Pokémon Phoenix Red
A FireRed story hack set twenty years after the Kanto–Johto war, where Red's child sets out with two starters, most big fights are doubles, and all 386 of a rebuilt Gen 1–3 dex are catchable before the credits.
More about the game
Phoenix Red is a FireRed story hack by phoenixred. It is not a sequel but a parallel telling: about twenty years after a war between Kanto and Johto in which Red and Blue died, Lance has fallen as Champion and the two regions are drifting back toward a fight. You play as Red's child, with Blue's son as your rival, and the League is the way to head that off. The game keeps Kanto's shape and changes what happens inside it: Oak hands out two starters, every gym leader runs six, every major battle is a double battle, Erika's gym has moved to Lavender Town, HMs are never required to finish the main story, and Victory Road has been rebuilt. The dex is 386 species drawn mostly from the first three generations, with 75-plus of FireRed's least-used Pokémon swapped for later ones such as Garchomp, Sylveon, Lucario and Annihilape, and every non-legendary is catchable before the League. Stats, types, abilities, movesets and the move list itself have all been reworked, the Fairy type is in, and there is a substantial post-game across the Sevii Islands, Cerulean Cave's Black Market and Infinity Pillar. The dialogue contains profanity and adult language by design; see the notes.
What's different, point by point
- A new story in Kanto: Red's child, Blue's son, a fallen Champion and two regions heading back to war
- Two starters from Oak, six-Pokémon gym leaders and double battles for every major fight
- 386 species, mostly Gen 1–3, with 75-plus of the original roster replaced by later Pokémon; every non-legendary is catchable in the main game
- Own base stats, types and abilities for every species, with the Fairy type and a modern type chart
- 351 moves with the physical/special split, 12 of them new to the game and 301 changed from FireRed
- Reusable TMs redistributed across the map, 15 move tutors moved and retaught, and no HM needed to reach the credits
- 318 wild tables across 107 areas with the game's own rates and levels, plus 24 static and gift Pokémon
- Post-game across the Sevii Islands, Team Rocket's Black Market in Cerulean Cave, a League rematch and Infinity Pillar
phoenixred
This guide is built from phoenixred'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.
| Section | Source | |
|---|---|---|
| Wild Pokémon by area | From the game itself | Every wild table in the Spawn Dex: 107 areas, grass/cave, surf and the three rods. Static encounters and gifts are on the species pages. |
| Encounter rates | From the game itself | Per-species percentages from the Spawn Dex, added together where a species fills several slots. |
| Wild levels | From the game itself | Level ranges are the Spawn Dex's own, per species. |
| Stats, abilities and movesets | From the game itself | The hack's own base stats, types, abilities, level-up learnsets, TM/HM and tutor lists, EV yields and evolution methods for all 386 species, from the Pokédex sheet. |
| TM and HM compatibility | From the game itself | All 57 TMs and HMs with per-species compatibility from the Pokédex sheet's TM/HM column. |
| Where TMs are found | From the game itself | Where each machine is found, in the TM sheet's own words. |
| Trainer and boss teams | Not published by the creator | The Strategy Guide has no trainer sheet and the creator's FAQ says so. No rosters, levels or movesets for the rival, gym leaders or Elite Four are published anywhere this site may use, so the trainer, gym-leader and level-cap pages are absent rather than guessed. Ask in the Phoenix Red Discord Phoenix Red is built on FireRed / LeafGreen; the FireRed / LeafGreen guide has the original game's trainer teams. |
Credits
- Pokémon Phoenix Red: phoenixred
- The Strategy Guide workbook every table here is read from: phoenixred
- Gorochu's dex art on its species page — the team's own sprite, taken from the Pokédex sheet of the Strategy Guide workbook and served from this site: phoenixred and the team's artists
- Hackdex page, with the download and the creator's full credits: Hackdex
- Community and questions: the Phoenix Red Discord
- Beta testing, patches, tools and art: Luka, ThirdCoastKing, HMNbean, Tyler Shade, Eevee Overlord, PeaceBloom, Envy, GoldenSpoon, Meowbob18 and the rest of the team named on the Hackdex page; patches by LibertyTwins, CtrlFootPrint, mZake and Yave Yu
- Sprites via PokéAPI; base move and TM data from PokéAPI and Bulbapedia.
Reading the tables
SpritesGorochu is the team's own design, so its page shows the team's sprite for it, taken from the picture the creator's Strategy Guide workbook embeds beside its Pokédex row (kept at the size the sheet stores it, grey ground made transparent) and served from this site. Every other species shows the usual official sprite. Like screenshots, it comes down at once if the team asks.
SourceEvery number here comes from the creator's Strategy Guide workbook (v2.0): the Pokédex sheet for stats, types, abilities, learnsets, TM and tutor lists and evolution methods; the Spawn Dex for wild tables; the Attack Dex for moves; the TMs/HMs and Move Tutors sheets for machines and tutors; the Items sheet for items. The two companion documents supplied the notes.
MatureThe game's own disclaimer says it contains profanity and adult language, and Hackdex tags it Profanity and Mature. v2.0 toned some of it down but did not remove it. Worth knowing before handing it to a younger player.
DoublesNearly every major battle is a double battle and ordinary trainers mix singles and doubles after Brock. The creator asks players to keep at least two healthy Pokémon in the party at all times: starting a double battle with one can glitch the fight.
TrainersThe workbook has no trainer sheet, and the creator's FAQ confirms it: rosters for the rival, gym leaders and Elite Four are not published anywhere this site may use. The trainer, gym-leader and level-cap pages are therefore missing rather than guessed. Ask in the Discord, or read the gym signs, which post the soft level cap for each area.
LevelcapsLevel caps are soft: recommended, not enforced. They are posted on the sign outside each gym, cave and major fight, and the workbook's Level Caps tab holds them as a picture rather than as cells, so they are not reproduced here.
StatsBase stats are the hack's own, from the Pokédex sheet's HP/Attack/Defense/Sp. Atk/Sp. Def/Speed columns. The comparison block on each species page sets them against FireRed, or against present-day official data for species FireRed never had.
SplitMoves use the modern physical/special split; the game has no in-battle indicator, so the category on each move here is the one to trust. A move marked as changed is compared against FireRed's Gen 3 values, where category followed type.
EvolutionsEvery evolution is by level or by stone: no trades, no friendship, no held items. Where the workbook names only the method, the target species is taken from the family tree, restricted to species in this dex; where a species has several evolutions, the workbook names each one and so does this guide. Eevee cannot evolve into Sylveon, Leafeon or Glaceon here (a five-evolution limit); all three are caught in the wild.
EncountersRates are per species, added together where the same species fills more than one slot; a star marks anything under 5%. Static encounters, gifts and in-game trades are not in the Spawn Dex; they are on each species page under Location, as the workbook lists them.
RodsThe Old Rod is in Viridian City, the Good Rod in Vermilion City and the Super Rod on Route 12, per the Items sheet; each fishing table says which rod it needs.
HmsNo HM is needed to finish the main game: bridges and islands link Fuchsia, Seafoam, Cinnabar and Pallet on foot. HMs are used for post-game puzzles, and Rock Smash is handed over by Oak only after the League.
ProgressThe stage list follows the Spawn Dex's table of contents, which the creator describes as game-play order, with the gym leaders placed by the towns the TM sheet names for them (Erika is in Lavender Town in this game). Saffron has no wild table, so Sabrina's position is this guide's reading. Treat a stage as "about when you get here".
ItemsItem locations are the Items sheet's own prose, split into one line per place. That sheet still lists the fossils and the Fame Checker, which the v2.0 notes say were removed from the game, so treat those two entries as stale.
BugsThe workbook's Known Bugs tab lists 5 minor issues (double battles with one Pokémon, the Repel prompt, a few tiles); none stop the game.