Pokemon Crystal Crunch ROM

Pokemon Crystal Crunch is a GBC ROM Hack by gomojoeb based on Pokemon Crystal in English. It was last updated on November 05, 2026.

Description

Pokemon Crystal Crunch is an enhancement hack of Pokémon Crystal that spices things up with followers, overworld mon, lots of new forms for existing Pokémon, an attempt to make Unown more important to your journey, a bunch of easter eggs and quality-of-life improvements, and so much more.

All systems were designed with a pre-Gen 3 mindset. Other hacks already port new features like abilities, moves, and items from later generations into Crystal (and do it incredibly well), so I don’t see a reason to tread the same ground. There are exceptions to this rule when it comes to QoL – for example, the storage system now uses the Gen 3 UI.

Features

All 251 Pokémon

• Where to find the legendaries is in spoilers.md.

Following Pokémon

• Press Select on a party member to make it your follower.
• A fainted follower waits in its Poké Ball, and comes back out when you heal it.
• Eggs can follow you too!

Wild Pokémon in the Overworld

• Many routes and towns have Pokémon wandering in the open.
• Walk into one, or face it and press A, to start a wild battle.
• What you see is what you fight – a shiny out in the grass is shiny in the battle.
• They are worth chasing: better DVs, far more likely to be holding an item, and better shiny odds than the same Pokémon in the grass.
• Some know egg moves or otherwise unobtainable moves.
• A chime plays when you walk into an area that has a shiny in it.
• Who turns up is decided fresh each time you enter an area, so it is worth passing back through.

Swarms

• Daily swarms are announced via the radio on station 12.5, the Collection Guild’s swarm report. Kanto swarms start after beating the Elite Four.
• Strange looking Pokémon potentially from the past?
• Swarms with higher chances to have alternate shiny colors.
• Team Rocket’s Pokémon, left behind as you complete the story, swarm the routes. They all know Thief: one holding nothing can steal your Pokémon’s item, which you only get back by catching it.
• Up to three swarms can be going at once: Arnie’s and Anthony’s phone calls still start theirs (Yanma on Route 35, Dunsparce in Dark Cave), and a new radio station picks one more every day.
• Swarms end at midnight.
• The radio won’t announce the same swarm as either of the last two days you played.
• A swarm takes over about 60% of a route’s grass or surf encounters, at the route’s own levels.
• Heightened shiny chance (see What are the shiny rates?).
• Swarm Pokémon replace some overworld Pokémon on the route. Battle one and all of the route’s wandering Pokémon are rolled again, to increase the chance of finding shinies.
• Active swarms are marked on the Pokégear map and the Fly map. When icons share a spot, they take turns showing.

Roaming Legendaries

• Roaming legendaries appear in the overworld now instead of in the grass.
• The location of the roaming legendaries can be tracked on the Pokégear map immediately after the Burned Tower event.
• A roaming legendary stays put while you’re on its route, so you can walk up to it. It only moves on when you leave, or after you battle it.
• If you knock out Raikou or Entei, it will start roaming again after your next Elite Four win.
• Check What are the shiny rates? for updates to shiny mechanics surrounding the roaming legendaries.

Cosmetic Forms

• Many Pokémon have new cosmetic forms – see the screenshots, or spoilers.md for where to find some of them.
• Note: Some forms will have a symbol that displays on the battle and stats screen to indicate that they’re different. Not all forms will have this.

Hidden Power

• Every Pokémon’s Hidden Power attack power can be increased via various methods. The attack power starts at 20 and caps at 70. Unown cap at 120.
• Every 256 steps a Pokémon’s Hidden Power attack power can go up via the following methods:
  • Pokémon holding a new item, the GLYPH SHARD, get a 25% chance to increase their power.
    • The GLYPH SHARD can be found as a rare item on wild Unown.
  • If an Unown is in the party, every Pokémon in the party gets a 25% chance to increase their power.
• Hidden Power can be Physical or Special, depending on which of its user’s stats is higher (no longer dependent on type).
• The Shaman: based on the TCG card art for Desert Shaman illustrated by Kagemaru Himeno.
  • She unlocks a 4th stats page showing each Pokémon’s Hidden Power type and level.
  • She gives you your first GLYPH SHARD.
  • She teaches Hidden Power for free, any time.

The Open League

• Once you hold all 16 badges, the Elite Four opens up: every run is a new, random lineup of four Elite Four members and a Champion.
• The lineup is drawn from the Elite Four, the Johto and Kanto Gym Leaders, Lorelei and Agatha from Red and Blue, and a few surprises.
• Kanto Gym Leaders tell you they’re joining right after you beat them.

Pokégear

• Press Select on the Pokégear map or the Fly map to switch what the map shows:
  

  View	Shows
  SWARMS	Active swarms and roaming legendaries
  REMATCH	Trainers who are ready for a rematch
  GIFTS	Trainers who have an item waiting for you

• When there are more trainers than fit on screen, they take turns showing.
• Press Start to slide over to the other region’s map, once you’ve visited Indigo Plateau. On the Fly map, Left and Right still work too.

Phone

• No more full phone: you can register every trainer who offers you their number.
• Trainers offer their number right after you beat them.
• Answer or decline calls: press A to answer, B to decline. Mom, Prof. Oak, Bill and Prof. Elm can’t be declined.
• Fewer filler calls: trainers are more likely to call about a rematch or a gift.
• A trainer with a rematch or gift waiting won’t call again until you go see them.
• Call a trainer on their rematch day, at any time, to set up a rematch. On that day a VS icon shows next to their name in your contacts until you call.

HMs

• More Pokémon can learn the HMs, Rock Smash and Headbutt, following Polished Crystal’s and Sour Crystal’s learnsets. For example, Zubat and Golbat can learn Fly.
• You can use an HM outside of battle if a Pokémon in your party can learn it, as long as you have the HM in your bag. It doesn’t have to know the move.
• Rock Smash works the same way once you’ve received its TM, even if you’ve since taught it.
• Headbutt still has to be known.
• HM moves can be forgotten like any other move, and Pokémon that know them can be released.
• Fly from the Pokégear map: press A on a town you’ve visited. The Pokémon that would fly is shown on the town.
• In a dark area, press A to prompt Flash.

Daily Events

• The Bug Catching Contest now appears on Sundays as well (on top of Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays).
• A Sailor in Cianwood will take you to a mystery island once a day, where you can find new places to explore, rare Pokémon, and more.
• Once a day, find rare variants in swarms by tuning into radio channel 12.5.
• Mystery Gift with various NPCs once per day for rare items.

Mystery Gift

• Improved rarity distribution – uncommon, rare, and super rare items appear more often.
• Upgraded rewards – all evolution items can be obtained by Mystery Gifting with NPCs.
• Locations
  • Carrie (Goldenrod Dept. Store 5F)
  • Kim (Blackthorn City)
  • Charlie (Silph Co. 1F)
• Limit once per day, per NPC.

Breeding

• Fewer step cycles required to hatch eggs.
• Updated “hatching soon” and egg animation logic to scale down with the lower overall cycles.
• Eggs have blue spots when shiny.
• Eggs that will hatch into Elekid have their own pattern.
• The Day-Care Man stands outside the fence when an egg is ready.
• Hatched Pokémon show a Poké Ball as the ball they were caught in.
• Updated the Route 34 map to remove the grass patch in the egg hatching path.
• The Odd Egg’s odds of each kind of Pokémon are more even.
• Removed the trainer ID penalty (same trainer IDs no longer reduce egg generation chance).
• Simplified and improved egg generation rates:
  

  Pokémon Pairing	Egg Generation Chance
  Same species	50%
  Different species	25%

Type Rebalance

• Dark-type moves are now Physical.
• Ghost-type moves are now Special.
• Dragon-type moves are now Physical.

Scaling Marts

• Town Poké Marts sell better stock as you earn badges (new stock at 2, 4, 6, and 8 badges), so going back to an early town doesn’t mean worse shopping.
• A few towns keep a specialty item: Charcoal in Azalea, Surf Mail in Olivine and Cerulean, LiteBlueMail in Vermilion.
• Blackthorn’s mart, the department stores, and specialty shops keep fixed stock; Blackthorn and the department stores sell TMs.

Caught Ball

• The ball that a Pokémon is caught in is displayed on the stats screen.

Wild Held Items

• Wild Pokémon are more likely to hold items:
  

  Common Item	Rare Item
  40% (+17%)	10% (+8%)

Fleeing

• Only roaming legendaries flee wild battles.

Headbutt Trees

• Headbutting a headbutt tree always results in a Pokémon appearing.
• Each area type has one encounter table instead of a common and uncommon table.

Misc.

• Kurt makes Apricorn balls instantly, and can make several at once.
• When nothing bites, you’re asked “Fish again?” so you can recast without reopening the bag.
• When a Repel wears off and you have another of the same kind, you’re asked whether to use another.
• Legendaries and one-of-a-kind Pokémon you knock out or run from come back after you beat the Elite Four. One you catch never comes back.
• Turn around after healing in the Pokémon Center so you don’t accidentally heal again.
• Minor update to Goldenrod’s layout so it’s easier to get to the underground and the bike shop.
• The Bug Catching Contest is rebalanced, and includes overworld encounters.
• Happiness
  • Happiness goes up by 2 points every other step cycle instead of 1.
  • Leveling up, haircuts, Daisy’s grooming, and battling Gym Leaders give more happiness.
• Simplified the clock reset
  • Hold Down + B + Select at the title screen, then confirm.
• Text speed defaults to FAST, and there’s a new INSTANT speed.

Goals

• A larger variety of forms and swarms
• A larger variety of Mystery Islands to visit on a daily basis
• A larger variety of trainers in the Open League
• An improved Dex
• Additional trainers and locations in Kanto
• Customization of trainer color
• Enhanced tilesets and sprites
• A large assortment of new systems and QOL improvements

Changelog

V1.2.2

• Held items lost after the Hall of Fame
• Cianwood Suicune
• Will’s Xatu
• Debug E4 and follower text crashes
• Turn outer bound tiles for Hidden Grove into water

V1.2.1

• Fixed registered item, Mystery Gift, Slowpoke Well, follower palette, and Battle Tower reward bugs

V1.2

Changes

• Route 46 and Mt. Mortar can be done in any order after Morty, so their
  trainers now scale with your badge count, and their Pokémon evolve to
  match their level. Mt. Mortar’s wild Pokémon scale too.
• Both areas stop scaling at 7 badges (Mt. Mortar’s upper floor, which
  opens later, at 8).

Fixes

• Substitute no longer gives a Pokémon with too little HP a huge HP
  total; it now fails with “too weak”.
• Pokégear phone: the cursor moves down to DELETE and CANCEL again, and
  the YES/NO box no longer takes on the red of the VS icons under it.
• The evolution music’s rising sweeps sound right again.
• Card Flip reshuffles the deck after 12 cards.
• The Lucky Number Show’s weekly countdown is right.
• Trainers’ switching decisions check your Pokémon’s second type correctly.
• Printing to the Game Boy Printer no longer hangs.
• The flash before a trainer battle reflects the trainer’s real level.
• Brock’s face on the trainer card has its proper colors.
• Fearow’s menu icon colors.

Useful Links

Pokecommunity

Github