Pokemon Emerald Imperium

“Pokemon Emerald Imperium” is a Completed GBA Rom Hack made by iriv24. Play Pokemon Emerald with Pokemon from generations 1 to 9, harder challenges, lots of quality-of-life improvements, DexNav, Pokémon following you, and much more!

Pokemon Emerald Imperium Completed GBA Rom Hack

• Creator: iriv24
• Base ROM: Emerald
• Language: English
• Latest Version: v1.1
• Released on: January 24, 2024
• Last Updated: January 28, 2025
• Status: Completed

Also Check Out: Pokemon FireRed Deluxe

Description

Pokemon Emerald Imperium is a difficulty/QoL hack of Emerald that is fully complete and beatable through the Champion battle with some post-game content.

My goal in creating this hack was pretty simple: I wanted to create an experience in Emerald that is as close to the experience that Pokemon Radical Red delivers as possible by porting all of the balance changes from RR into a new game and by creating a whole bunch of new battles with increased difficulty. These balance changes include new abilities, stat changes, type changes, learnset changes, evolution method changes, etc. I want to be clear here that I am NOT affiliated with RR in any capacity; I am merely a person who has spent many hours playing RR, and who, like many other romhack players I’ve encountered, wished for more games just like it in other regions. I want to give full credit to its creators for all of the ideas behind the balance changes mentioned, QoL changes, and many other features that I brought over into this game. With all that being said, let’s get into the features and changes you can find in Pokemon Emerald Imperium!

Features

• Almost all Pokemon from Gens 1 – 9 available (still need to add some Legendaries)
• Vastly improved battle engine with modern mechanics and much smarter AI
• Configurable Minimal Grinding Mode (MGM, described later)
• Built in Difficulty Modes: Easy and Normal for now, would definitely be open to adding more options if there is interest (described later)
• Built in Randomizer with configurable species and ability randomization (described later)
• Built in Level Caps
• Mega Evolution
  • New custom Megas added for several Pokemon, including Gen 4 starters, and several Gigantamax forms converted to Megas
• Difficulty Modes
  • Easy: this experience should still be harder than a vanilla Pokemon game, but should be considerably easier than Normal mode. All Boss Pokemon will be 2 levels lower than in Normal mode. Additionally, you can access the Bag during trainer battles, and you can change the battle style to Shift if desired, but it will still be Set by default.
  • Normal: the intended difficulty of this game, and the one it was balanced for. Boss battles will be difficult, you cannot access the Bag during trainer battles, and the battle style is forced to Set.
• Randomizer
  • Accessed in game.
  • The player can choose between normal species randomization (fully random), scaled species randomization (Pokemon randomize into Pokemon with similar base stats), and Legendary-aware species randomization (fully random, but ensures Legendaries get randomized into Legendaries), all of which applies to encounterable Pokemon as well as regular NPC trainers’ Pokemon. Boss NPC trainers will never be randomized.
  • Ability randomization is also configurable and is independent from species randomization.
  • List of abilities that are included/excluded from the randomizer is in the documentation.
• Several Gen 4 characters added, including Dawn as an additional rival, all the Gym Leaders (only Roark is a required battle), and more!
• DexNav
• Toggleable following Pokemon
• Gen 5 style party menu and Pokemon summary screen
  • Includes built in functionality to view EVs and IVs
• Type icons displayed in battle
• Move power calculator in battle
• Sleep Clause
• Heart Gold / Soul Silver style Pokedex
• Form-changing Key Items for Rotom, Genies, Shaymin, and Hoopa
• Form-changing NPC scripts for Silvally and Genesect (still requires their held items)
• Cheat code system (available cheats listed in documentation)
• Increased difficulty of trainer battles, with focus on Gym Leaders/Elite 4, Rivals, Team Aqua/Magma battles, route Mini Bosses, and optional Mini Bosses (over 100 of these battles in total!)
• Several additional optional Boss Trainer battles (with hopefully good enough rewards to incentivize the player to actually want to do the battles!)
• Some music from Gen 4
• Balance updates for Pokemon to match Radical Red, which includes type-changes, stat updates, ability updates, learnset updates, etc. Differences from the RR balance changes are explicitly noted in the documentation, but the goal for this was to be able to match the data on https://dex.radicalred.net/ and to be able to reuse the damage calculator at https://calc.radicalred.net/.
• Some fairly small story tweaks, mostly with the goal of lining up difficult battles
• Post game Legendary events including access to Mystery Gift locations from vanilla Emerald

QoL Improvements

• Not needing to teach HMs to use them, and they are forgettable if taught
• Reusable TMs
• Held Items are restored after battles
• Expanded Bag pocket size, added Mega Stones pocket
• Bag sorting by Name and by Amount per pocket
• Capability to register multiple Key Items
• PokeVial with infinite uses to heal your party from anywhere
• Access to the PC from anywhere
• Time changer
• Stat Editor (for EVs and IVs) given in Mauville
• IV Perfecter NPC in Mauville
• Hidden Power type changer NPC in Mauville
• Toggleable Infinite Repel
• Toggleable Auto Run
• Hold R to speed through NPC dialogue
• Option to rename a Pokemon in the party menu
• Option to relearn level-up moves and egg-moves for a Pokemon in the party menu
• Move Pokemon around in the party menu more easily with the Select button or the R button
• Move-tutor moves converted to TMs so they can be taught anywhere, no more move tutors in game
• Item care packages
  • Includes Infinite Candy, type-boosting Hold Items, type-resisting Berries, plus many more
• Ability Capsules and Ability Patches to easily change between abilities for a Pokemon
• In every Pokemon Center, a 2nd Nurse has been added who can:
  • Change Pokemon’s natures
  • Swap genders for Pokemon with gender-specific evolutions
  • Set Pokemon directly to the Level Cap
• “Quick throw” option for Poké Balls in battle
  • Can scroll through options easily by holding the L button

Minimal Grinding Mode

It’s the same as RR’s. With MGM enabled, all Pokemon are guaranteed to have perfect IVs, and EVs are not obtainable for the player nor for NPC trainers. With MGM disabled, IVs are random, EVs are obtainable, options for instant EV and IV customization are still provided, and NPC trainers will still have perfect IVs and will be EV trained.

Info for Stat Editor, IV Perfecter NPC, and Hidden Power type changer NPC

In Minimal Grinding Mode:

• IV Perfecter NPC is not enabled, you can just use the Stat Editor to perfect your IVs
• Stat Editor can only change IVs, can change them freely. Cannot change EVs.
• Hidden Power type changer NPC can change HP type freely, no limitations.

NOT in Minimal Grinding Mode:

• IV Perfecter NPC: You get to perfect the IVs of 5 Pokemon per Gym Badge earned. After all 8 Gym Badges are obtained, you can use the IV Perfecter NPC freely.
• Stat Editor: You can edit EVs of any Pokemon freely. You can only change IVs of a Pokemon who has had their IVs perfected by the IV Perfecter NPC, and you can change those Pokemon’s IVs freely.
• Hidden Power type changer NPC: can only change the HP type of a Pokemon who has had their IVs perfected by the IV Perfecter NPC.

Future update plans

• I definitely want to spend the first few updates fixing bugs that get discovered. That will be my top priority, and I’m sure the most bugs will be found upon initial release, so I will try to be very active with those updates.
• Address immediate feedback for the game’s balance as necessary.
• Continue polishing any non-bug issues (any typos, grammar issues, decapitalization efforts)
• Revamp battle UI
• Add the rest of the unobtainable Pokemon, with potentially more areas to make the encounters feel less crammed.
• Add new custom regional forms, I already have a few ideas in mind.
• Add a harder difficulty mode if there is interest.
• Break save compatibility as little as possible, but I know in the future I want to expand the number of Pokemon storage boxes, and that change would break saves.

Emulator Recommendations

Please do NOT use VBA or MyBoy, as they are known to have some visual bugs and crashes running this game.
The recommended emulators are: mGBA on PC, PizzaBoy/Lemuroid/RetroArch+mGBACore on Mobile.

Changelog Version 1.1

• New Additions:
  • Damp Rocks, Icy Rocks, and Smooth Rocks given as part of Granite Cave care package
  • Light Clay added to care package given on Route 110
    • Also available for purchase in Mauville City Mart
  • Added overworld rain to route 102 to allow earlier access to Goodra
  • Added Shiny Charm to starting care package from Professor Birch
    • For existing saves to not start a new game, there in an NPC in a house in Olddale Town that will give you the Shiny Charm if you do not already have one.
  • Added cheat code “ShinyS” to guarantee shiny starters at the beginning of the game
    • Applies to randomized starters as well
• Changes:
  • Removed EVs from Pokemon found before Wattson (only effects non-MGM)
  • Removed Lets Go Eevee from the randomizer pool
  • Swapped Mudbray and Phanpy encounter locations
    • Mudbray now found on Route 117 Phanpy on Route 102
• Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed crashes involving Double Iron Bash and Mind Blown on some emulators
  • Fixed crashes players could experience when buying Pomeg Berries from the man in Dewford Town and some vendors in Slateport City on some emulators
  • Fixed crashes caused by the man giving starter eggs in Fallarbor Town on some emulators
  • Fixed move compatibility on several pokemon including Pidgeot, Alakazam, Hisuian Samurott, Empoleon (lol), Aurorus, Electivire, Iron Bundle, Audino
  • Fixed the move Diamond Storm (was physical, now is special)
  • Fixed Swanna’s Hidden Ability still being Hydration (now is No Guard)
  • Removed the need to use Flash in Granite Cave
    • This should remove the “It’s too dark to find anything” text box that would appear when trying to use the Dexnav
  • Fixed Scott’s dialogue in Petalburg
  • Fixed Rockruff not being able to evolve into Lycanroc-dusk form
  • Fixed shiny chaining with Dexnav allowing the player to encounter Pokemon above the current level cap
  • Fixed Applin being unable to evolve into Dipplin

Game Related Stuff

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