Mechanics and controls

Origin HeartGold adds automatic party training, capture-chain bonuses and new information screens. Here is how to use them in v4.0.3.

Information-screen controls

These are Nintendo DS buttons, not particular keyboard keys. Use the corresponding buttons in your emulator or on your controller.

If the first Y press only highlights a battle command, press Y again. The panel shows information such as stat stages and your Pokémon's ability; it is not a promise that an opponent's unrevealed ability will be visible.

Use L for the IV/EV panel with normal button settings; the game’s L/R hint is misleading.

Automatic EXP and EV sharing

Your party shares battle experience points (EXP) and effort values (EVs) automatically. EVs are training points that affect a Pokémon's stats; IVs are its individual stat values.

With SHARE ON, participating Pokémon receive full EXP; benched Pokémon receive half. Both receive EVs.

The original v4.0.3 hack has no on/off setting for this sharing. You do not need the held Exp. Share to enable it. Keep party-wide EV gains in mind when training. From rc7 the English patch adds an optional switch for it, and an optional level cap: see Difficulty settings. In rc8 a held Exp. Share keeps working with the switch off.

Capture chains

The Chain Logger is added to your Bag during new-game setup. Use it to inspect your chain and the area's encounters.

Catching the same species and form builds a chain. The bonuses use the number already caught before the next encounter is generated:

A Pokémon may naturally have more perfect IVs. Hidden Ability selection still depends on that species' ability data.

The game's displayed ranges are inaccurate around 10 and 20. The bonus thresholds are 6, 10 and 20 catches. Shiny chances also improve, but the displayed fractions do not establish the exact combined probability; they should not be used as precise odds.

• Catching a different species or form starts a new chain at 1.
• Catching a shiny of the same species and form clears the chain.
• A shiny of a different species or form follows the new-chain rule and starts at 1.
• Defeating or fleeing does not advance the chain; they do not reset the chain.

Chain bonuses can apply to a different species from the one you chained, including scripted wild encounters. The chain counter stops increasing at 255.

EV Allocator

The EV Allocator is added after battle if you do not already have one.

It redistributes EVs you already earned. It does not create new training points. Before exiting, you must restore each party member's total to the amount it had when you opened the tool.

These buttons use the normal button settings.

Mom's charms

Mom's savings purchases include these three charms. Each purchase is queued for delivery and deducts money from your savings; reaching a threshold does not mean immediate receipt.

There is no Oval Charm in this game: it is unavailable.

Visible encounters and shinies

The game supports up to six visible wild Pokémon nearby. Repel prevents new visible spawns. Visible Pokémon can also reduce ordinary encounters nearby.

A visible shiny has a sparkle and sound cue. The game keeps one visible shiny and can use it when you re-enter the same map, searching for a position near you. Terrain can still prevent an accessible placement, and another shiny can replace the single record.

Catch a visible shiny before restarting. Restarting clears it. Do not rely on an ordinary save to preserve it for later.

Special calendar encounters modify particular land encounters on annual dates. They are listed separately from the ordinary location tables.

Evolution

The hack rewrites many evolutions. Each Pokémon page lists its evolution requirements. The main rules:

• No trading needed for the old trade evolutions. Kadabra, Machoke, Graveler, Haunter and the rest now evolve when they level up holding an item, often only by day or by night (for example Haunter → Gengar holding a Spell Tag at night, Machoke → Machamp holding a Black Belt by day). Onix and Porygon simply level up. Boldore and Gurdurr still need a trade in the original hack; the English patch from rc6 evolves them at Lv. 35 and Lv. 40 instead.
• Evolution moves: from rc6 the English patch offers a Pokémon its evolution moves when it evolves (Crobat's Cross Poison, for example), each once. In the original hack only the Move Reminder teaches them.
• Day and night: night is 20:00–3:59, "day" is 4:00–19:59. A few evolutions need 10:00–16:59 and say so.
• Friendship: "high friendship" means 220 or more; Sylveon needs 158 or more plus a Fairy-type move.
• The first match wins: Meowth, Slowpoke and Cubone must take their held-item evolution before the level of their normal one, and Eevee checks Sylveon and Espeon before Glaceon.
• Some evolutions can't happen: a few evolution methods do not work. Most belong to Pokémon that can't be met anyway; the ones that matter are Moss Rock Leafeon and magnetic-field Probopass, which still evolve with a Leaf Stone or Thunder Stone. See Known issues.

Held-item forms

Use the move reference for stats, effects and learning methods, and the ability reference to find abilities for your team. The TM/HM list shows where to get each machine and which Pokémon can use it.

Pickup

A Pokémon with Pickup can find items after battle. Items go straight into the Bag; the Pokémon does not need an empty held-item slot. Eggs do not activate Pickup.

Pickup first has a 10% chance to activate per eligible check. The chart then gives each item's chance after activation. For example, a 30% entry means approximately 3% per eligible check; a 1% entry means approximately 0.1%. These are nominal chances, not guaranteed rewards after a fixed number of battles.

Other training and battle changes

• Held items after battle: the game restores many items, but has exceptions, including special berry handling. Do not assume every consumed, stolen or knocked-off item comes back.
• Hatching: Flame Body and Magma Armor speed up hatching. Their effects do not stack with multiple holders.
• Destiny Knot: either parent holding it raises inherited IV slots to five. This does not guarantee five perfect IVs.
• Everstone: give it to one parent to pass on its nature. Using two holders or parents from different language games can affect inheritance.

Field moves

The hack intentionally lets you use scripted obstacle moves without teaching them to a Pokémon. Badge requirements still apply, and party-menu moves have separate restrictions. See the field-move table for the precise distinctions.

Difficulty settings

From rc7, the English patch adds three optional difficulty settings: a level cap that follows your Gym progress, a switch that turns off EXP sharing for benched Pokémon, and a battle-item limit for Trainer battles. The original Chinese hack has none of them; they're extras of the English patch. With the level cap off and sharing on, EXP works exactly as in the original hack. The item setting starts on DEFAULT, which keeps the original hack's battle-item rules; ALL adds more medicine (see Battle items). In rc7 this setting was called LIMITED and was stricter than the original hack; rc8 renamed it and gave it the original rules.

Turning the settings on

1. Open the menu in the field (X) and choose OPTIONS.
2. Press L or R, or tap the arrows at the bottom of the screen, to go to page 2/2, headed DIFFICULTY. Holding L while you choose OPTIONS opens this page straight away.
3. Choose a value for each row:
   • ITEMS: DEFAULT or ALL (called LIMITED or ALL in rc7).
   • SHARE: ON or OFF.
   • CAP: OFF or ON.
4. Choose CONFIRM to apply your changes (on both Options pages), or QUIT or press B to throw them away.
5. Save the game to keep the settings. Confirming only changes them until you turn the game off; nothing is saved for you.

A new game, and a save from before rc7, starts with ITEMS DEFAULT, SHARE ON, CAP OFF. You can change any setting whenever you like outside battle. A battle that has already started keeps the settings and the cap it started with.

The level cap (CAP)

With CAP ON, your Pokémon stop gaining EXP from battles, wild and Trainer alike, once they reach the level of the current cap. The cap depends on which Gyms you've beaten and is shown in the table below.

• A Pokémon can reach the cap level, but not pass it. At the cap it gets no more EXP from battles, and the game doesn't show an EXP message for it.
• EXP over the cap is lost. It isn't saved for later, and it doesn't go to your other Pokémon. When the cap goes up, a Pokémon starts again from where it stopped.
• Nothing is taken away. Pokémon already above the cap (for example one you caught, were given or raised before turning CAP ON) keep their level and EXP, and you can still use them in battle. They just don't gain any more EXP until the cap passes them.
• EVs are still awarded. A Pokémon at the cap still gets its EVs from the battle.
• In battles with a partner, the cap only applies to your own Pokémon.

When the cap goes up

The cap is set by the first Gym in this list that you haven't beaten yet. The list follows the order you meet the Gym Leaders in this hack, which starts in Kanto with Brock.

In practice, the cap stops limiting you once you've beaten Sabrina (with every Kanto Gym before her also beaten): from then on it is 100, the normal maximum, for the rest of the game, all through Johto included.

• The cap goes up after the Gym battle. The battle against the Gym Leader still uses the old cap, so a Pokémon already at the cap gets no EXP from it. The new cap applies from your next battle.
• Erika counts as beaten as soon as you win the battle against her in the Celadon Gym. In this hack she hands over the Rainbow Badge only later, at a ceremony after the stolen Gloom story, but the cap rises to 55 right after your win.
• The earliest Gym you haven't beaten decides. Beating a later Gym first doesn't raise the cap past a Gym you skipped. For example, if you start the Saffron City takeover before you've beaten Koga, the cap stays at 55 until you go back and beat him, whatever else you beat in the meantime. Once you beat Koga, the cap jumps straight to the level for the next Gym you still haven't beaten.
• The cap never goes down. Beating more Gyms can only keep it the same or raise it.

What the cap doesn't limit

• Rare Candies still raise a Pokémon's level as normal, even above the cap.
• The Day Care still raises the level of the Pokémon you leave there as normal, even above the cap.
• Some battles aren't affected by the cap or by the SHARE setting: the Safari Zone, the Bug-Catching Contest, the catching demonstration, battles in the Battle Frontier facilities, link battles with other players, and recorded battles you watch again. They keep the original rules.

EXP sharing (SHARE)

In the original hack your whole party shares the EXP from every battle: the Pokémon that took part get the full amount, and Pokémon that stayed on the bench get half (see Mechanics and controls).

• SHARE ON (the default) keeps that sharing.
• SHARE OFF gives benched Pokémon no EXP and no EVs, except a Pokémon holding an Exp. Share (see below). Only the Pokémon that took part in the battle gain anything, and each one still gets the same amount as before: switching sharing off doesn't hand the bench's share to the Pokémon that fought.
• A Pokémon holding an Exp. Share still shares with SHARE OFF: it gets the same EXP and EVs as it would with SHARE ON, whether or not it took part. The other benched Pokémon get nothing. (In rc7, SHARE OFF also switched the item off; this was fixed in rc8.)
• With CAP ON too, the Pokémon that took part, and an Exp. Share holder, still stop at the cap.

Battle items (ITEMS)

• DEFAULT (the default): Trainer battles allow the same Bag items as the original Chinese hack: Berries, the Blue, Yellow and Red Flutes, and also Potion, Super Potion, the drinks, Heal Powder and Berry Juice. Other medicine is left out, as in the original.
• ALL: Trainer battles let you use a wider choice of battle items from the Bag, twenty more medicines than DEFAULT, including medicine the original hack doesn't offer in battle (see Status medicine in battle).

In rc7 the first choice was called LIMITED and allowed only Berries and Flutes. That was stricter than the original hack, so rc8 renamed it DEFAULT and restored the original rules. The rule applies to Trainer battles only; the Safari Zone, the Bug-Catching Contest and the other special battles listed above keep their own rules.

Either way, held items, items your opponent uses, wild battles and using items outside battle work as in the original hack.

Fixed in rc8

Two problems in rc7 are gone in rc8:

• Story battles you're allowed to lose (the ones where losing continues the story instead of sending you back to a Pokémon Center) now follow all three settings. In rc7 they ignored CAP and SHARE OFF: every Pokémon got EXP as if CAP were OFF and SHARE were ON, so your Pokémon could pass the cap, and the ITEMS setting did not apply either. Examples: Blue in Pewter City, just before Brock's Gym (and his battles in Oak's Lab, Cerulean City and on the S.S. Anne); Misty on Route 3, Red and Green, Bruno in the Pewter City Pokémon Center; several Team Rocket Executive and Giovanni battles, the Celadon Restaurant challengers and the Slowpoke Well battle against Jessie and James. Losing them still continues the story as before.
• SHARE OFF no longer switches off a held Exp. Share. The holder shares as with SHARE ON, and everyone else on the bench still gets nothing.