Pokemon Radical Red

Download Pre-Patched Pokemon Radical Red GBA ROM Hack

• Creator: soupercell
• Version: 4.1
• Hack of: FireRed
• Updated: March 23, 2024
• Language: English
• Status: Completed

Pokemon Radical Red is a GBA ROM Hack by soupercell based on Pokemon Fire Red in English. And it is now available to download. It was last updated on March 23, 2024.

Intro

I’ve been playing Pokémon ROM hacks since I was a kid, beginning with Quartz, Ruby Destiny Reign of Legends, and Shiny Gold, all of which fueled my obsession and turned me into a community lurker for a long time. Although I attempted to make one myself, I simply lacked the necessary knowledge and dedication. Now, around 10-12 years later, having seen how far ROM hacking has progressed and having gained more confidence in my abilities, I’ve decided to revisit developing my own ROM hack.

There’s no shortage of fire red enhancement hacks these days, so you’re probably wondering what this one has to offer. Personally, I prefer difficulty hacks, which is why I consider Clover and Vega to be the best ROM hacks available.

Description

This hack is at its core a difficulty hack with additional features; quite similar to Drayano60’s enhancement hacks, which provide access to nearly all the Pokemon while also adding relevant buffs to make all sorts of different Pokémon and playstyles viable, and with an insane amount of quality of life features added that also make many gruesome tasks far less tedious

This is a collaborative project between me and a friend koala4; while I’ve handled the majority of the technical aspects, he’s been invaluable in balancing, making suggestions, doing the majority of the wild Pokemon locations, testing, and more.

Features

This hack utilizes the Complete FireRed Upgrade engine (!!!!) and Dynamic Pokemon Expansion built by Skeli789, Ghoulslash, and others. It’s responsible for most of the significant features in the hack; I’ll list the important ones below.

Provided by CFRU & DPE

• Physical/Special split + Fairy Typing
• All Pokémon up to Gen 9 are obtainable including  Paradox, Hisuian, Galarian & Alolan Forms (with some exceptions, see further down)
• Moves up to Gen 9, including some of the Isle of Armor DLC moves!
• Updated Pokémon sprites
• Mega Evolution. Z Moves, Dynamax & Gigantamax
• Dynamax Raid Battles
• Abilities up to Gen 9
• Ash Greninja
• All important battle items (with some exceptions)
• Raid Battles
• Reusable TMs
• Expanded TM list
• Additional move tutors
• EV Training Gear
• Ability popups during battle
• Gen 8 Exp Share
• Hidden Abilities
• Day and Night
• DexNav allows you to search for Pokemon with hidden abilities and other neat things!
• Even faster turbo speed (!!!)
• Abilities like Magma Armor have field effects like recent Gens
• Destiny Knot, and Everstone have updated breeding mechanics
• … and more!

Additional Features

Do keep in mind many of these are also provided by CFRU.

• Much higher difficulty
  • Bosses have max IVs with proper EV spreads (barring the early bosses), along with optimized movesets/hold items
  • Improved AI
  • Battle style forced to Set
  • Can’t access bag against Gym Leaders and other select bosses
  • Similar to Pokemon Clover, there is a soft level cap based on the next boss battle. Many “challenge” hacks can easily be beaten by simply spamming turbo boost and overlevelling. This prevents you from doing so, instead allowing you to reevaluate your team and strategy to defeat bosses.
  • Bosses near the end will randomly choose between 1 of 3 teams
  • Elite Four Members each have a Legendary
  • Gym Leaders have access to Mega Evolution before you do
  • Some optional side bosses will have their levels scale according to your team
  • Johto Gym Leaders as additional side bosses(Some mandatory, but mostly optional)
  • Brendan as an additional Rival
  • Archer and Ariana present as Admins
  • Thief/Magician won’t steal from trainers
  • An additional Team Rocket event right before the 8th gym
• My own curated buffs to a lot of deserving Pokémon, including Megas!
  • May include type changes, stat changes, ability changes, an additional learnsets
• Brand new abilities (Some taken from Clover, others exclusive to this game)
• A revamped Game Corner
  • No more coins/Coin Case, just exchange with regular Pokecoins
  • Sells pseudo legends for a steep price, with options to upgrade to Shiny
  • Sells even more TMs
• IV grade and colored natures on Summary Screen
• An IV perfecter in Celadon for a very steep price
• EV checker/reducer in Saffron
• An ability swapper also in Saffron, along with an option to swap to Hidden Ability in exchange for an item
• EV training areas with its corresponding EV training gear
• Move relearner moved to Cerulean
• Move tutor that teaches Egg moves
• Additional Legendaries obtainable before the Elite Four:
  • Virizion, Cobalion, Terrakion, Keldeo.
  • Roamers: Raikou, Suicune, Entei, Landorus, Thundurus, Tornadus, Latios, Latias, Victini, Meloetta
• Gym leaders may ask for rematches or side quests for their Mega Stones and other rewards
• Day care south of Cerulean now can hold two Pokemon allowing for earlier breeding
• … and more!

Unobtainable Pokemon as of Version 3.0

• Regigigas
• Lugia Ho-Oh Groudon
• Rayquaza Dialga Palkia Giratina
• Reshiram Zekrom Kyurem-Black Kyurem-White
• Xernas Yveltal
• Zacian Zamazenta Eternatus Calyrex forms
• Deoxys Darkrai
• Arceus Marshadow

 Quality of Life changes

Thanks to CFRU:

• No need to teach HMs! Even Dig and Teleport appear as Field Moves if you have the TM and a capable Pokémon.
• Use DexNav for specific encounters, Egg Moves, better IVs, Hidden Abilities, and higher Shiny odds.
• Press Start in the bag to sort items.
• Use L to access the skills menu, featuring Auto Run, Time Changer, Infinite Repel, and PokeVial (a portable Pokémon Center from Inclement Emerald).
• Select multiple key items.
• Press L on a move in battle to check its info.
• Toggleable Gen 6 Exp Share.
• Pokémon receive boosted EXP when above 220 points of affection.
• Item images displayed upon obtaining.
• Base stats shown on Pokédex summary screen.
• Press B on the Bike for a speed boost.
• No Poison damage in the overworld.

Other significant QoL improvements:

• Lucky Egg boost increased from 1.5x to 2.5x.
• A Nature Changer in every Pokémon Center!
• Frisk boosts the chance of wild Pokémon holding items (along with Super Luck and CompoundEyes) for efficient item farming.
• Macho Brace EV multiplier boosted from 2x to 4x (16x after becoming Champion).
• Power Item EV Yield boosted from 8 to 24 (252 EVs after becoming Champion).
• Consumable held items return after trainer battles (but not wild or raid battles).
• Pokémon holding Amulet Coin do not need to participate in battle to receive the prize money boost.
• Thiefed items go straight to the bag.
• Shadow Tag/Arena Trap on wild Pokémon no longer prevents fleeing from battle.
• Magma Armor/Steam Engine/Flame Body now reduce egg steps by 4x instead of 2x.
• Macho Brace/EV training items reduce speed by slightly less.
• Catch rate universally increased after becoming Champion.
• Significantly reduced prices of Potions (Potion to Full Restore, Revives, Paralyz Heal, etc.) and Repels due to their reduced use in this game.
• Eviolite prevents your Pokémon from evolving (like Everstone).

Changelog – v4.1

Note: This is just a brief summary of the actual changelog. If you want to read it in detail in its entirety, you can do so by clicking on the ‘changelog’ button in the useful stuff section.

Screenshots

Useful Stuff

THIS GAME DOES NOT WORK WITH ECLIPSE.
Incompatible with PizzaBoy, Eclipse, and Twilight Menu. Tested to perform fine on mGBA, VBA, OpenEmu, myBoy, and JohnGBA

Download

Previous Versions

Credits

soupercell (Creator)

• Complete Fire Red Upgrade: Skeli789, ghoulslash and team – For this powerful, super accessible resource and their extremely useful documentation; this hack would be completely irrelevant without it.
• koala4: Co-creator. Testing, wild Pokemon locations, balancing, suggestions, and for being a good friend throughout the process.
• Drayano60: Game draws a lot of inspiration from his enhancement hacks.
• Pokemon Clover: Game draws some inspiration from this hack (Level cap, Dream Ball, Abilities Striker and Blademaster more specifically)
• Smogon CAP: Inspiration for Mega Coloassal’s ability Mountaineer
• InnerMobius: For the backsprites used for Red and Green
• Noodlewhiz on Discord: Helping me implement the Hidden Ability swapper
• Kalerie: For these overworld sprites used in Leon’s base
• SageDeoxysOverworld sprites for G-Zapdos, G-Moltres, G-Articuno, and many Gen 8 Pokemon OWs
• Leparagon, and everyone that contributed to DS-style Gen VII and Beyond Pokémon Sprite Repository in 64×64
• kingofthe-x-roadsFor the Galarian Slowbro, Inteleon, and couple other Gen 8 battle sprites
• Everyone that contributed to theGen 8 Sprite Project
• LarryTurbo for Gen 8 Icons
• Professor Leon for the DPE/CFRU ROM Base
• hyo oppa for the Brendan trainer front sprite
• NateRiver, Omega/WesleyFG Custom Battle Backgrounds
• Nisarg, JK For updated bag graphics
• ! hackito Updated Textbox
• YoY-XPlatinum HP Bar
• Delta231FRLG HGSS Style Sprites
• Pokemonrater Silver OW Sprite
• thebrawlunit archer/ariana/giovanni sprites,
• Jo7A Johto Gym Leader Sprites
• VentZX, DrSeuss Sword Shield style Type Icons
• Varrio: The header picture with the Mega Houndoom 😀
• Ghabra, Khaospire, Daina, mossedUp, Sergio, Gress, moods, Xan, Cubism, ExpoSeed, Datudou, Kled, Nikki, Manny, Hail, Maliboo, matty boy : For testing, and being great pals.
• Pacmanboss256 (RRSH head dev), Karthik, Budget Cyro and Aegide For developing the RR Showdown Server. Karthik is also responsible for the Dex and RR patching website
• Azimuth on WAH for the sleek Stat Scanner graphical screen

Tools used:

• Advanced Map 1.9.2/1.9.5
• HxD
• G3T
• NSE
• XSE
• Overworld Manager

Other Resources Used:

• Summary Screen Patch
• Party Screen Patch
• Colored Natures
• IV Rankings
• Pokemon Sprites