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GBA · Pokémon FireRed · v1.2 · by LibertyTwins

Pokémon Aesthetic Red

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What makes it different

Kanto redrawn with an all-new soundtrack and art style, plus a rebalanced “Normal Version” that changes types, abilities, stats, learnsets and the type chart across all 278 available species.

More about the game

LibertyTwins' overhaul of Pokémon FireRed leans first on presentation — new tilesets, overworld and battle sprites, menus, fonts and a full soundtrack drawn from across the series — and ships as three separate patches: Music & Graphics Only keeps vanilla gameplay entirely, Faithful Version adds the new features on top of official stats/types/abilities/learnsets, and Normal Version adds the team's own “Major Rebalancing”: new types and abilities on top of many species, changed base stats, expanded learnsets, and eight explicit type-effectiveness changes to the type chart itself. This guide covers Normal Version by default, with Faithful Version's stats/types/abilities available as an alternate. Kanto and the Sevii Islands are open from the start with every key item handed out by Professor Oak, and both wild Pokémon and trainers — gym leaders, the Elite Four and the rival included — scale with your badge count.

What's different, point by point

  • Complete visual and musical overhaul: new tilesets, sprites, battle UI, menus, fonts and soundtrack
  • Kanto and the Sevii Islands open from the start, with all key items and HMs given by Professor Oak
  • “Major Rebalancing” in Normal Version: new types/abilities, changed base stats, expanded learnsets and 8 type-chart changes
  • All Generation 1-2 species and their evolutions available, including a secret Pokémon
  • Physical/Special split, Fairy type, and modern EXP Share
  • Reusable TMs and removable HMs; HM field moves usable without teaching the move
  • Gym Leaders, the Rival and Giovanni scale their teams with your own badge count
  • Built-in level caps and level scaling options, plus an in-game randomizer and Wonder Trade
Everything it changes →
Made by

LibertyTwins

This guide is built from LibertyTwins's own documentation. The game, the ideas and the work are theirs — the site just makes the numbers searchable. Play it from the official page, and send them the feedback and the thanks.

What this guide covers

Every guide here is built from the game's own documentation. Where a ROM hack changed something but never published the numbers, this says so rather than quietly filling the gap with the original game's — which would be worse than leaving it out.

SectionSource
Wild Pokémon by areaFrom the game itselfThe Locations tab covers 79 areas with a species order (most to least common) for every method — Grass/Cave, Surf, the three fishing rods, and per-area Event/gift encounters.
Encounter ratesNot published by the creatorThe workbook gives only a most-common-to-rarest order, never a percentage, for any area or method. the Locations tab
Wild levelsNot published by the creatorNo level or level range is given anywhere in the Locations tab. the Locations tab
Stats, abilities and movesetsFrom the game itselfAll 278 species in the Base Stats & Evolutions tab: both types, both abilities, all 6 base stats, evolution methods (from the Faithful tab's explicit target list) and the full level-up learnset.
TM and HM compatibilityFrom the game itself128 TMs plus 8 HMs from the Marts tab, with compatibility read from the Faithful tab's per-species TM list — see notes.tm_drift.
Where TMs are foundFrom the game itselfTMs are all sold at the Celadon Dept. Store TM Move Shop (F3); HMs are all given by Professor Oak at the very start of the game, per the workbook's own note on the HMs table.
Trainer and boss teamsFrom the game itself184 fights read from the Boss Teams / Boss Teams (Faithful) tabs — the 8 Gym Leaders, the Elite Four (pre- and post-league) and the Rival (including the Champion fight), each gated by badge count. No other trainer roster is published anywhere in the source.

Credits

  • Hack, art, music selection and documentation: LibertyTwins
  • Base TM/tutor/egg-move compatibility reference ("DPE Expansion Documentation", ported for the Faithful tab): TibJib and Shiny Miner
  • CFRU, the battle-engine upgrade this hack builds on: the CFRU team
  • Missingno.'s dex art on its species page — the picture the documentation workbook carries above its Base Stats column, served from this site: LibertyTwins
  • Sprites via PokéAPI; base move and TM data from PokéAPI and Bulbapedia.

Reading the tables

SpritesMissingno. has no official sprite, so its page shows the picture the creator's documentation workbook puts above its column (64×64, ground made transparent), served from this site. Every other species shows the usual official sprite. Like screenshots, it comes down at once if the creator asks.

ModesThis guide's default view is Normal Version, the rebalanced data. Switch to Faithful Version for official stats/types/abilities; both versions share the same new features, evolution methods and item drops, so trainer rosters, TMs, tutors, marts and wild encounters are the same page either way except where a species' stats/types/abilities panel changes.

Tm_DriftThe workbook's own "Base Stats & Learnsets (Faithful)" tab is the only place TM/tutor/egg-move compatibility is given per species, and the workbook itself says to use it for compatibility checking generally — but it is Faithful-tab (vanilla-equivalent) data reused for Normal Version too, and the sheet notes drift is possible if a TM, tutor or egg move changed between the DPE Expansion this was ported from and this hack's own build. Treat a species' TM/tutor/egg list as a strong reference, not a confirmed Normal-Version table.

Rival_AlternatesA handful of the Rival's team slots (see the rival note) are published with every documented alternative rather than one guessed choice.

Trainer_AreasThe Boss Teams tabs give every trainer's level, species, ability, moves and held item, gated by badge count (or by League-beaten status for the Elite Four) — but never say which map or building the fight happens in, so no area is published for these fights.

EncountersThe Locations tab lists wild species per area and method ordered "from most common to most rare", with no percentages and no level ranges anywhere in the workbook — both are published as undocumented rather than guessed, and the species order above is the sheet's own.

Level_CapsThe hack's own Hackdex tags list “Level Caps (Optional)” as a feature, but no cap table appears anywhere in the release thread or the documentation workbook; it reads as an in-game options-menu toggle that was never written down.

TradesIn-game trades from the Trades table: Route 2: Pikachu → Eevee; Cerulean City: Butterfree → Bulbasaur; Route 5: Clefairy → Charmander; Vermilion City: Kadabra → Squirtle; Route 11: Poliwhirl → Ditto; Route 18: Gengar → Crobat; Cinnabar Island: Slowbro → Meganium; Cinnabar Island: Ampharos → Typhlosion; Cinnabar Island: Rhydon → Feraligatr

Type_Table8 changed type matchups: Bug > Fairy: 0.5x → 2.0x; Electric > Rock: 1.0x → 0.5x; Electric > Steel: 1.0x → 2.0x; Poison > Water: 1.0x → 2.0x; Psychic > Steel: 0.5x → 1.0x; Rock > Grass: 1.0x → 0.5x; Rock > Rock: 1.0x → 0.5x; Water > Ice: 1.0x → 0.5x

Marts_Bulk_ShopMove tutors can also be bought in bulk at the Celadon Dept. Store: any of 128 tutor moves for ₱3000, or ₱1500 if the move is also available from a located NPC tutor. This guide's Move tutors page lists only the named-location NPC tutors, not the full bulk-shop catalogue.