Pokémon Nova Sun and Umbra Moon is a mechanical rework of last year’s big Pokémon releases meant to give fans a challenging Pokémon experience. Battles in this mod are tougher thanks to a combination of high levels, a more intense difficulty curve, and an AI that uses actual competitive strategies.
Here’s the trailer:
Created by Dio Vento, Nova Sun and Umbra Moon introduces a staggering number of tweaks, including:
- Shops have better items
- NPCs have more Pokémon with items, improved movesets, if not a full 6 monster team. “Every trainer in the game has been edited, and the level curve expects use of the Experience Share,” Vento writes.
- A perfect Ditto is readily available to the player for breeding
- Eggs hatch faster
- Wider variety of wild Pokémon, all of which can hold items / are not locked to versions or time of day
- Easier methods to evolve
- Totems use new strategies, and are beefed up
- Areas are optimized for EV training
- More random encounters that can SOS
Some of these adjustments may sound like they would make the game easier, but it seems that they are included to allow the player to beef up and train their monsters. Fewer hours spent on artificial time-wasting means more time to plot out better builds, hopefully in the name of meeting the challenge of a grueling difficulty curve.
The mod has been in the works since the release of Sun and Moon, and continues to be updated. You can check out Pokémon Nova Sun and Umbra Moon here.