiveness says try anyway.

bye