Pokemon Volt White

Pokemon Volt White is Drayano's reworked Pokemon White, released alongside Blaze Black as his first big enhancement project. If your copy of the game is White, or you would rather have Zekrom and White Forest than Reshiram and Black City, this is the version to patch.

The core promise is the same as its twin: every one of the 649 Pokemon from Generations 1 to 5 can be found in a single save, with no trading required. To make that work, Drayano rewrote wild encounter tables, changed trade evolutions, edited all five in-game trades and moved useful items — fossils, evolution stones and TMs that used to wait until after the League — into the main adventure.

Unova's trainers were redesigned from the ground up. Every team was edited for a steeper level curve, and many Pokemon received new base stats, abilities, typings or movesets to make more species viable. A small number of attacks were buffed as well, mostly in power. The result plays a lot like a New Game Plus: the story beats you know, with opponents who finally bring proper teams.

Version 3.1, released on Christmas Eve 2011, is the final update. It tweaked level-up moves and evolution levels for several Pokemon, and the full hack also includes a new post-game with rematches against disguised Gym Leaders in eastern Unova.

• Every Pokemon from Gen 1 to Gen 5 (649 total) obtainable
• Zekrom and White Forest from the original White version
• Rebuilt trainer teams on a harder level curve
• Changed stats, abilities and typings for many Pokemon
• Trade evolutions replaced with in-game methods
• TMs, stones and fossils available before the League
• All five in-game trades edited
• Disguised Gym Leader rematches in the new post-game
• Optional Clean patch that leaves Pokemon data untouched

Volt White comes in two flavours. The Full patch includes all of Drayano's changes to Pokemon themselves: new stats, types, abilities, level-up moves and TM compatibility. The Clean patch leaves the Pokemon exactly as Game Freak designed them and only changes wild encounters, trainers, evolutions and items.

Choose Full for the intended experience and more viable team options. Choose Clean if you want competitive-accurate stats, or if you plan to use damage calculators and guides written for the official Gen 5 games.

Mechanically, nothing — Blaze Black and Volt White share every change and the same 649-Pokemon Pokedex. The differences are the version-exclusive parts of the original games: White Forest instead of Black City, Zekrom instead of Reshiram, and a different Opelucid City.

The patch must match your ROM: Volt White only works on Pokemon White, Blaze Black only on Pokemon Black.

• Fight optional trainers — Gen 5 gives bonus EXP for beating higher-level Pokemon, so you rarely need to grind.
• Check Drayano's documentation for new evolution methods before you give up on a trade evolution.
• Expect more Triple and Rotation battles than in vanilla White and build a team with spread or priority moves.
• Use an unmodified, preferably European, White ROM when patching.