5th Gen PRNG Help / Info - Latest: RNG Reporter 9.96.5, PPRNG 1.15.0

[reaverz]

With the looming inevitability of Bank closing at some point after it becomes free and thus cutting off the ability to transfer Pokémon to HOME from the 3DS era and back, I have recently gone back to all of my older games after several years to begin the process of picking up all unclaimed Wonder Card gifts to transfer up. Among these was the Secret Egg event in my Black file, which is a Pidove. Having not performed RNG abuse in several years, I decided to go for the Haze Zekrom and a Meloetta first, since I figured that the Secret Egg might be more challenging. I couldn't find anything concrete on RNG abuse for the Secret Egg anywhere, but after much trial-and-error I managed to successfully RNG it, and I believe I have figured out its quirks when compared to ordinary Wonder Card RNG.

The Secret Egg uses the regular 5th Gen Wonder Card method on RNG Reporter, but with two main differences. The first difference is that the Initial PIDRNG Frame is always 3 less than what the program calculates. The seed that I used had a calculated initial frame of 53, but the actual initial frame ended up being 50. The second difference is a tricky one, and admittedly the details might differ slightly for Pansage and Axew due to it involving the fixed max IV that each of them have. For Pidove specifically, the target frame's original Attack IV is shifted over to become the HP IV instead, while the target frame's original HP IV is not used at all. This is because Pidove is meant to always have an Attack IV of 31, but it is curious that instead of simply overwriting the original Attack IV it moves it over to HP instead.

During my attempts, I hatched several incorrect Pidove whose IVs confused me because they didn't seem to match any nearby frames or ones on adjacent seeds, but it was finding a frame that was identical except for HP in one of these instances that tipped me off. Sure enough, all incorrect Pidove I had hatched so far matched this pattern where its HP IV was the frame's original Attack IV (as well as the initial frame for the seed being 3 less than expected by the program). Knowing this, I simply searched for IV sets where the HP could be anything and the Attack was 31 (since this original 31 Attack IV would be shifted to HP), and eventually found a target and managed to hit it. I now have an unremarkable Hardy 31/31/31/X/31/31 Pidove. At least Nature Mints make the Hardy nature a mild inconvenience.

While the Secret Egg Pokémon are not really exciting or special, I decided to post here just to have the info handy for anyone who might still want to RNG theirs, off the admittedly small chance that they have not yet picked it up. Of course, this is all based on my own DS Parameters and the fact that my Secret Egg is a Pidove, so there might be slight modifications that others have to make for their own RNG abuse, especially if their Secret Egg is Pansage or Axew. I do suspect, however, that Pansage and Axew follow similar IV-shifting rules as Pidove. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if Pansage's fixed 31 Special Attack IV shifts the frame's original Attack, Defense, and Special Attack IVs over to become the IVs for HP, Attack, and Defense respectively. For Axew, its fixed Speed IV of 31 might make it so that all of the frame's original IVs are shifted over in the same manner. If this is the case, it would make the HP IV for the target frame completely irrelevant for all three when searching IV sets for the Secret Egg but alas, I do not have either of those other two to test it. Perhaps someone here might test it and post their results someday.

 

[Brucolac]

Hi,
I am trying to breed a Growlithe, but I cannot even get the right IVs. I succesfully RNGd stationaries and wild pokemon, but I don't get the breeding to work. I tried different seeds, and different delays/timer0s. For my understanding delay and timer0 carry the same information, maybe someone can confirm this? Basically this is the amount of seconds one has to start the game earlier, than the target time, right? When I succesfully RNGd something, I had a delay of 1s, and in other cases 2s. I now for breeding tried even more delays, 0, 1, 2, 3, ... seconds, but I never did get the IVs I wanted (nor did I seem to hit the same IVs at the same seed).
Do you have any suggestions on what I could try? Is it maybe a wrong setting? I clicked Ditto parent etc. I am out of ideas...
Hopefully here still some people are around, I am a bit late to the party^^

 

[shiny finder]

Hi,
I am trying to breed a Growlithe, but I cannot even get the right IVs. I succesfully RNGd stationaries and wild pokemon, but I don't get the breeding to work. I tried different seeds, and different delays/timer0s. For my understanding delay and timer0 carry the same information, maybe someone can confirm this? Basically this is the amount of seconds one has to start the game earlier, than the target time, right? When I succesfully RNGd something, I had a delay of 1s, and in other cases 2s. I now for breeding tried even more delays, 0, 1, 2, 3, ... seconds, but I never did get the IVs I wanted (nor did I seem to hit the same IVs at the same seed).
Do you have any suggestions on what I could try? Is it maybe a wrong setting? I clicked Ditto parent etc. I am out of ideas...
Hopefully here still some people are around, I am a bit late to the party^^

Hi there,

I'm going to assume this is BW, and not BW2.

Delay and timer0 are different things, the former being a time offset and the latter being a parameter tied to your DS + cart combo. Neither should change now that you're breeding instead of wilds/stationaries, so the values you used before should still work here. By delay I'm assuming in this case you're talking about the offset you found while calibrating, where, as you said, you have to start the game earlier than your target time. In the case of a original DS/DS lite, typically this is ~1 second (iirc DSi are ~5-6 and 3DS are ~8). So far starters, I'd say keep using the values that you used when you were successful; nothing should change here.

Possible issues that can cause this include starting your game at the wrong date/time, getting the wrong Timer0, not using the proper keypresses, not using the parents you think you are (i.e. different IVs from what you entered, using foreign language parents when you think you aren't/vice versa), improper setup of the tools, and not hitting your correct frame. I'll gloss over most of these because you seem familiar with the process of RNG in Gen 5, but do confirm that these are being entered/done correctly. If you'd like to post screenshots of your tools I'd be happy to take a look, as well as if you have an example of something you aimed for but got instead.

My guess is you are hitting the wrong frame. Unlike wild and stationary mons, the IVs are tied to the PID frame when breeding. So if you hit the wrong frame, you'll get the wrong IVs. There are NPCs on the route, so your best best is to open the menu ASAP, do your chatot advances (I like to assume the NPCs advance ~7 frames as a starting point), then immediately accept the egg. Hatch it, and look for the frames around your target to try to identify which one you hit, then adjust on your next attempt. You probably won't know the IVs, so try to match it up based on the characteristic + gender + nature.

edit: also if you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out our onsite guide to the process: https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/bw_rng_part5
If videos are more your style, im a blisy is usually a go-to

 

[Brucolac]

Hi there,

I'm going to assume this is BW, and not BW2.

Delay and timer0 are different things, the former being a time offset and the latter being a parameter tied to your DS + cart combo. Neither should change now that you're breeding instead of wilds/stationaries, so the values you used before should still work here. By delay I'm assuming in this case you're talking about the offset you found while calibrating, where, as you said, you have to start the game earlier than your target time. In the case of a original DS/DS lite, typically this is ~1 second (iirc DSi are ~5-6 and 3DS are ~8). So far starters, I'd say keep using the values that you used when you were successful; nothing should change here.

Possible issues that can cause this include starting your game at the wrong date/time, getting the wrong Timer0, not using the proper keypresses, not using the parents you think you are (i.e. different IVs from what you entered, using foreign language parents when you think you aren't/vice versa), improper setup of the tools, and not hitting your correct frame. I'll gloss over most of these because you seem familiar with the process of RNG in Gen 5, but do confirm that these are being entered/done correctly. If you'd like to post screenshots of your tools I'd be happy to take a look, as well as if you have an example of something you aimed for but got instead.

My guess is you are hitting the wrong frame. Unlike wild and stationary mons, the IVs are tied to the PID frame when breeding. So if you hit the wrong frame, you'll get the wrong IVs. There are NPCs on the route, so your best best is to open the menu ASAP, do your chatot advances (I like to assume the NPCs advance ~7 frames as a starting point), then immediately accept the egg. Hatch it, and look for the frames around your target to try to identify which one you hit, then adjust on your next attempt. You probably won't know the IVs, so try to match it up based on the characteristic + gender + nature.

edit: also if you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out our onsite guide to the process: https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/bw_rng_part5
If videos are more your style, im a blisy is usually a go-to

Thank you very much for this detailed response! Indeed this already shone light on some things. For example I thought that no matter which PID frame I hit, my IVs should be the same, which caused me to draw wrong conclusions. And yes, this is BW and not BW2
And for the delay, you said it does not change (for my game + ds combo), did I get that right? I'm a l m o s t certain, that for the Ditto I succesfully RNGd I had a delay of 1 second, and for some other random wild mon I RNGd I had 2 seconds. But you say this is impossible?
Also, for some reason I was not able to replicate to catch that other random mon (another time with a different seed, so probably it is me messing something up), and I started trying many different delays, but no success. Knowing that the delay cannot change would help.
And I read that there is some fluctuating parameter, which you find in the calibration process, and which makes hitting the right seed indeed a coin flip. Can you confirm that or name that parameter?
Oh I and already went with Blisy and the smogon guide (and others)^^ Thanks again!

 

[shiny finder]

Np!

And for the delay, you said it does not change (for my game + ds combo), did I get that right? I'm a l m o s t certain, that for the Ditto I succesfully RNGd I had a delay of 1 second, and for some other random wild mon I RNGd I had 2 seconds. But you say this is impossible?

The times I mentioned are rules of thumb and are dependent upon your hardware ultimately. They shouldn't wildly fluctuate tho. If you say it's 1-2, or mostly 1 and sometimes 2, I'd believe it. Personally I was blessed in that I only ever had to deal with a consistent 1 second lol. But I do recall newer systems fluctuating for example. My point is that your delay, as well as your other parameters, should become apparent during calibration and remain the same values (or fluctuate between the same values as the case may be) as what you found during calibration. What you are trying to RNG is independent of this. So if you found a value/range of values that worked for other targets, they should also work here.

Also, for some reason I was not able to replicate to catch that other random mon (another time with a different seed, so probably it is me messing something up), and I started trying many different delays, but no success. Knowing that the delay cannot change would help.

Nw, it all tends to blend together at some point. It's probably a good time to "start over" now that you know better what to look for. If you are using the RNG Reporter, you might find the Adjacent Seed Tool useful. Main window > 5th gen tools > Adjacent Seed Tool. It allows you to search around your target seed +/- some times and Timer0s so that you can potentially find the seed/frame you hit. It's a bit tougher to narrow it down because you are breeding, but it's an option. I'm not sure if the tool exists in other programs, it might, but I'm mostly unfamiliar with them.

Fun tip if you ever find that you hit your seed, the mons running around in the daycare will start in the same place when you load the game, so you can potentially use that to determine if you hit your seed or got Timer0 trolled. Which brings us to...

And I read that there is some fluctuating parameter, which you find in the calibration process, and which makes hitting the right seed indeed a coin flip. Can you name that parameter?

The parameter is called the Timer0. Some people feel like they have more consistent results if they boot their game with an external timer (i.e. eon timer) so that they start their games at the same fraction of a second each time. It may help, but yeah ultimately it's basically a coinflip. If you feel like 1 seed in particular just never gives you the right timer0, you might try a different one. Might be placebo, but we take those lol

 

[Applemaniac]

Hey everyone, I’m completely new to RNGing. Maybe someone can help me a bit here. I just want a specific hidden grotto Pokémon with correct gender / nature. What tool do I use to achieve this by abusing rng? I saw the RNG Reporter is no longer developed. Does the PokeFinder offer the grottoes as well? Any help much appreciated!

Best,
Applemaniac

 

[shiny finder]

Hey everyone, I’m completely new to RNGing. Maybe someone can help me a bit here. I just want a specific hidden grotto Pokémon with correct gender / nature. What tool do I use to achieve this by abusing rng? I saw the RNG Reporter is no longer developed. Does the PokeFinder offer the grottoes as well? Any help much appreciated!

Best,
Applemaniac

Welcome to Smogon! The RNG Reporter is no longer being maintained, however, it'll still suffice for these purposes if you'd like to use it. PokeFinder does appear to offer the functionality, so if you'd like to use that instead that's an option as well. The fields appear to directly correspond to the old guides, so hopefully it should be relatively straightforward to make the leap between the two.

Since you mention RNGR/PokeFinder, I'm going to assume you're on windows. For starters, I'd recommend the following on RNGing the Grottos specifically:
https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/hidden_grotto_abuse
supplement to the above: https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/bw_rng_part3

video guide

But before that, since you're just starting, you'll also need to calibrate to find your parameters. Blisy has guides on his channel as well, but you can also find a process here: https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/bw_rng_part1

As a brief overview, you'll do this RNG in 2 steps: 1 to get the Pokemon to appear, and the second to get your desired nature. The process is outlined in the guides, but if you have further question along the way, feel free to ask.

 

[Applemaniac]

Welcome to Smogon! The RNG Reporter is no longer being maintained, however, it'll still suffice for these purposes if you'd like to use it. PokeFinder does appear to offer the functionality, so if you'd like to use that instead that's an option as well. The fields appear to directly correspond to the old guides, so hopefully it should be relatively straightforward to make the leap between the two.

Since you mention RNGR/PokeFinder, I'm going to assume you're on windows. For starters, I'd recommend the following on RNGing the Grottos specifically:
https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/hidden_grotto_abuse
supplement to the above: https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/bw_rng_part3

video guide

But before that, since you're just starting, you'll also need to calibrate to find your parameters. Blisy has guides on his channel as well, but you can also find a process here: https://www.smogon.com/ingame/rng/bw_rng_part1

As a brief overview, you'll do this RNG in 2 steps: 1 to get the Pokemon to appear, and the second to get your desired nature. The process is outlined in the guides, but if you have further question along the way, feel free to ask.

Thanks so much! I am actually not on windows, but on Apple devices, but I guess I’ll find something that works. If you have experience there, I’d appreciate if you could link something. I found PPRNG, maybe it’s worth trying to get that to work. I’ll check out the tutorials you link too! I already watched the one where blisy shows grotto rngin, but I was rather confused by the part where he sets the time on his DS and starts the game… I guess I’ll need to watch another tutorial on that

Best,
Applemaniac

 

[Brucolac]

Np!

The times I mentioned are rules of thumb and are dependent upon your hardware ultimately. They shouldn't wildly fluctuate tho. If you say it's 1-2, or mostly 1 and sometimes 2, I'd believe it. Personally I was blessed in that I only ever had to deal with a consistent 1 second lol. But I do recall newer systems fluctuating for example. My point is that your delay, as well as your other parameters, should become apparent during calibration and remain the same values (or fluctuate between the same values as the case may be) as what you found during calibration. What you are trying to RNG is independent of this. So if you found a value/range of values that worked for other targets, they should also work here.


Nw, it all tends to blend together at some point. It's probably a good time to "start over" now that you know better what to look for. If you are using the RNG Reporter, you might find the Adjacent Seed Tool useful. Main window > 5th gen tools > Adjacent Seed Tool. It allows you to search around your target seed +/- some times and Timer0s so that you can potentially find the seed/frame you hit. It's a bit tougher to narrow it down because you are breeding, but it's an option. I'm not sure if the tool exists in other programs, it might, but I'm mostly unfamiliar with them.

Fun tip if you ever find that you hit your seed, the mons running around in the daycare will start in the same place when you load the game, so you can potentially use that to determine if you hit your seed or got Timer0 trolled. Which brings us to...


The parameter is called the Timer0. Some people feel like they have more consistent results if they boot their game with an external timer (i.e. eon timer) so that they start their games at the same fraction of a second each time. It may help, but yeah ultimately it's basically a coinflip. If you feel like 1 seed in particular just never gives you the right timer0, you might try a different one. Might be placebo, but we take those lol

Thank you, I will try that!

 

[shiny finder]

Thanks so much! I am actually not on windows, but on Apple devices, but I guess I’ll find something that works. If you have experience there, I’d appreciate if you could link something. I found PPRNG, maybe it’s worth trying to get that to work. I’ll check out the tutorials you link too! I already watched the one where blisy shows grotto rngin, but I was rather confused by the part where he sets the time on his DS and starts the game… I guess I’ll need to watch another tutorial on that

Best,
Applemaniac

Np. Oh, in that case we also have a PPRNG guide. I've never owned a Mac so I'm afraid I can't be of much assistance on getting the tools to work. I haven't seen the video, but my guess is that blisy uses an external timer when doing it, which is maybe where some of the confusion is coming from. If that bit is the confusion, I'll say it's not required to use one. What I do is take the time of my seed, then subtract off a minute or 2 to give me time to reset my DS. Boot it up, then press A to boot the game at [time required for seed] - [some offset you'll figure out during calibration]. No external timer required (tho in the case of a 3ds you'll need a clock with seconds). In the case of calibration things are even more lax, because you don't really care when you press A to start the game, as long as you know when you did.

 

[Applemaniac]

Np. Oh, in that case we also have a PPRNG guide. I've never owned a Mac so I'm afraid I can't be of much assistance on getting the tools to work. I haven't seen the video, but my guess is that blisy uses an external timer when doing it, which is maybe where some of the confusion is coming from. If that bit is the confusion, I'll say it's not required to use one. What I do is take the time of my seed, then subtract off a minute or 2 to give me time to reset my DS. Boot it up, then press A to boot the game at [time required for seed] - [some offset you'll figure out during calibration]. No external timer required (tho in the case of a 3ds you'll need a clock with seconds). In the case of calibration things are even more lax, because you don't really care when you press A to start the game, as long as you know when you did.

I see, a lot of my confusion was resolved today when I checked things out a bit more. To all Mac users: I can recommend the platform independent PokeFinder, which is kind of the successor of RNG reporter apparently. I am a bit lost atm as to how to verify which one is my seed when I get multiple. In Blisys vid, he uses another search of RNG Reporter for that. I’m however not so sure if PokeFinder offers that functionality already.
A general thing I wondered is: why are there no web based rng tools? I saw a few sites that included guides for rng, but none that had actual tools. This would be nice because it is platform independent as well

 

[Tatertot]

I see, a lot of my confusion was resolved today when I checked things out a bit more. To all Mac users: I can recommend the platform independent PokeFinder, which is kind of the successor of RNG reporter apparently. I am a bit lost atm as to how to verify which one is my seed when I get multiple. In Blisys vid, he uses another search of RNG Reporter for that. I’m however not so sure if PokeFinder offers that functionality already.
A general thing I wondered is: why are there no web based rng tools? I saw a few sites that included guides for rng, but none that had actual tools. This would be nice because it is platform independent as well

Hi! Fellow Mac user here. Things are definitely tougher out there for us, but PokeFinder being cross-platform has definitely made things more accessible in recent times. You can use the searcher tab of PokeFinder to verify your seed (in the Hidden Grotto window it's right under the profile section, next to the Generator tab).

If you want a guide that specifically uses PokeFinder, Devon Studios has some great ones. They're in Italian and are geared towards emulator users, but are usually pretty easily understandable if you use Google Translate, and can be useful with retail RNGs as well. Here's their one for Hidden Grottos: https://devonstudios.it/2020/11/19/hidden-grottos/

Also, you can use this as a substitute for EonTimer, it's an online tool for Gen 4 & 5: https://not-an-aardvark.github.io/rng-timer/

Simply put, there aren't many web-based RNG tools because no one has made them yet, and there isn't much demand for it. The RNG community is comparatively small and most of the developers are Windows users, so we're fortunate that there are so many resources out there that people have invested time into making and writing guides for. If you get really into RNG and want to do more advanced stuff that requires Windows-only programs, you can do what I do and boot your Mac into Windows by using Bootcamp, or make a virtual machine using VirtualBox, Parallels, or similar. All of the stuff on my trade thread was obtained with the help of my Macbook, so there are ways to get pretty much anything you'd want if you're willing to use workarounds.

Hope this helps!

 

[shiny finder]

I am a bit lost atm as to how to verify which one is my seed when I get multiple.

As you do multiple calibration attempts, hopefully you'll find some consistency across them. It's possible you're using too wide of search parameters and getting false positives, in which case you might be able to reason out which one it is (for example, if one says you hit a time 10 seconds after the one you aimed for and the other is 1 second, you can probably rule out the 10). In some cases tho, you really can't tell. It should average out tho after a good number of attempts.

Tate pretty much nailed the reason for no internet tools. Some do exist, like some assistance tools I have in my sig or something like lean's online tool for gen 8, but they are not as common or supported as the downloadables. Only other thing I would add is there are also technical limitations you'd run into, such as javascript's (native) lack of big number support. Not to say it couldn't be done, but it's never been a priority, esp when talking about games that are 10+ years old.

 

[Applemaniac]

Hi! Fellow Mac user here. Things are definitely tougher out there for us, but PokeFinder being cross-platform has definitely made things more accessible in recent times. You can use the searcher tab of PokeFinder to verify your seed (in the Hidden Grotto window it's right under the profile section, next to the Generator tab).

If you want a guide that specifically uses PokeFinder, Devon Studios has some great ones. They're in Italian and are geared towards emulator users, but are usually pretty easily understandable if you use Google Translate, and can be useful with retail RNGs as well. Here's their one for Hidden Grottos: https://devonstudios.it/2020/11/19/hidden-grottos/

Also, you can use this as a substitute for EonTimer, it's an online tool for Gen 4 & 5: https://not-an-aardvark.github.io/rng-timer/

Simply put, there aren't many web-based RNG tools because no one has made them yet, and there isn't much demand for it. The RNG community is comparatively small and most of the developers are Windows users, so we're fortunate that there are so many resources out there that people have invested time into making and writing guides for. If you get really into RNG and want to do more advanced stuff that requires Windows-only programs, you can do what I do and boot your Mac into Windows by using Bootcamp, or make a virtual machine using VirtualBox, Parallels, or similar. All of the stuff on my trade thread was obtained with the help of my Macbook, so there are ways to get pretty much anything you'd want if you're willing to use workarounds.

Hope this helps!

Thanks, I’ll, check out these guides! And the verification method too. The Eon timer can actually be used on Mac when you build it from source. The instructions can be found in the GitHub repository. So if you don’t like that alternative, you dont have to use it :)
And to the web based tools: yea, you guys are probably right, if you have working windows/mac tools there is no need really and on top of that the extra difficulty… I get that

 

[Applemaniac]

Ive got another question about calibrating. I’ve got a 3Ds, which is a lot more inaccurate when it comes to seconds apparently. I keep hitting 36 when it should be 30. During calibration: Do I immediately fix the offset in eon timer to hit the correct actual seconds and then resume testing to find my timer0? Also: Should the calibration of eon timer be part of my calibrated profile? Like if I want to hit a certain second in the future, do I always set the eon timer to the calibration I used during the initial calibration process of PokeFinder (Or my RNG tool in general)?

 

[shiny finder]

Ive got another question about calibrating. I’ve got a 3Ds, which is a lot more inaccurate when it comes to seconds apparently. I keep hitting 36 when it should be 30. During calibration: Do I immediately fix the offset in eon timer to hit the correct actual seconds and then resume testing to find my timer0? Also: Should the calibration of eon timer be part of my calibrated profile? Like if I want to hit a certain second in the future, do I always set the eon timer to the calibration I used during the initial calibration process of PokeFinder (Or my RNG tool in general)?

This is expected. No need to fix it now (tho you can if you'd like), but yes you should make note of it for your actual RNG attempts because you will need to subtract off this offset to hit your seeds. If you scroll up a bit, you can see my discussion with Brucolac on the matter. The "delay" we are referring to is this offset, which will remain with you for all your RNG attempts (assuming you use the same hardware).

 

[Applemaniac]

This is expected. No need to fix it now (tho you can if you'd like), but yes you should make note of it for your actual RNG attempts because you will need to subtract off this offset to hit your seeds. If you scroll up a bit, you can see my discussion with Brucolac on the matter. The "delay" we are referring to is this offset, which will remain with you for all your RNG attempts (assuming you use the same hardware).

Thanks a lot! I tried hidden grotto rnging but so far to no success… I figured out my timer0, the delay and everything, yet still loading the game at the time specified by PokeFinder did not result in the Pokémon spawning. In fact, the grotto always stayed empty after me running 256 Steps and leaving + reentering the grotto. I tried multiple seeds multiple times (to eliminate me being unlucky with timer0) but so far nothing worked, even though it should… Im a bit clueless. I wonder if I got unlucky with timer0 or errors by myself starting the game at the wrong time so often, that it just never worked yet? I must say that would surprise me though

 

[shiny finder]

Thanks a lot! I tried hidden grotto rnging but so far to no success… I figured out my timer0, the delay and everything, yet still loading the game at the time specified by PokeFinder did not result in the Pokémon spawning. In fact, the grotto always stayed empty after me running 256 Steps and leaving + reentering the grotto. I tried multiple seeds multiple times (to eliminate me being unlucky with timer0) but so far nothing worked, even though it should… Im a bit clueless. I wonder if I got unlucky with timer0 or errors by myself starting the game at the wrong time so often, that it just never worked yet? I must say that would surprise me though

Timer0 trolling is always an option, but are you sure you have all of the other grottos filled up? Specifically the ones with higher priority (listed before) than the one you're targeting?

 

[Applemaniac]

Timer0 trolling is always an option, but are you sure you have all of the other grottos filled up? Specifically the ones with higher priority (listed before) than the one you're targeting?

Yeah I am pretty sure… I have like 100 playing hours on that save and I only ever farmed very few grottos. Due to a lot of breeding I did as well (=running around) everything should be filled

Maybe I should verify that my delay is not off? I could try to calibrate with the exact time of the seed I want to hit… then I can check if the actual seconds match up

 

[shiny finder]

Yeah I am pretty sure… I have like 100 playing hours on that save and I only ever farmed very few grottos. Due to a lot of breeding I did as well (=running around) everything should be filled

Maybe I should verify that my delay is not off? I could try to calibrate with the exact time of the seed I want to hit… then I can check if the actual seconds match up

try not to double post.

That could work. It's not a bad idea to try for something where you can get feedback, such as a wild/stationary mon, to see if you have things dialed in. It's a bit hard with grottos since you don't always have an indication of what went wrong. I'd still recommend checking the grottos (and that you don't have mons in the daycare now that you mention breeding), because it'll throw everything off otherwise.

 

[Applemaniac]

try not to double post.

That could work. It's not a bad idea to try for something where you can get feedback, such as a wild/stationary mon, to see if you have things dialed in. It's a bit hard with grottos since you don't always have an indication of what went wrong. I'd still recommend checking the grottos (and that you don't have mons in the daycare now that you mention breeding), because it'll throw everything off otherwise.

All right, I’ll avoid that. Yea daycare is empty I checked that, Grottos can do. And I guess other than that I can only catch a wild mon to check if Im hitting the actual seconds I want. Will do that, ty!

 

[Clockenstein]

Unusual question coming through: nine years ago, judging from the last modified timestamps on my RNG Reporter, it looks like I successfully followed this thread / the onsite guide to RNG abuse a 5IV Naive Snivy (non-shiny) from Juniper, and also an Adamant Roggenrola. The thing is, I'm not sure how my 15-year-old self was able to derive my standard seed, since it doesn't seem like I RNG abused a TID/SID (OT looks fairly normal, it's 20131) and then reset the data. My memory of things from then is patchy, but two things I'm fairly sure are true are that this was not a used copy of Black (so I couldn't have used someone else's previous save), and that I hadn't gone farther than Wellspring Cave at most (i.e., the Trio Badge and the C-Gear).

Are there any viable ways to have derived a Pokémon's IVs (and therefore the seed) without possessing a high-level mon for reliable calculation? Even a tedious, harebrained plan of attack, if anyone has a good guess.

The DS used in that method is broken beyond repair now -- I'm working on finding the seed for a replacement DSL at the moment so I can RNG the Larvesta egg gift, but while I'm working on that, I figured I'd ask this question and see if anyone has any guesses what the hell I was cooking nine years ago.

 

[shiny finder]

Are there any viable ways to have derived a Pokémon's IVs (and therefore the seed) without possessing a high-level mon for reliable calculation? Even a tedious, harebrained plan of attack, if anyone has a good guess.

Pokecheck would have still been a thing back then iirc. It's possible you used that to determine your exact IVs or even your SID (or had someone else do it).

 

[Clockenstein]

Pokecheck would have still been a thing back then iirc. It's possible you used that to determine your exact IVs or even your SID (or had someone else do it).

I think the main issue with that solution (and pretty much any solution I can think of) is that it requires this game to save (to enter the GTS) after obtaining a Pokémon, which if data hadn't been reset means saving past the starter choice. At this point I'd like to confirm one thing: does the game save after an IR trade is completed? Saving before IR can be disabled in the options, so if it doesn't save at some point in that process, it seems possible (albeit bizarre and tedious) to theoretically (without saving at any point) beat Striaton Gym, obtain the C-Gear, then initiate an IR trade with another file, sending the starter (since it's the only Pokémon in this hypothetical run on the known initial frame), then spamming Rare Candies / other growth methods on the second save to calculate IVs or otherwise just sending it through Pokécheck there.

If there's no getting around the requirement to save no matter what, then odds are I probably did reset the game, and like you mentioned, used info from Pokécheck to target the exact same TID / SID as the initial save data.

 

[shiny finder]

does the game save after an IR trade is completed?

Couldn't tell you for sure because I didn't test it and and don't remember, but I would be very surprised if it didn't. Every other game has done that and the ramifications otherwise are too big. If this is BW2, then you could have done spinner calibration, which does require a save but not IVs. I misread your original message and thought it was shiny, so your SID is irrelevant here. We'll never know for sure.