Pokemon Firered Deluxe ROM

Pokemon Firered Deluxe is a GBA ROM Hack by loser based on Pokemon Fire Red. It was last updated on February 16, 2026.

Description

This is a rom hack of Pokemon FireRed that I’ve been working on on and off since 2020. I wanted to make the game much more balanced while being a bit harder, more diverse, and more of a designed experience in general. This game was designed to be able to be able to be Nuzlocked blind, though documentation exists as well. Letting the player play how they wanted was always the goal – the player can play this game in many different ways. This hack goes until the first elite four battle!

Philosophically, this hack is Gen 3 at heart – it lacks the physical special split, dumping of random Pokemon from other regions, the fairy type, etc. The game was designed and revamped around the Gen 3 experience. New Pokemon and features exist, but they exist snugly in the Gen 3 environment. Think of this hack as an elevated Gen 3 – there are more powerful Pokemon, moves, and items, however, at heart, it stays true to the base mechanics and design of Gen 3.

Features

• Many, many Pokemon buffed to make the game balanced. – You can use any Pokemon you want without it being bad.

  • Many Pokemon have improved base stats, movepools, and typings. You can more or less use any Pokemon viably that you get in this game.​
• Buffed moves: many bad moves like fire spin or cut are now good moves to have in the early/mid and sometimes late game​

• Alolan, Galarian, & Hisuian forms!

  • They add a bit more diversity into kanto. Also Pokemon related to the originals in some way like Toedscruel, Perrserker, etc.​
• Later-gen evolutions – Not only can you get Crobat in Kanto, but you can get Magmortar and Leafeon too!​
• More easily accessible & reusable move tutors​
• TM/HM Changes & Learnset changes – Pokemon get much better moves than they do originally​
• Hidden Grottos! The new HM secret power lets you explore hidden grottos which have Pokemon and items.​
• Leafgreen exclusives are catchable – don’t feel like this is a super FireRed-specific game: all original 151 Pokemon obtainable and more.​
• More Pokemon and item diversity – you will get a lot of Pokemon that you don’t get in the original​
• Harder Gym Leaders/Bosses in general – this game features not only more difficult gym leaders (who use a complementary Pokemon or two not in their original type) but also more mini-bosses to keep the game interesting and fun in between gym fights.​
  • Some minibosses based off other games (LGPE, Pokemon Go)​
• You can do fight Koga, Sabrina, and Blaine in any order! Their teams and levels adjust based on your badge count so you will always fight the right level.​
• More double battles​

• In-game help menu was modified to give more info about the game and essentially work as documentation

  • Somewhat of a WIP but provides info on the various changes in the game while also telling the player what the level caps are for Nuzlockes, new bosses, etc.​
• HMs are not only delectable, but also much more viable in battle and less necessary to get to certain areas​
• Map changes and new areas – Viridian forest is a great example!​
• Just much more depth to the original game in general – see stuff like this [late game spoilers!]​
• Gym leader rematches [WIP]​
• And much more​

Changelog

V20.5

• Fixed the issue of Sabrina disappearing by making her gym puzzle a bit more linear (this only happened if you faced Sabrina as the 7th)
• Added text to let the player know in game Blaine and Sabrina are double battles
• Rearranged the Pokédex order of the mons. 339 Pokemon appear in Firered Deluxe, and out of the 339, 43 have alternate forms that share a dex number. This would cause empty space in the pokédex between Dex entries. This update hopes to circumvent that. (TLDR; Bulbasaur is still #001 while Deoxys is now #339)
• Added trainer card stars for certain achievements in the game:
• Defeating the league for the first time
• Collecting all 151 Pokemon in the Regional Dex
• Collecting all 339 Pokemon in the National Dex
• (Do note that for the Pokedex completion stars to become present, you must talk to Professor Oak after completing the respective Pokedexes for them to activate)
• Must beat the super final boss
• Added the GS Ball as a completion item to show that you 100% the game. In order to get it, you must have:
• Got a gold star trainer card
• Defeat the Trainer Tower (Single Battles)

V20.4

• Many small things have been change,d and many big things have been changed.

V20.3

Bug and Oversight Fixes

• Fixed Trainers who had glitched movesets. This was fixed in 20.2, but more people who are playing the game don’t know that this bug was fixed so that’s why I’m mentioning it
• Added Miltank to the wild in the postgame. Miltank was accidentally not added in the wild due to other Pokémon replacing it but you can catch it in game now.
• Added The Lax Incense in four island. This is so you could breed for Wynaut since the lax incense wasn’t in any prior release of the game.
• Removed Mega Blastoise, Mega Venusaur, Mega Charizard and Bronzong from the National Dex. These Pokemon aren’t obtainable in-game so we forced to just treat them like we do regional forms and give them the same dex number as the starters (Bronzong shares the same dex number with Melmetal)
• Fixed the Pokédex entry for Sandy Shocks
• Gave Sirfetch’d a dex entry, Sirfetch’d shared a dex number with Farfetch’d in the game’s code so the National dex should show 339 Pokémon now, which was always intended

Actual Changes

• Moved the thief TM to Victory Road
• Replaced the double team TM with knock off and the TM in mt moon
• Changed some movesets on boss trainers (calc for this game is not updated yet, will edit the updated calc to this post later)
• Removed permanent sand from Giovanni’s gym
• Put the Rain Dance TM in One Island

Useful Links

Pokecommunity

Reddit

Discord

Documentation

Youtube

Nuzlocke Forums