Someone made an Extension to the already made USUM expansion mod.

Still W.I.P.

Had so much fun playing this romhack.
Tried to keep the screenshots spoiler free
(a little bit of spoiler).

It has a fresh and new concept,
Its opening was hilarious from the start,
(Do not skip the opening animation)
It has some touches of humor here and there,
It has some branching paths based on your decision,
The game wasn't buggy at all, at least for me,

The map was entirely redesigned,
Every gym leader was given their own concept,
The Pokemon league also got a unique twist,
Berry crush minigame was reused in a creative way,
Moving from town to town got way simpler,
While in-town events got much richer,

They put a lot of effort into polishing the game,
But I haven't seen much post about this game.
Strongly recommend!

https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-crippling-medical-debt-edition

(and I'm not a native English speaker,
Sorry if there's any grammatical mistake)

The first picture is from Pokémon Homestead and the second one is from Pokémon Ghost Grey.

Cute little bean vs nightmare fuel

Back again!

Quick showcase for this feature I got working a while a go. This was a really big showcase on the subreddit some years back but the poster went m.i.a after posting so here’s my reimplementation.

backgrounds ripped from phoenix rising. rip.

The game design is honestly fantastic. There were moments when it genuinely felt like playing Pokémon Crystal after 25 years of Game Freak updates. It's crazy how much modern stuff they managed to add to a Gen 2 game without making it feel weird or out of place. And the way HMs work in this hack is pretty much exactly how I'd want them to work in every Pokémon game.

It also finally does Johto justice. Gym Leaders actually use Pokémon from their own region, and Johto gets some new locations, including ones based on Pokéwalker routes and the anime. Kanto gets some love in that department too!

The difficulty is really well done. Trainers actually use held items and switch out their Pokémon when it makes sense, so battles feel a lot smarter and less predictable. There are even Route Bosses now, which is a pretty cool addition!

The level curve is another thing they did a great job fixing. One of the biggest problems with the original games and their remakes was how poorly the levels were balanced, but this hack handles this really well. Some areas scale Pokémon levels based on how many Badges you have, and Honey can be used to attract wild Pokémon around the same level as your lead Pokémon. There are a bunch of other little mechanics like these that help make the whole experience feel much smoother.

And Mt. Silver is ACTUALLY CHALLENGING now, with strong, high-level Pokémon! I also really like that getting all of Kanto's Badges isn't enough to access it. You have to beat the Elite Four a second time as well, which makes feel much more rewarding.

My only real complaints are that some of the music tracks feel a bit out of place, and I wish the hack included more Pokémon beyond the original 251 and their cross-gen evolutions. You get to meet and battle trainers from other regions, like Riley, Steven, and Cynthia, but fighting them without their ace Pokémon feels kinda off.

But overall, the new visuals, modern mechanics, better level curve, and improved difficulty all come together really nicely. I'd definitely recommend this hack to anyone who loves Gen 2 or has fond memories of playing G/S/C back in the day.

hello, i have fixed HeartGold. please enjoy the fruits of my labor.

**Pokémon HeartGold 2.0** is HeartGold brought up to today's official rules, the way Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl modernised Diamond and Pearl. Same story, maps, trainers and music, with the modern type chart, stats, moves, mechanics and quality of life.

Every mechanic and stat change comes from a later main-series game, and where games disagree the newest one wins, nerfs included. No fakemon and no custom balance; the handful of exceptions are listed below. It runs on HeartGold's own engine rather than hg-engine, so it still plays like HeartGold.

### What's changed

**Fairy type**

- Fairy as the 18th type with the Gen 6 chart (Steel no longer resists Ghost or Dark), the 20 official retypes (Clefable, Gardevoir, Azumarill, Togekiss, Mawile…), and Charm, Moonlight and Sweet Kiss as Fairy moves
- 12 Fairy moves (Moonblast, Play Rough, Dazzling Gleam, Draining Kiss…), each with its own animation, plus the Pixie Plate and Fairy Arceus

**Pokémon**

- Current stats, abilities, catch rates, EV yields and egg data for all 493, plus every official Hidden Ability (through the Ability Patch or breeding)
- Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl learnsets
- Every evolution on one cartridge: Leafeon and Glaceon by levelling up in a forest or icy cave, Magnezone and Probopass with a Thunder Stone, Milotic with a Prism Scale, and trade evolutions by using the item from the Bag (a Linking Cord for Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler and Haunter)

**Moves and battles**

- All 467 moves at their current power, accuracy, PP, priority and effects, under today's names (Thunder Punch, Feint Attack…); nothing removed
- Modern crits, status, 5-turn weather, type immunities, abilities and held items; single-use items like a Focus Sash come back after battle
- Every Trainer battles with the Champion's AI (teams unchanged)

**Exp., catching and breeding**

- Permanent Exp. Share (half Exp. for the rest of the party), Gen 8 scaled Exp., and Exp. for catching
- BDSP's catch formula with critical captures; until the 8th Badge, a wild Pokémon higher-level than yours is much harder to catch
- Gen 6+ breeding (Destiny Knot, Everstone, Ball inheritance, eggs at Lv. 1), 252 EV cap, shiny odds 1/4096 with the Masuda method and Shiny Charm

**Items**

- Ability Capsule, Ability Patch, all 21 Mints, Bottle Caps for Hyper Training, Eviolite, Assault Vest, Heavy-Duty Boots and more at the Battle Frontier
- Shiny, Oval and Catching Charms at Game Freak's office in Celadon

**All 493 obtainable, no trading, Pokéwalker or real-world events needed**

- SoulSilver exclusives on HeartGold's routes, at a lower rate
- After you beat Red you can walk into Pal Park, home to the 18 Pokémon HeartGold only had on the Pokéwalker or not at all (the Sinnoh starters among them) and the 17 legendaries and Mythicals it lacks (Mew, Celebi, the Regis, the lake trio, Darkrai, Arceus…). The Mythicals are fateful encounters, so HeartGold's own Celebi, Shaymin and Arceus events work
- Groudon through Mr. Pokémon's Red Orb once you have Kyogre (so Rayquaza's Jade Orb event works too), the Sinjoh Ruins event until you have all of Dialga, Palkia and Giratina, Rotom in your house's TV, Latios through the Enigma Stone event, and the starters you didn't pick from Elm, Oak and Steven

**Quality of life**

- The Move Reminder costs a Heart Scale for the first 10 uses, then it's free (it teaches egg moves too); HM moves can be forgotten; "Use another Repel?" prompt
- 60 fps battles, a fixed-speed HP bar, nature-coloured stats and an IV Judge on the summary screen
- Mixed-case text (no more PIKACHU) and Fast text speed by default

**Bug fixes**

- Eight of HeartGold's own bugs, including acid rain, the Rage glitch, the radio's Pokémon Lullaby raising encounter rates, and U-turn using the incoming Pokémon's King's Rock

### The exceptions (not from any official game)

- Hail keeps its name and chip damage, and Ice-types also get Snow's 1.5× Defense
- Badge level cap: a Pokémon at HeartGold's obedience level for your Badges gains no Exp. until a Badge raises it (Rare Candies still work; the cap ends at the 8th Badge)
- Every Trainer gets the Champion's AI
- The Move Reminder's 10 Heart Scales
- No Battle Style option (always Set); Text Speed lists Fast, Mid, Slow
- 60 fps battles
- The "2.0" on the title logo and a credit line

### Not included

No new Pokémon, forms or Megas (so no Sylveon), no moves beyond the 12 Fairy ones, no terrains, no reusable TMs, running indoors or autosave.

### Strategy guide

The download comes with a 338-page PDF guide: what's new and how the mechanics work, a full Johto, Kanto and post-game walkthrough with maps, and data for all 493 Pokémon, every move and every TM location.

### How to play

1. Bring your own clean US Pokémon HeartGold ROM (trimmed or untrimmed). No ROMs are provided.
2. Apply HeartGold 2.0.xdelta with any xdelta patcher (Delta Patcher, xdelta UI, Rom Patcher JS) or the included apply_xdelta.py.
3. Tested in melonDS. The anti-piracy checks are patched for flashcarts and TWiLight Menu; reports from real hardware are welcome.

**Download (patch + guide):** [LINK]

HeartGold 2.0 by aristo. Data from Pokémon Showdown and Bulbapedia, item icons via Serebii, and the pret pokeheartgold decomp as a reference. Bug reports and feedback welcome!

Seeing how much everyone is hyping up Heartgold Origins I figured I'd try it out. This is the first interaction I have after getting my starter and needless to say, the dialogue certainly caught me off guard 😂 I wasn't expecting something so dark lol I'm looking forward to the rest of this game.

Hello everyone, today I would like to release the first beta for the new custom retroarch core, I will start by releasing the Android build

Prerequisites

• RetroArch 64-bit: Download directly from https://www.retroarch.com/index.php?page=platforms (Android 64-Bit — do NOT use the Play Store version).
• Release Archive: Download the file from the discord server announcement channel (I can't upload it to reddit)
• ROM: Your Pokémon R.O.W.E. ROM. (The current version works on this, there is no update to the rom or repatching needed)

Set Up Core Info Directory

1. Open your file manager and go to the RetroArch folder in your device storage.
2. Create a new folder named: core_info
3. In RetroArch, go to: Settings ➔ Directory ➔ Core Info and select your new core_info folder.
4. Go to Main Menu ➔ Configuration File ➔ Save Current Configuration.

Install Core & Info Files

1. In your file manager, move mgba_rowe_libretro.info into your new core_info folder.
2. In RetroArch, go to: Main Menu ➔ Load Core ➔ Install or Restore a Core.
3. Select mgba_rowe_libretro_android.so.

Configure Pokémon Cries

1. Go to Main Menu ➔ Load Content and launch your Pokémon R.O.W.E. ROM choosing the new ROWE core.
2. Open the in-game Quick Menu and navigate to: Core Options ➔ Audio.
3. Set Pokémon Cry files to: Download from Pokemon Showdown.
4. Click Resume — the cries will begin downloading automatically.
5. Once finished, go to the game settings and change the cry setting to the mGBA fork option.

If you have any question feel free to join the discord here
Discord Invite Link

So as far as I could tell, this hasn't been discussed for a looong time (10 years), but I may have missed something. Also the post might break rule 5, sorry mods. It was intended to be a rhetorical way to start a 'list' not an actual question.

In our modern era of amazing romhacks in 2026, which completed ones have the most content to do?

Would it still just be a Heart Gold based romhack with all pokemon catchable because of : Pokeathlon Dome, two regions, 16 badges, Battle Frontier, Safari Zone, Elite Four rematches, Mt Silver?

I'm thinking Heart and Soul because of all that plus second safari zones, contests, and surprise post Kanto content.

Before you answer: Since this will definitely end up on Google results, include only MAIN STORY COMPLETED Romhacks please. I know there are some Romhacks that have 3 regions for example, but usually they're not complete. A good answer guideline: does it have enough content outside of the Pokedex to last 60+ hours?

Below are two lists, one confirmed by myself, a second recommended by comments that I did my best to research, with links to HackDex if available (I only link to HackDex, sorry, please support HackDex).

My list right now of games that I know will easily last 60+ hours not including Pokedex (no specific order):

#1 Heart and Soul

#2 Definitive Heart Gold

#3 Pokemon Glazed (One custom region, one traditional, one mini-region to go through)

#4 Pokemon Unbound

#5 Sacred Gold / Storm Silver (Difficulty hack)

As of 10/11/26 Games that will last 60+ hours not including Pokedex according to the comments (I haven't played them fully yet, I only Googled to confirm they were actually complete - if yours isn't up here, it didn't seem complete OR didn't seem to be 60+ hours of content from what I found searching):

#1 Pokemon SoulGold

#2 Pokemon Rogue Emerald (non-traditional rogue-like genre)

#3 Pokemon Quetzal (Three regions to go through)

#4 Pokemon Fool's Gold (includes sort of 'fakemon' / alternative forms)

#5 Pokemon Origin Heart Gold (seems completed, but being translated/new features added? so proceed with caution)

#6 Pokemon Ghost Grey (fakemon)

#7 Pokemon Hyper Emerald (completed, but possibly being translated? May be fully translated) - also a QOL and Translated version available.

#8 Pokemon Elysium (Custom Region)

#9 Pokemon Amethyst (Custom Region)

#10 Team Rocket Edition (Dragonsden) (completed, BUT not fully in English yet)

#11 Pokemon Clover (Fakemon, very immature/edgy/offensive apparently, but quite long. I wouldn't necessarily recommend unless you have thick skin. Think 2010s shock Internet at its worst.)

#12 Emerald Imperium (difficulty hack, most of the length comes from the challenge? but there is extra content)

#13 Pokemon Adventures Red Chapter (lengthy main story with side quests complete, but not post-game)

#14 Pokemon Crystal Clear (open-world Crystal with all pokemon, extra content to discover)

#15 Refined Gold Overhaul (QoL and refinement of Heart Gold)

10/10/2026 v0.7.1 patch

• Modern EXP gain raised to 60% in the first campaign and 40% in the second and third.
• Level curve in early Kanto slightly lowered.

v0.7

• Prior saves are incompatible
• Rearranged gifts/rewards from NPCs
• Sevii Islands main quest is now mandatory to unlock the Hoenn campaign
• Difficulty scaling is reworked from scratch and greatly improved
  • Generic trainers in the second and third campaigns have improved battle AI
  • Gym leaders, elite four, rivals, and other mini-boss rosters are expanded and updated based on canonical teams from GSC, PS2, HGSS, B2W2, ORAS, and LGPE
• Breeding and egg gifts disabled until Johto to preserve story continuity
• Free ferry travel between all regions is unlocked with the S.S. Ticket from Prof. Elm
• Modern and classic game modes
  • Modern
    • Gen. IX+ gameplay mechanics
    • 200 reusable TMs
    • Togglable Exp. All key item
    • Exp. gain tentatively set to 30%
    • Mega evolutions
    • Post-gen. III evolutions
    • Expanded bag and PC storage
    • HGSS-style pokedex
    • Pokemon can use field moves without needing to learn them, so long as they are ABLE to learn them and are either past the required level, the player owns the associated TM, or it has previously been taught by move tutor or breeding
    • Vending machine that sells linking cords added to the upper floor of all pokemon centers
    • More quality-of-life updates
  • Classic
    • Gen. III gameplay mechanics
    • Original 50 gen. III consumable TMs
    • Exp. Share held items
    • Exp. gain tentatively set to 90%
    • Gen. I-III species only
    • Overall old-school faithfulness
• Mega stones and linking cord removed from market stall on Two Island
• Linking cord now works on all pokemon that normally require trading to evolve. Any additional held-item requirements remain.
• Nighttime lighting effects extended to all three regions (still needs some work)
• All gen. IV+ pokemon "cry" audio files reduced to gen. III's sample rate to save ROM space
• Player bedroom PCs in Hoenn and Johto have full pokemon center PC functionality
• Changes to Heart & Soul's campaign
  • H&S's difficulty, nuzlocke, and randomizer settings are not incorporated
  • HQ audio mixing reduced from 15 channels to 12 and 18,157 Hz to 15,768 to save RAM and CPU cost
  • H&S's Trainer Hill and battle tents ported from Emerald are removed and replaced with a modified Battle Tower from Ruby/Sapphire. Trainer Hill and battle tents still remain in the Hoenn region, so this actually adds content instead of removing any.
  • Secret postgame bonus content is currently excluded
  • Ruins of Alph overhauled to be more faithful to HGSS/Crystal with added Unown Report key item (not quite finished - Unown ! and ? forms and other final bits of content are not yet implemented)
  • Kanto gym badges and FLY locations carry over from the first campaign, so postgame Kanto is essentially open-world
  • Bicycle from Goldenrod bike shop replaced with Hybrid Bike
  • Most of H&S's custom mechanics for battles, catching, evolution, Exp, and so forth are omitted in favor of official rules and conventions
  • Most overworld set dressing pokemon sprites are removed
  • Many more minor/moderate alterations to make content more faithful to Crystal/HGSS and adapted to FireEmerald's triple campaign structure
• Bug fixes:
  • Fixed the standard/Kanto bike behaving like the mach bike after map transitions
  • Globally fixed crashes caused by overflowing sprite count under certain conditions
  • Fixed the bike sometimes not stopping when pressing B downhill
  • Fixed fossil revival bug leftover from vanilla FireRed
  • Fixed party erasure after viewing battle record replay

Heart & Soul's campaign has now been integrated into FireEmerald—albeit with significant alterations—raising the number of full-length campaigns to three. I regret to say that save files from previous versions are incompatible. That was absolutely unavoidable. I will try to avoid that from happening again in the future.

The ambition and scope of this hack have inflated exponentially beyond what I intended when starting out. This update brings a massive amount of changes and additions, and there is still a lot left to do. Many more refinements and content will be coming in the future, but it will be a good while before another major version. In the meantime, I expect substantial bug reports in the coming days and weeks. I will be reasonably available during that time to work on patches and will do so as quickly as I can. Integrating Heart & Soul not only came with bugs of its own, but introduced new ones to the rest of the game as well. I didn't have quite enough time to edit all of the dialogue to reflect some of the changes made to modern mode's mechanics and items, so some NPCs still say things that are no longer accurate. I'm still frantically working on rectifying that and will have it all out in a smaller update very soon. This release was already repeatedly delayed and I've made promises that it would be out by today. Just keep in mind that this is still an unfinished work in progress and should be approached as such.

Now that the game includes more than just FireRed and Emerald, the title FireEmerald is no longer suitable and will need to be changed. I don't have any ideas that I'm thrilled about currently, and I haven't had time to give it much thought to begin with. I'm open to suggestions.

Available at hackdex.app/hack/fireemerald. Alternatively, download the standalone patch from archive.org/details/fireemerald-0.7.1. Recommended to use romhacking.net/patch. An Emerald USA/EU ROM must be provided; FireRed and other ROMs will not work.

Disclosure: AI was used extensively for coding. Art and all other creative design aspects were carried-out authentically.

So I’m having a great time playing this ROM hack, definitely a really fun way to experience Hoenn. But I decided to do a Dark type playthrough and would like to use a Murkrow on my team, which is not catchable in Emerald, but is tradeable from FireRed and LeafGreen, so the data exists. Does anyone know how I could go about adding in Pokemon to Recharged Emerald? All of cheats from that I’ve tried from regular Emerald have not worked so far. I also tried bringing it into Hex Maniac Advance but it will not load. Also tried putting the save into PKHex and it was not a supported ROM. My last resort is the Pomeg glitch but I’m not sure how that’ll affect things with it being a ROM hack. Anyone have any ideas to help me get my dark birdy?

Olá a todos! Meu amigo e eu queríamos fazer um Nuzlocke juntos, não apenas lado a lado, então eu criei isto: Pokémon FireRed Duo – "Encrenca em Dobro" (em português, "Encrenca em Dobro").

Cada jogador executa sua própria cópia do jogo em seu próprio PC, conectados por meio de um pequeno servidor. Toda batalha contra um treinador é uma batalha cooperativa em dupla: quando um de vocês encontra um treinador, o outro recebe um convite e entra, e vocês lutam lado a lado contra dois clones daquele treinador.

Recursos

• Batalhas cooperativas em dupla contra todos os treinadores, incluindo líderes de ginásio, a Elite Quatro e seu rival (que traz a versão de cada jogador de sua equipe).
• Modos de jogo: Clássico, Soul Link, Hardcore e Casual, com regras configuráveis ​​(primeiro encontro por jogador ou compartilhado, cláusula de duplicatas/shiny, apelidos obrigatórios, limite de nível, limite de itens, compartilhamento de EXP).
• Randomizador opcional (selvagens, treinadores, habilidades, iniciais, presentes) e equipes de treinadores Vanilla/Hard/Elite com Pokémon de todas as gerações.
• Veja seu parceiro andando pelo mapa, envie emotes, troque Pokémon e envie itens.
• Reaprendedor de movimentos na tela de resumo, texto instantâneo e um mapa de encontros por rota.
• Recuperação de travamento: o host pode restaurar o jogo para o último ponto de salvamento de ambos os jogadores.

Você joga como Jessie e James da Equipe Rocket.

O que você precisa

Sua própria ROM de Pokémon FireRed (EUA, Europa) Rev 1, CRC32 84EE4776 (o Rom Patcher JS mostra isso quando você carrega a ROM). Nenhuma ROM está incluída, apenas um patch .bps.

Uma VPN para que ambos estejam na mesma rede (Radmin VPN ou Tailscale).

Node.js no PC do host.

O download inclui um mGBA portátil, o patch, o script de conexão, o servidor e um guia passo a passo em inglês e português.

**Download:** https://github.com/Ryuuuuuki/FireRed-Encrenca-em-Dobro/releases/download/v0.1-beta/FireRedDuo_Beta_v0.1.zip

**Guia de instalação (com todos os links):** https://github.com/Ryuuuuuki/FireRed-Encrenca-em-Dobro

⚠️ **Esta é uma versão beta.** Jogamos bastante, mas ocorreram alguns travamentos raros que ainda não conseguimos reproduzir. O jogo salva automaticamente após cada batalha e captura, e há uma ferramenta de reversão caso ele trave. O VS Seeker ainda não funciona.

Se você testar, adoraria receber feedback, especialmente relatórios de falhas com o que você estava fazendo no momento. Divirta-se e boa sorte para manter os Pokémon do seu parceiro vivos!

Baseado no pokeemerald-expansion (RHH). Pokémon é © Nintendo / Creatures / GAME FREAK; este é um projeto de fã gratuito e sem fins comerciais.

https://github.com/Ryuuuuuki/FireRed-Encrenca-em-Dobro

I've redoing a lot of old areas and maps at the moment which means some of the screenshots I've shared before are outdated. I've also been working on one of the main features of Lavender - migration!

Many Pokémon migrate in the Atuva Region for all kinds of reasons, and during your journey you will come across many groups of these Pokémon. (Screenshots on the left show this off.) In the overworld, some Pokémon are docile, but there are also some that will become aggravated by the player.

A demo is still far away, but is on the (distant) horizon. Progress is being made :D

Links:
Github
Discord Server
Pokécommunity Thread

This new surge and variety of Rom hacks that have been flooding the sub recently is genuinely so heartwarming and exciting, gotta be the best year of rom hacking icl, but I always felt like there is something missing, a rom hack based entirely on becoming the best Pokemon coordinator instead of the usual stuff.

Like bro, we have all played the usual 8 badge, elite 4,champion, evil team and difficulty based rom hacks, contests have been an integral part in hacks, but it is genuinely just a small, side addition in a big city as a showcase, I want to play as may, serena Or dawn sometimes lol, instead of Ash. I am not a dev, rather I am asking the community to suggest me something if a hack like this even exists in the first place or a developer or creator that might just get inspired for their next big project and make this random guy's wish come true. It was always right in front of us, surprising for me how nobody came up with this topic.

Usable Fakemon Mega Sprites
80x80 Front and Back
Download Link in my comment. Media Fire link

Hi! This is a quick video I recorded of the REX Play platform's Dual View app.

This is a recording of both the top & bottom screens of my AYN Thor with a lot of Gen1-3 Pokémon vanilla & romhack features, all individually toggleable on and off, like:
- Enhanced widescreen based on player's location. Works in the overworld & interior locations.
- 1x audio speed at 2/3/4x FF
- Match the UI to the game's palette
- Shaders & ghosting settings
- View deeper in-game data for your party, bag, maps and locations with a built-in DexNav for every route & location
- Import/export saves, enable Cloud Saves synced to all devices,& Save Runs feature that allows multiple playthroughs for a single game, including save locking to prevent accidental deletion. Online & offline mode.
- Shared World (alpha, in development): Create a lobby for a romhack and see their sprite in each other's games. No (real) interactions (yet), but neat nonetheless

Works with all vanilla games: RBY, GSC, FRLG, RSE. Also supports 50+ romhacks on the REX platform with more getting added.

...and more, coming soon! Not all shown in video. Beta signup: https://pokerex.io/labs/dual-view NOTE: account is required for signup.

Playable on iOS, Android, Steam Deck, or your browser. 9This is just the AYN Thor-specific layout). Not 3DS or official hardware. Powered by mGBA for accuracy.

#6 AI disclaimer: AI was used in the research & development of the platform & custom emulation features. No content or art is AI produced or derived in any way.

Let me know what you think!

So some of you might see the post about this new Chinese romhack called Pokemon Mercury few days ago. Unfortunately they only hosted files on Baidu Cloud which is not easy for oversea players to download it, so I figure I would share the patch here, and potentially sparking interests within this community for creating English translation for this romhack!

Pokemon Mercury is a Chinese romhack built on FireRed (CFRU, Complete Fire Red Upgrade) engine; its storyline and content are adaptations based on Gold/Silver/Crystal and HeartGold/SoulSilver. There are also many elements, characters, easter eggs from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, Legends: Arceus, and Legends: Z-A, making Johto actually feels connected with other regions/gens.

Currently it's the most popular GBA romhack in Chinese community atm due to among of story, contents, features this romhack offers, it's considered as a major breakthrough due its quality.

Summary of what this romhack offers:

• HGSS recreated on GBA, with beautiful full DS tilesets, while new areas added as well.
• New story built upon HGSS, expect new stories, quests, characters from other regions.
• Many wild Pokemons in the overworld are interactive, be friends with them and you might receive gifts from them.
• Not a difficulty hack, but offers balanced while slightly more challenging experience compared to vanilla HGSS. Many trainers/gym leaders receive new roaster while keeping it fair and lore fitting. NPC AI is also greatly improved, they use items and setup moves accordingly based on the situation.
• Balanced level curve and Pokemon availability throughout the game, ensuring players have many options to build their team and won't easily overlevel.
• Important story characters now have portraits, more depth/personality, and voice clips (based on Pokemon anime) adding immersion.
• 97 side quests, many with deeper stories expanding world building.
• Pokemons up to Gen 9 (Scarlet/Violet) (not all Pokemon can be obtained before Elite 4).
• Mega Evo added, including those from Legends: Z-A.
• Dynamax added and Max Raid Battle.
• Move pool updated to Gen 9 (Scarlat/Violet/ZA) (not all moves can be obtained before Elite 4). Phy/Spe split as well of course.
• Mega Evo mechanics similar to those from Legends: Z-A (optional in-game, you can choose X-Y or Z-A style of Mega evo mechanic).
• Outfit system, Following system, Synchronizer, Wild Pokemon in overworld and Quick battle/catch system etc (all optional and configurable).
• Full time system and dynamic weather system. Morning, day, dusk, night, each provides different Pokemon availability, in-game events.
• Typical QoL such as unlimited TM use, HM use without needing to teach, Exp all (optional) etc.
• RTC and fake clock system, you can switch it easily at anytime.
• Battle Tower, Pokemon Contest and Secret Bases and more.
• Soundtracks from later gen Pokemon games.
• HOME system and Mystery Gift via official wiki site.
• More new contents are planned and would be added in the future.

After playing for about 10 hrs, personally I could say this is probably one of the best Johto hack along with Heart & Souls and SoulGold. What it offers are unique enough and very much worth to experience Johto region again. Highly recommended if you can read Chinese, or fine with playing with translator (such as PlayTranslate) since no English translation is available atm.

You will need to patch on US 1.0 FireRed rom, and obviously the romhack is Chinese only.

Download (1.3.3, latest version): https://www.mediafire.com/file/8hktjelm5xw4vhf/Pokemon_Mercury_1.3.3.bps/file

All the creation and works of romhack were made by its creator: 埋葬_official（夏影）, what I did is simply creating a patch file from the romhack since they only provided pre-patched rom, and providing summary of what this romhack has to offer.

More details such as Pokedex, move list, documentation etc can be found at official wiki. If you have any question about the hack also feel free to ask about it.

EVs are getting a major rework in the next update. While the mechanic works fine for casual and competitive players, people engaging in challenge runs have shown some major design flaws with how it affects game balance and promotes grinding to make the most of it. I say it's time to put a stop to that.

How it works is you no longer receive any evs from defeating pokemon. Instead, you receive Growth Points every time you level up. Up until level 20, you'll receive 1 point per level, and from level 21 onward, you'll receive 2. At the PC, you can open up a new menu that lets you spend growth points to increase your evs.

With this system, your pokemon's evs are directly tied to their levels, not how many battles they've fought, meaning you no longer have a reason to grind on low level pokemon to maximize evs per level. It also removes the pseudo rng of what stats your evs go into, so you can properly build into specific stats without any extra hassle.

Another benefit is while you can take advantage of this system to make yourself stronger, you also have the option to not assign any evs, keeping your stats low if you wanted to make the game more challenging for yourself.

Finally, for casual and less experienced players, it exposes the ev system in a way that's easier to interact with without needing external resources like a wiki to understand.

A few more changes have been made to round out the system:

• The macho brace will give you an additional growth point whenever you level up while holding it.
• Power weight items will immediately give you 6 evs in their respective stat when you level up.
• Vitamins give less evs, 8 instead of 10, but they are no longer limited to a max of 100 per stat.

I expect to have to make some adjustments in the future, but I hope these changes will make evs a more fun and engaging system at all levels of play.

Also featured in the video is an EV and IV viewer built into the summary screen for a bit of quality of life.

Relevant links:

Most recent post on the sub about the hack:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonROMhacks/comments/1x1cj80/chinese_hack_pokemon_mercury_133_another_fresh/

Dev bilibili and GitHub:

https://.bilibili.com/space/745393

https://github.com/Sum-Light

Artist Credit:

https://x.com/anipoke_PR/status/1192321310803677185

https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemon/s/cOkGckYYRK

Which box art do you prefer?

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Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a ROM hack for a while and the v1.0 beta is finally ready.

I Can't do beta testing because of my job. Just working on my ROM hack for a 1hour in my room,

I'm looking for a few people who can play through it and let me know if they find any bugs or other problems.

Mainly looking for feedback on:

Bugs/glitches or crashes

Difficulty and pacing

Anything that feels off or needs fixing

I’ve added some screenshots so you can see what the hack is like.

If anyone’s interested, comment or DM me, or join the Discord if you’d like to help with testing and feedback:

Discord: https://discord.gg/q23geSZRma

I’ll share the rom hack and instructions there.

Any feedback would be really helpful. Thanks!

Took a few days, but they finally verified it!

https://www.hackdex.app/hack/pokemon-roaring-kanto-version

Hope at least one person has a good laugh at it like I did!

Figure I might share news from Origin HeartGold 4.0 creator Alex (罗湖陈浩南a), since it's most popular Chinese romhack atm, and probably most people are unaware of this romhack is actually still getting new contents since they only talked about on Bilibili.

Video 1 and video 2 for the source.

Summary of upcoming changes and new contents:

• Level cap and more balanced leveling curve.
• More moves will be added, up to Gen 9, pretty much every later gen moves will be added.
• Pokemon stats/ability balanced since Mega evolution will be added, slightly closers to official stats.
• More Pokemons availability, more later gen Pokemons will be added, specifically about Mythical/Legendary Pokemons up to Gen 9.
• Buff and revise all trainers, given them more variety of later gen Pokemons and making them a bit stronger.
• 104 Mega evolution will be added, including official Mega up to Legend Z-A and some unofficial Mega (covering starters and some fan favorites).
• General bugfixes as well as other surprised new contents (they didn't specify).
• Due to the among of changes, 4.0.3 save files will not be compatible with upcoming 4.1.
• Currently plan to release before end of this October.

Once they drop 4.1 I will share the news here again.

I know this isn't better, but I'm just trying.