Pokemon Royal Sapphire ROM

Pokemon Royal Sapphire is a GBA ROM Hack by ShockinglyGongas based on Pokemon Sapphire in English. It was last updated on November 27, 2025.

Also, be sure to check out Pokemon – The NUZLOMIZER.

Description

Features

Generation 3 Mechanics

• (No Physical/Special Split, 1/16 2x Crits)
  Royal Sapphire uses Full generation 3 mechanics, exact same as Ruby/Sapphire, so the AI is all Expert AI (same as a Gym Leader). For every trainer, Switch AI is the exact same, There’s no Physical Special Split, no Fairy type, Critical Hits are 1/16 and 2x Damage.
• New Starter Selection, Regional Forms, Added/Unavailable Mons
• The starters are now Hisui Sneasel, Hisui Qwilfish, and Galar Slowpoke! It’s a Poison trio with Fighting/Dark/Psychic.
• This upcoming list of Pokémon has been changed to be their Regional Forms: Voltorb, Electrode, Growlithe, Arcanine, Exeggutor, Sandshrew, Sandslash, Raichu, Slowpoke, Slowbro, Slowking, Sneasel, Qwilfish
• This Upcoming list of Pokémon has been added to the game: Sneasler, Overqwil, Meltan, Melmetal
• This Upcoming List of Pokémon has been removed from the game: Ditto, Farfetch’d, Smeargle, Chimecho

Every Map has been Changed!

• The title is pretty clear, every single map in the game has been changed. The main goal was to create a feel of you going through the Hoenn Region for the first time as you once did years ago.
• The Story Beats remain basically the same, Gym leader order is the exact same, and you go through each location at the same time as you would in the Original Ruby/Sapphire, with a few new or changed areas that you go to for additional storyline purposes or Important item scavenger hunts such as key items and HMs.

Custom Tilesets

• Several tiles have been custom-edited by me to really make the region feel more fresh, so while it ALWAYS uses the original nostalgic Ruby Sapphire tiles as base, they also got updated to look more new and for aesthetic reasons!

New Trainer Sprites

• Overworld Sprites were updated for several trainers, including all gym leaders, the main characters, the evil teams, and most overworld trainers!

New Custom UI

• Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire have a RED UI during fights. I decided to embody the full blue spirit of the game and updated the UI to use several variations of the color blue. Hopefully you like it!

Expanded Team Aqua Storyline

• Pokemon Royal Sapphire focus a lot more on the storyline of Team Aqua. They succeed during their plans and have a much bigger and important role in the story, especially Matt, Shelly, and Archie, with their goals not just being to awaken the Hoenn legendary Kyogre, but the overlord of the sea, Lugia as well, to expand the ocean with eternal rain and deep waves. Basically, you will fight them a lot more during the story.

Changed NPC Dialogues

• Go through each town’s NPCs because several of them have had their dialogues entirely rewritten! Even if you don’t know what they say in the original Ruby and sapphire, it would still mean a lot to me if you paid attention to what they say during your playthrough!

Revamped Trainer Battles

• Every Single Trainer Battle in the game has had their team, moves, and items all carefully hand-crafted by myself, with the intent to make the game way more challenging. Think of Renegade Platinum as the reference for how hard fights are. So while normal trainers aren’t the most important of each section of the game, they do have updated teams to make you think just a tiny bit more while playing!

Harder Boss Fights

• Just like mentioned before, every single trainer battle in the game was changed. This includes all Boss fights, including several brand new ones! As an example, Roxanne in Vanilla has a Level 14 Geodude and a Level 15 Nosepass. In Royal Sapphire she has a Lv14 Nidoran, Lv14 Kabuto, Lv14 Geodude, Lv15 Nosepass, Lv13 Onix, Level 13 Growlithe-Hisui.
• There are NO Potions. The AI will never use any super, hyper or full restores. There are, however, held items on several Pokémon and better movesets.

No Stat/Type Changes BUT There’s Changed Abilities

• The game does not change any Pokémon types, and the only Stat changes made in this game were the balance changes done to the 7 Starter Pokemon (Sneasel Line, Qwilfish Line, Slowpoke Line) to make them more on-par with regular starters; Think of what Fire Red Omega did to Elekid/Smoochum/Magby.
  The big changes come in the form of Ability changes! So many Pokemon have had their abilities changed to make them better such as Sharpedo with speed boost, Slowbro with shell armor, Furret with thick fat, Etc!

Evolution Modifications

• Several Pokemon have had their evolution levels changed, such as Slugma going from a Level 38 Evolution to a level 20 Evolution! Friendship evolutions evolve at 10, and Trade evolutions depend on the Pokémon’s strength, but they’re in the 40-42 range!

Move Modifications

• 90% Of moves have had their Accuracy changed to be 100%. Several moves have had their PP changed to either be lowered or increases due to balance changes (Such as setup being lowered so the AI can’t spam it and neither can the player) A lot of moves have also been removed in place of others in the game, such as All OHKO Moves being removed in place of; Ex:. Horn Drill is now Drill Run; Sheer Cold is now Draco Meteor; Guillotine is now Bullet punch. There’s many more balance changes such as Spit up being an instant heal like Recover, and Teleport acting like Baton pass but with -6 priority, as well as Waterfall and Surf having their base powers swapped due to when you get them and finally strength and cut getting their types changed. Use the Move Changes document to know more!

Item & Mart Modifications

• All PokéMarts have had their contents changed to Include Rare Candies, Max Repels, Great Heals, and several other items at a MUCH lower price; For example rare candies are now 1 Poké Dollar.
  The game corner TMs are insanely cheap now and they each give away 5 TMs per Purchase.
  There’s no Wild held item’s and thief/covet aren’t available. All items you get are in the overworld, or Mart NPCs.

Trade & Egg Modifications

• All 3 in-game Trades and Lavaridge Egg have been changed!
  Rustboro City: Sentret -> Sandshrew Alola
  Fortree City: Pikachu -> Wynaut
  Pacifidlog Isle: Electrode Hisui -> Larvitar
  Lavaridge Gift Egg: Eevee!

Documentation

• The game is fully documented in the links far below, with a calculator and lua script being included for easier playthroughs and actions such as Exporting to the Calculator, Pre-Status’ing a Pokemon, or Simply checking it’s IVs. The documents include Trainers, Item locations, Learnsets, Encounters, Move Changes, Trick House, Post Game, Links to important Resources and Credits.

Full Completable Postgame

• The Postgame in Vanilla Sapphire is pretty bland, with Emerald being the one to implement a bigger postgame; well, I decided to give my own twist to change Royal Sapphire’s postgame so you can expect the following:
• Gym Leader Rematches in The SS. Tidal
• Elite Four Rematches in their respective areas around the map
• Several Catchable Legendaries
• Several Catchable Mythicals
• Battle Tower Secret Maxie Fight
• Secret Boss Fight with Gongas
• Final Postgame Trick House Level with a Final secret boss (Bring your masterballs)
• Fully Completable PokéDex

Increased Shiny Odds

• Pretty clear what it is! Shiny odds were altered from 1/8192 to 1/2048!
  Some shinies have issues, so check Known Bugs/Known Issues to fix.

Quality Of Life Improvements

• Rare Candies were Added to the player’s GameCube as well as every PokéMart for no grinding.
• Full Restores, Max Repels, Max Elixirs in Most or Every PokéMart.
• Berries are Found as soon as they become available to the player in PokéMarts.
• PokeCenters now have Sponsor Corners! On the top left, Tutors, Marts and Deleters will appear!
• Every Mart Item in the Game has had their price altered to be easily bought.
• You get several TMs of each, most of the time.
• Game Corner has new TMs, and they’re all 10 Coins each and give away 5 per purchase.
• All Pokemon have custom Learnsets to make
• Physical/Special split a NON-Issue.
• Pokemon have had their abilities changed as a way to buff them.
• Evolution methods or levels changed to buff certain Pokémon.

Changelog

V1.7

• New Starting Screen
• Battle HUD is now Dark blue instead of grey
• Can no longer softlock through PC Glitching in the lab
• The Scanner and The Choice band/Extra leftovers are only accessible Post Waterfall instead of Post Dive
• Updated colors on may/brendan slightly
• New Front Sprite for Alolan Raichu, Alolan Sandshrew and Alolan Sandslash
• New Back Sprite for Alolan Raichu, Alolan Sandshrew and Alolan Sandslash
• Abandoned Ship has been expanded with new scripts and optional story.
• Rusturf Tunnel has been expanded.
• 115 Trail has been expanded with new scripts and optional story.
• Route 122 Has a new script and event.
• Removed Head Smash at level 78 from Hisui Arcanine, moved to 80
• Added Head Smash to Hisui Growlithe at 75
• Removed Swift at level 9 from Hisui Electrode
• Added Frenzy Plant to Hisui Electrode at 72
• Entei Can now Learn Overheat
• Lowered Solarbeam PP to 3
• Lowered Thunder PP to 8
• Lowered Heat Wave PP to 5
• Removed a Solarbeam TM From Safari Zone in place of Dragon Claw
• Alolan Raichu now learns Thunder Wave at 26, Light screen at 41
• Flareon’s Learnset has been entirely overhauled, Early Flamethrower, Now gets Earth power and Sacred Fire
• Espeon now learns Crunch at 59
• Gorebyss now learns Mist Ball over Psychic
• Venomoth now gets Compound Eyes
• Exploud now learns Brick Break, Extrasensory and Icy wind through scale
• Exploud now can learn all Elemental Punches
• Exploud now gets earlier moves, and Swords Dance at 70
• Seismic Toss now correctly can be given to a ton of Pokémon
• Substitute Lowered to 3 pp
• Seaking now gets Waterfall at 36, Megahorn at 40, Aqua jet at 1
• Goldeen now gets Aqua Jet at 1
• Luvdisc learnset has been completely redone
• Piloswine Now gets blizzard at 51 and Bulk up at 55
• Poliwag now evolves at 18 instead of 25
• Plusle and Minun now both learn Volt tackle at 72
• Swalot now learns Flamethrower at 47
• 119 Wilds PC House has a Nurse lady like 111 Valleys
• 129 Islands slightly expanded
• Magcargo is now Blaze/Shell Armor instead of Blaze/Flame Body
• Gligar is now Hyper Cutter/Marvel Scale instead of Hyper Cutter/Sand Veil
• Swellow is now Guts/Early Bird instead of Guts 100%
• Sneasler learns Superpower at 71 now instead of 70
• Sneasler learns Sky Uppercut at 62 now instead of 54
• Qwilfish no longer gets Learnset Night slash nor Toxic
• Qwilfish now gets Crunch at Lv24 and Reversal at Lv27
• Removed Level 1 Scale Reversal from Primeape, replaced with Counter
• Replaced Sea Incense in Victory road f1 with the Dragon Fang
• Added Sharp Beak to Abandoned Ship’s Library
• Changed Mawile, Tropius, Exploud, Absol, Kecleon, Scyther, Electabuzz, Magmar, Nidoking, Nidoqueen, Arboks Sprites
• Fixed Dialogue issue in the Mt.Pyre Postgame Archie interaction
• Bug Buzz and Flash Cannon Descriptions updated
• Overheat is no longer Contact unlike vanilla gen 3
• Added Pre-status NPC in mauville
• Added Move tutor in Fortree
• Fixed tileset issue in 116

V1.6.0.6

• Removed 117 Hidden item
• Removed Lavaridge Hidden item
• Changed where a trick house NPC is
• Removed Full restores from 3 trick house NPCs
• Fixed [Maingame] No Oxford comma in Oldale NPC
• Fixed [Maingame] Mossdeep NPC That explains TL’s Gimmick
• Fixed [Maingame] Sidney’s Dialogue missing an “a” 
• Changed Route 131’s Grunt to a Boat
• Changed Levels on a Certain Postgame team (Lv 88 -> Lv 98) [Postgame]
• Fixed Gongas’ Dialogue [Postgame]
• Fixed Evergrande’s First sign
• Fixed a certain “a isle” typo to “an isle” [Maingame]
• Fixed Shoal Cave having 3 walkable walls 
• Slightly changed shoal cave to be a bit more walkable 
• Swimmer Finger now correctly mentions route 121 instead of 122 when talking about Gentleman Walter [Maingame] 
• Fixed Route 133 having an unusable stair
• A Certain Postgame NPC that was previously just a meme, now has a FIGHT that will help with your Dex! [Postgame] 
• Bone rush now actually displays the right Description 
• Roxanne now displays edited dialogue in the Tidal [Postgame]
• Brawly now displays edited dialogue in the Tidal [Postgame]
• Flannery’s Post-dialogue in the Tidal is now edited [Postgame]
• 119’s Corner has been slightly edited [Maingame]
• Mystery Tomb’s Corners have also been slightly edited [Postgame]
• DualWingBeat’s description no longer has a typo
• Meltan and Melmetal’s descriptions have both been fixed [Postgame]
• (Battle Tower Event) no longer Makes you reread their dialogue in the postgame Post-the fight [Postgame]
• Battle tower now has a grass area to help with Dex completion [Postgame] 
• You can now fight a certain Postgame event Capture without being blocked by another [Postgame]
• Dex Completion Certificate now has a custom Message for Royal Sapphire
• Victory Road Sun room has been slightly changed visually [Maingame]
• Victory Road Ice room Puzzle has been slightly changed [Maingame]
• Victory Road Base room now has a shortcut so its easier to get back to the start from the end [Maingame]
• Mt.Pyre Quest and outside are now *EXTREMELY* obvious, for those who may still have confusion. [Maingame]
• Added an NPC to route 111 [Maingame]
• Latias now holds the Soul Dew [Postgame]

V1.6.0.5

• Fixed weird bug where Shiny Voltorb/Electrode were outright not in the game (???) They are now 🙂
• Changed Electrode’s boxsprite
• Added everstones to Rustboros mart
• Added escape rope to Rustboros mart
• Changed slowbro/slowking backsprite 
• Changed Voltorb/Electrode sprites

Useful Links

Pokecommunity

Reddit

Documentation

Discord

Youtube