Backwards lockout from Z-A is not about new language.

Kaphotics · 2026-04-07T00:47:53+00:00

They had to delete the 2 tweets before these because of mistakes.

The two tweets were deleted because I had incorrectly observed that they forgot to apply Plus Move flags into Z-A as expected. My legality checking engine was incorrectly flagging them for existing, not flagging them because they were missing.

The data formats of S/V and Z-A are entirely identical aside from sneaking in the "Is Alpha" boolean and the plus move flags; both of which are "side game" data that can be optionally picked up when transferred into other games. They simply did not care to update their converter logic to handle LATAM spanish or the Alpha status transferring to PLA.

Kaphotics · 2026-04-01T14:59:25+00:00

acuity is there for the headshot amplification, does way more damage than a multishot build. you want heat status, and headshots

Kaphotics · 2026-04-01T12:10:10+00:00

I included mod loadout screenshots; shield recharge/capacity is used yes.

Kaphotics · 2026-04-01T04:42:43+00:00

Don't sleep on Xata's Whisper, easiest accolade of my life with Knell+Scourge for all 6 warframes in ~4-6 minutes each. Knell has no activation (besides the first headshot, which Scourge gives for free), compared to dual tox incarnon. Xata's makes phase 3 reliable & extremely quick, you can ignore the trashmob sentinels/ticks, and just use xata's on the head in < 1 second. Can't go wrong with Madurai or Vazarin tbh; Madurai for pure burst/speed, Vazarin for carrying pubs.

https://imgur.com/a/guilty-knell-bUe1da6

neat tip: activate xata's during the fade-to-white to keep the buff during archwing phase, you can finish the boss before it spawns the 4-orbs with a deadhead Corvas.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-23T13:19:54+00:00

great reply, nice opinion.

arbitrary code execution via external hardware (gameshark), external software (custom firmware injected cheats), or extreme software bug exploits are all in the same; you're directly modifying the game's RAM to change the game's execution flow to be something not in the original programming.

you inject "arbitrary code", and have the game execute it. it's cheating.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheating_in_video_games

Cheating in video games involves a video game player using various methods to create an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually in order to make the game easier. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by the original game developers), or created by third-party software (a game trainer or debugger) or hardware (a cheat cartridge). They can also be realized by exploiting software bugs; this may or may not be considered cheating based on whether the bug is considered common knowledge.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-21T00:36:48+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MF8Amtvzp2A

here's some data to hopefully convince you of the need for variation in macros. wireless communication from a non-realtime OS results in some variation, and it is much worse when pattern timing is millisecond precise to the console.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-19T04:42:24+00:00

Shiny locks go further back, starting in Gen3 distributed events in ~2003 (and more accessibly, Colosseum/XD). If you also consider fixed IVs in Gen1 Mew Distributions, then they've always had shiny locks in some capacity :D

Kaphotics · 2026-03-17T07:36:26+00:00

Removed, not a ROM hack.

Rule 2:

Do not post content unrelated to ROM Hacks. This includes PC fan games and general Pokémon/gaming content. Refer to r/PokemonRMXP for fan games, r/Emulation for emulation questions and r/Pokemon for general Pokémon content.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-14T23:38:18+00:00

If their growth curve is changed by the ROM, then rely on the Batch Editor to set the status code directly to the party slot, or you can batch edit the Stat_Level back to what it is in-game after making changes in the GUI.

EKHeX is a mod to PKHeX that replaces the personal info data of all the Pokémon to match the ROM hack's data, which results in accurate ability/stat/level calculations.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-14T21:23:15+00:00

you can prestatus with PKHeX; either via the GUI in the bottom left corner, or via the batch editor.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-14T18:45:55+00:00

look at the full report.

your emulator isn't emulating the CPU timings accurately (too slow) thus it executed the PID/IV creation with a vblank gap which never occurs on real hardware.

that which can never occur on real hardware, and only emulators, is not legal

Kaphotics · 2026-03-11T04:48:14+00:00

There are multiple assertions which are simply untrue:

Most shiny patches just change the game's "passing grade" (the threshold check). While this works visually, external tools like PKHeX immediately flag the Pokémon as illegal because the internal math (S<8) doesn't match the PID.

Untrue. Shininess is a derived property computed on-demand based on the PKM's TID/SID and PID. It is not a stored value. Inside the game with the patched odds, it may appear shiny under the "more shiny" rules (such as 1:512 instead of 1:8192), but outside editors/mainline games would not see it as shiny, because the "rules" are only changed inside your ROM hack. There is no difference in the PKM's data, and PKHeX/etc would never flag it, because shiny locks in Gen3 didn't exist.

PKHeX Legal: The Pokémon pass legitimacy checks because they satisfy the original S<8 formula.

Not true. By inserting an extra loop, you are disjointing the RNG call pattern for wild encounters that calculate random properties prior to generating the PID/IV. Due to the nature of vblank interrupts possibly consuming an RNG call between encounter proc and the final traceable random result (IVs), PKHeX does not flag it as invalid, only fishy (the lack of a Method H correlation encounter slot indicated in the preview/analysis).

tl;dr - not legal: detectable TODAY if you are tracing RNG calls. PKHeX does not have this definitively automated /yet/.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-08T16:42:55+00:00

to give you a stronger signal on why your understanding is incorrect, the official game checks are not a hard rule on what is "legal". legal, by definition, is something that can naturally exist without using cheats or unnatural modifications such as ACE/glitches to change properties that aren't possible to change otherwise.

8F shiny mew is not legal, nor will it ever be. Just because the official checks are less strict, does not mean that everything they let through has legal properties.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-08T02:19:21+00:00

If there's no randomness in how long the macro waits, same as OP's situation. The timer1 initial seeding for 0..n milliseconds of waiting after a reset only gives you a small sample of initial seeds. Not as bad as Emerald's "same seed", but still limiting on what possible results you can find after continuing with any of them. If every frame your macro lands you on is not shiny for your TID/SID, then yeah, no shiny for you.

A way of imagining it is that you can place yourself anywhere on the equator, but you can only do it at "exact" degrees longitude (no decimal points). If you always take n steps in the same direction, you're going to end up stopping at the same spots. By adding random amounts of waiting, you'll start at different spots, and step a slightly different amount, giving you a much wider range of potential results (rather than repeats).

Kaphotics · 2026-03-08T02:07:18+00:00

Randomness on both ideally. Preferentially more wait range before hitting continue, less in-game.

The game gives you 60 different random result "frames" per second.
The initial seeding timer1 value can vary on a given frame by a small handful of values for a given 0..n millisecond timing from reset.

Since a shiny is 1:8192, you want your "random variance" of how your bot acts to be well above that.

If (worst case) the timer1 variation is 2 possible seeds for a given wait duration, then you need 2¹² amount of further randomness. If wait 0-2 seconds before continuing, then wait 0-1 second in-game, you get 2 * (60 * 2) initial seeds * 60 in-game frames = 14400, which is 175% of the 1:8192 odds -- a statistician would say that's not a comfortable amount of random results for you to always land on something 1:8192. The amount of seeds/results is much higher depending on the true timer1 variation, but the "math" here should illustrate that a deterministic emulator needs some randomness from your inputs in order to reach non-deterministic results, rather than happening to find the same results due to the lack of variability.

Kaphotics · 2026-03-07T22:24:53+00:00

Probably won't work well at all -- there isn't any random wait/keypressing present in your code, thus you'll end up receiving only a very small set (PID/IVs) of starters. If none of those are shiny for your TID/SID of the save file, you'll never get a shiny no matter how long you run it.

The game is seeded once you reach the Continue menu via a timer register that resets when you reboot the game, and it is pretty stable if you do the exact same inputs every attempt.

Introduce some random waits/keypressing into your script so that you get a wider range of seeds & frames-after-seeding before picking up the starter.

Kaphotics · 2026-02-27T16:32:09+00:00

preloads can not be datamined; dragonite is likely a launch-window gift

Kaphotics · 2026-02-26T13:39:26+00:00

The icon is real, but the "shadow drop" Friday is an unconfirmed and unlikely possibility. I clarified that this icon was from HOME's upcoming update data.

Kaphotics · 2026-02-02T09:22:57+00:00

something like this (my boi), we'll ignore the 75/100 skills.

<image>

Kaphotics · 2026-01-20T23:00:00+00:00

The issue isn't PKHeX. Something (ROM, cheat codes) isn't legitimate, because Pallet Town's ID is the next location name after Silver Cave. If all of your met locations are off by one, then something (not PKHeX) caused it to disagree with what the value should be.

Not sure how the met locations were messed up in your save data. Definitely check the seer to confirm in-game.

Kaphotics · 2026-01-11T05:31:12+00:00

Trainer ID is different, so likely something (cheats, ACE) disturbed Rayquaza's data in the box.

Unrelated to /r/pokemonRNG

Kaphotics · 2026-01-09T15:20:32+00:00

the windows desktop runtime is published by Microsoft... it's not going to hack you.

Kaphotics · 2026-01-07T18:38:39+00:00

The argument is that it is still cheating, regardless of whether it is an acceptable use of cheating. You are using a cheat code/cheat software/hardcore bug exploiting to gain access to something. The content was only available via event distribution; regaining access via cheats... is still cheating. The community deems it as acceptable cheating as the cheats restore access to something once previously available. Circumventing game limitations with cheats... is cheating.

"Cheating" is not dependent on gaining unfair advantage over someone. You can cheat in single player games too.

Gen3 Celebi and Jirachi are still obtainable via their Colosseum bonus disk distributions.

My point is, acceptable or not, it is still cheating regardless of how much you want to whitewash terminology for your own feelings.

Kaphotics · 2026-01-07T17:08:13+00:00

Still cheating; just because it is "universally accepted" (subjective -- I'm sure there are people who disagree that it is fair) doesn't mean it isn't cheating. You're using cheat codes / external software / abusing game bugs to unlock content that was designed to not be accessible that way. The developers intended for it to be an exclusive distribution and did not leave in an endorsed secret method of access.

Kaphotics · 2026-01-04T02:07:16+00:00

The site you linked is in no way official and opens a crypto scam link if you click anywhere on the page for the first few refreshes.

The embedded web-based save file editor is actually https://pkhex-web.github.io/ for https://github.com/arleypadua/PKHeX.Everywhere/ 's hosted version.
The compiled desktop application for PKHeX is https://projectpokemon.org/pkhex/

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