NPCs & Locations
Ancient Ember adds a set of custom NPCs to towns across Kanto. Most appear in every town; a few are in specific locations only.
Every Town
These NPCs are present in all towns from Pallet onward:
| NPC | Service |
|---|---|
| Gear Merchant | Buy/sell gear from a rotating stock. Stock refreshes periodically. Sell price = half of buy price. |
| Item Storage Chest | Overflow storage for gear and relics beyond your bag capacity. |
| Altar of Recrafting | Reroll affixes (8 Gear Shards) or reroll quality (2 Radiant Shards). Cannot reroll Legendary gear. |
End-Game Towns
Available once you reach Celadon / Fuchsia and beyond:
| NPC | Location | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Scrapper | End-game towns | Scrap gear into shards. Mass-scrap via SELECT in Gear Bag. |
| Gear Forge | Select towns | Combine two gear pieces into one improved piece. |
| Gear Augmenter | Select towns | +1 quality on first bag slot (cap 15, no shard cost). |
| Mystic Enchanter | Select towns | Reroll one random affix on first bag slot (no cost). |
| Fragment Transmuter | Select towns | 3× same-rarity gear → 1× next-tier gear. |
Specific Locations
| NPC | Location | Service |
|---|---|---|
| Gear Gambler (Kadala) | Celadon Game Corner | 5 Shards for mystery gear; 3 Radiant for guaranteed Rare+ |
| Hunt Board | Viridian City | Sign showing today’s “hot route” (rotates hourly) |
| Quest Board NPC | Various towns | Offers specific bounty quests |
| Lore Scholar | 6 towns | Lore dialogue about the Primal Guardian mythology |
| Rift Scholar | Cinnabar Island | Information about the Rift Zone endgame dungeon. Offers a full 3-page revelation about Rift lore — talk to them multiple times for each page. |
| Veteran Bounty Hunter | Post-Champion | Elite bounties after defeating the Champion |
Pokémon Centers
Every Pokémon Center nurse now offers:
- Well Rested buff — after healing, your next 3 battles have +50% gear drop rate
- Daily Bonus — once per play-hour, healing gives +5 Gear Shards
After you heal, a small popup confirms what you received: it notes the +5 shards if the daily bonus triggered, and tells you the Well Rested buff is active. No need to guess whether the timer reset.
Ancient Caches
Hidden gear containers (Rare+ guaranteed) in three dungeons:
| Location | Floor |
|---|---|
| Mt. Moon | 1F |
| Pokémon Tower | 5F |
| Silph Co. | 7F |
Interact with a specific tile to open the cache. Each cache can only be opened once per save.
Ember Gazette & Posters
- Ember Gazette — dynamic lore posters inside Pokémon Centers
- Gear Weekly — rotating poster in Vermilion Fan Club
These are flavor/lore only and have no mechanical effect.
Dungeon Inscriptions
Six dungeons have lore signs (bg_event signs) with Ancient Ember flavor text:
- Mt. Moon
- Rock Tunnel
- Pokémon Tower
- Seafoam Islands
- Silph Co.
- Victory Road
Rune Stones
Five ancient stones are hidden in the five major dungeons — one per location. They appear as interactable floor markers, not NPCs. Touching all five in the correct elemental order completes the Rune Puzzle and grants a permanent shard bonus.
Rune Stones are signs built into the dungeon map, not characters you talk to.
| Stone | Dungeon |
|---|---|
| Earth Stone | Mt. Moon |
| Water Stone | Seafoam Islands |
| Fire Stone | Pokémon Tower |
| Wind Stone | Rock Tunnel |
| Spirit Stone | Victory Road |
See Progression for the full puzzle details and rewards.