Pokémon Elite Redux

TL;DR: If you like challenges, love battling & teambuilding with zero grinding, all within a fresh & unique package with tons of Quality of Life changes, this hack is for you. Pokémon Elite Redux is not just another difficulty hack. Its features combined are probably nothing you've seen before.

Hi, my name is Darky. I loved Pokémon games since I was 6 years old. I've been playing ROM hacks for many years now, and started making custom patches for myself to ROM hacks I loved many years ago.

When I played through Gaia, Unbound, Radical Red, Inclement Emerald etc., I wanted to create a game to cater to my taste - rebalancing everything for more fun & variety, while reducing grinding. I always loved battling most, trying out new strategies. This is a difficulty hack, which I tried to make as challenging as possible without giving the enemy too much unfair advantages. There is also an Easy Mode, which is explained below.

I always felt a bit limited by just having one ability per Pokémon at the same time. Then Exceeded came out, and I knew what I wanted to do, since Exceeded was lacking essential things for me (unique trainers, difficulty and QoL). What was originally just intended for myself to enjoy and in development for over 2 years now, I can proudly share my dream ROM hack with you.

Since this hack is based on Inclement Emerald / Yda patch (with permission from Buffel Saft & Yda 🤍), I continue the spirit of making the game open-source. You can use Elite Redux or parts of it and do whatever you want.

Up to 4 Abilities At The Same Time: Every Pokémon can have up to 3 switchable abilities along with up to 3 fixed ones (innates). This creates fun new strategies and endless replayability, as you can play many Pokémon in several ways. Imagine Gyarados with Moxie & Aerilate or Intimidate at the same time!

Every Single Trainer Has A Full Custom Moveset: Every Trainer party has been reworked manually, considering all new/changed abilities & moves. Most trainers have full competitive movesets with varying held items. Every rematch has been crafted individually for variety. You won't meet the same brain-dead Poochyena with Tackle everywhere ;-)

Unique Difficulty: Most strategies the AI uses, you can too. Be creative! Battle Style is always "Set". When choosing the Elite Difficulty, there is a good chance you will get slapped by the first Trainer if you're not prepared.

200+ New Custom Abilities: Featuring a total of over 370 abilities with around 50 changed/extended abilities, you will have lots of options to defeat the many challenges awaiting you. Also, all ability descriptions have been rewritten for more accuracy!

Reworked & Stronger AI: We revamped the AI to include all new/changed abilities & moves. Also, every Trainer now uses the smartest AI.

Zero Grinding
- You can set EVs quick & easy on the Summary Screen.

- Furthermore, you can change natures and abilities via Summary Screen.

- You'll get a new Candy Box (unlimited rare candies) so you can switch teams often to try out new strategies. Rare Candies have Gen 8 mechanics, which means you can evolve at the Level Cap. You can either level up to 4 levels at a time or jump directly to the current Level Cap to save time!

- Every Pokémon has 31 IVs by default. You can easily change Hidden Power types with the Type Gems.

- You can set your Speed IVs to 0 (for Trick Room teams) or back to 31 with the new Iron Pill item.

- All Poké Balls have a 100% catch rate. You can use any ball you like. Additionally, every ball is infinite use.

- All held items stay on your Pokémon after battling - no more re-equipping Berries & Focus Sashes!

- Auto-Heal before every battle - no need for medicines or other healing items anymore.

Reworked Pokémon, Abilities, Moves & Items: Every single Pokémon has been given love individually, e.g. Gyarados is now Water/Dragon with Levitate and Gengar can be used physically or specially. We reworked many moves to be less frustrating or more fun to use. For example, Aurora Beam now always lowers the foe's Attack by one stage. The type chart hasn't been touched. Some items like Big Root and Shell Bell have been buffed.

Teach Moves Directly From The Party Menu: Now you can teach all available Level-Up moves, Egg moves, TMs/HMs and Tutor moves conveniently.

Portable PC: Just like in newer Pokémon games, there is no need to go back to the Pokémon Center just to change your party. Also, you can now edit all your Pokémon directly in the PC!

Custom Gift Pokémon: Since there is practically zero grinding, you'll get access to full custom (competitive movesets) Pokémon by various characters.

Upgraded Battle Engine & Battle UI
Using RH-Hideouts Battle Engine, all Pokémon from Gen 1 to 7 (1200+ Species) plus many Gen 8 Pokémon are catchable and most Gen 8 moves, abilities & items too. Including Mega Evolution, but not Z-Moves.
For some Mega Evolutions, you can even choose between 3 different abilities!

Vastly improved Battle UI, which shows Type Effectiveness & STAB to help with some new typings. It even considers abilities such as Levitate. Also, you can press L when selecting moves to check Power, Accuracy and if the move makes contact - just like in CFRU hacks!

Frostbite has replaced Freeze: No more annoying freezes! Frostbite deals 1/16 HP damage per turn. Special Attack of the affected Pokémon is halved. 3x chance of Frostbite in hail.

Diverse Postgame
There are many really strong trainers (including Gym Leaders & E4) waiting for you after you've beat the E4. There are up to 4 carefully crafted rematches per trainer. You also don't have to wait a day anymore to rematch Gym Leaders - you can battle whenever you like!

You can choose Singles or Doubles, with or without Legendaries for important Rematches
After beating the Champ, you can catch all remaining Legendaries (Gen 1 - 7 and two special Pokémon from Gen 8) if you have beaten all trainers on certain routes.

Easy Catching / Tweaked DexNav: Featuring ghoulslash's improved DexNav, which we further tweaked for easier catching. You can instantly scan for the Pokémon you want from the beginning. They also don't run away anymore. Did I mention, you will have unlimited Pokéballs with 100% catch rate?

Access To Many Battle & Evolution Items From The Start: You're not limited by any means - it's totally fine to send your 252/252 Atk/Speed Pokémon with Choice Band and Adamant nature against the first trainer. You'll also get most Mega Stones

Wins & Losses Counter: Displays your unique wins (every unique team including rematches defeated) and losses (including forfeiting)

New Locations (from IE): A few maps, like Petalburg Woods and Scorched Slab, have been expanded with new areas, and there are also a few all-new locations. This helps to spread out Pokémon species and keep grassy patches from getting too crowded. Some new maps also serve as homes to Legendary Pokémon that wouldn't normally be found in Emerald.

Day, Dusk & Night System (from IE): Day is 4am to 6pm, Night is 6pm to 4am, and Dusk is 5pm to 6pm

Weather Rework (from IE): Weather-inducing abilities like Drought and Drizzle create endless weather again, but the damage bonus from sun and rain has been reduced to 20%. The goal behind this was to make defensive weather abilities like Ice Body and Rain Dish better options, while reigning in Swift Swim and its clones a bit. Additionally, Ice Types receive a 50% defense boost in Hail. It really does help all those slow, defensive Ice types!

Custom List of 100 TMs, 8 HMs and ~ 130 Tutor Moves (from IE): Some of these are entirely new, such as Meteor Mash, Quiver Dance and Freeze-Dry

Custom Mega Evolutions (from IE): Pokémon like Milotic and Flygon can finally mega evolve - complete with custom sprites and cries. Some Gigantamax forms like Kingler have also been repurposed as Megas.

Enhanced Pokédex (from IE): Elite Redux uses TheXaman's Pokédex Plus, which shows base stats, learnsets, egg moves, evolutions and more, all in game!

Choose Any Regional Starter (from Gen 1-8): Before choosing a starter, you'll be asked which region you want your starters to come from, and then you can pick one of the three from that region. Be careful not to fast-forward your way through the early game and skip this choice!

Accessible For Everyone
Intended as a difficulty hack first, but you can pick between three difficulty modes and three level caps. Play how you like it. You can also turn off EVs completely anytime in any mode.

Easy Mode: Trainers have no EVs, but you can have them. That's a huge advantage, but the teams will still be a challenge! Bag use in battles is disabled. The Set battle style is enforced.
Ace Mode: Same teams & limitations as in Easy Mode, but every trainer has custom EVs. Also, there is a sleep clause, which prevents putting more than 1 Pokémon to sleep.
Elite Mode: Same limitations as in Ace Mode, but you'll face much harder teams for important fights, like Gym Leaders and the Pokémon League. Additionally, you have to unlock more innates by defeating the first 2 Gyms.

Lower The Difficulty Anytime
You can lower the difficulty in any Pokémon Center, but you can't go higher.
Lowering goes like this: Elite -> Ace -> Easy

Various Fun Randomizer Modes
Encounter Randomizer, Ability Randomizer, Innate Randomizer, Move Randomizer

Tons Of Quality Of Life Changes
Rewritten move descriptions for more clarity or to describe new effects, now it's much easier to see the chance for additional effects like flinching, or which moves affect Iron Fist / Mega Launcher etc.

Updated Move Details Screen - now shows more move details like Critical Hit Rate, chance of Secondary Effects etc.

Enable / disable permanent repel from the Options Menu

Level Cap System: Once a Pokémon is over the cap, it'll only get one EXP point per KO.
You also see the current level cap in the Start Menu.

Smart Level Scaling - Wild Pokémon and Trainers scale to your level, even works with the DexNav.

Updated Summary Screen - now also shows Base Stats at a glance.

Register items in a list menu (press L to access list)

Expanded Bag Space with more pockets

Unlimited TM use, new TM case from Fire Red

No need to teach HMs, also you can fly to already visited places with every Pokémon

You can now get the Mach and Acro bike simultaneously

Berries grow instantly, and yield 100 berries

Wild Encounters on Berry Trees

Disabled random calls from Trainers

In-Game Tutorial NPC, explains most important changes

New item: Iron Pill: Use it on any Pokémon to set Speed IVs to 0. Use again to set back to 31.

Easier evolution (Night / Day / Friendship / Trade Evos removed)

Day & Night Inverter for wild Pokémon (old guy in every Pokémon Center)

Nurse Joy: insta-heal without dialogue (but not really needed anymore because of auto-healing before battles)

You can change Eevolutions forth and back >> there's an NPC in Rustboro Pokémon Center
This gives the possibility to have moves like Leaf Blade (from Leafeon) for Flareon

All eggs hatch in 4 cycles (shortest possible)

Removed daycare egg daily limit

Eviolite doesn't prevent evolutions to allow for faster teambuilding, but still gives 50% Defense Boosts

Auto Run – Also works indoors. You can hold B while it's on to walk, or to run when it's off. You can even hold B to surf faster!

The name rater can be found in every Pokémon Center. You can even rename other trainers' Pokémon!

Decapitalisation: no more capslock

No more low HP beep - finally!

Custom Options Menu

Auto Run
Permanent Repel
Display damage: shows the damage dealt
Ask for Nickname
Play with or without EVs anytime (if you disable, the enemy also doesn't have EVs)
AI controlled battles - the AI controls your team in battle, which is fun sometimes!
Shiny Rate Booster (up to 1/5 chance)
Individually-Unique Pokémon Colors Patch

Boosted Shiny Rate: Now you can boost the Shiny Rate drastically - no need to waste hours looking for the color you want!

All Moves Are PP Maxed: Like in Pokémon Showdown, every move is PP maxed (yours and the AI)

Lots Of Useful Items From Nurse Joy: Every time you talk to her in any Pokémon Center, she fills up your bag again:

Candy Box - level up (up to 4 levels with one click or directly to the current Level Cap), without grinding
Upgraded DexNav - instantly see all Pokémon in an area without battling them first
All relevant Battle Items (Leftovers, Choice Band/Scarf/Specs, Life Orb, Type Gems and much more)
All TMs and HMs + TM Case (but you need to progress the story like usual to unlock Surf etc. in the overworld)
One of each Pokéball - they don't get used anymore when you throw them
All useful Berries (Sitrus, Salac, Figy etc.)
Iron Pill - to set your Speed IVs to 0 or back to 31, useful for Trick Room
Honey for some wild encounters
Escape Rope to save time

FAQ

What is still missing? The Battle Frontier is not accessible.
Where can I find Pokémon XYZ? Look in the Online Dex.
Are there cheats? Not really, as this is a heavily modified version of Pokémon Emerald, but there aren't many cases where you would need cheats, I think. We will implement a Sandbox toggle in a future update.

Download

Find a clean version of Pokémon Emerald >> 1986 - Pokemon Emerald (U)(TrashMan)

Then use our Online Patcher:
elite-redux.com

Thank you & Credits

pret: Decompilation of Pokémon Emerald
Dizzy Egg / RHH: Battle Engine, Pokémon Expansion, Item Expansion, nature-coloured stats, higher money cap
Rioluwott (Pokémon ROWE) - I would have never finished this hack without you
Giolitti - coding, texting, playtesting & balancing
NocturneOfShadow - for helping with playtesting, balancing and creating trainer parties
Thundertacos - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Tuna - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
GobouLePoissonBoue - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and reporting all sorts of bugs ;-)
Kaixer - for creating many teams used in the hack and helping with docs
Frozen - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and working on teams
Cyro - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
rabbidbunnyz - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
TheSlayingStray - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
PCG - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
adri - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
aArin - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Attactaxi - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Nigel - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Barack Oboughmer - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Gorilink - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
D U K - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Sol Raven - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Café - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
ryuuune - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Dreamfield - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
TetBR - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
Rize - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
ponk - for helping a ton with playtesting, balancing and lots of great suggestions
BuffelSaft (Inclement Emerald) - for your outstanding work with Inclement Emerald and letting me use it as a base, I'm so thankful for this opportunity
Ydarissep - for setting up the Online Pokédex, creating the Yda patch (IE), helping with ROM hacking & teaching and helping me getting started with your base / patch
Karathan / Sbird1337 (Sovereign of the Skies) - for helping me with abilities and bugfixing
ghoulslash (Unbound, Voyager)- for helping in Discord, DexNav, Auto-Run, Fast Surf, Medicine Reuse, Expanded OW IDs, plural giveitem
Skeli (Unbound) - for inspiration regarding quality, QoL, Parental Bond code
Lunos - for your help & patience in Discord, Reusable TMs, OW poison changes, Gracidea form change
Archie - for your tutorials & help in Discord
beniboy (Exceeded)- for inspiring me with his ROM hack & lots of abilities/innates (multi-abilities)
soupercell (Radical Red) - for difficulty, ability & move inspiration
AsparagusEduardo - Decapitalisation, More Bag Pockets, Pokédex+
TheXaman - for Pokédex Plus and running indoors
Howls - for your amazing documentation of Inclement Emerald and letting me use it as a base
Wyserth - for decapitalisation
Contributors to the Simple Modifications thread: various small changes
Camthesaxman: expanded OW IDs
lightbox87: whiteout money
NobodySociety: Fire Red style fishing
Furret: Music Expansion (HGSS and DPPt tracks)
SamuRH/Xhizy: RHH/PRET intro
Chaos Rush, Mr. Dollsteak, contributors to the DS-Style sprite resources: Pokémon sprites
Crema: Temtem's "Tem Vial", which inspired the Poké Vial item
Jaizu & Citrus Bolt - for the DPPT summary screen
Anyone I forgot, who helped me on this amazing journey!