What Pokémon Uranium changes
How the game plays differently from Pokémon Essentials (RPG Maker XP), then what it does to the Pokémon.
How the game plays
Pokémon Uranium is a fan game, not a ROM hack — a free, standalone game built in RPG Maker XP on Pokémon Essentials, released on August 6, 2016 after roughly nine years of development by JV and Involuntary-Twitch. It sets its own region, West Tandor, with 200 species split between 166 new creations and returning Pokémon, its own original Nuclear type, built around the region's nuclear-plant meltdown storyline, in-battle Mega Evolution, and Poké Radar hunting. Its release drew wide attention for a reason that had nothing to do with the game itself: one week later Nintendo issued a DMCA takedown of its download mirrors. The wiki this guide is built from records that the original team stopped active development shortly after, on September 21, 2016; the fan community has kept the game, its wiki and its online trading lobby running since, patching it past v1.3. This guide reflects whatever each wiki page's own most recent edit documents — individual pages cite fixes as late as v1.3.1 — rather than one single current-version snapshot, since the wiki itself never states one.
The main changes
- An all-original region, West Tandor, with eight gyms and no fixed Elite Four
- 200 species: 166 of West Tandor's own plus a large selection of returning Pokémon
- A player-created type, Nuclear, tied to the region's own plot
- In-battle Mega Evolution
- Poké Radar hunting and tiered fishing rods
- An optional built-in Nuzlocke Mode
- A randomized 32-trainer Tandor Championship in place of a fixed Elite Four
How the Pokémon change
The game leaves the official base stats, types and abilities alone. What it changes is elsewhere: movesets, encounters and trainer teams.