Pokemon Battle Theater is an AI vs AI battle simulator for vanilla Pokemon Emerald. 120 trainers across every generation, in-ROM team builder, tournament mode, VGC mode with smart team-preview AI, Pilot Mode, and more. Pit any two trainers from the mainline games (Gens 1-9) against each other, or pilot one side via Pilot Mode.
Features
- 120 trainers across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, Galar, Hisui + PWT + anime World Champion Ash
- 9 Legends Arceus trainers — Volo, Adaman, Irida, Ingo, Akari, Kamado, Zisu, Beni, Rei
- Tournament mode, 8 trainer single-elim brackets per region
- Best of N match format with adaptive picks between rounds
- VGC mode, forced doubles, Lv 50 cap, 4 pick of 6
- Team preview AI, scores each mon against the opponent’s whole roster and picks the optimal lineup (one of the coolest additions)
- Custom Trainer slots, full PKHeX style editor in-ROM (sprite / name / species / item / ability / EVs / IVs / moves / nature / gender / shiny) saved to your file
- Pilot Mode, control the player AI’s loaner team yourself
- Level cap (off / 50 / 75 / 100) for fair matchups
- Z-Moves / Mega / Dynamax / Gigantamax, AI bias tuned to fire signature attacks eagerly
- Custom Battle Theater background by LiYun
- Affection + Terastallization disabled for cleaner sim
Known Bugs
- Player trainer name sometimes renders with glitched / corrupted characters in battle dialogue.
- Trainer picker menu occasionally shows funky text on certain entries when scrolling. Closing and reopening the picker normalises it.
Changelog
V2.3.1
Dynamax works in pilot mode now
- The long-standing “can’t Dynamax or Gigantamax my Pokémon” bug is fixed. Pilot battles run through the normal-play Dynamax gate, which vetoes the player unless a story-progression flag is set — a flag this hack never assigns, so the check always failed no matter what was in your bag. Piloted teams now Dynamax like the AI does.
- Bonus: custom-built teams now carry max Dynamax level and the Gigantamax factor — your Build-Trainer Charizard G-Maxes properly, whether you pilot the team or watch it fight.
More rematch teams (14 trainers)
- The full LGPE gym circuit — Brock, Misty, Lt. Surge, Erika, Koga, Sabrina, Blaine (Lv 56/57 rematch teams, LGPE-era flavor intact: Fairy Mr. Mime, Moonblast Muk, Play Rough Arcanine) plus Giovanni’s Viridian Gym team. The LGPE cup doubles to 15 trainers.
- Unova Elite Four, original BW versions (Lv 71/73) — Shauntal, Marshal, Grimsley, Caitlin, tagged
(BW) alongside the existing B2W2-era teams, now tagged (B2W2). - Cynthia’s BW team — the Undella Town villa battle (Lv 75/77 Garchomp ace). That’s four Cynthias in the roster now.
V2.3.0
Shadow moves are real
- All 18 Shadow moves from Pokémon Colosseum / XD: Gale of Darkness now exist in the engine — typeless (
???), un-copyable, and carrying XD’s signature rule faithfully: a Shadow move is always super-effective against non-Shadow Pokémon. Every Pokémon in this sim is non-Shadow, so nothing resists them — no type immunity, no Wonder Guard, nothing. The AI understands this perfectly, and yes, it is terrifying. - Canon stats throughout: Shadow End’s reckless 120-power/50%-recoil ram, Shadow Rave and Shadow Wave hitting both foes, Shadow Bolt/Chill/Fire’s status chances, and the status suite (Hold, Panic, Mist, Down, Half, Shed, Sky).
The Orre saga — 16 trainers + Orre cup
A new Orre section (Gen 3 spin-off slot, after Emerald) with both games’ full boss ladder:
- Colosseum: Miror B. and his Ludicolo army (plus Shadow Dragonite), Dakim, Venus, Ein, Justy’s Phenac evasion-stall, Nascour, and Grand Master Evice with his Shadow Tyranitar
- XD: Lovrina, Snattle’s six Explosion users, Gorigan, Gonzap of Team Snagem, Ardos, Eldes, Fein — the fake Wes, complete with his infamous Lv 20 Shadow Togetic — Chobin, and Grand Master Greevil, whose team is six Shadow Pokémon including Shadow Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos
Tournament format picker
Every cup run now asks how you want it played:
- Pick a cup (29 including the new Orre cup)
- Singles / Doubles / VGC (VGC = forced doubles, Lv 50 cap, bring-6-pick-4)
- Best of 1 / Best of 3 — best-of now works inside brackets: each round is its own series, advancing only when a side clinches, with adaptive team picks between games
- Random Spectate, choose a trainer to follow, or pilot one yourself
Also in this release
- XY Elite Four — Malva, Siebold, Wikstrom, Drasna — plus Lysandre’s final battle (Mega Gyarados) and the Route 19 rival trio (Tierno, Shauna, Trevor), with an XY cup
V2.2.0
Classic Gen 1 + Gen 2 rosters
The picker now opens where it all began. New RGBY section: the RBY Elite Four (Lorelei, Bruno, Agatha, Lance) and Champion Blue in all six variants — three RGB starter teams plus the three Yellow Eeveelution teams — alongside Prof. Oak. New GSC section: the Kanto gym leaders (Brock through Blaine), Viridian Leader Blue, the Johto E4 (Will, Koga, Bruno, Karen), Champion Lance, rival Silver in all three starter variants, and Red at Mt. Silver.
Everything is canon and era-accurate: original movesets (modern spellings), no held items, and the sparse 3-move sets kept where the games had them.
XY Elite Four + Team Flare
Kalos finally gets its full cast: Malva, Siebold, Wikstrom, Drasna, Lysandre’s final battle with his Mega Gyarados, and the Route 19 rival trio — Tierno (his Roserade really does only know Petal Dance), Shauna, and Trevor.
N’s B2W2 mega-pool
A new N entry combines his BW final-battle team with all four B2W2 seasonal teams (Spring rain, Summer sun, Autumn sand, Winter hail) plus both Reshiram and Zekrom — a 31-mon rotation pool that samples a fresh six every battle and always brings exactly one legendary.
Tournament, rebuilt
- Dedicated Tournament menu on the first screen: pick any of 27 cups, then Random Spectate, Spectate Trainer (choose who to follow), or Pilot Trainer (play as them). The Run Simulation menu is leaner for it.
- Spectator mode — getting eliminated no longer ends the run. The bracket keeps playing as real, watchable AI-vs-AI battles until an actual champion is crowned.
- New cups: RGBY, GSC, and XY. Iris moved from the PWT cups to the BW cup where her B2W2 rematch team belongs.
Generation order
Both the trainer picker and the cup list now run Gen 1 → Gen 9 (with the PWT sections grouped beside Gen 5, and Anime/VGC/Custom at the end).
Fixes
- The “invalid move” blue screen is gone for good — out-of-range move IDs are silently treated as no move, in every build.
- Fixed heap corruption when a menu exceeded 20 rows (garbled text in long lists).
Useful Links
