Video Game / Pokémon Crystal Clear

Crystal Clear is a ROM hack of Pokémon Crystal that makes the game into a Wide-Open Sandbox.

Taking place one year after the original, the player is thrust into the world of Pokémon with the choice to start in any town or city they want in Kanto or Johto. Because many of the obstacles and railroads have been removed, the player is now free to challenge and face the 16 gym leaders of Kanto and Johto in any order they like. It is authored by ShockSlayer, who released the latest major update for the game (2.5.5) on October 2022.

This hack is not to be confused with Bynine's Pokémon Crystal Clear.

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This game provides examples of:

• 100% Completion: You can get all 251 Pokémon without trading. Completing the Pokédex gives you the chance to catch Pigy the shiny Swinub.
• Abandoned Laboratory: Pokémon Mansion from Pokémon Red and Blue returns as part of the new Cinnabar Tunnel. You have to do a sidequest here to capture Mew and Mewtwo.
• Adaptation Expansion: In several different ways.
  • Many areas removed in Crystal are restored, including Viridian Forest, the Safari Zone, Pokémon Mansion, and Cerulean Cave.
  • Eusine is given a more prominent spotlight and development than in Crystal.
  • We see how Mewtwo is created and what Mr. Fuji had to do with it.
  • The Legendary Pokémon sidequests are fleshed out more, and some even depend on each other, such as Ho-Oh and Suicune (as in Crystal) and Mewtwo and Mew.
  • A bunch of new areas are added to both Kanto and Johto to fill out empty space.
• A Homeowner Is You: 2.1.0 allows you to pick any town in the game as your hometown, complete with a house and a key you can use in tandem with transportation moves or an Escape Rope to warp you back to your home, and you can change your residence at any time by going to the residence you want and calling the number found on its sign to buy the residence, with the price depending on the location.
• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: 2.1.0 introduces "Nickname Palettes" in which a Pokémon with certain DV's and named a specific nickname is given an alternate color scheme, and allows you to color one of your party members a color you define yourself, and all alternate palettes apply to that Pokémon's evolutions as well.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Played straight for most overworld sprites but averted for some asymetrical Pokémon like Weezing and Unown.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Doing certain things will reward you with new designs for your bag, such as talking to the various Swinub and inspecting a spot on Route 40 near where the Battle Tower used to be.
• Animal Motifs: ShockSlayer is practically synonymous with pigs, which (obviously) is the animal that his favorite Pokémon Swinub is based off of.
• An Interior Designer Is You: The Bazaar in Mahogany Town allows you to buy items to decorate your room.
• Anti-Frustration Features: A lot of new features are added to provide a better experience.
  • You start with a Pokédex and 5 Poké Balls.
  • All roadblocks from Crystal are removed.
  • Due to the open world nature of the game, trainers and gym leaders scale their teams and levels depending on how many badges you have.^note Some special trainers, including Eusine, do not scale.
  • The entire Pokédex has been reworked to provide a lot of useful infomation to the player. A full explanation of what it can do and how it works can be found here.
  • You can change the in-game time from the title menu without needing a password.
  • Your Pokémon's happiness value, Hidden Power type and base power, and DV values are shown on their summary screen.
    • The latest version adds a DV viewer for wild battles, which displays a wild Pokémon's DV values, HP, Hidden Power type and base power, moves, and if they're holding an item. It also shows the DV values when you go to nickname a Pokémon.
  • You no longer have to wait for a Pokémon's cry to finish before being able to scroll in the summary screen.
  • You can unlock a DV display in New Cinnabar that shows a wild Pokémon's DV values in battle.
  • The "Quick Nurse" option skips Nurse Joy's dialogue and turns your player away from the counter after your Pokémon are healed.
  • The "Quick Encounter" option starts a battle immediately without an animation leading into it and skips the "Wild [Pokémon] appeared!" and "Got away safely!" text.
  • The "Quick Continue" option lets you skip the title screen and menu and go straight into the game.
  • Poison fades away when your Pokémon reaches 1 HP in the overworld.
  • You are asked if you want to use another Repel after one runs out if you have more Repels.
  • HM moves are not required to traverse the overworld. You are also not required to have certain badges to use them outside of battle (although you do need a certain number of badges to obtain most of them).
  • The Day Care Man is visible from the longest path between Goldenrod and the Day Care Center.
  • Eggs that will hatch into a shiny Pokémon have a different color.
  • You can release eggs without hatching them.
  • You'll be offered to save the game before picking up gift Pokémon to make soft resetting for a shiny or good stats faster.
  • Pokémon available to buy in the Game Corner have much lower costs (up to 1500 coins at the most).
  • You can choose any amount of coins to buy in the Game Corner rather than having to buy them 50 or 500 coins at a time. It also shows how much money you'll have left after buying the coins.
  • Defeated stationary and legendary Pokémon will respawn after defeating the Elite Four.
  • The "Area" feature in the Pokédex shows Headbutt, fishing, and event locations. You can search in both Kanto and Johto from the start of the game.
  • The Pokédex has the option to unlock seen data for all 251 Pokémon, to make locating them easier.
  • The Safari Zone has an NPC in each area who tells you some of the Pokémon that are available to catch in that area.
  • You can Fly to almost any city in Kanto or Johto regardless of whether or not you've already visited them.^note You are still required to visit New Cinnabar, Indigo Plateau, and Mt. Silver to Fly to them, and you still need three badges to acquire the HM.
  • You can Fly to Mt. Moon, which now has a Pokémon Center in front.
  • You can buy every TM in the game from the Goldenrod and Celadon City department stores after getting 8 badges.
  • While Kurt still makes Poké Balls out of Apricorns, a man in his house will sell them to you as well.
  • You can get multiple Master Balls from the Goldenrod City Game Corner and from a guy in the Mahogany Town Bazaar on Friday nights.
  • You can use the Magnet Train from the start of the game without the need for a pass.
    • You also can use the ferry freely, though it requires money, and you get a free pass after getting the first badge.
  • Bill offers to switch boxes when he calls about a full box. You also start with his number.
  • Pressing Select on the phone screen of the Pokégear deletes all non-essential phone numbers.
  • The Goldenrod and Celadon City department stores have an NPC that does tradebacks for Pokémon that evolve by trading.
  • The Move Tutor that teaches Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam in Goldenrod and Celadon City is always available and takes Pokédollars instead of Game Corner coins.
  • The people in the main street of Goldenrod City are moved to avoid you bumping into them while hatching eggs.
  • You can now fish while Surfing.
  • The Name Rater and the Move Deleter houses and a house in Fuschia City have been combined into one area called the Modification Station, which includes the aforementioned services as well as:
    • A Move Reminder, whose services are completely free and also teaches moves of previous evolutionary stages of the Pokémon (which means you can use that Fire Stone on a Growlithe without worrying you'll miss out on any moves)
    • A Legality Fixer, who will apply a fix to your Mew to make it transferrable to Pokémon Bank. He can also check your Pokémon to check for any moves that would stop you from transfer. As a bonus, he can change a Ditto's OT to make breeding faster.
    • A Nature Tweaker, who will set the experience points of your party members or Pokémon in Box 1 to have a specific nature when transferred to Pokémon Bank.
  • Once you talk to the Kanto TM Tutor, Event Move Tutor and the Battle Tutor, each of their services will be available from the PC.
• The Artifact: Chronicler Robert's wild encounter information became this with the introduction of the updated Pokédex. It provides the data he does and so much more, for every single location. However, Robert's notes can still provide nice flavor info about the wild Pokémon.
• Ascended Extra: Unlike Crystal, where you face Eusine once, you're able to fight him several times here. Later on in the game, he becomes involved in a sidequest in Pokémon Mansion with Dr. Fuji.
• Ascended Glitch: Psychic Edmond, an infamous bugged trainer from version 2.0 BETA that didn't scale, which led to a hopeless battle if you had low levels returns as a boss in the Underground Arena.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: If you don't have enough money to get into the Pewter Museum, the woman at the counter will tell you that before getting distracted by the fossil behind her, allowing you to go in for free.
• Background Music Override: Can be done with the radio by pressing Select and forcing the current song to constantly play in the overworld and even in battles. Some events in the game override the music override and to force music in the Underground Arena, you first need to get a 100 win streak.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: The wandering Wooper on Route 33 turns out to be a Poké Kid in disguise, with the bait being played even harder by the wild encounter theme playing.
• Balance Buff: While base stats and level-up movesets are unchanged to remain compatible with vanilla Crystal, there's several Move Tutors (mainly the Battle Tutor which teaches moves not normally learnable by a Pokémon) who can give the weaker Mons an edge in battle.
• Big Fancy House: The residences available for purchase in both Celadon and Saffron City are huge, 3-story buildings that you have all to yourself.
• Bizarrchitecture: There are a few homes you can buy with interior layouts that are just nonsensical in terms of residential abodes.
  • The Vermillion City residence is one of the more notable ones, having an awkwardly narrow hallway that curves into a dead-end. If you find the Big Rock item in the cave northeast of Cerulean City it makes that space a little less awkward, but not by much.
  • Because they retain their original layout from the vanilla game, the residences in the Goldenrod City Underground and Mahogany Town Bazaar qualify too, which are just swirling, maze-like hallways with almost nothing else of interest to help furnish the place.
  • Any residence that has a back door that leads directly into a cave (such as the homes in Azalea Town, Cianwood City, and the old Cinnabar Island) can qualify, because what kind of typical residential building would have a door that goes right into a dark cavern with wild creatures in it?
• Boss in Mook Clothing:
  • While the trainer and gym leader levels scale by badge count, the wild Pokémon levels do not, which can result in this if you go into an area with high leveled wild Pokémon.
  • Some trainers, like the Kimono Girls in Ecruteak, do not scale down in levels. A Curb-Stomp Battle is guaranteed, should you challenge them at an earlier point in the game.
• Bragging Rights Reward: The ultimate prize of the Underground Arena is a Laptop, which serves as a portable PC. It costs a whole 65000 points and that's worth more than two 100 win streaks with the maximum point multiplier.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Underground Arena, located in Kanto's underground on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays is the ultimate challenge of Crystal Clear and a suitable replacent for the Battle Tower. No items in battle, no switching out before the opponent sends out their next Pokémon, no AI randomly missing status moves and you only get healed every 5 battles, just before a special boss. You can adjust the difficulty to your liking; the higher it is, the more points you get for each win to spend on the Arena's rare rewards. Getting 100 wins in a row earns you the right to own the Battle Tower's ruins as your residence.
• But Thou Must!: To Eusine, who comes storming in Tin Tower just before the minute you encounter it and engage it in battle, it does not matter which one you choose to do with Suicune, either capture or defeat. Eusine becomes so mad because in the former option, Suicune should be allowed to roam free. But if you choose the latter and not capture it, Eusine will become mad about you rejecting Suicune. Either path you choose, Eusine will swear revenge on you. You can't run away from Suicune, so neither outcome can be avoided.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Cowboy Noak wonders in his notebook what a snake is, after seeing the Pokédex list Ekans as such.
• The Cameo:
  • Ness appears as a trainer inside Slowpoke Well.
  • Randy Savage appears as a boss in the Underground Arena.
• Cannot Keep a Secret: In his radio show, DJ Fef reveals the combinations of nickname and DVs required for the Nickname Palettes then realises he wasn't supposed to tell that to anyone. Which doesn't stop him from doing so over and over again every day. He also blatantly keeps such confidential info on his desk for anyone to see.
• Canon Foreigner: The 2.5.0 update introduces a new sidequest in the Whirl Islands where the player can encounter Shadow Lugia, straight from the Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness spin-off, in place of the regular Lugia. This form also ties in to the game's own lore behind Nickname Palettes, as its named "XD001" in-game. However, it's specifically stated to not be a Nickname Palette, as simply naming a regular Lugia that does nothing, and this form has its own separate pallettes when nicknaming it.
• Cap: Purchasing the Applicator from the Underground Arena will remove the cap on how many vitamins your Pokémon can digest, meaning you can get the maximum amount of stat points with just vitamins.
• Character Customization: Prior to 2.0, you could choose from one of 6 colors for your character at the start of the game. From 2.0 onwards, you are now able to freely customize the colour palette of your character, and change which sprite your character uses. This can include custom sprites that are injected through this site, which is also used to inject custom starters.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Elite Four Cheese and Aurelio were replaced with Robert and Fibbef in version 1.3.
• Color-Coded Elements: The color of Hidden Power's animation matches its corresponding type.
• The Computer Shall Taunt You: The generic trainers in the Underground Arena will often say snarky and/or condescending lines before they fight you. Expect them to get full of themselves in case they win.
• Console Cameo: Along with the Nintendo 64, NES, and SNES from Crystal, you can buy a Wii for your room in the Mahogany Town Bazaar.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Blaine's new gym is full of boiling lava. One of his gym's trainers even lampshades it by wondering why the convection of the lava isn't cooking them alive. You can also use a fishing rod in the lava to encounter wild Slugma and Magcargo.
• Cool House: The residence you can own on New Cinnabar Island is a boat house.
• Cool Shades: ShockSlayer wears them, and is also the strongest trainer in the game.
• Cosmetic Award: Fibbef has a "Crystal Clear 2018 251 Caught Award First Place" trophy in his Elite Four room.
• Cowboy: Noak is a textbook example. He tends to his Ponyta and Rapidash out on the fields, wears a stetson, carries a lasso with him, and inserts phrases commonly used in Wild West settings.
• Cranky Landlord: An inverted example. Should you decide to live in the protagonist's old room in New Bark Town, the mother character downstairs will tell you that she occasionally keeps your room tidy as thanks for being such a good tenant.
• Creator Cameo: The game's creator, ShockSlayer, is the new champion as of version 1.3.
• Cue the Flying Pigs: Invoked literally. If you bring a Swinub or Piloswine to the tutor who teaches event moves in Goldenrod City's Radio Tower and have him teach it Whirlwind, he'll tell you a story of ShockSlayer teaching his shiny Swinub to fly with Whirlwind.
• Death Mountain:
  • Mt. Moon was restored to its original size in the 2.0 Beta version.
  • Mt. Rose and Mt. Mortar Peaks, two new areas added in Johto.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • The original Elite Four are relegated to Battle Simulator opponents and Underground Arena bosses.
  • The Battle Tower is only mentioned once by a random trainer, since it's been removed entirely outside of the music themes associated with it. Unless you get 100 consecutive wins in the Underground Arena.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • The tradeback NPC in Goldenrod and Celadon City's department stores won't trade with you if you attempt to give him a Pokémon holding an Everstone.
  • When you get an item from a special NPC but your bag is full, more often than not there'll be unique text about it.
  • If you are using Blue as your playable character and fight the gym leader Blue, he will say that you look just like him.
• Disco Dan: Aurelio, who would rather boogie than battle you. Unlike most examples, he doesn't have an afro, but his outfit and battle pose very much qualify.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • The starter Pikachu holds a Light Ball and can learn Thunderbolt from the Move Tutor in Goldenrod and Celadon City right from the start. It can also learn Surf, which you can get from the Safari Warden's house in Fuchsia City without needing any badges, and Fly, which you can get after 3 badges.
  • The starter Porygon can be this as well. It gets a STAB Tri-Attack right out the gate, and holds an Amulet Coin by default, which makes getting money in the early game very easy. It's also capable of learning all three elemental beams (Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Ice Beam) very early on, thanks to how accessible the move tutors are in this game.
  • While you'll need some luck to catch them early on, high leveled wild Pokémon can be caught from the start of the game. Since they will have your OT and ID, they'll always listen to you regardless of how many badges you have.
  • Several of the starters, including the aforementioned Pikachu, can be fully evolved before getting a badge. While they may not learn good moves right away, you can give them TM moves and/or teach them Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam from the Move Tutor in Goldenrod and Celadon City.
  • Some gym leaders give powerful TM moves regardless of when you face them, including Earthquake from Brock, Blizzard from Misty, and Fire Blast from Blaine.
  • It's possible to obtain both a Lucky Egg and an Amulet Coin less than 20 minutes into the game if you start in Johto and know where to look.
  • The Kanto TM Tutor, the Battle Tutor and to a lesser extent the Event Move Tutor can teach some really powerful moves early on if you so desire and they're also completely free.
  • It is entirely possible to obtain some legendaries before getting your first badge, provided you know all the steps to take. Partially downplayed because most legendaries actually scale to your level range.
• Disproportionate Retribution: At the bazaar in Mahogany Town, a shopkeeper who sells Nintendo consoles will ask you on weekends if you like a certain console. Saying "No" will force you into a battle with him.
• Door to Before: Blaine opens up a shortcut to the entrance to his Gym after defeating him. It can be used in Gym rematches to get to him faster.
• Dungeon Bypass: A clearing has been made that allows the player to skip Ice Path and go from Route 44 straight to Blackthorn City. The Seafoam Islands similarly don't have to be passed in order to get from Fuschia City to Cinnabar.
• Easter Egg: Many of them, including the ability to use Strength on the truck by the S.S. Aqua, which registers Mew in your Pokédex to make hunting it easier.
• Evolving Title Screen: The title screen will update to include each Elite Oink Squad member, the four colored Swinub as you find them. It will also change the Elite Oink Squad's members' expressions to be happier and make Pigy himself do a dab once you beat the True Final Boss.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Elite Four Fibbef will notice that you're a person who plays games on emulators.
• Game-Breaking Bug: Prior to the latest updates, it was possible to get stuck on top of a certain ledge connecting the Forest of Rage to the Lake of Rage, thanks to a map connection glitch, provided you walked on top of it in a certain way. If you forgot to bring a Pokémon that knows Fly, or saved on top of the ledge, you were screwed.
• Guide Dang It!: There are a lot of things in the game that are secrets barely found by anyone:
  • Intentionally invoked, in general terms. Almost any response to questions about the hack is to just read the documentation... even for things that aren't actually mentioned there.
  • The alternate way of meeting Researcher Grizz and unlocking the Battle Tutor. He's in a specific spot in the Dark Cave, and he disappears once you use Flash. Your only hint that he's there in the first place is the Kenya quest.
  • The Forest Path in Cherrygrove City that can be used as an HMless shortcut to Cherrygrove Bay was this in version 2.0 BABY. To find it, you need to interact with one of two specific tree tiles and there was nothing indicating it exists outside of the map (which may lead to fruitless attempts to find the area). This was adressed in 2.1.0 where a Bug Catcher very clearly hints at it.
  • The updated Pokédex helps avert this as much as possible, mainly for Mon locations, but it also includes locations of the HMs and useful services.
  • Even discounting the stuff that's less known, an awful lot of the game has secrets in it. Even worse, there’s very little documentation on how to actually get it that's accessible via a Google search.
• House Rules:
  • The "Set" battle style is forced on you for battles against the Elite Four and you cannot use items in battle during these battles.
  • The Underground Arena takes this even further by including the aforementioned clauses and letting the player customize the rules with things like a difficulty slider.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Eating a meal at the Goldenrod Cafe will restore the HP, give some Stat Experience and raise the happiness of the Pokémon that ate with you.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: Ivan, who speaks in broken English in a seeming reference to the Team Rocket mook who stole the Power Plant parts and had the same speech pattern. Like that mook, it's implied Ivan is from a different region altogether.
• Interface Spoiler: The Pokédex's Search tab can reveal any (no matter how hidden) location in the game, mainly the fact that you can fish in the Cinnabar Gym and in two of the Elite Four rooms.
• Jack of All Trades: Aurelio is also an engineer, physicist, software developer, and chef in Kanto.
• Joke Character: The in-game trades usually come with way above average or even perfect stats. The in-game trade Swinub called Mahog, on the other hand, has terrible stats aside from its perfect Speed. It's holding a Smoke Ball^note which is very useful is you happen to run into a very strong wild Pokémon and you get it by trading absolutely any Pokémon so it's at least free escapes.
• Joke Item: The "BIG ROCK" item found in the Route 24 Cave. What does it do? Absolutely nothing, other than being added as a decoration to your home with seemingly no way to actually remove it. You also get an extra line from Brock in a pre-fight speech after obtaining it.
  "Now here's a trainer who knows how to appreciate a BIG ROCK!"
• Just One More Level!: Fibbef tells you to wait until he's done with a level in his game as you enter his Elite Four room.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: There's several things in the game that can be stolen for earlier access to them or for the hell of it. The player character never gets punished for it by anyone in-universe.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • The sign next to Whitney's gym is changed to "The Incredibly Strong Miltank!" to reflect how many fans feel about her battle.
  • The man doing construction in Vermilion City lampshades how long it's taken.
    "Maybe in the far-flung future, we will finish this."
• Last Lousy Point: Two of the unlockable music tracks can be this, thanks to their luck-based nature:
  • Power Bom. To unlock it, you need to battle Savage Randy in the Underground Arena. The problem is, he's one out of thirty or so bosses that are randomly selected every five battles.
  • Johto GSC Remix is unlocked by battling Musician Frogg, which requires scoring above 7 at Voltorb Flip.
• Late Character Syndrome: Averted thanks to the game's open-world nature, allowing the player to go and catch Pokémon anywhere right away. The more annoying ones to get are made easier thanks to things like Game Corner prizes and new/improved in-game trades. Ultimately, all 251 Pokémon are obtainable before you even get a single Gym Badge.
• Level Grinding: You can rematch gym leaders and their gym trainers as often as you'd like. Getting more badges will unlock new "sets" with higher leveled gym trainers and leaders.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: The Upgrade Card for the Pokédex takes almost 30 seconds to install.
• Long Song, Short Scene: Champion ShockSlayer and Red/Green/Gold/Kris have a unique victory theme (specifically, an 8-bit demix of Pokémon Black and White's gym battle theme when you get a gym leader down to one Pokémon), but you won't hear a lot of it unless you wait to advance the dialogue.
• Loophole Abuse: If you lose in the Arena, you are prevented from reentering for the day as the bouncer will block your path if you try to move past him. However, moving the in-game clock forward to the next available day that the Arena is available fools the bouncer into thinking that you are there for another go on a new day. This means it's possible to get endless tries at it in the same day without having to wait the 48/72 hours after a loss, as long as you can still afford to pay the $3000 fee to enter for each attempt.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • In addition to Entei and Raikou roaming in Johto, Mew roams in Kanto after completing a sidequest.
  • HeartGold and SoulSilver's Voltorb Flip is added into the game.
• Malaproper: One NPC in Fuchsia City talks about Koga leaving the Elite Four to train in "Ho-Oh end" (Hoenn).
• Meaningful Name: Mt. Rose is right north of Blackthorn City. The area's shape even resembles a rose.
• Mirror Match: In the Underground Arena, Copycat offers to fight you with an exact replica of your team.
• Mundane Utility: The Sword is a new key item that has the same use as the Cut HM.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Eusine makes another attempt to catch Suicune one year after failing to do so during the events of Crystal.
• Mythology Gag:
  • You can battle Professor Oak after getting 8 badges, referencing a Dummied Out battle with him in Red and Blue.
  • Pikachu can learn Surf and Fly through HM. Pikachu even has its own exclusive sprite for surfing with it, using the surfboard!
  • Several gym leaders in their later battles use Pokémon outside of their normal typing that they use in the Pokémon Stadium games.
  • A special Move Tutor in the Goldenrod City Radio Tower can teach Pokémon moves that they could get through events in the Gen 2 games.
  • The man in Pewter Museum who promises to catch his daughter a Pikachu in Red and Blue is shown to have caught her a shiny Pikachu.
  • One NPC in Vermilion City mentions that a trainer woke up the Snorlax that was sleeping in front of Diglett's Cave.
  • One of the radio stations, only accessible in Lavender Town, is 101.1 The Grave run by DJ Raticate.^note In the Kanto games, your rival has a Rattata/Raticate on his team for the first couple battles, but loses it after the S.S. Anne battle. A common fan theory is that his Raticate died after the last battle it was in.
  • Mr. Fuji apparently discovered Mew on Faraway Island, the island unlocked via the Old Sea Map in Emerald (and the only place where a player could catch a Mew post-Gen 3).
  • Pokémon 4Ever:
    • Professor Oak talks about how he traveled in Ilex Forest as a youth, and has a GS Ball, just like how his anime counterpart had an encounter with Celebi in the fourth movie.
    • The three Pokémon shown frozen in time in the Alph Forest, which has strong ties to Celebi, are Scizor, Sneasel, and Tyranitar, which are all Pokémon that the Iron-Masked Marauder commanded.
  • The background music in Lugia's cave is "Lugia's Song".
  • Many encounter musics have been changed to fit the encounter music from later games.
    • Raikou and Entei's encounter theme is Solgaleo/Lunala's encounter theme from Pokémon Sun and Moon.
    • Ho-Oh's and Lugia's have been changed to versions of their encounter themes from HeartGold and SoulSilver.
    • Kanto legendaries' themes have been changed to Mewtwo's encounter theme from Pokémon X and Y.
    • Depending on where he's encountered, Fibbef's battle theme is either Zinnia's from Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, or one of Miror B.'s battle themes from Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness.
  • 2.1.0 introduces some new Mythology Gags as well:
    • By checking behind Bill's House in his garden, you can encounter a Level 15 blue Pikachu named Pikablu, referencing the Fan Nickname used for Marill before its name was revealed.
    • Checking the side of Prof. Elm's lab in New Bark Town where Silver was peeking in at the start of the original game now has you stealing the Togepi egg which is sitting on the windowsill for some reason.
  • Some Battle Tutor moves contain references to the respective Pokémon's regional variants.
• New Game Plus: After beating the Elite Four rematch, it's possible to start a NG+ file by selecting the New Game option while holding Start. It's a fresh adventure that retains things such as all the Pokémon in boxes and your current residence.
• New Neo City: The rebuilt Cinnabar Island is referred to as New Cinnabar Island by the populace.
• No Fair Cheating:
  • If you use a Walk Through Walls cheat (or Arbitrary Code Execution) to get past Burglar Frank in the Goldenrod Underground, he'll trap you inside the normally inaccessible area with 3 clones of himself, with the game saving so that you can't reload an earlier save to get past it. You can still escape if you use an Escape Rope, use Dig or talk to the rightmost Frank enough times.
  • Using a Walk Through Walls cheat in the Ace Trainer HQ to see what's beyond all the boxes prior to version 2.4.0 will freeze the game.
  • If you try to use a cheat code to force a wild Pokémon to be Shiny, it will instead turn into a Shiny Magikarp.
• Non-Lethal K.O.: Compared to the usual interpretation of Pokémon outright dying after they go down in a Nuzlocke, here they simply return to the wild.
• Non-Residential Residence: Many potential residences you can buy are this.
  • The home in Violet City is built into a second floor of the school house.
  • Two residences in particular are essentially underground Hideouts that were formerly operated by Team Rocket (the Goldenrod Underground, and the Hideout beneath the Mahogany Town Bazaar).
  • Olivine City offers probably one of the most unique house locations... at the top of the lighthouse.
  • The room you can buy inside the Lavender Town Radio Tower is technically this, though downplayed since the security guard refers to it as a penthouse.
  • The unlockable Battle Tower location, since you are literally making a home out of a dilapidated building.
• Notice This:
  • There's a Swinub in Blackthorn City that will lead you on the secret ledge that goes to Mt. Rose.
  • Downplayed with the Route 3 secret ledge, which is a shortcut to the part of the route otherwise accessible only from Mt. Moon. Its path is very slightly darker than the rest of the mountain, and it's very hard to notice.
  • A bunch of footprints in Seafoam Islands have a chance of appearing and hinting at a secret ledge, beyond which the Pokéflute is hidden.
• NPC Scheduling: Several special NPCs appear in different locations depending on the day of the week, their teams and items they give might also change depending on where you fight them. The Goldenrod Cafe includes a varied set of NPCs on each day of the week.
• Old Save Bonus:
  • The game is compatible with the vanilla Gold, Silver, and Crystal games, so the player can transfer Pokémon between them if they so wish.
  • The Time Capsule function still works, meaning the player can transfer Pokémon from Red, Blue, and Yellow if they are playing on actual hardware, or using an emulator that supports Link Cable functionality. The documentation implies that this feature was a coincidence, and not implemented by design.
  • The ROM hack works with Pokémon Stadium 2. The hack also tricks Stadium 2 into thinking it's a complete save file, so the player can utilize Stadium 2's transfer functions in their entirety without completing the Pokédex, and can use the speed-up functions in the GB Tower without needing to beat the Elite Four. It's also no longer required to have last saved inside a Pokémon Center in order to use the Pokémon Lab. Lastly, the new areas are programmed in a way as to not break the Poké Seer.
• Olympus Mons: Some gym leaders use them in the later battles, such as Pryce using Articuno and Morty using Ho-Oh.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted. Because of the addition of bug tester trainers based on real people, there's now a Firebreather Allen and a Cooltrainer Allen, a Cooltrainer Lily and a DJ Lily.
• Palette Swap:
  • Some Pokémon have different shiny palettes.
  • Several custom trainers, including the new Elite Four and champion, use shiny Pokémon.
  • You're able to get an egg containing a shiny Ditto after beating Misty.
  • 2.1.0 introduces Nickname Palettes. With the right combination of DVs and the right nickname your Pokémon can have a completely different palette.
  • You're able to apply your own custom palette to a single Pokémon you have using the new Pokédex.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: Thanks to the ability to rematch gyms, any gym can potentially become this, but special mention goes to Pryce's gym. Since all the trainers in there consistently reward you with high amounts of money, it's possible to walk out with $50,000+ per rematch, provided you have an Amulet Coin equipped.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Deliberately invoked. Most story elements are removed in order to make the game open world. What few story elements remain are not required to beat the game.
• Post-Final Boss: A downplayed example. After beating Champion ShockSlayer for the first time, a level 70 shiny Swinub named Pigy battles you. Despite the game saying that it's a wild Pokémon, you cannot catch it.
• Press X to Die: In Nuzlocke Mode, you can press Select on the Trainer Card screen to instantly end your run for reasons like losing a favorite team member or softlocking.
• Psychic Powers: Diviner Ryan's Pokémon gave him these. He's afraid of how much knowledge they make him have but it makes him an effective Ace Trainer.
• Race Lift: In the original game, every minor NPC had the same orange-tinted skin colour. Crystal Clear gives each of them their own skin colour, ranging from bright to dark. You can also change some of the main characters' races on the character select screen if you so desire.
• Random Drop: Your follower has a chance to find an item when you talk to it if it isn't already holding one. Some Pokémon are better at finding items than others.
• Rare Random Drop: Some of the rarer items your Pokémon can find include Lucky Eggs, Squirtbottles and Gold Berries.
• Read the Freaking Manual: The bookshelves in your residence nudge towards reading the game's documentation.
• Scenery Porn: Cheese and Aurelio's Elite Four rooms.
• Series Mascot: A shiny Swinub named Pigy. It appears in the title screen (the page image above) and in a post-champion battle after beating ShockSlayer. Prior to version 1.3, it appeared on ShockSlayer's team in his Elite Four battle.
• Shout-Out:
  • Interacting with a game console plays demade versions of music from other games.
  • Fibbef's theme is the boss music from Contra.
  • Lt. Surge's custom gym theme is Guile's Theme.
  • Champion ShockSlayer's theme is an 8-bit demix of the X vs. Zero theme from Mega Man X5.
    • The True Final Boss version of the fight uses an 8-bit demix of Falling Down from Mega Man Zero 4.
  • Cheese's Elite Four room and battle sprite are full of Tetris blocks.
  • A gentleman in Pewter Museum looking at the Helix Fossil mentions that he could sing praises about its shape. According to Ivan, ancient civilizations used to worship the Helix Fossil for its spiral shape as well.
  • The guard in the Pokémon Lab in New Cinnabar Island has almost exactly the same dialogue that the guard in the lobby of Gordon Freeman's department in Black Mesa has regarding a system crash, he'll offer to buy you a drink after work (albeit soda pop instead of beer), and checking the computer reveals a button that you can press to sound an alarm. For added fun, checking the computer also reveals that the computer shows a bluescreen and that the guard is only pretending to fix the computer.
  • One of the radio stations constantly plays an 8-bit rendition of Earth, Wind & Fire's "Boogie Wonderland".
  • A lot of the Nickname Palettes are references to other media.
  • A map in the house in Grullo Gorge shows the Arlen region.
  • After defeating her, Acetrainer Cat says that you had spiked her into the ground.
  • Ness can be battled in Slowpoke Well, and his choice of Pokémon is based on his game of origin. For instance, his shiny Muk references Master Belch, and his shiny Mew bears a resemblance to Giygas as he appeared in EarthBound Beginnings.
  • Chronicler Robert's fight theme is an 8-bit remix of "Macho Man" by the Village People.
  • Teacher Colette asks if you've forgotten anything.
  • In the bar on Cycling Road, there's a biker by the bartender who comments "We're bikers" over and over again.
• Sleek High Rise Apartment: The residence available in Lavender Town is a rather spacious penthouse suite, though it is built into the Radio Tower.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: In addition to the Ice Path, the Seafoam Islands from Red and Blue makes a return.
• Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: Tracks from the Mega Man franchise make up a large chunk of the game's 8-bit remixes.
• Starter Mon: You can choose from 30 different starter Pokémon, including several "hard" ones. As of one update, it's possible to, with the assistance of this site, inject your own custom starter into the game.
• The Stoner: Implied with Firebreather Chase in Blaine's gym, who uses an Oddish and says "Blaze it!" before battling you.
• Superboss: As you collect badges and beat the Elite Four, several challenging bosses become available:
  • Collecting at least 8 badges lets you challenge Professor Oak.
  • After beating the Elite Four once, you can fight Gold's/Red's mom at their respective residences. The level of their teams are on par with the champion of Mt. Silver.
  • Once your Pokémon is able to learn Strength, you can move the boulder blocking the path to the depths of Slowpoke Well. Deep inside the well stands Ness.
  • It's possible to face THE CHAMP, a level 100 Machamp with perfect DV values, in Victory Road after beating the Elite Four twice. Just like Pigy, despite the game considering it to be a wild encounter, you can't capture it either.
• Suspicious Video-Game Generosity:
  • After beating Neph/DJ Fef, your team is healed, right before facing the other Elite Four members and champion.
  • In the Underground Arena, your party only gets healed every five battles, just before a boss.
• Time Skip: Takes place one year after the events of Crystal.
• Time Stands Still: The Alph Forest, where time stands completely still and the wild Pokémon can't move at all. Coupled with a Colour-Coded Timestop.
• Too Awesome to Use:
  • The Luster Ball, a Poké Ball with a guaranteed catchrate that turns the caught Pokémon into a Shiny is an item with an incredibly low spawn chance every time you enter the Forest of Rage^note 1/8192, equal to finding a Shiny Pokémon and unlike the Master Ball, you can only get a single one per save file. It's best to save it for something like a Legendary, since every other Shiny can be easily gotten thanks to the free Shiny Ditto.
  • The Booster Ball, which is a guaranteed catch that changes the caught Pokémon's DVs to be perfect for its gender is a renewable item unlike the former, but it costs a hefty 10000 Arena points. Again, it's best reserved for Legendaries because of breeding.
• Took a Level in Badass: If you wait until you have all 16 badges to face Youngster Joey, he'll have a level 100 Rattata.
• Trespassing Hero: Lampshaded by a man on Route 27 who's resting in someone else's house.
  "It's nice when people let you just enter their houses, isn't it?"
• True Final Boss:
  • In addition to Red, you can also face Gold, Kris, or Green depending on which gender you choose and whether you choose to start in Kanto or Johto.
  • Upon completing the Pokédex, if you go to ShockSlayer's forge in Cherrygrove Bay, you can rematch him again, this time with a level 100 team. You also get another opportunity to face off against Pigy, with you being able to catch it this time.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: While this is averted for common soft-lock targets such as Cinnabar Island, it's possible to render the game unwinnable by using the Laptop and releasing your HM users in a right spot to get rid of any chance to escape.
• Unperson:
  • Cheese and Aurelio were removed in Version 1.3, with Doom and Honeybun taking their spots in the Elite Four.
  • All traces of Neph were removed in version 2.4.0. In his place, DJ Fef takes the spotlight of showing up before the Elite Four challenge, while his original premise of being a real estate salesperson was taken over by Savage Randy and Beth.
• Use Your Head: By riding the Bicycle, you can headbutt trees with your helmet.
• Utility Party Member: There are several "Pseudo Abilities" tied to specific species that allow different non-combat perks like faster egg hatching and increased chance of wild Pokémon holding items. A house in Saffron City contains a full list of these.
• Variable Mix: The 8-bit remix of the Gym Leader theme from Pokémon Sword and Shield changes its tone when you knock out the enemy Pokémon/your Pokémon gets knocked out, just like in the original game. It also changes when the Gym Leader sends out their last Pokémon.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: You have the option to take a Berry from the Pikachu in the Pewter Museum for no real reason. It will react accordingly.
• Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Certain trainers don't scale in levels no matter how many badges you obtain, so it's entirely possible to steamroll them with a team full of level 100 Pokémon while they're still in their 30's, for example.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Some gym leaders can be one if you face them early on. Whitney in particular uses her Miltank from the start.
  • Jasmine only uses a single Pokémon on early sets, but it's her Steelix. With its high defences and already having the strong Iron Tail, it can wipe the floor even with Pokémon that have a type advantage against it.
  • Misty uses a deceptively diverse team right from the start, which will definitely come as a surprise if you're used to her team from the Kanto games. Her Wooper counters Electric types, Lapras is very tanky for that point of the game, while her Staryu comes with Ice Beam for great coverage and will destroy you if you don't take care of it quickly. Additionally, the former two can set up Rain Dance.
  • Downplayed with Blaine. All of his Pokémon know Flamethrower and his Magby has Thunder Punch as well as Cross Chop for coverage. His Gym's out-of-the-way location means fighting him early is not very likely unless you happen to start in New Cinnabar.
• We Sell Everything: The Goldenrod and Celadon City department stores sell all the evolution stones and items needed for trade evolutions.
  • Lampshaded by a guard in the Silph. Co building who gives you an Up-Grade.
    "They WHAT? I had no idea you could buy this at the Dept. Stores already!"
• What the Hell, Player?: If you talk to the Old Amber in Pewter Museum 5 times, you get to steal it. The game calls you out for it, doubling as a reference to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening.
  "Guess what? You got it for free. Are you proud of yourself?"
• When I Was Your Age...: A gentleman in the New Cinnabar ferry terminal complains about how easy it is to get there.
  "Back in my day, if we wanted to get to Cinnabar Island, we had to go through the Seafoam Islands! And we liked it!"
• A Winner Is You: There's not really any proper ending to the ROM hack, outside of the praise from in-game characters. May cross with an Anti Climax Cut.
  • After you beat the champion, you are congratulated as you induct your team into the Hall of Fame, but because they want you to get right back into the action after achieving such a feat, the end credits are removed completely and you are instantly plopped back outside the Indigo Plateau after Oak rates your Pokédex.
  • If you manage to collect all 16 badges in the game, a feat that is arguably tougher than beating the Elite Four for the first time because of how the game balance changes after the first 8 badges, nothing really happens. The Pokémon League calls you up, congratulates you, then gives you the same random lines of dialogue you get after collecting a badge before hanging up abruptly.

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