Pokemon Emerald Horizons

Download Pre-Patched Pokemon Emerald Horizons GBA ROM Hack

• Creator: BrandonXL
• Version: 1.0.9
• Hack of: Emerald
• Updated: April 14, 2024

Pokemon Emerald Horizons is a GBA Rom Hack by BrandonXL based on Pokemon Emerald in English. And it is now available to download. It was last updated on April 14, 2024.

About the Game

Pokémon has always held a prominent place among my hobbies. When I was younger, I enjoyed assembling teams to challenge different Gym Leaders, Elite Four members, and any formidable Trainer considered a “boss battle.” The idea of creating my own game never crossed my mind until I played titles like Pokémon Unbound (by skeli and ghoul), Radical Red (by soupercell), and Inclement Emerald (by BuffelSalt).

These hacks, in my opinion, represent the pinnacle of Pokémon experiences. What attracts me most to these games are a few shared characteristics: a diverse array of obtainable Pokémon, a sophisticated and modern battle engine, and, most importantly, a substantial level of challenge, masterfully exhibited in their intense boss battles. The concept of “boss battles” has always fascinated me, and after playing these exceptional games, I knew I wanted to create my own.

With the abundance of selflessly shared resources from this community, especially RHH, DizzyEgg, and PRET, I embarked on creating a game with a few guiding principles in mind:

1. Difficult, yet fair – On a scale of 1-10, with vanilla being a 1 and Radical Red being a 10, I would rate this game at a 6.
2. Aligning with modern entries in the series.
3. Streamlining the player experience.

Regarding point three, while I do enjoy competitive battling, I never found pleasure in obsessing over EV training, maxing out IVs, or capturing Pokémon with optimal natures. Likewise, the need to grind endlessly for experience is likely unappealing to the average player.

The project was designed to enable players to swiftly achieve their team-building goals while still presenting them with a challenge through enhanced difficulty. Honestly, my aim was to deliver the kind of Hoenn experience that I would personally relish playing. Although the game predominantly follows the vanilla Emerald storyline, players will encounter new Trainers to battle and fresh activities to explore!

Taking all of the above into account, I am delighted to share my Emerald difficulty hack with the Emerald Horizons community.

Features

Many of the features below are either inherent in the RHH’s pokeemerald-expansion branch or possible due to the tireless work of the contributors in the Simple Modifications Directory (credited at the bottom of the post)!
The key features of this game include:

• Difficulty Related: Set Mode, Level Caps, and Disabled Battle Bag
• Most Gen 1-8 Pokémon are obtainable, including Hisuian forms
• Modern Battle Engine, with Fairy-Type, Mega Evolution, Updated Moves, and Physical/Special Split
• Loads of optional boss battles, with 8 Kanto Gym Leaders, 8 Johto Gym Leaders, and a few miscellaneous bosses who reward valuable items
• Exp. All
• Bosses and mid/late game Trainers scale to or relative to your strength, so grinding/over leveling isn’t a factor
• Updated move animations, courtesy of Skeli and ghoulslash
• No EVs/IVs/Natures factored into stats
• 75 TMs, with about 50% vanilla TMs and 50% custom TMs
• Ghoulslash’s DexNav (12 unique land/5 unique surf/5 unique fishing encounters)
• PSF’s Quest Menu UI, with 30 Side Quests to Complete
• Buffel’s Poké Vial implementation
• Ghoul’s Item Description Headers
• Badge-Based Poké Marts
• BW Repel System
• Unlimited use TMs/Forgettable HMs
• Nicknaming and Move Relearning in Party Screen
• Decapitalization
• Level Grinder to quickly hit Level Cap
• Linking Cord for most trade-related evolutions
• Post-Game Boss Rush Mode
• 2.5x Lucky Egg
• Premier Ball Bonuses
• No poison damage in the overworld

As noted above, while most Gen 1-8 Pokémon are obtainable, certain species can not be caught in the game. This primarily pertains to Legendary/Mythical Pokémon. The list of currently unobtainable Pokémon is below.

Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mew, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Jirachi, Deoxys, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Heatran, Cresselia, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Victini, Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Hoopa, Volcanion, Magearna, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Type: Null, Silvally, Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini, Nihilego, Buzzwole, Pheromosa, Xurkitree, Celesteela, Kartana, Guzzlord, Stakataka, Blacephalon, Marshadow, Zeraora, Meltan, Melmetal, Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus, Regieleki, Regidrago, Zarude, Glastrier, Spectrier, Calyrex, and Enamorus

Before You Ask

• Hidden Abilities are obtained either via DexNav or using an Ability Patch, which comes after a certain amount of badges
• While you’ll see a Nature in the Summary Screen, I promise you it is not calculated into your overall stats!
• Some movesets have been adjusted accordingly. For example, Tyranitar can relearn Dragon Dance. This is to avoid the need to grind out egg moves.
• As a caveat to the above, it is important to note that not all egg moves were added to learnsets.
• Certain Pokémon received “buffs” or “nerfs” in their movesets/learnsets, but nothing major has been changed.
• If you don’t know how to evolve it, chances are you just need a Linking Cord.
• To Mega Evolve, hit the Start button before selecting a move.
• There is no way to turn off Exp. All, as this ensures your team scales in accordance with the game’s difficulty.

Changelog v1.0.9

• New optional areas to explore (smaller Icefall Cave and greatly expanded Burnt Slab).
• Some new legendary encounters in the overworld; was highly requested, so this update marks the first batch of Legendaries that can be obtained through logical areas.
• Added map popups in the top and bottom sections.
• Another point to be highlighted is that with each release the learning sets are also updated for better battles.

Screenshots

Useful Stuff

Download

Previous Versions

Credits

BrandonXL

(If I missed anyone, please let me know immediately)!
PRET – pokeemerald
DizzyEgg – Battle Engine, Pokémon Expansion
RHH – pokeemerald-expansion
ghoulslash – DexNav, Item Description Headers, Move Animations, contributing to original Quest Menu
skeli – Move Animations, contributing to original Quest Menu
PSF – Quest Menu
TheXaman – Debug menu for incredibly fast testing
Lunos – Exp. All
PokemonCrazy – Type Effectiveness in Battle
BuffelSalt – Poké Vial
StargazaART – Title Screen! Seriously, check their Twitter! Fantastic work and person to work with.
Clara-Dragon – Original Ultra Wormhole Sprite
Christopher “Nova” Foss – Miror B. Midi Arrangement
Aveontrainer and BurstXShadowsX – Gen 2 Gym Leaders in FRLG style
Contributors of Simple Modifications Directory/pokeemerald Tutorials, including AsparagusEduardo, HunarPG, Lunos, Tyler Scarff, and more – Numerous QOL features
The kind RHH community – AsparagusEduardo, Salem, Lunos, DizzyEgg, SBird, Archie, MGriffin, shinydragonhunter, Grunt Lucas, and anyone else I’ve had to bother for help