What Pokémon: Wishes of Tomorrow changes
How the game plays differently from Pokémon Emerald, then every stat, type and ability it alters next to what the official games do.
How the game plays
Wishes of Tomorrow is an original Game Boy Advance game built from the source of Pokémon Emerald rather than patched over it. You start in a snowed-in mountain village, pick one of three Dragon-type starters, and follow a three-act story through a national park, a volcano town, a rail line and finally a surveillance city called Shin-Tokyo, where a man known as The Oni is running a machine that corrupts Pokémon. Those corrupted Pokémon are the game's own system: a Shadow Pokémon hits harder and defends worse than it should, can lose control mid-battle, and can be stolen from the trainer using it once you have the Snag Machine. Take one to Celebi's shrine and you can purify it. Alongside that there is a quest journal, a shop that trades curios for Mega Stones, machines that hand a Pokémon a new ability, and a decision about the professor's research that changes which Shadow Pokémon turn up and how strong they are. Species, moves and abilities are the modern ones the engine brings with it, so Pokémon from every generation up to the tenth appear. Version 1.2.3 is the creator's full release: an early build had already reached several thousand players on Hackdex about two weeks earlier, and this version folds in their bug reports and redraws the opening hours (bedroom, Munen Village, Munen Lake, Walnut Woods and Frostwood Town) on new tilesets.
Shadow Pokémon
A Shadow Pokémon is one the machine in Shin-Tokyo has got hold of. It hits harder than the same Pokémon normally would and defends worse, and in a long fight it can fall into Hyper Mode, where it stops listening.
Enemy trainers from Act III onwards use them, and the trainer pages on this guide say which Pokémon on a roster are Shadow ones.
The Snag Machine and Snag Balls
You get the Snag Machine in Shin-Tokyo Jail, by breaking a friend out of a cell. After that you can throw a ball at a Shadow Pokémon on an enemy trainer's team and keep it.
Any ball works, but Snag Balls are much better at it. They are sold by the street vendors in Shin-Tokyo and in the Tradewind department store.
Purifying
Surf south of Shin-Tokyo to reach Celebi Island. Three trainers guard the chamber; beat all three and Celebi will see you.
A Shadow Pokémon has to be brought into battle before it can be purified — its icon turns purple when it is ready. Show it to Celebi then, and it keeps the extra punch without the rest.
The Shadow Log
A menu of its own that lists every Shadow Pokémon in the game and whether you have found it, snagged it or purified it. Filling it in is one of the things left to do after the credits.
The quest journal
Twelve quests — five on the main line, seven on the side — are tracked in a QUESTS entry in the start menu, with a note on screen each time one moves forward.
Curios and Mega Stones
A merchant in Tradewind Town sells curios at 1,000 each. They do nothing until you beat the Tradewind gym leader and get the Mega Ring; after that she will swap a curio for the matching Mega Stone.
There is a second route: the Minister, down at the Shin-Tokyo docks, sells the stone for whichever Pokémon is leading your party, at 10,000.
Ability Machines
Sold on the fourth floor of the Tradewind department store and by the Shin-Tokyo street vendors. Each one gives a Pokémon one of twenty abilities it would not otherwise have. They are listed on this guide's items page, one row each.
Decisions
After the Distortion World you find the professor's research on Shadow Pokémon and Celebi's purification, and choose whether to keep it or destroy it. Keeping it leaves the option open — you can still destroy it from the bag later.
If you carry it into Shin-Tokyo, The Oni's people get hold of it and step Shadow production up: the pool of Shadow species changes and the ones you meet are stronger.
Every system here is described from the game's own code and the creator's own field guide.
The main changes
- A new region and a three-act story, ending on a tower in the middle of the city
- Three Dragon-type starters — Gible, Frigibax or Axew — and a fourth Pokémon waiting on the road out of town
- Pokémon from every generation appear, with modern moves, abilities and the physical/special split
- Shadow Pokémon: they hit harder, defend worse, and can slip into Hyper Mode in the middle of a battle
- The Snag Machine, which lets you take a Shadow Pokémon straight off an enemy trainer
- Purification at Celebi's shrine, and a Shadow Log that tracks every one of the 59 Pokémon that can turn up as a Shadow
- Twelve tracked quests with a journal in the start menu
- Mega Evolution, with every Mega Stone either found in the region or bought — from the curio exchange in Tradewind Town or the Minister's shop
- Ability Machines that give a Pokémon one of twenty new abilities
- Decisions that change the game — keeping or destroying the professor's research changes which Shadow Pokémon appear, and how strong they are
- An HM menu, so no Pokémon has to carry Cut or Surf
- A randomizer mode, chosen when you start a new game, that can shuffle starters, wild Pokémon and trainer teams independently while keeping every Shadow Pokémon and level the story was built around
- Fast forward, up to 3x, from the Options menu
- A post-game chapter with a private jet that flies you to anywhere you have already been
How the Pokémon change
Measured from the guide's own data, so it can't drift from the pages it links to.
Compared against present-day official data. The Fairy type and hidden abilities arrived after Pokémon Emerald, so a difference here can belong to the series rather than to this hack.
Evolution methods for all 475 species →
Base stat changes (1)
| Pokémon | What changed | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Floette | HP 54→74, Attack 45→85, Defense 47→87, Sp. Atk 75→155, Sp. Def 98→148, Speed 52→102 | 371→651 |
Type changes (9)
| Pokémon | Was | Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Magnemite | Electric / Steel | Electric |
 | Magneton | Electric / Steel | Electric |
 | Togetic | Fairy / Flying | Flying |
 | Ralts | Psychic / Fairy | Psychic |
 | Kirlia | Psychic / Fairy | Psychic |
 | Gardevoir | Psychic / Fairy | Psychic |
 | Togekiss | Fairy / Flying | Flying |
 | Cottonee | Grass / Fairy | Grass |
 | Whimsicott | Grass / Fairy | Grass |
Ability changes (1)
| Pokémon | Gains | Loses | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Regidrago | Dragon's Maw | Dragon’s Maw |