Hacking a ROM hack - Finally making Run&Bun accessible to non-hardcore players. Introducing Pokémon Emerald - Run & Bun Unleashed!
This is now the fifth iteration of this post. The first one had a mega link Reddit didn’t like. The second I took down because I found serious bugs in the game. The third was because I had posted without any pictures or links and so the bot said I needed proof it existed. And the last one was removed by a bot for my new account being too young, but then put back up by the moderator (THANK YOU!). (I understand that basically if I had just READ THE RULES none of those would have happened. Shut up.) The moderator recommended I repost it so here it is.
Edit This patch is in Beta testing. If you find a bug, let me know!
I love how freakishly hard Run&Bun is. There is something crazy and cool that a level 8 Spinda can two-shot my level 11 Chimchar with lucky Metronome rolls before Chimchar can Mach Punch him down.
But the game is just too hard. (For me! I understand some people like the utterly brutal difficulty and I should just ‘git gud’.) But more than that, the total reliance on the Endless Candy made the game hollow for me. I want my Pokémon games to have a sense of adventure! I want to learn and grow with my team. Give me time to care about my oddly named (my 3 year old names them) Pokémon before I attempt a tough Nuzlocke.
I also wanted to make some changes to make the game more accessible, while doing things that sped up gameplay because HOLY COW. Emerald. Is. So. Slow.
The result is I have two separate versions of my rom hack. The first was simply the QoL additions (instant text, slightly faster walk speed, increased battle animations, increased battle speed all-together) combined with my enforced Nuzlocke mechanics. That version retains the original splash screen since it was just QoL upgrades.
The second is a fully updated lessened difficulty version that maintains the brutally difficult teams in the original, but things like level caps, perma-weather, high crit rate etc. were removed/changed along with some really cool (if I say so myself) addons to the player’s PC. (see changelog concerning IV/EV).
I’ll stop rambling on. The changelog is posted below (its also in the link next to the bps files).
POKÉMON EMERALD — RUN & BUN UNLEASHED CHANGLOG
CORE NUZLOCKE / FAINT MECHANICS
• Integrated Graveyard System - Adds a dedicated Graveyard section to the PC, separate from normal Pokémon Storage.
- PC capacity is reorganized into 7 normal Storage boxes and 7 Graveyard boxes.
- Dead player Pokémon are transferred to the Graveyard after battle.
- Graveyard Pokémon remain as a permanent record of the run instead of returning to usable storage.
- If Graveyard capacity is exhausted, additional dead Pokémon are released.
• Fixed Player-Only Death Handling
- Nuzlocke death processing applies specifically to the player’s Pokémon.
- Opposing Pokémon fainting does not trigger the player’s Graveyard/death handling.
• Faint Notifications
- Adds custom messaging when one of the player’s Pokémon dies.
- The player is informed that held items were removed from the dead Pokémon.
- After battle, the player is informed that dead Pokémon were sent to the Graveyard.
- Relevant death messages require A/B input instead of automatically disappearing.
• Held-Item Recovery on Death
- Held items are removed from dead Pokémon before Graveyard transfer so valuable items are not lost with the Pokémon.
• Pokémon Center Death Recognition
- Nurse Joy recognizes dead Pokémon and refuses to revive them.
- Custom dialogue: “We cannot revive the dead, trainer. Only the living can be healed. Go, put your dead to rest.”
PARTY WIPE / GAME OVER SYSTEM
• True Nuzlocke Game Over
- A complete party wipe no longer behaves like an ordinary Emerald whiteout.
- Losing the final usable Pokémon triggers a dedicated GAME OVER sequence.
• Custom Game Over Screen
- Displays a centered GAME OVER message on a black screen.
- Includes: “Your last Pokémon was slain, leaving you defenseless. You have died.”
• Restart Behavior
- Pressing START from the Game Over screen resets/restarts the game rather than continuing through the normal whiteout flow.
TEXT & INTERFACE QUALITY OF LIFE
• True Instant Text
- Adds an Instant text-speed option in the options tab of the menu.
- Text appears immediately instead of scrolling character by character.
- Fixed issue so that it does not automatically advance dialogue and A/B input is still required at normal dialogue stops.
- Fixed issue where the residual post-input delay that remained after instant rendering.
- Cutscene and battle dialogue behavior was adjusted so Instant Text does not break progression.
• Restored Battle Style Option
- Restores Emerald’s original Shift / Set Battle Style selection in the menu.
- Shift once again announces the opposing trainer’s next Pokémon and offers the player a switch.
- Set remains available for the stricter battle format.
• EV / IV Editing Interface
- Adds in-game EV/IV management through the PC workflow under the characters personal PC not Storage.
- Allows EV values to be inspected and edited by individual stat.
- Supports zeroing EVs and assigning controlled EV amounts.
- Supports IV editing.
- Includes Nature editing.
OVERWORLD QUALITY OF LIFE
• Faster Player Movement
- Increases player overworld walk speed relative to standard Run & Bun/Vanilla Emerald.
- All NPC characters also have increased walk speed as the Global Walk speed was altered. This improves gameplay as the player does not need to wait as long for NPCs to walk up to him when triggered to do so.
• Faster Surfing
- Surf traversal is accelerated alongside the faster overworld movement system.
BATTLE SPEED & PACING
• 2× Battle Animations
- Battle sprite animations run at approximately 2× speed.
- Implemented at the battle-local AnimateSprites layer instead of globally modifying Emerald’s sprite engine.
- Overworld movement, NPCs, and camera timing remain independent of battle-animation acceleration.
• Fast Battle Pacing
- Removes unnecessary artificial presentation delays in battle scripts.
- Rapidly advancing battle text no longer encounters the same long dead periods between messages.
- Targets battle-script timing instead of globally speeding up the entire game.
EXPERIENCE & LEVELING
• Corrected Gen I–VIII Base EXP Yields
- Corrects species base EXP values across the expanded Pokédex using Bulbpedia's EV and Exp tables.
- Fixed issue so now it covers Pokémon spanning Generations I through VIII instead of leaving later-generation species with incorrect/abnormally low rewards.
• Level-Scaled EXP Calculation
- EXP rewards account for the relative levels of the defeated Pokémon and recipient.
- Defeating substantially lower-level Pokémon yields progressively less EXP, discouraging trivial grinding while preserving organic leveling.
• Selectable EXP Multiplier
- Supports selectable EXP multiplication for faster progression.
- The multiplier works together with level scaling rather than replacing it.
• Removed Run & Bun level caps to promote adventure.
• Modernized Exp. Share
- Fully intrinsic to the EXP multiplication
- Adds the custom Exp. Share system/item to the
Run & Bun build.
- Integrated into progression alongside the Endless Candy / Repellent reward sequence.
- Exp. Share can be turned off for normal individual EXP distribution but will not support EXP multiplication for single Pokemon unless it is alone in party. It is EXP Share with or without multiplication, or no multiplication with the first slot.
HELD ITEMS & BATTLE PERSISTENCE
• Persistent Player Held Items
- Alters Run & Bun’s permanent-loss behavior for battle item removal.
- Effects such as Knock Off can remove an item during battle without permanently deleting the player’s owned item after battle.
RUN & BUN BATTLE-RULE ADJUSTMENTS
• Critical-Hit Rate Adjustment
- Adjusts Run & Bun’s base critical-hit rate from 1/16 to 1/24.
• Location-Forced Battle Effects Removed
- Removes Run & Bun-specific permanent map battle effects. (Examples include forced Tailwind at Mt. Pyre and Magma Storm-style effects in the Magma Hideout.)
- Normal weather/field effects produced by moves, abilities, and ordinary battle mechanics remain separate.
OVERALL DESIGN GOALS
• Preserve much of Run & Bun’s core difficulty from party builds and movesets, encounter design, trainer design, expanded Pokémon roster, and identity.
• Integrates permanent-death/Nuzlocke handling directly into the game instead of relying solely on player bookkeeping.
• Reduces downtime through Instant Text, faster travel, 2× battle animations, and faster battle-script pacing.
• Makes EVs, IVs, Natures, EXP progression, and party management more practical for players with lives and families.
• Restores selected vanilla Emerald options where Run & Bun’s restrictions were not desired.
• Keeps speed modifications localized so unrelated systems are not indiscriminately accelerated.
The link contains bps patch files and readme only. You need a legally obtained vanilla TrashMan rom to apply the patch to. I find the marcrobledo ROM patcher works great.