Emerald hack: Pokemon Emerald Balanced Edition

Hi All. Once again, I have created a Pokemon hack that aims to balance the game. If you aren't familiar with some of my previous hacks simply look up Pokemon Balanced Edition and they will appear. The features in this hack are similar, but I will list them so that newcomers can see if this balancing concept appeals to them.

1. All 387 Pokemon are available,easier to catch, hold items more often, and give more Experience.
2. Honchkrow has been added to the game.
3. All Pokemon have revamped movepools, abilities and a BST(Base Stat Total) of 600.
4. All Pokemon have had their original Generation 3 Sprites and Icons replaced with newer ones, courtesy of MrDollSteak's Sugimori Pallete's Sprite Resource.
5. New Pokedex Entries have been added for Generation 3 Pokemon.
6. A few Pokemon have been re-typed, and Trade Evolutions have been removed.
7. Trainers are somewhat more difficult and their teams have more variety. They also give out more Money upon Defeat.
8. Moves have been revamped. Weak Moves like Ember now have priority like Quick Attack, Multi-hits deal more damage, Dragon type moves often have a low chance of inflicting either a burn, paralysis, or freezing, etc.
9. Pokemon Types have been revamped, Ice types have been buffed. Ice now resists Grass, Flying, and Normal types. Poison type moves are now super effective against Water types.
10. EV Training Spots have been added to the game:

11. The National Dex can be obtained early by talking to an NPC in Oldale Town.
12. TL's Quick Enhancer has been used to make a Pokemon's stats colored based on its nature. The Quick Enhancer has been used for a few more things as well (Physical Special Split, etc.)

Credit for Sprites: MrDollSteak's Sugimori Palettes: The DS-style 64x64 Pokémon Sprite Resource
Tools used:
YAPE: Silver314
Advance map: LU-HO Poké
Move Editor: FinalZero
Type Resistance Editor: FinalZero
Advance Trainer: Hackmew
Advanced Series: Wichu
TL's Quick Enhancer
My Discord Server: https://discord.gg/XmRcbNG


There are two Download Links: One contains the ips, a list of where you can find every Pokemon as well as their typing, a list of EV Training spots, and a Word Document containing every Pokemon's new BST (Base Stat Total)
Just the IPS: http://www.mediafire.com/file/9rl94abzfytz2x2/Emerald_Balanced_Edition_Version_(B).ips
Version 1.01:http://www.mediafire.com/file/1w0d50fa82c4icb/Emerald_Balanced_Edition_Version_1.01_%28B%29.ips/file
Version 1.02:http://www.mediafire.com/file/4dul7ziflec40lc/Emerald_Balanced_Edition_Version_1.02_%28B%29.ips/file
Version 1.03:http://www.mediafire.com/file/4bdtskhy1ipxy67/Emerald_Balanced_Edition_Version_1.03_%28B%29.ips/file
Version 1.04: Not publicly available due to bugs.
Version 1.05:https://www.mediafire.com/file/x3vsamflc0o4413/Emerald_Balanced_Edition_Version_5.ips/file
The Bundle:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dc4vb0ikatvyyba/Emerald_Balanced_Edition%282%29.rar/file
Version 1.01 Bundle:http://www.mediafire.com/file/i6sx497bwv7trt7/Emerald_Balanced_Edition_1.01.rar/file
Version 1.02 Bundle:http://www.mediafire.com/file/2yn49qf865z6158/Patch_1.02.rar/file
Version 1.03 Bundle:http://www.mediafire.com/file/ee391346zyzlon5/Patch.rar/file
Version 1.04 Bundle: Not publicly available due to bugs.
Version 1.05 Bundle:https://www.mediafire.com/file/bf59afmm7apotpk/Emerald_Balanced_Version_5.rar/file

There is also an Alternate Edition that cuts and replaces about 51 Kanto and Johto Pokemon.
The following Pokemon have been Added in place of the Pokemon that is next to their name:

The Alternate Edition:http://www.mediafire.com/file/r9me3yma9v0x29a/Emerald_Balanced_Edition_Version_%28A%29.gba/file
The Alternate Edition Bug Fix Version:http://www.mediafire.com/file/7d8s4suphk6zz3e/Emerald+Balanced+Edition+Version+(A).ips/file
The Alternate Edition V2 (Cuts Politoed, Houndour line, and Tentacool):http://www.mediafire.com/file/b4igantqsh06ibd/Emerald+Balanced+Edition+Version+(V2).ips/file


Feedback is appreciated! Whether you choose to give feedback and ask questions on here or on my Discord is up to you. I will also say that I would appreciate it if the first person to completely beat the game 100% would get in touch with me once they achieve 100% completion.
Have Fun!

I love the Steel/Dragon typing for Tyranita. I was dying to see someone implement this retyping for pseudo legendaries. There are some other interesting typings as well. I would love to see Fire/Water typing too. However, I am not sure how much the game dynamics will change by giving every Pokémon 600 BST. May be you should reserve this 600 BST for the final evolution only. You have not given any special typing for jhoto starters, why so?

I actually did create a hack where only the final evolutions had the same Base Stat Total years ago. But to me, First and Second Stage Pokemon are so popular, and the Anime promotes them so heavily, that it would be a shame if they weren't good. Most hacks overlook them.

Pokemon Emerald Balanced actually does have a Water/Fire type, Octillery. I did this because in the games Octillery can learn Flamethrower and Fire Blast, and also to add more variety to Water Types.

The Johto starters are the only starters in the game who don't have a secondary typing. I wanted at least one trio to be mono typed for the sake of originality, but also for Meganium, Feraligatr and Typhlosion, Mono type fits them well. I can't think of what secondary typing I could give them.

I appreciate your POV. But still I would request you to create an alternative patch with just the fantastic Retypings and no BST changes if it is at all possible. I would really love it bro. But it's just my opinion please do not be offended. There are some modern features like IV perfecter, ability switcher, IV display, EV training spots, HM deletion etc; I wonder if you could implement these features gradually? I would be great if you could pull it off! Also,
Feraligator = Ice/Ground
Meganium = Fairy/Steel
Typhlosion = Electric/Poison with Levitate as ability.
My humble opinions!
Thank you.

Gegalix said:

Feedback is appreciated! Whether you choose to give feedback and ask questions on here or on my Discord is up to you. I will also say that I would appreciate it if the first person to completely beat the game 100% would get in touch with me once they achieve 100% completion.

Click to expand...

What's 100% completion to you? Looks like a promising hack, will check it out soon.

100% Completion of Pokemon Emerald Balanced Edition is:
1.) All 386 (Honchkrow Excluded) Pokemon Caught and Trained to Level 100 within the PC
2.) Each Pokemon must have a Champion Ribbon, A Victory Ribbon, an Effort Ribbon, and a Contest Master Rank Ribbon of any category.
3.) All 7 Golden Battle Frontier Symbols obtained.
4.) Beat the Trainer Hill Once.
5.) Obtain the Silver Shield and the Gold Shield.
6.) Obtain the Glass Ornament.
7.) All 387 Pokemon must have a Champion Ribbon, A Victory Ribbon, an Effort Ribbon, and a Contest Master Rank Ribbon of any category.

The first person to achieve all of this and prove that they did so legitimately, without any sort of cheating, gameshark, etc. will get a 20$ Amazon Gift Card from me. If they are able to record their entire (or at least most) of their playthrough as proof instead (which would save me time) They would instead get a 50$ Amazon Gift Card, or possibly another gift card, maybe Netflix, if they so desire. (I hope Pokecommunity is okay with me rewarding the first player this way O.O)

Hey! So I just came across and wanted to ask if you think this hack is suitable for Nuzlocking. Thank you!

Inner Rhymes said:

Hey! So I just came across and wanted to ask if you think this hack is suitable for Nuzlocking. Thank you!

Click to expand...

I would think so, the Elite 4 is surprisingly easy, and if you get your hands on 1 or 2 setup sweepers, you're likely to dominate NPCs. My Vigoroth proved that to be true.

Great game though, high replay value simply to try out other pokemon. My team was Vigoroth, Swampert, Alakazam, Sableye, Milotic, and Rayquaza (though I didn't use Rayquaza in the main game). With no grinding and EVs, I swept through Steven's team with just Rayquaza. I think Ancientpower is OP because it 100% raises all stats and that made Rayquaza sweep.

Can you use glitches, like cloning glitches or glitzer popping and still get the gift card prize?

Gegalix said:

100% Completion of Pokemon Emerald Balanced Edition is:
1.) All 386 (Honchkrow Excluded) Pokemon Caught and Trained to Level 100 within the PC
2.) Each Pokemon must have a Champion Ribbon, A Victory Ribbon, an Effort Ribbon, and a Contest Master Rank Ribbon of any category.
3.) All 7 Golden Battle Frontier Symbols obtained.
4.) Beat the Trainer Hill Once.
5.) Obtain the Silver Shield and the Gold Shield.
6.) Obtain the Glass Ornament.
7.) All 387 Pokemon must have a Champion Ribbon, A Victory Ribbon, an Effort Ribbon, and a Contest Master Rank Ribbon of any category.

The first person to achieve all of this and prove that they did so legitimately, without any sort of cheating, gameshark, etc. will get a 20$ Amazon Gift Card from me. If they are able to record their entire (or at least most) of their playthrough as proof instead (which would save me time) They would instead get a 50$ Amazon Gift Card, or possibly another gift card, maybe Netflix, if they so desire. (I hope Pokecommunity is okay with me rewarding the first player this way O.O)

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Can I cheat? (i.e. rare candies) I can't seem to find any awesome grinding spot to get everything to Lv. 100, which is proving to be a very daunting task

Sorry Demon Charizard and MrOrcaDood, but no form of cheating is allowed, including using glitches if you want to be eligible to win the Gift Card. Anywho, Version 1.01 is ready! There are many changes in this patch.
I've listed them all here!
Kabuto evolves at level 20 instead of 40.
Magikarp no longer learns Splash but instead learns Ancient Power.
Pikachu can now be found on Route 101. (1%)
Flareon Can now be found on Route 102 .(1%)
Vaporeon can now be found on Route 103. (1%)
Jolteon, Sneasel and swinub can now be found on Route 104. (1% for Jolteon and Sneasel, around 10% for Swinub)
Gastly and Chimecho can now be found in Petalburg Woods. (2% for Gastly and 4% for Chimecho)
Zapdos no longer learns Light Screen, but instead Learns Gust.
Cyndaquil no longer learns Smokescreen or Leer, but instead learns Defense Curl and Rollout.
Furret now learns Body Slam.
Luvdisc no longer learns Splash, but instead learns Hyper Voice.
Kingdra no longer learns Agility, but instead learns Gust and Dragon Breath.
Ember, Flamethrower, Fire Blast, Fire Punch and Heat Wave now thaw a frozen Pokemon if they use the move.
Heat Wave now has +5% Accuracy. (95%)
Flame Wheel and Spark now are low priority moves. (-1)
Will-O-Wisp now has +25% Accuracy. (100%)
Water Sport now has Priority like Mud Sport, and both have more priority then they did originally.
Ancient Power has been revamped. It is now a low priority move, is affected by Snatch and Magic Coat, but now has double the amount of Power Points.
Double Team, Silver Wind, and Belly Drum all have lower priority.
More Pokemon learn Splash and Ancient Power, mostly well rounded ones.
Leer,Growl,Encore,Light Screen,Reflect,Haze,Mirror Move,Dream Eater, Flail, Reversal, Safeguard, Baton Pass,Memento,Nature Power,Yawn,Aromatherapy,
Fake Tears,Skill Swap,Camouflage,Metal Sound,Imprison,Refresh,Grudge, Recycle,Psych Up, Weather based healing moves and Wish all now have priority.
Kinesis accuracy is reduced (60%) but it now has priority.
Snore has been buffed, it now deals 110 damage but only has a 10% of making an opponent flinch.
Zap Cannon and Dynamic Punch have more PP (20). Dynamic Punch now Burns instead of confusing upon hit.
Dragonbreath has been revamped to work like fire blast, blizzard, etc.
Revenge now deals 75 damage.
Brick Break now deals 90 damage.
Secret Power now is 10% more likely to have an effect and deals more damage.
Sheer Cold has been replaced with a new move: Ultra Freeze. It deals 200% Damage and Freezes the opponent, but only has 50% Accuracy.
Fissure has been replaced with a new move: Ultra Quake. It deals 200% Damage and makes the opponent flinch, but only has 50% Accuracy.
Guillotine has been replaced with a new move: Ultra Splice. It deals 200% Damage and Raises the User's Attack, but only has 50% Accuracy.
Horn Drill has been replaced with a new move: Ultra Pummel. It deals 200% Damage and knocks the opponent' item off, but only has 50% Accuracy.
Frenzy plant now deals identical damage to Blast Burn and Hydro Cannon.
Volt Tackle and Double Edge now deal 1/4 recoil damage instead of 1/3.
In order to be eligible to win the contest for 100% completing Pokemon Emerald Balanced Edition you have to update to this latest version of the game.

Gegalix said:

100% Completion of Pokemon Emerald Balanced Edition is:
1.) All 386 (Honchkrow Excluded) Pokemon Caught and Trained to Level 100 within the PC
2.) Each Pokemon must have a Champion Ribbon, A Victory Ribbon, an Effort Ribbon, and a Contest Master Rank Ribbon of any category.
3.) All 7 Golden Battle Frontier Symbols obtained.
4.) Beat the Trainer Hill Once.
5.) Obtain the Silver Shield and the Gold Shield.
6.) Obtain the Glass Ornament.
7.) All 387 Pokemon must have a Champion Ribbon, A Victory Ribbon, an Effort Ribbon, and a Contest Master Rank Ribbon of any category.

The first person to achieve all of this and prove that they did so legitimately, without any sort of cheating, gameshark, etc. will get a 20$ Amazon Gift Card from me. If they are able to record their entire (or at least most) of their playthrough as proof instead (which would save me time) They would instead get a 50$ Amazon Gift Card, or possibly another gift card, maybe Netflix, if they so desire. (I hope Pokecommunity is okay with me rewarding the first player this way O.O)

Click to expand...

1-Why not add electivire and magmortar if you added honchkrow? Might aswell add all new evolutions for gen 3 and prior pokemons...

2-One request: can you please make remoraid avaliable earlier? I wanted to use octillery but it only appears in the postgame in the safari zone

3- Is there a list of all level-up move-set changes and move changes you've made somewhere? It's difficult to build a competitive team in this without that information

4-During the 100% challenge, can I trade with other games? And is the speed up button on emulator allowed?

I've added abilities, ev yield, evolutions and held items to the document you provided with types and locations... here it is: (just remove the space after .com)
UPDATED WITH ALL 1.02 CHANGES!

mediafire.com /file/pr8yio98a1oowrw/pkmBalancedEmerald_Docs_Expanded.xls/file

Version 1.02 is finally out! Most of these changes involves Pokemon Location and Evolutions.
Here are the list of changes:
Remoraid can now be found on Route 103 using the Old Rod.
Remoraid now evolves at Level 20.
Houndour can now be found at route 101.
Houndour now evolves at Level 17.
Aipom Can now be found at Route 102.
Misdreavus, Larvitar and Miltank can now be found on Route 103.
Larvitar now Evolves at Level 20 and Pupitar Evolves at Level 30.
Kabuto Learns Bubblebeam earlier (14 instead of 19) and Metal Claw Earlier (10 instead of 13).
Delibird now learns more moves.
Zigzagoon learns Covet earlier at level 13.
Butterfree, Beautifly, Dustox and Scyther all now learn Aeroblast.
Beautifly, Dustox, Shedinja and Ninjask can now learn Fly.
Shedinja once again has Wonder Guard instead of Flash Fire.
Paras now evolves at level 14.
Parasect no longer learns Aromatherapy, but instead learns Leech Seed, Magnitude and Cross Chop.
Slakoth Evolves at level 15, and Vigoroth Evolves at level 32.
Shroomish now evolves at level 17.
Breloom no longer learns Counter but instead learns Ultra Pummel.
Whismur Evolves at level 15, and Loudred Evolves at level 30.
Exploud no longer learns Shadow Ball but instead Learns Hyper Voice.
Ralts Evolves at Level 16, and Kirlia Evolves at Level 26.
Kirlia no longer learns Jump Kick, but instead learns Hi Jump Kick.
Late game Ocean Pokemon are higher leveled and give more EXP.
Fully Evolved Pokemon appear during the mid game. They give a high amount of EXP when compared to other Pokemon.
The Eeveelutions are now easier to catch when found in the Wild. (Route 101,102,103)
Gust now deals 10 More Damage.
Water Sport and Mud Sport now have more Accurate Descriptions.
Smeargle now give no EV's and Give Much more EXP. They are also higher level in the Artisan Cave, now a perfect place to level up your Pokemon.

Also: Thank You Zaderos for adding to the Pokemon listings, but I couldn't figure out how to view it! It is an ODS and I cannot figure out how to open it. And to answer some of your questions, the Speed Up button is allowed, but Trading is not. I do not know how to add Pokemon to the game, if I could then I certainly would, if someone can point me in the right direction or locate a good rombase for me to use.

Awesome changes on that update!
Oh, I forgot to change the file format (I use a knock of version of excel :P)
I've updated the link

Hey! I really love these kind of changes!
Thanks for the hack!

A few things to consider:

I played the game till the end, felt like the sweepers are way stronger than the defensive, stall and utility pokemon, and the allstats sweepers arr stronger than 1 stat sweeper (ancieny power, silvet wind)
maybe if you give a little love for a more strategic playstyle and rank up the gym leaders (6 pkmn, strategic team) and e4 the game would feel a lot more rewarding.
I have a list of things I was thinking:

1. Rank up in the gyms, rivals and E4

2. Places for grinding (could add rebattle for gyms and other trainers maybe?)
this one is better for leveling lots of pokmn not only the 6 ones from ur party

3. I think the stats and moves of many pkmn are still imbalanced, they are way too focused in sweeping, i mean, look at Minum, great typing and defensive stats, but very little things to do with that, cant run toxic + protect, end up being just a cosmic passer that only hurts a little flying water pokemon with low dmg stab moves, this is just a little ex.

4. Thinking of ways to open up more strategies, maybe you could change stats and utility moves to cause a bigger impact, like this:
Walls and terrain lasts for 10 turns and are stronger.
Stats down effects are stronger (leer cuts 2 stages of defense, etc)
spykes are stronger
Smokescreen lowering 3 stages of acc to force switching
Etc

DefiantGeek said:

Feraligator = Ice/Ground
Meganium = Fairy/Steel
Typhlosion = Electric/Poison with Levitate as ability.
My humble opinions!
Thank you.

Click to expand...

come on man, that typing makes zero sense, fera is a water pkmn, mega is a grass anf typh is a fire.
I would understand if u would say:
Fera: water/rock or water/dragon
Mega: grass/fairy(didnt recall seeing fairy type in the game)
Typh; fire/water or fire/ground

Still i think 1 type is ok for these ones

Hey, just a quick thing... Why can't all pokemon learn protect? I understand the reasoning behind most moves (even tho toxic not being teachable to most pokemon with stall stats kinda of annoys me) but I just can't wrap my head around that

henriqueha, I am not yet sold on the idea that sweepers are overpowered in the current version of the game.
I categorize Pokemon mentally into All-Rounder's, Glass Cannon's, Tanks, and Support. Of course I could get into the nitty gritty and also mention Attacker's who aren't glass Cannon's, or Speed Pokemon, but I won't.

Anyway my current thought process is that Glass Cannon's are great offensively, but they can't take a hit. They can mow over NPC trainers who don't have optimized teams, but they struggle against optimized teams because they can either get walled by an optimized tank, or outsped by a fast Pokemon, or they'll get one or two hit by a priority move like Ember or Water Gun. So they might seem overpowered during the main game, but I don't think that they'll be able to obliterate the Battle Frontier and get all 7 Golden Frontier Badges.

Now I could be wrong, but someone who is playing the current version would have to beat the Battle Frontier to make me sure that Tank Pokemon need to be buffed. In which case they will be. Or maybe you can talk me into buffing them, i'm pretty open minded.

Zaderos, very few Pokemon learn Protect so that the few that do can benefit from it. I was never a fan of everyone learning it. That being said, I could make it so more Pokemon learn Protect in the next patch. I will look into this for sure.

Why the hell do glooms, lairons and scizor hold master balls??? Is it just my rom?