Introduction, I guess!
So while trying to figure out RNG Manipulation myself, I had to do a shit ton of searching and reading different websites and having to figure out what's outdated and what's not and what programs to use and etc etc.
Even the guides all felt very xkcd 2501 tbh. With a whole lot of telling you what to do but not explaining why!
So my goal here is to try to compile allllllll of that information, and also explain it in the most thorough way possible. I have taken every bit of "Wait, what am I supposed to go here? What does that mean? Why do you do that there? What does this sitting do?" that I thought myself while learning RNG Manipulation and dumped it into one place, basically.
GENERAL ADVICE
- In HGSS, don't catch the roamers until you absolutely have to. The Roamers are the easiest and fastest way to verify your seed in HGSS
- Each game system handles the timing differently, using a DS or DS Lite is the easiest for Gens 3, 4, and 5 [?]
- Does a guide tell you to use RNG Reporter? It's old.
- The Chatot only work if they have a custom cry via Chatter, which gets cleared in some situations, like when you've deposited all of your Chatot into the PC. You should double check that they actually have a cry recorded before you do things.
Basic Steps - what you will be doing once you have everything set up
- Set the time on your DS
- Back out of the menu where you set the time, so the DS turns off.
- Turn the DS back on
- Wait on the home screen until the first Eon Timer countdown is done, ready to press the "A" button to open the game
- Get to the screen where you can load your file
- Wait on that screen until the second Eon Timer countdown is done, ready to press "A" to load into the game
- Open the pause menu ASAP
- Use your method of choice to verify that you timed everything correctly and landed on the right seed
- If you landed correctly, yay! - If not, start from the beginning. You will not get it right first try.
- Once you've landed on the correct seed, use your method of choice to advance the RNG until you're right before the Advance that you would encounter your goal
- Do whatever you need to encounter it, like talk to the pokemon for a static or use sweet scent for a wild, and tada! it should be shiny or whatever!
The hard part is figuring out all the numbers to be able to do all of that!
Guides/Resources
Could also be called "Credits to where I learned everything!"
- Smogon - The DPP / HGSS RNG Manipulation Guide
- Probably the best guide at actually EXPLAINING anything.
- Outdated in some ways though, using "frames" instead of "advances" and using RNG Reporter instead of Pokefinder, as well as missing some verification methods like Chatot cries.
- Focuses on Stats and Natures before Shinies, which is a good thing for some people but not what I'm aiming for personally lol
- pokemonrng.com
- Has some good tools, and also is very much a WIP in other areas.
- Cute Charm & TID/SID RNG
- A tool in your browser that can be used to get the TID/SID that you want, which is the first step for the Cute Charm Glitch![?] (or if you just want a cool Trainer ID number which is also valid. Or you could do both at once!)
- Can be done with no real experience, this was actually the first thing I ever did with RNG Manipulation.
- Also links to some video guides that I did not watch.
- HGSS Starter RNG Manipulation Web Tool & Guide
- I would definitely recommend this one if you're aiming for the starters in HGSS, it's completely followable even if you don't know anything, and entirely online! This was the second RNG thing that I ever did.
- Also links to some video guides that I did not watch.
- retailrng.com
- Where I've been learning Gen 3 RNG, and is really good for that, currently doesn't have anything for HGSS but does have some DPPt stuff that I will look at later.
- blisy
- Has a lot of resources as well! This person has also made a lot of video guides, which I did not watch because I don't find videos easy follow, and some are outdated now (I know videos are SUPER helpful for some people though). I'll go more into their videos later.
- Has a few things that other sites don't have for gen 4, including unown stuff? looking into that later too
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
- A way to tell what Seed you are on:
- Roamers on the map
- Juggler Irwin or Professor Elm [Elm info] in your Pokegear
- (Two) Chatots with the move Chatter [note]
- Pokeballs to catch pokemon, and rare candies to level them up (very optional)
- A way to advance the RNG (Standard)
- Call your best buddy Juggler Irwin (or Prof Elm)
- Each call advances RNG by 1
- Listen to the song of your Chatot screaming at you. (Quickest)
- Viewing the pokemon's summary to hear the Chatter cry advances RNG by 1
- Listen to the Radio
- (advances the RNG by a weird amount, don't worry about this rn i'm only listing it for completionists sake, and as a warning to not accidentally listen to the radio, since you will be opening the pokegear)
- NOTE: Other unwanted factors may advance the RNG as well, such as NPC movements (even if they're not on the screen), so try to open the menu ASAP when you load into the game. Taking steps also can advance the RNG, so it's best to always save exactly where you need to be to interact with a static encounter/use sweet scent/etc.
- pokemonrng.com's more comprehensive list on everything that can advance rng
- How to Advance the RNG (Eggs)
- Just aim for an Advance of 0 for this, there is no reason to do otherwise 99% of the time
- Rejecting an Egg from the daycare will skip the advance it spawned on.
- Call Youngster Joey, he will advance the egg RNG by 2, for some reason.
- If Youngster Joey calls YOU while you're trying to get an egg to spawn, it will mess up the RNG, by the way :) *definitely not speaking from experience* (This is rare and not likely to happen)
Note that not all of these are completely required! as long as you have at least one of them it's technically possible to determine your seed, I listed them in difficulty order, and I'll explain in depth how each are used below.
Some of the methods above used to verify your seed can be used to advance the RNG, but not all of them.
How to determine what Seed you hit:
EASY MODE:
The standard ways to verify your seed, that will work for most people in most cases
- Look at where the Roamers are on the map (Entei, Raikou, Lati@s) - Quickest Method, may need extra verification
- This is the quickest verification method, but obviously can't be used if you no longer have the roamers on the map. Pokefinder shows you where the roamers are located when you load into the seed, so you can easily check if you landed on the right one. (Roamers also advance the RNG by 1 or 2 upon the game loading, Pokefinder accounts for this in it's calculations so don't worry about it.)
- There's a possibility that Pokefinder will show multiple nearby seeds that have the same roamer locations as the one you're aiming for. In that case, see the other options below to do extra verification while you're making your way to the advance you want anyway.
- NOTE: Roamers will roll the RNG a few advances forward when you load into the game, and you will need to take note of the roamer's placement BEFORE you save and close the game and start the clock changing process. This is because if the roamers are placed in a spot they previously were at, the RNG will roll an extra time to put them somewhere else. Pokefinder has a spot to put this, and accounts for the extra rolls.
- Call your best buddy Juggler Irwin (or Prof Elm i guess) - Most reliable method, and easy to do
- Each time you make a call, you'll get 1 of 3 different dialogues. These are predetermined with the RNG, Pokefinder has a way to easily find what seed you landed on via this. (Each call also advances the RNG by 1)
- (UNFORTUNATELY, there are some places where you cannot call people, such as, right before you're going to fight the champion. Meaning you cannot use this method for the Roamers :( sorry to Juggler Irwin fans that are interested in RNGing those.)
HARD MODE:
Using these methods as the primary way to verify your seed sucks ass, because Pokefinder doesn't give you an easy way to check if you hit a nearby seed instead the one you were aiming for. This makes it difficult for calibration, so I'd always recommend doing your first hunt as one where you can use the above methods, just to get the hang of things and be sure your calibration settings in Eon Timer are correct.
But if you're trying to do RNG as early in the game as possible, before you reach Juggler Irwin, OR if you're some place you can't make calls and also don't have any roamers on the map, it's pretty much your only choice. Sorry! (That's not super common of a situation tbh, as long as you're not doing something like a semi-prof oak challenege with shinies in the early game (orz), I'll still detail out the hell process later.)
because
- Listen very closely to the song of your Chatot screaming at you. - (Almost) most annoying method, and can be unreliable
- When Chatot have learned a new cry with Chatter, via you yelling a cuss word* into the DS microphone, the cry actually has a different pitch each time you listen to it! This is determined by RNG, so if you listen carefully to the pitch you can use it to see if you hit the right seed.
- *(You should probably instead teach your Chatot how to scream "AAAAAAAAAAAAA", it's easier to tell the pitch than if they're saying a word)
- Good news! pokemonrng.com now has a tool to help you check the Chatot cries! It still only checks for the seed that you're aiming for and not the nearby ones, but it helps determine and keep track of the range the pitch falls into while you're listening to them, and what advance you're on.
- ^ Personally I had a bit of a hard time using this at first, but once I got it figured out it was helpful? Getting the DS to actually record the beep was difficult and my bestie wasn't able to successfully record it even so there's that, it's technically still useable with any noise though.
- Alternatively, PKHeX appearently lets you inject a chatter noise to your save file? Haven't tried it but if you're having issues and are okay with using PKHeX it might be worth a try.
- Catching Pokemon and checking their stats - Most tedious method, and also annoying
- If you don't land on the pokemon you wanted, you check it's stats and use those to see what seed you landed on. This is pretty much the last method you would ever want to use, as it's annoyingly stupid and Pokefinder doesn't have an easy way to do this. THANKFULLY the web tools out there for RNGing the starters include this check, and you likely would never have to use it otherwise due to the availablilty of the other verification methods.
You can technically call Professor Elm too, but only in specific circumstances. Elm will work instead of Irwin if you have: [via Smogon]
- Reached Kanto
- Shown him a hatched Togepi or any of it's evolutions
- Have a pokemon with Pokerus
I guess it might be worth it to call Elm instead if you happen to have done all of those, because Irwin does have a dialogue that's like 8 textboxes long?
Make sure your Chatter sound is still recorded before you start the process! It will sometimes get reset after doing certain things, like putting all of your Chatot in the PC or communicating with another game (though I've also had cases of it NOT resetting in those instances, or it resetting without doing anything on any list, so who knows).
Technically you can do this with one chatot, but it's much quicker and smoother to use too and flip back and forth between their summary pages.
When you set the clock on the DS or DS Lite, it's rather straight forward on the timing. On the 3DS there's some shenanigans where the clock does some stupid shit, and even worse if you're using Twilight Menu the timing will be even more dramatically off (along with messing with your delays). I'll explain this better later and change this footnote lol