Mega Man Zero: Mega Man Zero 1 Revisited

Mega Man Zero was an ambitious and experimental release. Most of it worked, but the character progression felt rough. The main problems were:
1. Weapon upgrades took too long to grind out
2. Cyber Elves took too many E-Crystals to evolve
3. Permanent upgrades gave the player a permanent penalty score on missions
4. The game started you with 3 retries and never gave you more

Capcom recognized these problems, and made changes in MMZ2. Weapons leveled up in half of the time. Cyber Elves took around 1/3 of the E-Crystals to evolve. When you continued, you got 2 free retries. As a result, when playing through the series, MMZ1 feels significantly rougher than MMZ2. The series would be further refined in MMZ3.

This series of 3 patches addresses issues in MMZ1.

*mmz1_antigrind: This patch ports the weapon experience requirements from MMZ2 back to MMZ1. It also sets Cyber Elf E-Crystal costs to values that are 1/2 of MMZ2, and roughly 1/6th of MMZ1's original costs. For example, your subtanks have gone from a cost of 1200 E-Crystals to 200.

*mmz1_antigrind_alt_mmz2: An alternate version of mmz1_antigrind that sets Cyber Elf costs to the same values as MMZ2. Do not apply both antigrind patches.

*mmz1_9_retries: This small patch starts a new game with 9 lives. MMZ1, unlike its successors, does not replenish your lives (aka retries) after game-over. The retries you get from the start are all you get for the rest of the game, unless enemies drop them. If you run out of lives, you permanently fail the mission you are on. This gives you a full life counter from the beginning.

*mmz1_elf_penalty: This patch eliminates the mission penalty score from cyber-elves that you must raise with E-Crystals. This includes permanent upgrades, but also the hackers that eliminate small enemies and cut boss HP. In turn, the penalty for each one-time use Cyber Elf used during a mission has been increased from 2 to 5. You will never go negative, but if you use 3 one-time use Cyber Elves, your score will be 0. Additionally, the penalty for damage taken during a mission has been decreased from 1p per 3 damage to MMZ3's more forgiving 1p per 6 damage.

Title: Mega Man Zero 1 Revisited
Author: PowerPanda
Version: 1.0
Applies to: Mega Man Zero GBA (USA, Europe)
(No-Intro version 20130720-015858)
ROM/File SHA-1: 193B14120119162518A73C70876F0B8BFFDBD96E

Contents: mmz1_revisited.ips The Main Patch
--individual patches--
mmz1_antigrind.ips Cyber-elf costs half of MMZ2
mmz1_antigrind_alt_mmz2.ips Cyber-elf costs same as MMZ2
mmz1_mission_penalty.ips Mission penalty adjustment for cyber elves and damage
mmz1_9_retries.ips Start the game with 9 Retries

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-=Intro and Description=-
Mega Man Zero was an ambitious and experimental release. Most of it worked, but the character progression felt rough. The main problems were:
1. Weapon upgrades took too long to grind out
2. Cyber Elves took too many E-Crystals to evolve
3. Permanent upgrades gave the player a permanent penalty score on missions
4. The game started you with 3 retries and never gave you more

Capcom recognized these problems, and made changes in MMZ2. Weapons leveled up in half of the time. Cyber Elves took around 1/3 of the E-Crystals to evolve. When you continued, you got 2 free retries. As a result, when playing through the series, MMZ1 feels significantly rougher than MMZ2. The series would be further refined in MMZ3.

This series of 3 patches addresses issues in MMZ1.

*mmz1_antigrind: This patch ports the weapon experience requirements from MMZ2 back to MMZ1. It also sets Cyber Elf E-Crystal costs to values that are 1/2 of MMZ2, and roughly 1/6th of MMZ1's original costs. For example, your subtanks have gone from a cost of 1200 E-Crystals to 200.

*mmz1_antigrind_alt_mmz2: An alternate version of mmz1_antigrind that sets Cyber Elf costs to the same values as MMZ2. Do not apply both antigrind patches.

*mmz1_9_retries: This small patch starts a new game with 9 lives. MMZ1, unlike its successors, does not replenish your lives (aka retries) after game-over. The retries you get from the start are all you get for the rest of the game, unless enemies drop them. If you run out of lives, you permanently fail the mission you are on. This gives you a full life counter from the beginning.

*mmz1_elf_penalty: This patch eliminates the mission penalty score from cyber-elves that you must raise with E-Crystals. This includes permanent upgrades, but also the hackers that eliminate small enemies and cut boss HP. In turn, the penalty for each one-time use Cyber Elf used during a mission has been increased from 2 to 5. You will never go negative, but if you use 3 one-time use Cyber Elves, your score will be 0. Additionally, the penalty for damage taken during a mission has been decreased from 1p per 3 damage to MMZ3's more forgiving 1p per 6 damage.

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-=Patching Instructions and Compatibility=-
These patches can be applied to the rom using Lunar IPS, or a similar program. If using individual patches, choose one antigrind patch or the other, but do not use both.

These patches ONLY update the specific values for weapon experience and cyber-elf e-crystals, and do not relocate any other code, so they should be compatible with any other patch used.

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-=Credits=-
Hacking: PowerPanda

Weapon Experience Locations: acediez
Mission Penalty Locations: PowerPanda
Cyber-Elf Cost Locations: ElwinBran
Programs Used: HxD (Hex Editing), no$gba (Debugging), VBA (Testing)

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-=Code Changes=-

CHANGE MISSION PENALY FOR DAMAGE TAKEN
2B/8166
03 > 06 ;1p lost for every 6 damage taken

DISABLE PENALTY FOR PERMANENT UPGRADES
2B/8165
0A > 00 ;penalty for permanent upgrades reduced from 10 to 0
02 > 05 ;penalty for temporary upgrades increased from 02 to 05

START WTIH 9 RETRIES
00/F3EC 0321 > 0921 ;sets the number 9 instead of the number 3

SPECIAL MOVES
01/88A2 (Buster Shot Up) FF > 80
01/8A60 (Saber Air Roll) FF > 80
01/8A1C (Saber Dash Roll) FF > 80

2A/8168 (Buster Levels)
Lvl 2 9001 > C800
Lvl 3 B004 > 5802

2A/8184 (Saber Levels)
Lvl 2 2800 > 1E00
Lvl 3 A000 > 5A00
Lvl 4 3002 > 2201
Lvl 5 9006 > 5203

2A/81BE (Triple Rod Levels)
Lvl 2 2800 > 1E00
Lvl 3 A000 > 5A00
Lvl 4 3002 > 2201
Lvl 5 3007 > A203

2A/81D6 (Shield Boomerang Levels)
Lvl 2 3C00 > 1E00
Lvl 3 A000 > 5A00

CYBER ELF COSTS
2B/727C
Orig. AntiGrind Alt_MMZ2
E8 03 96 00 2C 01
B8 0B F4 01 E8 03
EE 02 7D 00 FA 00
B0 04 C8 00 90 01
F4 01 64 00 C8 00
D0 07 5E 01 BC 02
E8 03 96 00 2C 01
C8 00 23 00 46 00
90 10 4B 00 96 00
EE 02 7D 00 FA 00
DC 05 FA 00 F4 01
AC 0D 58 02 E2 04
E2 04 96 00 2C 01
E8 03 96 00 2C 01
DC 05 FA 00 F4 01
94 11 EE 02 DC 05

Database match: Mega Man Zero (USA, Europe)
Database: No-Intro: Game Boy Advance (v. 20210227-023848)
File/ROM SHA-1: 193B14120119162518A73C70876F0B8BFFDBD96E
File/ROM CRC32: 9707D2A1