Progression

Ancient Ember adds several overlapping progression systems on top of the standard Pokémon FireRed playthrough.

Battle Result Bar

After every battle win, a compact bar slides in at the top of the screen and auto-dismisses after a few seconds (press A to skip it). It gives you a full read of where you stand without opening any menu.

The bar shows different things depending on what happened in that battle:

Think of it as the game’s way of keeping score without stopping you.

Battle Streak

Win consecutive battles without losing (whiteout) to build your streak.

The streak counter is shown in the EMBER stats panel and in the Battle Result Bar after each win.

Streak-at-Risk Warning

When your streak is 3 or higher and your lead Pokémon drops to 25% HP or below, the EMBER stats box flashes a warning:

STREAK AT RISK!

This appears in the header in red while the HP stays that low. It’s the game telling you to switch or use a potion before the streak disappears. One whiteout below streak 10 resets everything.

Death Penalty (Whiteout)

When all your Pokémon faint:

• Lose 10% of current Gear Shards (rounded down, minimum 0)
• Streak is reset to 0 if below 10
• Streak is halved if at 10 or above (Streak Shield)
• Radiant Shards are never lost

Milestones

One-time shard bonuses triggered at specific cumulative thresholds. Each milestone fires exactly once per save.

Paragon System

After finding your 100th gear piece, every 25th gear drop awards +1 Radiant Shard as a Paragon bonus.

Total gear found:  100+, 125+, 150+, 175+, 200+, ...
                   ↕     ↕     ↕
Each threshold:    +1 Radiant Shard

Difficulty Scaling

Trainer Levels

Trainers gain +1 level per badge you own. Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and the Champion scale by +2 levels per badge (approximately — exact multiplier is computed at battle start).

This prevents the game from becoming trivial with high-level gear.

Elite Wild Encounters

About 1-in-8 wild encounters spawns an elite encounter — a higher-level variant of the normal wild Pokémon with a guaranteed gear drop.

Gear Score

Each Pokémon has a Gear Score from 0–100 based on equipped gear quality and rarity:

Gear Score and grade are shown on the Pokémon summary screen.

Party Gear Score (sum of all 6 Pokémon scores, max 600) is shown in the EMBER submenu.

Gym Leader & E4 Shard Bounties

Defeating a Gym Leader, Elite Four member, or the Champion for the first time gives a shard bounty:

Exact values are set per-trainer in src/battle_main.c.

Well Rested Buff

After healing at any Pokémon Center:

• Next 3 battles gain +50% gear drop rate (1.5× multiplier)
• Counter is displayed in the debug menu
• Stacks multiplicatively with other drop bonuses

Daily Bonus

Once per play-hour, healing at a Pokémon Center gives +5 Gear Shards. The timer is tracked by lastDailyBonusHour in SaveBlock2.

First Blood

Once per play-hour, your first battle win is guaranteed to drop gear regardless of the base drop chance. Resets at the same play-hour boundary as Daily Bonus.

Ancient Weather Events

About once per hour of play, a new Ancient Weather Event takes hold across Kanto. An announcement bar slides in at the top of the screen to tell you what’s arrived — each event carries its own name and a line of lore flavor.

Six events rotate through:

• Ember Storm — fire energy rises through the wild
• Arcane Frost — crystalline cold sharpens fortune
• Thunder Surge — electric tension crackles across routes
• Poison Haze — a murky mist with strange gifts inside
• Shadow Mist — something moves in the tall grass
• Temporal Rift — time slips; encounters grow unpredictable

Each event subtly changes the battlefield — drop rates, encounter composition, or rarity weights shift slightly depending on which event is active. No single event is dramatically more powerful than another, but watching the rotation rewards paying attention.

The Codex has more detail on individual event effects.

Rune Puzzle

Five ancient stones are hidden across Kanto’s dungeons — one in each of the five major dungeon areas. Finding and touching all five in the correct elemental order completes the Rune Puzzle.

The sequence: Earth → Water → Fire → Wind → Spirit

Stone locations:

Look for an ancient-looking stone marker on the dungeon floor. Interact with it to touch it.

Reward on completion:

• +50 Gear Shards (one-time bonus)
• +1 Gear Shard per battle win permanently added to every future win

The EMBER submenu shows “+ sequence complete +” once the puzzle is finished. The effect persists for the rest of the save.

Finding the clue: Codex page 8 (THE ANCIENTS) contains a passage hinting at the correct sequence. You don’t need to find the clue to attempt the puzzle, but the dungeon inscriptions scattered through each location also carry fragments.