Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver

Development Info Prototype Info Prerelease Info Notes Unused MapsSlot Machines were too good for international players. Unused GraphicsMore leftovers than a Snorlax. Unused TrainersOh, Mickey, you're so fine... Inaccessible ContentAll the content that died along with Nintendo WFC. Rest in peace.

Moves 468-470#

When taught to a Pokémon, data about unused attacks 468, 469 and 470 does not necessarily freeze the game. Such attacks are special, have a power and accuracy of 100, and a PP of 10. Other invalid attacks do not give this data and simply freeze the game as soon as they are recalled, perhaps suggesting that the move database was once intended to end at 470 as a nice round figure rather than at 467 (Shadow Force).

Diamond, Pearl and Platinum Leftovers#

To do: This whole section should be revised to accurately specify what Platinum content is really missing. In addition, the /pbr/ directory has a lot of Diamond/Pearl/Platinum data. There may be more files of interest in there.

Files originally found in Pokémon Diamond and Pearl have made their way into HeartGold and SoulSilver.

Item Bag#

The sprites for the Diamond/Pearl male hero's item pocket selection's upper screen remain. Missing are the female hero's purse and Platinum's white bags.

Overworld Sprites#

Several overworld sprites were not reintroduced in HeartGold and SoulSilver but still exist within the game, such as the associated data for the playable male and female characters (as they appeared in Diamond / Pearl and Platinum) including their 'berry planting' poses and Gym Leaders (with the exception of Maylene and Crasher Wake, who appear in Celadon and Johto Route 47, respectively).

Slot Machines#

Most graphics from the Diamond/Pearl slots game remain, including the Clefairy bonus mode. The slots had a design overhaul in Japan, but were replaced by a Voltorb Flip minigame for everyone else.

The Underground#

There are quite a few files related to the huge underground complex found in the three earlier Pokémon DS games. Most (if not all) of the 2D graphics remain, including the traps, radar pinging, and the mining mini-game. It's possible that it was going to be remade, as the walking sprites for both the Diamond/Pearl heroes exist with the other underground files; however, Platinum's heroes are missing. There's also an entire map header dedicated to the Underground, but the map matrix responsible for it just reloads the entire Johto and Kanto overworlds.

Audio Data#

The sound file (sound_data.sdat) from Diamond/Pearl is still in the game's files, completely unused.

Pokétch Graphics#

Pokétch graphics used in Platinum are all still in the game's files, including the two unused graphics from Diamond and Pearl.

Battle Platforms#

Unlike FireRed/LeafGreen before it, HeartGold/SoulSilver shares most of the battle platforms used in the three earlier DS games, including the two Distortion Battle platforms used for Cyrus (0x11) and Giratina (0x17) in Platinum, and the two that aren't used in those three games either (0x03 and 0x0B).

The Elite Four and Champion platforms added in Platinum (0x0C through 0x10) do not share this fate, with those IDs now being used for the platforms used for this game's Elite Four and Champion.

Lost Debug Mode#

Nearly 2,000 text strings can be found talking about changing values for unknown debugging features. However, the debug menu code is probably lost. This debug mode is apparently based on the one in Platinum, containing references to events such as the Distortion World; it seems more of it survives than in that game.

To see the debug mode strings, please look at the Notes page.

Unused Items#

Photo Album#

In the final version, photos are stored on your PC instead.

SlowpokeTail#

Existed in the original Gold/Silver; it has been upgraded to a key item here but ended up unused.

Lock Capsule#

To do: What is the “correct” configuration?

This unreleased event item, intended to be transferred to Black and White to unlock an event there, can be added to the Bag through hacking. Since its only intended purpose is to be transferred to another game, it does nothing at all in HeartGold and SoulSilver. However, if the Lock Capsule is obtained by a correctly-configured Mystery Gift, then an option to view the Lock Capsule's status will be added to the Mystery Gift menu.

The Lock Capsule can't be found by the Relocator unless this option is unlocked, either—presumably an anti-cheating measure.

In a glossary spreadsheet found in leaked Game Freak documents (GFDocs.7z\ローカライズ関連\グロッサリ\HGSSローカライズ\欧州), the following description was provided to localization teams about this item:

Blank Item Data#

Blank item data occupying 21 identifiers exists between identifiers 0x0070 (Griseous Orb) and 0x0087 (Adamant Orb). These are perfectly formatted items which do not crash the game, unlike invalid items. They use the error handler "???" as a name and a ? symbol as the picture, suggesting that they may have once been items from Diamond/Pearl when they were still in development.

Unused Hex Values#

To do: Find out more items, and list them and their properties.

There are many hex values that go unused and have the same data as the blank item data above. It appears that some glitch items above 0x0F00 have similar sprites to already existing items but use a different colour palette. They don't seem to be usable, but may possibly be connected to other data, like map data. In earlier generations, performing an item underflow glitch and swapping some of the items under the cancel button would seem to change up the game, indicating that the items are connected to other game data. It is currently unknown if glitch items in this generation are connected with other game data in the same way.

Unused Music#

Bizarrely, the entire audio archive and soundtrack from Pokémon Diamond & Pearl is carried over, despite very few tracks from there actually being used in the game! This is more than likely a case of imported data, as HeartGold & SoulSilver reuse many graphical and audio assets from those games.

GB Sounds#

The GB Sounds item allows 8-bit music tracks to be played, and most tracks that couldn't be listened to normally can be played using the Pokégear radio on Sundays through the Pokémon Past Archive Program after obtaining the GB Sounds. However there are a couple of music tracks not covered by the Pokémon Past Archive that cannot be accessed at all during normal gameplay, as music played by the radio from the Pokégear is not affected by the GB Sounds:

SEQ_GS_P_KAIDENPA#

The GB Sounds version of the Radio Transmission that is played when the PokéGear radio is opened in Mahogany Town before Team Rocket is defeated there.

SEQ_GS_P_RADIO_UNKNOWN#

The GB Sounds version of the Mysterious Transmission that is played when the PokéGear radio is opened in the Ruins of Alph. This track was later released through the official soundtrack.

Interestingly, the GB Sounds was programmed to play virtually any track which had a GB Sounds version of it, including the title screen. Using the code below will force GB Sounds to always be on.

221D05D2 00000001

Unused Wild Held Item Data#

Some Pokémon, when found in the wild, have a chance of holding an item. This held item data also exists for some Pokémon which cannot be caught in the wild in the final game, however, rendering these assignments unused.

Unused Text#

To do: Find more and put them here. Check whether the photo Mystery Gift text is possible to trigger in-game using a hacked Wonder Card.

There are some unused text strings related to the unused Photo Album key item.

The text for the Mystery Gift deliveryman includes lines for receiving a photo, something that was never used in any released events. "Memorial Photo" could be in reference to the name of the photo booth in the Goldenrod Tunnel.

Team Rocket Executive Ariana has battle text meant for her fight in Team Rocket HQ; the first line is intended for when she has one Pokémon left, while the second is for when said Pokémon is low on health. As she's fought in a double battle, however, which disables this functionality, the text in question goes unseen.

Battle intro, loss, and post-battle text for the unused trainer Pokéfan Rex, carried over from Crystal.

Battle intro, loss, and post-battle text for the unused trainer Pokéfan Andy, carried over from Crystal.

Rematch-specific battle intro text for Pokéfan Beverly, Pokéfan Derek, and Juggler Irwin (respectively), whose rematches were available in Crystal, but go unused in these games.

There is also unused text in Blackthorn City for the guy who mentions that Clair is not available yet; he even blocks entry to the Blackthorn City Gym like he did in the original Gold/Silver/Crystal. However, the player cannot get past Mahogany Town to access Blackthorn City until after Team Rocket is defeated in the Goldenrod City Radio Tower; by the time Blackthorn City can be accessed, the guy has already moved out of the way so that the player can enter the gym.

The Pokégear map has several area description strings that go unused, either because an alternate string is used instead or because the area doesn't show up on the map at all.

Additionally, in the Japanese script, several locations have placeholder description strings consisting of simply ダミーのガイドメッセージ (translating to "Dummy Guide Message") followed by the area's name: Team Rocket Hideout, Goldenrod Tunnel, Dragon's Den, Cliff Cave, Goldenrod Radio Tower, and Route 23. The strings were blanked out in all other languages.

Various leftover text strings from Diamond/Pearl are still present; these ones pertain to the unused Azure Flute event, the fog weather condition, and honey tree encounters, respectively.

The event-themed unused met locations from Diamond/Pearl are also all reused, and are as described on that page.

Unused Pal Park Species Data#

When transferring Pokémon from Generation III games into HeartGold and SoulSilver through the Pal Park feature, the location and appearance rate for each one as well as the score bonus for catching it are determined on a per-species basis. As with Diamond and Pearl, every species in the game has unique data for this, including those that are newly-introduced to Generation IV and therefore cannot be encountered in Pal Park during normal gameplay.

Sinjoh Ruins Return Trip#

As is well known, the Arceus distributed at Japanese movie theatres and at Toys "R" Us can enable the player to enter an area called the Sinjoh Ruins and choose between a Level 1 Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina, all holding their signature items.

What is less well known is that the unused Hall of Origin event Arceus within Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum can, if obtained through a hacked Azure Flute or a warp to the Hall, enable a second trip to the Sinjoh Ruins, wherein the Hiker in the cabin has some different dialog and it is possible to choose one of the dragons that you didn't choose the first time (complete with the really creepy cutscene). There is no way whatsoever to obtain the last dragon left unchosen, though.

The Hiker in the cabin's special return-trip dialogue:

???-Type Arceus#

Arceus' ???-type form from previous games makes its final appearance here, as Black/White would take out the ???-type entirely.

Unobtainable Shiny Pokémon#

For the sake of consistency, every Pokémon in every Pokémon game is given a Shiny variant. Most Shiny Pokémon have been obtainable through random chance encounters or event distributions, including most Legendary Pokémon. However, a few Pokémon cannot be obtained in this form without hacking, and as a consequence, normal players would never be able to see their Shiny coloration.

Arceus#

Arceus has a Shiny palette for each of its 18 forms, including the unused ???-type (see above). However, because the only way to obtain it legitimately was through distributions, the Shiny version of Arceus was left unobtainable through normal means. Shiny Arceus was later made available as a distribution via serial code in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire with the purchase of tickets to the 18th Pokémon movie, and was finally made available worldwide in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl after update 1.3.0.

Spiky-eared Pichu#

The Spiky-eared Pichu from the special Ilex Forest event (unlocked via the Shiny Pichu distribution) has a Shiny palette as well. However, it cannot be obtained as Shiny from the event.

Head Smash Nosepass#

Nosepass gained the ability to learn Head Smash as an egg move in these games. Normally, that wouldn't be notable, because everyone and their mother gained the ability to learn Head Smash as an egg move in these games.

...Except that Nosepass can't breed with anything that learns Head Smash, making the move unobtainable. Oops!

The egg move was removed in Pokémon Black and White and did not become available for Nosepass until Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, despite that the possibility to do so opened earlier (via Aegislash starting in Pokémon X and Y or Sudowoodo starting in Pokémon Sun and Moon).

Pokegear and Pokedex Map Icons#

The map icons used to represent Ethan and Lyra on the maps of the Pokegear and Pokedex appear similar at first, but actually have minor differences (although Ethan's hat is definitely noticeable). This is actually because the Pokedex sprites are earlier versions of the Pokegear sprites. According to the leaked repository, the Pokedex sprites stem from when the very first map icon sprite was added for Lyra, and were seemingly never updated afterward. The Pokedex sprites are dated no later than May 29 2008, while the Pokegear ones are from almost a year later - April 22 2009. Now, this isn't necessarily a problem, but it likely wasn't intentional, either.

As for differences between the two versions, Ethan's design is still using the hat design from Gold and Silver and his front hair was redrawn. Lyra's hair is a slightly different color and her hat is missing the ribbon on the side. It's also shaded differently.

Anti-Softlock Tentacool#

Watch on YouTubeWhile present in the game, no one would realistically come across this unless they were trying to softlock themselves and it took a decade for this to be discovered. If you reach Cianwood City with only one Pokémon in your party and PC, an NPC will give you a free Tentacool. As you are required to get the Surf HM and Tentacool can learn Surf, this means you can never be in a situation where you cannot escape Cianwood City. This can be repeated an unlimited amount of times.

Anti-Piracy#

Watch on YouTubeThese games utilize the DS Protect anti-piracy library to ensure that it is not being run off a flashcart or emulator. If any of the DS Protect checks fail, the game will intentionally leak memory until it crashes. More memory is leaked if the player has acquired more badges, causing the crashes to happen faster.

Additionally, legitimate game cartridges have a special inbuilt infrared sensor used to interact with the Pokéwalker peripheral. This sensor would be absent from a flashcart or low-quality reproduction cartridge. If this sensor is not detected, the game will periodically add dummy tasks into its internal task queue. If too many of these pile up over time, the task queue will become full, and the game will softlock when it tries to do something like change maps, open the menu, start a battle, etc.

Unused Textures#

To do: There are some models, as mentioned below, that use the unused gym texture. Get them to appear in-game and add screenshots.

There is an unused texture within the 41st tileset in the game, which simply spells "YoBi". When translated, it simply means "preliminary".

A texture with the word "gym" on it. It's a placeholder graphic for a placeholder model.

Unused 3D Models#

There are unused 3D models for both Dialga and Palkia, left over from the title screen of Diamond & Pearl.

Oddities#

Route 23#

Route 23, the huge route in Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow and FireRed/LeafGreen that contains Victory Road and is right after the Pokémon League Front Gate on Route 22, is unceremoniously replaced by the Pokémon League Reception Gate in both the original Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal and HeartGold/SoulSilver. However, a small stretch leading from the northern exit of Victory Road to the Indigo Plateau's front door is still identified within Gold/Silver/Crystal as "Route 23"; in HeartGold and SoulSilver, however, this stretch is identified as Indigo Plateau instead.

Nonetheless, the location header for Route 23 is still present in HeartGold and SoulSilver's data.

Obsolete References to Gold/Silver/Crystal Features#

To do: There are likely more obsolete references in the game; hunting them all down may be quite a task.

There are several references in the game's dialog to features that were present in the original Gold/Silver/Crystal, but are either no longer present or have been altered in such a way that the references are no longer relevant.

• After defeating Pryce, he inaccurately says that the Glacier Badge will raise the Special stats of Pokémon. Badges no longer boost stats in Generation IV games, and the dialogue of other Gym Leaders removes references to this.
• Kurt in Azalea Town still refers to "Poké Ball" in the singular form in most of his dialogue. In Gold/Silver, he would only turn one Apricorn at a time into a Poké Ball for the player, whereas in Crystal and HeartGold/SoulSilver the player can give him multiple Apricorns at a time and receive multiple Poké Balls, making his speech slightly awkward. This is probably just a typo.
• In the English versions, the poster on the first floor of the Goldenrod Radio Tower advertising the "Lucky Channel" remains. This was the radio show in Gold/Silver/Crystal that would broadcast lottery numbers which, if they matched the Trainer ID of any of the player's Pokémon, would allow them to win prizes. The show is no longer broadcasted in HeartGold/SoulSilver, having been replaced by Felicity the lottery attendant behind the counter at the Radio Tower, who tells the player the daily lotto number when spoken to. In the Japanese versions, it refers to the show as だいこうひょうポケモンくじ (The Super-Popular Pokémon Lottery) instead of ラッキーチャンネル as in the originals, indicating that this could have been a new yet scrapped show instead.

Cave Environments Outside of Caves#

Because the Sprout Tower, Ilex Forest, Burned Tower, and Bell Tower are treated as caves by the game, they use that battle environment. While one would think this is to allow encounters to occur just by walking around (as opposed to only happening in tall grass), the Lost Tower in Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, a location that has the same type of encounters, uses the urban environment.

Regional Differences#

Copyright Screen#

Japan	North America/Australia	Europe/Korea

There is an ESRB notice below the copyright notice in the North American and Australian versions. Incidentally, this is also the only difference between the North American/Australian and European English versions, along with some slight changes to the ROM header.

Title Screen#

Japan	International

Game Corners#

To do: Seems like importing the overlay and graphics code for the Slots machines back into the International ROMs causes the game to crash. Also, check the map IDs to clear up any doubts.

In all non-Japanese versions of the game, the traditional slot machines were replaced with a Minesweeper/Sudoku hybrid called Voltorb Flip. This was due to then-recent European legislation which automatically prescribes a 12+ rating to any game featuring interactive gambling content. While this same law previously affected Platinum as well, it was only in the European versions of the game. Although the original Game Corner maps from the Japanese version of HeartGold and SoulSilver are no longer accessible in regular gameplay, they still remain within the internal data: the Goldenrod one has a hexadecimal identifier of 0x00B7 and the Celadon one is 0x017D. Read more here.

In the Japanese version, the modified Game Corner maps also exist without events or warps. Their identifiers are 0x0218 (Goldenrod) and 0x0219 (Celadon). However, the overlay and graphics files for Voltorb Flip do not exist in the Japanese version. Similarly, the slots machines' graphics and overlay files are removed, and only placeholders remain in the International releases.

GTS Notifications#

To do: What about the Korean version?

In the Japanese version, players could receive e-mail messages stating when a trade on the GTS was complete. In the North American and European versions, players could only receive notifications through Wii Messaging. This change also applies to Pokémon Platinum.

Male Swimmer Sprite#

For the international releases, male swimmers were modified to sport a swimming trunk instead of a speedo.

Japanese	International

Korean Versions#

By the time Nintendo and The Pokémon Company opened their South Korean subsidiaries in 2006, Game Freak was finalizing Diamond and Pearl, the first games of the fourth generation. A Korean release of Diamond and Pearl did not occur until 2008, after the releases of those games, meaning that non-Korean copies of games of the fourth generation were never made in mind to support Korean copies. As such, some limitations and changes were implemented in them, such as items like the Manaphy Egg being unobtainable due to inherent incompatibilities and the unavailability of the required spin-off games. However, because at least Japanese Ruby and Sapphire were released in South Korea, Pal Park accepts all languages of Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald, unlike the Japanese and Western versions. The transferred Pokémon are treated as nicknamed due to the language mismatch, behavior that is not exclusive to the Korean versions. It supports one more language for its Pokédex than other languages as such.

Due to the lack of an Hangul font in non-Korean releases, communications between Korean and non-Korean copies were made impossible to avoid having display issues on those copies. This means that it is impossible to trade and receive non-Korean Pokémon on a Korean copy outside of Lt. Surge's Pikachu and Pokémon and their evolutions available from the Pal Park. Since Platinum, foreign entries in the Pokédex for each Pokémon can be consulted once a Pokémon from a specific language has been obtained. Since it is impossible to receive Pokémon from game from other languages outside of the previous cases mentioned, this means that all of the Pokémon from the fourth generation have foreign entries coded into the games, but most of those are not accessible without cheating.

Worldwide	Korea

The sprite for the Sages was seemingly altered for religious reasons in the Korean version: the prayer beads were removed, the robes were slightly recolored, and a red robe was added on their left shoulder. Their title was also changed to 수행자 (Ascetic); in Gold and Silver, it was 중 (Monk).

References#