Common information for Breeding and Capturing Perfect Pokémon
Introduction
Before attempting to hatch or breed that perfect Pokémon, it will be useful to learn about some of the concepts that are common to both endeavors. The information in this section should be used to build up your knowledge and vocabulary so that the individual sections that follow will be clear.
Prerequisites
1. RNG Reporter (Note to Mac Users: This software is for Windows and there is not a Macintosh version. If you would like to try to run it using Wine / Mono, please give it a shot, but no one has managed to make this work yet. You really should have Bootcamp or Parallels, though.)
2. A clock with a clear seconds reading.
3. A Pokémon with Sweet Scent (not completely necessary, you can do without this, but it is mentioned in the directions for exploiting this as it is an extremely efficient way to get started).
Definitions
These terms will be used frequently in the remainder of this guide, so it is important that you understand what they mean.
Initial Seed - The initial seed is the number which is fed to the random number generator when the game starts. This number is created by a combination of the target time and delay. Knowing the initial seed allows us to know the (no longer) random sequence of numbers that the game will produce and, in turn, use to create the Pokémon we catch or the IVs of the eggs we will receive.
Target Time - When soft resetting for egg IVs or captured Pokémon it will be important that you can hit the A button on the continue screen at an exact time. This time, which is the date / time of your DS, is referred to as the target time in the sections below. Please note that this has nothing to do with the "TIME" value that is shown on the "Continue" screen as that indicates the amount of time you have played the game and does not represent the current date / time of the DS clock.
Delay - The delay may be thought of as a fast counter that increases by one approximately 60 times per second and starts when you launch (or soft reset) any of the Pokémon games and runs until you press the A button on the "Continue" screen. The delay is an important component of soft resetting for egg IVs and captured Pokémon because it is used, in concert with your target time, to create your initial seed.
Note about delay: Delays will almost always be consistently odd or even. The exact mechanism which determines this is not fully understood, but it does appear to be related to the presence or absence or a 3rd generation game in slot-2 of the DS. Removing or inserting a 3rd generation game will often change delays from odd to even or even to odd.
The chart below gives a visual representation of both the target time and delay.
Frame - A listing of frames is the sequence of Pokémon that can be captured or IVs that may be passed to an egg, given a particular initial seed. A frame number, or target frame, is where you want to land to get the desired result. There are different methods for targeting a particular frame, depending on what you are doing / where you are in game. For instance, when collecting an egg, the frame will advance based on the amount of time you spend before taking an egg. When in a quiet cave the frame does not advance at all on its own, but can be advanced by in game actions such as walking or viewing your journal.
Calibration
Before beginning your quest for perfect IVs, it is advisable to spend some time collecting data about your usual delays and the number of seconds it takes to go from a reset to the game world. These may vary from game to game depending on how fast one can hit the A button, the version of the game, and other unknown factors. Collecting this data will help you use Time Finder (a feature of RNG Reporter) in the most productive way possible.
Why do we need to do this? Knowing the number of seconds it takes you to enter the game world from a soft reset is important because targeting a particular spread will require "continuing" the game at an exact time. If it always takes you 15 seconds from reset to "Continue" and the seed of the spread you are trying to hit is at the 35 second mark, you will know that you need to reset at the 20 second mark. This process is also used to determine your average delay. The delay can be thought of as a fast counter that increases by one about 60 times per second and runs roughly from the time you reset until you select "Continue". It is not exactly 60 times per second, though, and will vary from game to game.
Once you have a handle on the seconds portion of calibration you can use it to hit spreads that you find without having to repeat the Calibration Phase. The same holds true for your delay value.
Calibration Steps:
1. Save your game in a location where you can easily and quickly catch a high level Pokémon.
2. Synchronize your DS clock with an external clock. Your external clock should have a seconds display or seconds hand. You do not necessarily have to synchronize the date of your DS to the actual date, but you should know the date and time of your DS clock.
3. Start your game and keep Start + Select + L held then press R (these are the buttons hit to soft reset the game) exactly when the clock reaches the next minute. Hit A as fast as possible until you enter the game world. You will want to note the exact time that you soft reset the game.
4. Immediately catch a wild Pokémon.
5. Enter the date / time from step 3 and the Pokémon information from step 4 into the Seed Finder. Take note of the delay and the seconds for the initial seed.
For every reset we want two pieces of data from the output of the Seed Finder:
- Delay of the initial seed
- Seconds of the initial seed
Repeat this procedure until you can confidently predict a range of delays and hit a particular second. This may take a bit of time, but the more data you collect the easier it will be. After this phase, you will have a range of the delays that are likely to occur and the number of seconds it will usually take you to get from reset to "Continue".
An example of typical values are:
Delay range: 600-640
Seconds: 15
Please keep in mind that we go through this Calibration Phase because each person can, and probably will, get slightly different results. If your average range is between 620 and 630, that is fine. It's just your range and what you should use. The same principle applies to seconds as well.
Hitting your Target Time
One of the most important aspects of soft resetting for egg IVs and captured Pokémon is the ability to accurately hit your target time. The target time, along with your delay, is used to create your initial seed. Once you have calibrated and know the time it takes you to get from reset to "Continue", it becomes quite easy to hit the target time.
Below are steps to easily and consistently hit your target time.
1. Have access to an external clock with a seconds display.
2. Prepare your times.
Synchronize Time - Take your target time, remove the seconds, and subtract one full minute. For example: 12:05:30 becomes 12:04:00.
Reset Time - Take your target time and subtract what you determined your seconds value to be during calibration. For example: (assuming a seconds value of 15) 12:05:30 becomes 12:05:15.
2. Set the time on your DS to the synchronize time and hit the A button to save the changes when the external clock reaches a new minute. With this step, we are synchronizing the seconds of the DS with the external clock.
3. Load the game and reset at your calculated reset time. This ensures that your soft reset will occur at the exact time that is necessary to "Continue" at your target time.
Verifying your Target Time / Delay
Use this method to determine if you have correctly hit your target time and delay before spending a lot of time hatching and egg or advancing the frame.
For Breeding Pokémon:
Collect your egg before performing the following.
For Capturing Pokémon:
Perform the following as soon as you enter the game world.
Using the Poketch Coin Flip application, flip 10 times, noting the number of heads and tails (Magikarp represents heads and the Poké Ball represents tails). Then, using RNG Reporter, click "Generate" after entering the target initial seed. Match the results of the flips with the information in the "Coin Flips for Seed" area in the bottom right corner of the RNG Reporter window. If you have hit the correct target time and delay, the results from the coin flips will match those generated by the RNG Reporter. Please note that switching to the Happiness Checker application at any time during this process will invalidate your results, so it is advised to simply save with the Coin Flip application selected. Additionally, this will not work in areas with weather effects.
Introduction
Before attempting to hatch or breed that perfect Pokémon, it will be useful to learn about some of the concepts that are common to both endeavors. The information in this section should be used to build up your knowledge and vocabulary so that the individual sections that follow will be clear.
Prerequisites
1. RNG Reporter (Note to Mac Users: This software is for Windows and there is not a Macintosh version. If you would like to try to run it using Wine / Mono, please give it a shot, but no one has managed to make this work yet. You really should have Bootcamp or Parallels, though.)
2. A clock with a clear seconds reading.
3. A Pokémon with Sweet Scent (not completely necessary, you can do without this, but it is mentioned in the directions for exploiting this as it is an extremely efficient way to get started).
Definitions
These terms will be used frequently in the remainder of this guide, so it is important that you understand what they mean.
Initial Seed - The initial seed is the number which is fed to the random number generator when the game starts. This number is created by a combination of the target time and delay. Knowing the initial seed allows us to know the (no longer) random sequence of numbers that the game will produce and, in turn, use to create the Pokémon we catch or the IVs of the eggs we will receive.
Target Time - When soft resetting for egg IVs or captured Pokémon it will be important that you can hit the A button on the continue screen at an exact time. This time, which is the date / time of your DS, is referred to as the target time in the sections below. Please note that this has nothing to do with the "TIME" value that is shown on the "Continue" screen as that indicates the amount of time you have played the game and does not represent the current date / time of the DS clock.
Delay - The delay may be thought of as a fast counter that increases by one approximately 60 times per second and starts when you launch (or soft reset) any of the Pokémon games and runs until you press the A button on the "Continue" screen. The delay is an important component of soft resetting for egg IVs and captured Pokémon because it is used, in concert with your target time, to create your initial seed.
Note about delay: Delays will almost always be consistently odd or even. The exact mechanism which determines this is not fully understood, but it does appear to be related to the presence or absence or a 3rd generation game in slot-2 of the DS. Removing or inserting a 3rd generation game will often change delays from odd to even or even to odd.
The chart below gives a visual representation of both the target time and delay.
Frame - A listing of frames is the sequence of Pokémon that can be captured or IVs that may be passed to an egg, given a particular initial seed. A frame number, or target frame, is where you want to land to get the desired result. There are different methods for targeting a particular frame, depending on what you are doing / where you are in game. For instance, when collecting an egg, the frame will advance based on the amount of time you spend before taking an egg. When in a quiet cave the frame does not advance at all on its own, but can be advanced by in game actions such as walking or viewing your journal.
Calibration
Before beginning your quest for perfect IVs, it is advisable to spend some time collecting data about your usual delays and the number of seconds it takes to go from a reset to the game world. These may vary from game to game depending on how fast one can hit the A button, the version of the game, and other unknown factors. Collecting this data will help you use Time Finder (a feature of RNG Reporter) in the most productive way possible.
Why do we need to do this? Knowing the number of seconds it takes you to enter the game world from a soft reset is important because targeting a particular spread will require "continuing" the game at an exact time. If it always takes you 15 seconds from reset to "Continue" and the seed of the spread you are trying to hit is at the 35 second mark, you will know that you need to reset at the 20 second mark. This process is also used to determine your average delay. The delay can be thought of as a fast counter that increases by one about 60 times per second and runs roughly from the time you reset until you select "Continue". It is not exactly 60 times per second, though, and will vary from game to game.
Once you have a handle on the seconds portion of calibration you can use it to hit spreads that you find without having to repeat the Calibration Phase. The same holds true for your delay value.
Calibration Steps:
1. Save your game in a location where you can easily and quickly catch a high level Pokémon.
2. Synchronize your DS clock with an external clock. Your external clock should have a seconds display or seconds hand. You do not necessarily have to synchronize the date of your DS to the actual date, but you should know the date and time of your DS clock.
3. Start your game and keep Start + Select + L held then press R (these are the buttons hit to soft reset the game) exactly when the clock reaches the next minute. Hit A as fast as possible until you enter the game world. You will want to note the exact time that you soft reset the game.
4. Immediately catch a wild Pokémon.
5. Enter the date / time from step 3 and the Pokémon information from step 4 into the Seed Finder. Take note of the delay and the seconds for the initial seed.
For every reset we want two pieces of data from the output of the Seed Finder:
- Delay of the initial seed
- Seconds of the initial seed
Repeat this procedure until you can confidently predict a range of delays and hit a particular second. This may take a bit of time, but the more data you collect the easier it will be. After this phase, you will have a range of the delays that are likely to occur and the number of seconds it will usually take you to get from reset to "Continue".
An example of typical values are:
Delay range: 600-640
Seconds: 15
Please keep in mind that we go through this Calibration Phase because each person can, and probably will, get slightly different results. If your average range is between 620 and 630, that is fine. It's just your range and what you should use. The same principle applies to seconds as well.
Hitting your Target Time
One of the most important aspects of soft resetting for egg IVs and captured Pokémon is the ability to accurately hit your target time. The target time, along with your delay, is used to create your initial seed. Once you have calibrated and know the time it takes you to get from reset to "Continue", it becomes quite easy to hit the target time.
Below are steps to easily and consistently hit your target time.
1. Have access to an external clock with a seconds display.
2. Prepare your times.
Synchronize Time - Take your target time, remove the seconds, and subtract one full minute. For example: 12:05:30 becomes 12:04:00.
Reset Time - Take your target time and subtract what you determined your seconds value to be during calibration. For example: (assuming a seconds value of 15) 12:05:30 becomes 12:05:15.
2. Set the time on your DS to the synchronize time and hit the A button to save the changes when the external clock reaches a new minute. With this step, we are synchronizing the seconds of the DS with the external clock.
3. Load the game and reset at your calculated reset time. This ensures that your soft reset will occur at the exact time that is necessary to "Continue" at your target time.
Verifying your Target Time / Delay
Use this method to determine if you have correctly hit your target time and delay before spending a lot of time hatching and egg or advancing the frame.
For Breeding Pokémon:
Collect your egg before performing the following.
For Capturing Pokémon:
Perform the following as soon as you enter the game world.
Using the Poketch Coin Flip application, flip 10 times, noting the number of heads and tails (Magikarp represents heads and the Poké Ball represents tails). Then, using RNG Reporter, click "Generate" after entering the target initial seed. Match the results of the flips with the information in the "Coin Flips for Seed" area in the bottom right corner of the RNG Reporter window. If you have hit the correct target time and delay, the results from the coin flips will match those generated by the RNG Reporter. Please note that switching to the Happiness Checker application at any time during this process will invalidate your results, so it is advised to simply save with the Coin Flip application selected. Additionally, this will not work in areas with weather effects.
