Download Pre-Patched Pokemon Heart & Soul GBA ROM Hack
- Creator: lildill01
- Version: 1.2.1
- Hack of: Emerald
- Updated: December 1, 2025
- Language: English
- Status: Completed
Pokemon Heart & Soul is a GBA ROM Hack by lildill01 based on Pokemon Emerald in English. And it is now available to download. It was last updated on December 1, 2025.
Also, be sure to check out Pokemon Lost World: Echoes of Eternity
What is Pokemon Heart & Soul?
Pokemon Heart & Soul is a modern reimagining of Johto built on the Modern Emerald decomp. It blends elements of Pokémon Gold, Silver, Crystal, and HeartGold/SoulSilver into a fully completed, faithful-yet-fresh experience. Featuring Gen 3 mechanics, modern quality-of-life updates, and extensive playtesting, Heart & Soul delivers the definitive Johto adventure on GBA. Completely open source, it also serves as a foundation for future Johto ROM hacks.
Developer’s Note
Development for this project was primarily (95%) a solo-effort that consumed almost all of my free time for the last year. I am not a professional programmer or artist, but I did my best to make the game that I wanted to play. If you’d like to improve, expand upon, or make your own version of HnS, feel free to take advantage of the open source! Please direct any questions to the (Heart & Soul Discord). I hope you enjoy!
Features
- Generation 1-3 Pokémon, plus their later gen evolutions (excluding the Regis and Jirachi)
- Full Johto story and Kanto postgame from HGSS, including the Kimono Girls and Eusine
- Following Pokémon
- Overworld background Pokémon allow you to easily see the notable encounters on each route
- Day/Night System with variable encounters
- Dynamic overworld palettes
- HGSS Music
- Highly varied trainer teams and encounters, based on Crystal Legacy
- HMs do not need to be taught to a Pokémon in order for it to be used
- Apricons replaced with berries, Kurt will use them to make unique Pokéballs
- Timekeeping does not track days of the week, Everything is progression based
- 16 Gym leader rematches
- Two Safari Zones
- Unique surfing Pokémon sprites
- Customizable shiny rate
- Physical/special split is toggleable
- Fairy type is toggleable
- AutoRun and FastSurf are toggleable
- Quick run from wild battles using button combination
- Ball prompts for quick catching
- … and much more!
Setting Expectations
- Heart & Soul was designed as a traditional Pokémon adventure, similar to the official mainline games. It is not a difficulty hack and does not include built-in support for alternative playstyles like infinite rare candies, randomization, or nuzlocke modes.
- This project stands on the shoulders of giants. Many of the art assets and some code come from existing open-source resources. While I’ve done my best to properly credit all contributors in the game and below, please let me know on the Heart & Soul Discord if you notice any missing credits.
- The game has been rigorously playtested (huge thanks to the testers), but small bugs may still exist. If you find any, please report them in the Discord.
- Finally, some features from GSC/HGSS were simply too complex or time-consuming to include. See the Differences section below for details.
Differences from GSC/HGSS
- Radio is a standalone Key Item with limited functionality instead of a menu in the Pokégear
- Trainers will not offer their phone numbers, no way to rematch them
- Greatly improved level curve
- Apricorns replaced with berries, berry ball catch boost is based on Type
- Strength boulder-in-hole puzzles replaced with Emerald Mach Bike puzzles
- No itemfinder and no hidden items
- Only 50 TMs (The ones from emerald)
- Swarms are replaced with a 5% Hoenn encounter on each route in Kanto
- Mom does not take your money
- Ruins of alph back room requirements are slightly altered
- No pokéathalon dome
- No trades in Kanto
Recommended Emulators (MyBoy IS OUTDATED AND WILL NOT WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!)
- For PC/Mac: mGBA
- For Android: pizzaboy, Lemuroid, Retroarch w/ mGBA core.
- For IOS: Delta, Retroarch w/ mGBA core, Ignited.
- For Linux Handheld Devices: Retroarch w/ mGBA core.
Changelog – What’s NEW in v1.2.0!
These are just the highlights. For the full list of changes, see the patchnotes in the Discord or the Github Release.
Challenge Menu:
- Implemented Nuzlocke settings page
- Implemented Randomzier settings page
- Implemented Special Challenges page
- Added a Challenge Menu Viewer to the PC so that you can see your selected challenges after game start
Learnset changes:
- Buffed the learnsets of over 100 pokemon to elevate under-performers and fill in some of the notorious gaps in the gen 3 learnests. See the full patch notes for more info.
Gameplay:
- Added the Emerald Battle frontier, including all the improvements from Modern Emerald
- Added Trainer Hill and Battle Tents to route 41 in place of the old battle tower
- Added Contest Hall to Viridian City
- Added Kanto wild, trainer, and gym leader battle music from HGSS
- Added Jirachi
- Name your rival (new saves only)
- Redesigned Whirl Islands to make Lugia’s home as special and unique as Ho-oh’s. This includes new encounters
- Added overworld glow effects to many objects like street lamps
- New original overworld sprites for Gold and Kris
- Addressed every single bug report
- And much more…
Options Menu:
- Added ‘Gen 4 Battle UI’ option
- Added ‘Gen 1 Recharge Move’ option
Future Plans
Version 1.2 will be the final update in the 1.x series. Development of the pokeemerald-expansion port (Heart & Soul 2.0) is already underway. It’s a huge project, and even with the team’s talent, it will take time. Expect a long gap between 1.2 and 2.0, with a more detailed progress update, and ways for fans to contribute coming soon.
Screenshots
Useful Stuff
Downloads
Previous Versions
Credits
Lead Developer / Game Director
- Lil Dill
Developers
- TixoRebel
- InfiniteBacon42
- Exclsior
- Phantonomy
- DaniRainbow
For the full credits visit the PokeCommunity thread
