Pokemon Emerald Squared is a Completed GBA Rom Hack made by Jorts. A doubles-focused ROM hack featuring revamped trainers, updated mechanics, improved battles, and enhanced Pokémon, moves, and abilities.
Pokemon Emerald Squared Completed GBA Rom Hack
- Author: Jorts
- Hack Off: Emerald
- Language: English
- Released on: September 23, 2025
- Latest Version: v2.4.0
- Last Updated: November 07, 2025
- Status: Completed
Description
Pokemon Emerald Squared is a fan-made ROM hack of Pokemon Emerald, focused on enhancing the game with double battles as a core feature. Built on the Emerald Expansion base and incorporating various community-made assets and features, the game introduces significant changes to Pokemon, moves, abilities, items, and trainers. It marks the first public release after nearly a year of development, with more documentation and updates to come.
Features
- Every battle and encounter post-saving birch is a doubles battle
- Tera and mega gimmicks both included at various stages of the game, along with ways to change tera types
- Many pokemon received buffs to stats, abilities, and moves, ranging from minor defensive buffs to total overhauls
- New abilities, moves, and items
- Buffed weak items like adrenaline orb, absorb bulb, cell battery
- Trainer party pools for major bosses (you never know what you’re going to get, have been told by my closed beta testers this makes hc nuzlockes quite difficult)
- Randomized fire/water/grass starters from 3 different regions offered
- A second starter gifted by birch after receiving the first
- Swap bikes with R
- Pokevial that gets progressively bigger as you beat gym leaders
- Every TM in Scarlet and Violet
- Every pokemon through Gen 9 available, with the exception of box art/680 BST legends, coming in patch 2.0
- Infinite Repel
- EV/IV editor
- Expanded and brand-new areas
- Updated battle backgrounds
- Side story that will later unlock a new area with box art/680 BST legends (area coming in patch 2.0)
- Super candies that level you up to the level cap
- Minimal grinding via two toggles for 0 EVs and perfect IVs
- And much, much more that i’ve likely forgotten over the past 10 months
Near-term plans (next month or two):
- Bug fixes
- Additional trainer slides mid-battle
- Box legends encounter area, rematches for side bosses and gym leaders
- Additional QoL and feature suggestions that are of minor undertaking
- Documentation for those desiring it
Long-term plans (early spring to late summer 2026):
- Additional areas and rebalancings
- Fleshed-out battle frontier with restricted/non-restricted vgc-esque formats
- More polishing before I move on to a more proprietary hack with a whole new region
Recommended emulators:
- mGBA
- Retroarch for mobile using mGBA core
Changelog
Minor Patch 2.4.0: The Battle Factory Has Arrived (Barely)
Bugfixes
- AI Should no longer attack their partner randomly
Balance Updates
- Various small moveset changes and buffs for kanto pokemon, will be reflected in docs once those come along
Feature Updates
- The battle frontier factory (and only the battle frontier factory) is now (somewhat) functional. Give it a shot if you can! For now it only has kanto mons for now but it does work! (NOTE: Natures are bugged visually, but the stats show the pokemon’s actual nature stat changes)
Note for the Next Update: Over the next few patches/weeks I’ll be updating the battle frontier mons (Johto and Hoenn mons will be in the next patch, for example), working through documentation and updating in-game locations and movesets, and overall just kind of putting the finishing touches on the base game before overhauling the frontier entirely for 3.0. Have fun and enjoy everyone!
Minor Patch 2.3.0: Gamefreak code is spaghetti
Bugfixes
- You can now go to the islands with the SS Tidal. Gamefreak REALLY made this more complex than it needed to be
- Wallace now actually uses his rematch team during his rematch :skully:
Balance Updates
- Ditto’s Metal Powder now works like eviolite, even when transformed
- Ditto’s Quick Powder now multiplies its speed by 1.5, even when transformed
- Both of the above items are available in slateport
- Tandemaus can now evolve outside of battle. Really dumb idea by gamefreak here
Feature Updates
- You can now send mons to your box to make space for a newly caught mon if the one you want to send knows HMs
- I am testing shiny pokemon palette swaps. Gengar is my first victim test subject
Developer Notes
Work on the frontier sets is going smoothly. Time will tell how long it takes to get stuff into a workable state for 2.5 and the subsequent 3.0, but I’m confident I can hit 2.5 by March at the latest with some help from my homies.
Additionally, next patch 2.4.0 will be a beta of sorts for the battle factory (kanto mons only at first), which will be the beta for the whole frontier essentially. Releases this weekend.
Minor Patch 2.2.0: The Frontier Work Begins
Bugfixes
- Phoebe (first clear) has been fixed and now uses Double Battles again.
Balance Updates
- Patrat and Watchog now learn Glare via level-up.
Feature Updates
- Spectrier, Calyrex, and Glastrier have been added to the Galarian section of Agartha.
- Regigigas has been added to the Sealed Chamber. If Regice, Regirock, and Registeel are in your party, the path will open.
Developer Notes
- Initial work on Frontier Pokémon sets for AI trainers has begun. This marks step one of two in making the Frontier a fully playable location.
Minor Patch 2.1.0
Bugfixes
- Ruination and Nature’s Madness now deal proper damage instead of only 1 HP.
- Gift Pokémon received via the givemon command in scripting will now have perfect IVs if Perfect IVs Mode is enabled.
Balance Updates
- Drampa was missing from distribution. He can now be found somewhere in the grass on Route 119.
- Luvdisc has received a full overhaul. Details here: Luvdisc Update
Feature Updates
- The Lavaridge Egg is now randomized.
- Added the PP Helper in Slateport Market (he’s the cook). You can now buy PP-related items there.
Developer Note
Thank you all for downloading, playing, giving feedback, and helping find bugs. I’ll be releasing minor feature updates and bugfixes weekly while continuing work on the Battle Frontier in the background.
MAJOR PATCH 2.0.0: Agartha and Postgame Part 1 of 2
This is the big, save-breaking update featuring new content, bugfixes, and quality-of-life improvements.
See below for the full changelog:
Feature Updates
- Agartha (and its legendary encounters) is now available, along with rematches for Agarthan trainers.
Note: Regigigas is currently unavailable, as I plan to create a new area for it. - If you haven’t started the Agartha questline, it begins by interacting with the central pillar in the house south of Littleroot Town.
- New lever for auto-run added to Birch’s Lab.
- The bag has been restructured from 5 to 8 slots, adding new categories for transformation items, battle held items, and medicine.
(This change is what makes older saves incompatible.) - Gym Leaders and the Elite Four are now rematchable and will be required for Battle Frontier access in the next major update.
- New Item: Burglary Kit – Allows the holder to attack through Substitute and Protect.
Does not bypass screens (unlike Infiltrator or Unseen Fist). Displays the message:
“[POKEMON] is looking to break in!” - Re-enabled RTC (real-time clock) and shading.
Balance Changes
- Protect is now available earlier and can be purchased in Slateport from the TM vendor who sells Ability Capsules, Ability Patches, and Soul Dew.
- Most underpowered legendaries (including trios and quartets) have been adjusted with new abilities, buffed moves, and stat updates to make them viable for postgame and the future Frontier update.
- All Gym Leaders have been reworked or improved.
- Druddigon is now the only Dragon-type Pokémon with Follow Me and Fake Out.
- New abilities introduced:
- Twincast: All single-target moves now hit both opponents (given to several two-headed Pokémon).
- Sharp Scales: Works like Spikes but triggers on contact (for Veluza).
- Corrosive Odor: Activates Corrosive Gas when entering battle (for Garbodor).
- Ten Steps Ahead: Psychic-type moves gain +1 priority (for Xatu).
Bugfixes
- Encore now properly allows changing targets.
- AI is smarter when using Encore.
- Shops are correctly stocked after becoming Champion.
- Various general bugfixes from the Expansion.
Looking Ahead
Version 3.0 is planned for early to mid next year and will focus on updates to the Battle Frontier.
Before then, expect smaller updates to documentation, encounters, balance, and a new area for Regigigas.
Thank you all for playing, testing, and supporting the project. Enjoy the update and good luck!
Screenshots
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