Getting the Pokemon You Want on Diamond and Pearl ------------------------------------------------- --Who this is for: There is a difference between a newb and a n00b. If you're a newb, short for newbie, you don't quite understand all the in's and out's of this but you are interested in how to do it, think you could do it, and think it's something you would like to try. If that is you, then maybe my experiences as related here will be useful to you. If you're a n00b, you already think you know everything and all you'll want to do is laugh at me 'cause I'm not l33t 'nuf 2 no eggzackly how a .sav file is coded and I'm not playing the latest ROM downloaded directly from wherever. If that is you, this isn't for you. Guides exist that talk just about the different parts of the process. This is just a post is intended to pull some of the loose pieces together and walk through the whole process, start to finish. If that is what you have been looking for, this may be somewhat useful. --What you need for the way I do it: 1. Diamond or Pearl. I was going to buy an additional copy of the game because I didn't want to mess up the one I had (I like my Abamosnow and I didn't want to lose him!) and I didn't really know what the heck I was doing. I ended up just using the one I had and I hope I can give you enough information you will feel confident using yours. I'm amazed that around here used copies of the game only cost like $5 less than a new one in the box. 2. Pokesav. Pokesav is a free program that edits Pokemon game files. Pokesav is available a number of places. This site: http://pkm.m2pt5.com/ is a good one as it has lots of PKM files as well. More about those later. I know Pokesav runs on Win 2000 and Win XP. It may run on other stuff, but those are the only two machines I have used it on. Macs are out of luck for a native version as far as I know. I use version 0.38b. There is a version 0.39 which is the same thing with just a different user interface on top. Most (if not all) of the tutorials around for Pokesav use a 0.38 version as far as I can tell. There are also a small versions of each which have an interface that fits on your screen better, but I don't use them. 3. Action Replay DS. This is a little device that you stick into your DS. It allows you to do things to games. I got mine at Wal-Mart for like $20 or $25. It comes with a cable and a miniCD with a program and some drivers. This thing was annoying to install. There are different versions. I have version 1.0 and have so far focused on making that version work rather than trying to upgrade. Don't be surprised if the one you buy "new" off the shelf is version 1.0. As of this writing they are up to at least 1.52. Upgrade if you want, I will sometime. If you do it a different way, you might need different things. If for example you are running a ROM of Pokemon Diamond on a cart with or with out a Pass Me, then you need the ROM, and the cart, and the reader, and the Pass Me and whatever else. I didn't do it that way, don't know how to do it that way, and am not writing about doing it that way. --Overview of the process: What you are going to do is make the Pokemon you want in Pokesav, save them as an xml file, import that xml information into your Action Replay software, move it from the Action Replay software into the Action Replay device, and finally get the Pokemon into your game cartridge. --Using Pokesav: There are a number of tutorials on how to use Pokesav. A good one is the Hall of Bards one on YouTube which is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2awrJWfiNks There are several more on You Tube. The Pokesav program itself isn't really all that difficult. Trust me. Open it, mess with a few things, change a few things, and you'll see. The more difficult part for me was figuring out the overview of the process and how to get stuff in and out of Pokesav and to and from the right places. The golden rule on Pokesav appears to be don't change too much stuff at once. I don't understand why it should matter if the program really works correctly, but the forum posts I have read and videos I have seen all suggest one should not load up an entire Pokedex worth of Pokemon, 999 of every item one can think of, 999 of every type of pokeball, and the kitchen sink all on one try. Everybody advocates small changes. Your mileage may vary, don't say you hadn't heard anything about it. What I did for a first modification (and what I recommend you do), was to go into Pokesav and mess with a storage box which I knew was empty in my game. Click the Edit button under Storage to bring up the storage window. Select Box 15 or whatever is empty on your game. Click on Edit for Pokemon 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 in the box in turn and create some new pokes. I created a half dozen fun unrealistic Pokemon (including a Spiritomb with Wonder Guard- everybody should have one). Click on OK to get back to the main screen and hit the AR code output button. This brings up a screen where you indicate what you messed with. Check that you messed with storage box 15, including its name and background if you did, and the first 6 Pokemon in the box. Save the resulting XML file where you can find it. I created an AR_code_output folder. When you are creating your Pokemon go ahead and take the time to fix all the fields including name, the original trainer name, the ability, where it was met, the PP for the moves you select, and the nature. I use my trainer ID from the game and 12345 for the secret ID because I read to use that somewhere. I don't know what you are supposed to use for a secret ID or how to find yours. Take the time to fill in the fields so that the Pokemon you create will display properly in the game. Quit Pokesav. Done with it for now. Pokesav also makes .pkm files. To use a .pkm file, fire off Pokesav like above, go into your storage like above (this doesn’t' seem to work for your party, only the storage), and instead of clicking Edit for a Pokemon click on Load. This will prompt you to load a .pkm file. When you do that, all the information fields will be filled in for you for that Pokemon except maybe secret ID. This can save you a little time and work. Output the XML files just like above. You can use the Save Box option to put out your own PKM files if you want. If you are a high achiever, this paragraph is for you. If not, skip this part. On my version(1.0), all the codes come into the AR software and the AR device with a name of "Pokesav generated". I don't have an option to do any typing in the AR software and change anything. If you want to, you can open the XML file Pokesav creates in a text editor. Find the <name></name> tag inside the <game></game> tag and you can change it from <name>Pokesav generated</name> to <name>New Fun Pokes</name> or whatever you want. Then it will come into the AR software and the AR device with that new name. If you really want to you can notice that the cheat code is in the XML file in 2 places, once for Diamond and once for Pearl. You can delete the one you don't have if you want to but it really isn’t necessary. --The Philosophy of Using Pokesav: One of the things you may want to pay attention to when you are making Pokemon, is whether the Pokemon you are making makes sense, especially if you are going to use them outside of the game. Pokesav allows you to do things like create a Geodude that knows Roar of Time, a FEAR Rattata, and a Spiritomb with Wonder Guard. You should do that for fun because you can and it is fun, but if you intend to use or trade Pokemon or battle your friends or with others you may want to look at giving your Pokemon legitimate movesets. If you are making Pokemon for 8 year old boys to use in DS to DS battles in the neighborhood, then forget legitimate movesets. If, like me, you are working with kids who don't use Battle Revolution, or go on NetBattle (or Competitor or whatever it is those crazy kids over at Smogen use nowadays), and aren't going to battle competitively, and don't care, just make what they want. Abomasnow with Flamethrower and Earthquake? You bet! Tyranitar with Surf and Fly? Coming right up! IV's all 31, EV's all 255. Shiny, with Battle Armor and Leftovers all round. You will probably not find an 8 year old boy that plays Pokemon anywhere in the world who doesn't want a party consisting of Lugia, Celebi, Rayquazza, Tyranitar, Jirachi, and Deoxys. All maxed out of course, with any attack they want to pick. If you are wanting to step up from that, however, making a Crobat that had Aerial Ace, Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb, and Steel Wing would be better than some goofy Crobat with Fissure. And if your Crobat with a legitimate moveset (moves that it could actually learn) had a Jolly nature, Choice Band for an item, 4hp EV's, 252 ATK EV's, 252 SPD EV's, IV's that weren't all 31, the correct amount of PP for each move, and maybe indicated it had been link traded, it might be even better. I think the more legitimate you can make a created Pokemon look the better the artistry. A useful resource for attacks and getting the PP's right is: http://topolegionleague.virtuaboard...Bs-f28/Pokemon-D-P-Move-List-t2970.htm#47668. This is a good resource for picking movesets and natures and stuff: http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/244...-teambuilding-help-wiselugia-edition-new-age/ This more information than you will ever want to know about picking movesets and what beats what and which Pokemon are good and bad: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20686 If you do make good looking Pokemon, I would recommend that you NEVER hide the fact that you made a particular Pokemon in Pokesav. Some people are real hardcore about this. Be upfront and honest and just tell people you are using Pokesav to make Pokemon. Some of the idiots out there will look down on you, call you a "hacking n00b", or generally ignore you. That's their problem. If they don't want to battle with you or trade for your "created" Pokemon, then they won't and they shouldn't, and they will appreciate you telling them you use Pokesav whether they actually say it or not. There will be other people who won't mind battling with their Pokesav or nonPokesav Pokemon against your Pokesav Pokemon. As long as you aren't "giving Pokemon god-like stats, Uber movesets and 999 EVs" and the "Pokemon is within the limits of its creation" as I saw a poster put it on one forum, then lots of people will have no problem with your manufactured Pokemon. Don't try and pass off your Pokesav Pokemon as lots of training and breeding and hard work on your part, no matter how legitimate you can make them look and even if you could get away with it. Just be honest about it. Follow the rules of any battle community you go into. Even though it is absolutely guaranteed other people will hack and lie, and you can be assured more people do it than you think, you should be honest. You made Pokemon on your computer. Say that. Nothing wrong with it. --How the Action Replay DS comes into this: The next step is getting the Pokesav created Pokemon into your game. This is where the Action Replay comes in and was the most annoying part of the process to figure out. I watched a bunch of tutorials on You Tube about using the Action Replay and everybody uses a more updated version of the software than me. The newer versions will let you right click to bring up a "New Cheat" option, do drag and drop in the custom codelist window, and enter text manually. Mine doesn't do that so I can't tell you anything about how to do that. I found the AR annoying to install and annoying to figure out. The manual is less than useless. I can say that when the software installs, make sure you see it install NDS Link as that driver appears to be key to getting your PC and your Action Replay device talking. Once you muddle through the installation (I'm assuming you'll make it eventually), fire the Action Replay software up. But make sure to fire it up with the Action Replay device in your DS, the DS turned on, and the Action Replay device hooked up to your computer with the USB connection. The AR software fires up into a 4 part window. The AR Code Manager software opens into a window with 4 areas. A thick bar with some icons across the top, a "Subscriptions" area, a "My Codelists" area, and "Nintendo DS" area. For my installation and version (it doesn't seem to be the case with all versions) and for what we are doing here, ignore everything but the Nintendo DS area. Those other windows on the AR can be used to get the original codes that came with the device back onto it. If your computer is connected to the Internet you can use the subscriptions window to go to CodeJunkies and drag the Pokemon codes from there to either the My Codelists if you just want to store them or to the DS if you want to load them onto the AR device. You have to be connected to the Net for the subscriptions window to work (I'm on dial up and it took a moment to figure this out). If you have everything on, when the AR software opens it should ponder a moment while its little wheel turns and then the AR software will list in its Nintendo DS area all the games that are stored in the AR device. The screen on the DS in the meantime will say "Updating" on the bottom and "Listing contents" on the top. Go find the .xml file you made in Pokesav with the Pokemon you want and drag it directly into the Nintendo DS area in the AR software window. The AR software will warn you that this will replace duplicates. That is what we want to do! Then it will ask if you want to completely replace or merge. I always say no and merge but it doesn't seem to matter since it appears to overwrite everything anyway in version 1.0. Once you approve things the AR software will write into both the Diamond and Pearl game on the AR device. The DS screen in the meantime will echo the process and say "writing" and "deleting" etc, along with some big numbers. You're done from the software end. Quit the AR software. Go to the DS. Hit the house to go back a screen. Hit the wrench and then hit the disc and that will let you save the changes to the AR device. That brings you back where it says "Insert game cart". This part made me nervous the first time. Take a game cart out of the machine while it is running? Really? Ok.... Pop out the AR device. Pop in your game. Hit the asterisk and see the top screen say <add new code>. Select "Pokesav generated" or whatever you called it if you were a high achiever above. It may prompt you to add a new game the first time you do this. Do that if you need to. After you do it once I don't think it asks you anymore, but it is hard to reconstruct the first time once you have done it. Anyway, select your game and select Pokesav generated as the code to add in to the game again if you need to. Then you pop out the game and pop the AR device back in. It says saving changes and puts a little code on the bottom left which I find oddly reassuring. I always do the wrench and disc save as well here for insurance even though I may not need to. Switch the AR for the game again. Hit the star and the Pokesav generated should already be checked. Hit start and get the game going. When you go into a Pokecenter in the game, boot up the PC and check your storage box 15. There won't be anything there and all we have done won't have worked! You have to hit the L and R buttons before you go in to have the code take effect. Inside Pokesav you may (or may not) have noticed a little instruction to hit "L+R to activate". That means you hold down the button labeled L and R on the outside of the DS (under the flipped up top and on the bottom part) together at the same time for a few seconds to turn on whatever code you loaded from the AR device. These are also called the shoulder buttons. Not the x shaped direction thing and the a-b-x-y buttons. I usually have saved my game standing in front of a Poke Center, so when I hit L+R and then go in and look in my storage, there my new wonderful Pokemon are. --Things you can look forward to: Once you figure out how to do this and become an expert, you can respond to requests like this if you want to- "CAN U PLEEEEEAAAAAAAAAASSSSSE SEND ME a shiny level 100 salamence modest knows hydro pump dragon pulse roost flamethrower, ability=intimidate, maxxed ivs EVS=252spd, 252 spcialatack, 6 hp. thank u! so the stats should b watever they would normally b with 31 ivs in everything and 252 evs in spcl attack and speed. THANK U SO MUCH!" and- "i would appriciate it if anyone could make me a custom pkmn on Pokemon-Rampardos, Ability-Filter, Attacks-Closecombat,Dracometeo..., Stats-Max, Nature-Brave, Held item-Hardrock, Shiny-yes, PRKS-yes anything else is optional, thanks!" Won't that be fun? Hope this was helpful.
must have taken u one hell of a time tot type this up, unless you just copied and pasted it somewhere. but otherwise, this is a great tutorial!
Thanks. I just typed it up in a word processor and pasted it in. I typed the process up because I realized how much of it I was having to right down to remember correctly. Then I just decided to post it.
