Hack Series: Pokémon Photonic Sun & Prismatic Moon

If you have the Google Play Store available, try an app called Datadex. It's really intuitive, and it's what I use for a replacement to an in-game NatDex. It's got a pro version for no ads and dark screen mode, but it's still great and easy to use with the free version.

Buffel Saft said:

Sadly yes.

Hi, that means you can only find Greninja as an ally Pokemon called in an SOS battle while it's raining.

Hey, I'll be updating these hacks soon (hopefully in the next 48 hours), so I'll make sure the files aren't corrupt at the same time. Until then you could try unpacking a clean update file with the hacking toolkit, rebuilding it without modifying any files, then installing it in citra to see if the original ROM still works with the update installed. If it doesn't the issue is your version of hacking toolkit; it's very unreliable and only certain versions work for some people. If that doesn't fix the issue we can try something else once the hack is updated.

If only haha. I'll try to get the update done tomorrow, got everything working again today. From memory they'll include:

• Better level up moves for Tropius and fairy types
• Better everything for Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff
• Dark Pulse for Greninja by level up
• Solid Rock for Torterra

I think that's everything I was supposed to add. Also open to other suggestions!

Click to expand...

Thanks, man, for all information. You're a very nice guy.

I found a kind of "poké bank", the name is "PKSM". Do you know that?

Long time since I've been here, nice to see you still doing mods! Quick question, now that i've finally gotten round to playing this on Citra lol.

Am I being completely stupid or blind...but where do you find Geodude? I checked your wild pokemon list and special encounter list and...nothing :s. Did you forget to include it? Or just forget to add this pokemon to the document? I think that's the only one missing.

Loving the hack so far btw, not really sure what i could suggest for features, I know pokemon star mod does some really interesting things and also some really ludicrous things haha but either way, this is looking and playing good so far! Maybe a fewwwww too many encounters inside caves? Took me an absolute age getting through ten carat hill lol without repels!

DancingDodo said:

I tried the original unhacked ROM with the hacked 1.2 update (didn't know how to unselect an update) and while I am fairly sure that would have caused problems in the game, it still managed to boot, which kinda rules out the CIA update as the culprit

Edit: Alright so now I tried properly removing the 1.2 CIA update. Same result: the original ROM boots, the hacked ROM does not. Your proposal gave me an idea, and I tried to decrypt the original ROM and then immediately repack it again without altering any files, and it turns out as a 2GB rom instead of the 4GB original. Since I didn't alter any files I am kinda stumped on where the other 2GB went. Obviously it will not boot, claiming a fatal error (so not the same issue as the hacked ROM that doesn't give any errors and is the correct 4GB size). I don't know if this is normal or maybe I have a corrupt version of the 3ds toolkit. Please advice :)

2nd Edit: I played around with my 1.2 CIA Update files. Turns out the original unhacked CIA supports a wrong region; Citra will remove the icon of the ROM (the original unhacked one in this case) and claim invalid region. Despite this it still boots (and I presume will also work during gameplay).
Ironically, the hacked CIA update based on the same file does not complain about any regional conflicts. It still boots, even with the unhacked ROM, but I don't know if this could cause some issues?

3rd Edit:
So to recap:

• My original ROM is the correct size of 4.294GB. It boots with or without the 1.2 Update.
• The hacked ROM is the exact same size but won't boot. Does not provide any errors, just gets stuck on a black screen when trying to boot with or without the 1.2 update
• My original 1.2 CIA update claims regional conflicts with the ROM, yet still boots and presumably also works during gameplay
• The hacked 1.2 CIA update does not claim regional conflicts despite being based on the same file as the original; still boots with the unhacked ROM. No difference on the hacked ROM
• Extracting and immediately rebuilding the original ROM without altering any files leaves it as a corrupt ROM of a peculiar 2 GB size. Gives a fatal error when trying to boot.
• Sidenote: I had to use the v10 hacking toolkit to make my update as the v9 didn't work. Seemingly no issues with the CIA hacking; everything points to the ROM hacking being the culprit

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It sounds like the original ROM might be a bad dump; it should only be about 3.44 GB before and after rebuilding. Strange that it boots if that's the case though. The update being region free after being rebuilt is normal, most 3DS tools will produce region free files because they're more useful than region locked ones. We can definitely rule out the update being the issue though so that's good at least.

You could try unpacking and rebuilding the ROM with Asia81's toolkit rather than the dotnet one and see if that makes any difference, though I'd be surprised if it did.

felipeaccioli said:

Thanks, man, for all information. You're a very nice guy.

I found a kind of "poké bank", the name is "PKSM". Do you know that?

Click to expand...

You're welcome! I've heard of PKSM; it used to have some serious problems, but those may have been fixed by now. The latest version looks pretty good.

Krakanous said:

Long time since I've been here, nice to see you still doing mods! Quick question, now that i've finally gotten round to playing this on Citra lol.

Am I being completely stupid or blind...but where do you find Geodude? I checked your wild pokemon list and special encounter list and...nothing :s. Did you forget to include it? Or just forget to add this pokemon to the document? I think that's the only one missing.

Loving the hack so far btw, not really sure what i could suggest for features, I know pokemon star mod does some really interesting things and also some really ludicrous things haha but either way, this is looking and playing good so far! Maybe a fewwwww too many encounters inside caves? Took me an absolute age getting through ten carat hill lol without repels!

Click to expand...

Geodude's only available as Graveler on Ula'Ula Island, which is kinda silly. I'll add it to dust clouds somewhere or replace the Zubat in Diglett's Tunnel, it's a bit of a shame to have a new regional form available so late in the game.

Yeah Star is an interesting one lol. Glad to hear you're enjoying the hack though! I don't think I can change encounter chances but I'll take a look, that cave being a pain to get through sounds familiar.

Buffel Saft said:

It sounds like the original ROM might be a bad dump; it should only be about 3.44 GB before and after rebuilding. Strange that it boots if that's the case though. The update being region free after being rebuilt is normal, most 3DS tools will produce region free files because they're more useful than region locked ones. We can definitely rule out the update being the issue though so that's good at least.

You could try unpacking and rebuilding the ROM with Asia81's toolkit rather than the dotnet one and see if that makes any difference, though I'd be surprised if it did.


You're welcome! I've heard of PKSM; it used to have some serious problems, but those may have been fixed by now. The latest version looks pretty good.


Geodude's only available as Graveler on Ula'Ula Island, which is kinda silly. I'll add it to dust clouds somewhere or replace the Zubat in Diglett's Tunnel, it's a bit of a shame to have a new regional form available so late in the game.

Yeah Star is an interesting one lol. Glad to hear you're enjoying the hack though! I don't think I can change encounter chances but I'll take a look, that cave being a pain to get through sounds familiar.

Click to expand...

Ah...so that's why, i thought that was rather odd! No worries for now, I bred an egg version from a previous game that hatched into a alolan version so that's suiting me fine for now :). That's cool, i thought maybe there might of just been too much spawning at once but i suppose it's just in need of more repels, no worries though :).

Buffel Saft said:

It sounds like the original ROM might be a bad dump; it should only be about 3.44 GB before and after rebuilding. Strange that it boots if that's the case though. The update being region free after being rebuilt is normal, most 3DS tools will produce region free files because they're more useful than region locked ones. We can definitely rule out the update being the issue though so that's good at least.

You could try unpacking and rebuilding the ROM with Asia81's toolkit rather than the dotnet one and see if that makes any difference, though I'd be surprised if it did.

Click to expand...

That's strange. I have a dump of Ultra Sun and managed to complete the game (which is why I am going for Ultra Moon to try your hack; don't wanna overwrite my save), and that worked perfectly all the way through. Also 4.294 GB.
Edit: Took a second look and did some research. The encrypted version is indeed 3.5GB, but if you want to decrypt it for Citra it seems it will always turn out 4.3GB. I don't think my ROM is defect. At least that's what some other people claim on the interwebs. You have a 3.44 GB ROM that works for Citra?
2nd Edit: Hmm or maybe not? When I use the .Net 3ds toolkit to Extract my 4.3GB ROM, the extraced files also add up to 3.5GB... this is all very confusing :s

Krakanous said:

Ah...so that's why, i thought that was rather odd! No worries for now, I bred an egg version from a previous game that hatched into a alolan version so that's suiting me fine for now :). That's cool, i thought maybe there might of just been too much spawning at once but i suppose it's just in need of more repels, no worries though :).

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There's a separate value somewhere for each map that determines the chance of encountering something with each step, I guess Game freak just set it to crazy in ten carat hill.

DancingDodo said:

That's strange. I have a dump of Ultra Sun and managed to complete the game (which is why I am going for Ultra Moon to try your hack; don't wanna overwrite my save), and that worked perfectly all the way through. Also 4.294 GB.
Edit: Took a second look and did some research. The encrypted version is indeed 3.5GB, but if you want to decrypt it for Citra it seems it will always turn out 4.3GB. I don't think my ROM is defect. At least that's what some other people claim on the interwebs. You have a 3.44 GB ROM that works for Citra?
2nd Edit: Hmm or maybe not? When I use the .Net 3ds toolkit to Extract my 4.3GB ROM, the extraced files also add up to 3.5GB... this is all very confusing :s

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Yeah my decrypted ROMs are either 3.5 or 3.4 GB (seems Ultra Sun is slightly smaller). Does your Ultra Sun ROM unpack and rebuild properly? It might be worth trying that to see if the issue is the Ultra Moon ROM or the toolkit. If it works you could always use the Ultra Sun ROM and back up your save.

I have no idea where that extra GB comes from, but it can't be a major problem if the game still boots.

Buffel Saft said:

Yeah my decrypted ROMs are either 3.5 or 3.4 GB (seems Ultra Sun is slightly smaller). Does your Ultra Sun ROM unpack and rebuild properly? It might be worth trying that to see if the issue is the Ultra Moon ROM or the toolkit. If it works you could always use the Ultra Sun ROM and back up your save.

I have no idea where that extra GB comes from, but it can't be a major problem if the game still boots.

Click to expand...

Alright so I figured out why my ROMs had a strange size after rebuilding. It turns out if you have less than 10GB space on your OS drive something weird happens when rebuilding your ROM regardless of where the toolkit is located. Now I am consistently building 4.294GB ROMs, hacked and unhacked... Still won't boot though =/
I checked an unhacked version of Moon after extracting and rebuilding and without any change in size this one now boots properly.
On a sidenote, I tried Asia's hacking kit, but it wouldn't extract properly. Kind of a moot point now though, since the .Net 3ds now seems to be working.

So: My ROM works, my .Net 3ds toolkit works, my CIA 1.2 update works. Only the hacked version of the ROM isn't working.
Only thing I can think of trying is to download your Sun hack and see if that should act differently, but google drive takes forever to zip the files and I kinda wanted to try Moon :p

Edit: So a small update. I decided, since I couldn't get Ultra Moon working, that I would try your hack of Pokemon X. I wasn't that surprised that I ran into the exact same issue. BUT! I managed to locate and solve the problem. It turns out that the hacked version of Eternal X was unable to launch the intro cutscene and therefore would get stuck to the forementioned black screen at boot. I solved this by opening the unhacked version, selecting my character and saving the game. After I had a valid save in the starter bedroom the hack was able to launch just fine.
I tried replicating this with the Ultra Moon version, but unfortunately it didn't work. Hopefully this can give you an idea what the issue might be?

So two quick questions:
1. Are Pokemon in the Rebalanced version legal for online battling and trading?
2. Is it possible to get non-Alolan forms in the game? If so, how?

DancingDodo said:

Alright so I figured out why my ROMs had a strange size after rebuilding. It turns out if you have less than 10GB space on your OS drive something weird happens when rebuilding your ROM regardless of where the toolkit is located. Now I am consistently building 4.294GB ROMs, hacked and unhacked... Still won't boot though =/
I checked an unhacked version of Moon after extracting and rebuilding and without any change in size this one now boots properly.
On a sidenote, I tried Asia's hacking kit, but it wouldn't extract properly. Kind of a moot point now though, since the .Net 3ds now seems to be working.

So: My ROM works, my .Net 3ds toolkit works, my CIA 1.2 update works. Only the hacked version of the ROM isn't working.
Only thing I can think of trying is to download your Sun hack and see if that should act differently, but google drive takes forever to zip the files and I kinda wanted to try Moon :p

Edit: So a small update. I decided, since I couldn't get Ultra Moon working, that I would try your hack of Pokemon X. I wasn't that surprised that I ran into the exact same issue. BUT! I managed to locate and solve the problem. It turns out that the hacked version of Eternal X was unable to launch the intro cutscene and therefore would get stuck to the forementioned black screen at boot. I solved this by opening the unhacked version, selecting my character and saving the game. After I had a valid save in the starter bedroom the hack was able to launch just fine.
I tried replicating this with the Ultra Moon version, but unfortunately it didn't work. Hopefully this can give you an idea what the issue might be?

Click to expand...

I've never had the intro freeze in Eternal X, but I also haven't tried the latest version on Citra, so I'll see if I can figure out whats going on with that later today. Hopefully it's just something wrong with the hack's files as that's an easy fix. I don't know what else would be causing this, but I also haven't changed any of the files that can cause a freeze like that in a long time, so it's unlikely that will be the problem.

EDIT: I've just tested Eternal X with a fresh ROM dump and the latest version of the hack, had no issues so we can rule out the hack being the problem, at least for X. When you're merging the hack's files are they definitely being merged (as in only replacing the required files and not entire folders)? Asking because windows 10 does the latter by default and that would absolutely break the game.

WorldGuard_01 said:

So two quick questions:
1. Are Pokemon in the Rebalanced version legal for online battling and trading?
2. Is it possible to get non-Alolan forms in the game? If so, how?

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1. That's an "it depends" answer. If they're hatched from an egg and don't have illegal moves or abilities they might be legal, assuming they also have any egg moves you want bred on to them (egg moves learnt by level up will be illegal). If they were caught in the wild, they're definitely not legal due to having the wrong met location and level.
2. Yep! They're listed in red text in the wild encounters document, but generally they're SOS allies for the Alolan forms. There are a few exceptions like regular Vulpix being available in Lush Jungle, and things like Raichu or Marowak can only be obtained in Ultra Space.

Good to know for the first part, and thanks for the tip about red text for Alolan Forms! I'm doing a living dex challenge, and since I've got spare boxes, I've got one for my three main teams, one for shinies, and 90 spots for variants, ranging from Pokemon like Eternal Floette, to all the Alolan forms, and even all 28 Unown.

WorldGuard_01 said:

Good to know for the first part, and thanks for the tip about red text for Alolan Forms! I'm doing a living dex challenge, and since I've got spare boxes, I've got one for my three main teams, one for shinies, and 90 spots for variants, ranging from Pokemon like Eternal Floette, to all the Alolan forms, and even all 28 Unown.

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No problem! Unown might be a bit of a pain to collect, most of the different letters are SOS allies so some of them are very rare.

Speaking of Unown...they always bugged me until very recently. I've been trying to read up on them as much as I can, and the recurring theme around them states they are interdimensional beings, which IMMEDIATELY made me think about a possible relation with Ultra Beasts. Then it got me thinking...why was this never really explored in the main canon? I actually thought it would be really cool, if for example that if they get "stronger" when surround 2, 3 or more together than a certain amount could ultimately end up spawning, evolving into, or shifting into some Ultra Beast form. This sorta makes sense if anyone has watched the "Spell of the Unown: Entei" film, lots of somewhat familiar references here to poke at.

I thought this would be kinda cool that if collected a bunch of unown that spelled out particular words in your party, like "Beast!" or "Light!" or "Dark!" or even obscure things like "Build!" they would form into respective Ultra Beasts, the last example maybe being something like Stakataka.

Meh, just a random thought, if I had the time do ROM hacks myself I may give that fan theory a little exploration heh.

Krakanous said:

Speaking of Unown...they always bugged me until very recently. I've been trying to read up on them as much as I can, and the recurring theme around them states they are interdimensional beings, which IMMEDIATELY made me think about a possible relation with Ultra Beasts. Then it got me thinking...why was this never really explored in the main canon? I actually thought it would be really cool, if for example that if they get "stronger" when surround 2, 3 or more together than a certain amount could ultimately end up spawning, evolving into, or shifting into some Ultra Beast form. This sorta makes sense if anyone has watched the "Spell of the Unown: Entei" film, lots of somewhat familiar references here to poke at.

I thought this would be kinda cool that if collected a bunch of unown that spelled out particular words in your party, like "Beast!" or "Light!" or "Dark!" or even obscure things like "Build!" they would form into respective Ultra Beasts, the last example maybe being something like Stakataka.

Meh, just a random thought, if I had the time do ROM hacks myself I may give that fan theory a little exploration heh.

Click to expand...

That would certainly make them a lot more useful, and it's been a few gens since we could catch them. Maybe they'll do something if they ever come back in the switch games.

Also, I've just updated the games. It's nothing major for the standard versions, but the rebalanced versions have another "new" TM (Rock Climb replaces TM67 Smart Strike, and is now Rock-type), and a few more Pokemon have been buffed.

Hey, I'm Nuzlocking Prismatic Moon again and I found a Roggenrola in Ten Carat Hill in the grass. It's not listed in the documentation there though, just in the cave. Is it supposed to be there? Maybe I'm just a little peeved since I was hoping for a Jangmo-o for my encounter there, haha. But mostly I'm just confused. I do love the special moves for Gigalith though.

Rayquaza Master 384 said:

Hey, I'm Nuzlocking Prismatic Moon again and I found a Roggenrola in Ten Carat Hill in the grass. It's not listed in the documentation there though, just in the cave. Is it supposed to be there? Maybe I'm just a little peeved since I was hoping for a Jangmo-o for my encounter there, haha. But mostly I'm just confused. I do love the special moves for Gigalith though.

Click to expand...

Hey, it's not supposed to be there; that should have been a Meditite. Apparently I forgot to update all the other grass patches way back when the Roggenrola there were replaced with Meditite, so it's only in one patch of grass and the rest are still Roggenrola. It's a shame it wasn't a Jangmo-o, but good luck on your Nuzlocke!

Buffel Saft said:

If only haha. I'll try to get the update done tomorrow, got everything working again today. From memory they'll include:

• Better level up moves for Tropius and fairy types
• Better everything for Jigglypuff/Wigglytuff
• Dark Pulse for Greninja by level up
• Solid Rock for Torterra

I think that's everything I was supposed to add. Also open to other suggestions!

Click to expand...

Would you want to do something about blissey and SOS calls? Maybe change her for Chansey so she can call another blisseys or chanseys? I'd like to have something like that in order to have a way to level up just like on the original games.

But it's more about a personal asking than a feature the hack should include IMO, so it's up to you

james19 said:

Would you want to do something about blissey and SOS calls? Maybe change her for Chansey so she can call another blisseys or chanseys? I'd like to have something like that in order to have a way to level up just like on the original games.

But it's more about a personal asking than a feature the hack should include IMO, so it's up to you

Click to expand...

Oh I fixed that in the update too (forgot to add it to the standard version though), Blissey will now call for help as often as Zubat, and will just call other Blisseys. Should be great for quick levelling.

I've just started playing your hack (Prismatic Moon) and I'm loving it! I'm only in the trainer school but finding it quite challenging. I'm using a rule where I can only catch 1 pokemon in an area: if I KO them, tough. I'd never even consider doing a nuzlocke of this though. So far the team is Popplio, Grubbin, Wingull and Magnemite, so not much type diversity early on, especially with Disarming Voice but I'm hoping I pick up some great pokemon later on. Would you suggest any additions/changes to this rule (maybe to do with Island Scan pokemon) to make it slightly easier to get pokemon which cover my weaknesses? (or any rules to make it a touch more challenging.)

Also, I had a look at the important battles and... They scare me. Especially Rainbow Rocket. Isn't Giovanni a little... too OP? 252 EVs in every stat which breaks the rules of 512. Do you plan on changing the levels at all so maybe the final boss is Level 98-100 whereas everyone else is around that level. (The Champion could be level 90, rematches at level 95. Rainbow Rocket team leaders between 95-98) I like to see my pokemon level up and progress throughout the game so I'm not sure about this.

Two more questions: are there many dialogue changes in the game itself or is that only the opening with Kukui? And are you planning on adding more buffs to pokemon such as Pelipper? (since I didn't see any stat changes in the document) You could take some inspiration from the Renegade Platinum Pokemon Changes if you haven't already?

Thanks for the amazing work you've done, and looking forward to playing more of this ROM Hack!

DanF2000 said:

I've just started playing your hack (Prismatic Moon) and I'm loving it! I'm only in the trainer school but finding it quite challenging. I'm using a rule where I can only catch 1 pokemon in an area: if I KO them, tough. I'd never even consider doing a nuzlocke of this though. So far the team is Popplio, Grubbin, Wingull and Magnemite, so not much type diversity early on, especially with Disarming Voice but I'm hoping I pick up some great pokemon later on. Would you suggest any additions/changes to this rule (maybe to do with Island Scan pokemon) to make it slightly easier to get pokemon which cover my weaknesses? (or any rules to make it a touch more challenging.)

Also, I had a look at the important battles and... They scare me. Especially Rainbow Rocket. Isn't Giovanni a little... too OP? 252 EVs in every stat which breaks the rules of 512. Do you plan on changing the levels at all so maybe the final boss is Level 98-100 whereas everyone else is around that level. (The Champion could be level 90, rematches at level 95. Rainbow Rocket team leaders between 95-98) I like to see my pokemon level up and progress throughout the game so I'm not sure about this.

Two more questions: are there many dialogue changes in the game itself or is that only the opening with Kukui? And are you planning on adding more buffs to pokemon such as Pelipper? (since I didn't see any stat changes in the document) You could take some inspiration from the Renegade Platinum Pokemon Changes if you haven't already?

Thanks for the amazing work you've done, and looking forward to playing more of this ROM Hack!

Click to expand...

The first few trial areas should be diverse enough to cover your weaknesses with that rule (there's a good chance of getting a fire, water and grass type from the Akala Island trial areas), unless you get really unlucky. It wouldn't hurt to give yourself an Island Scan Pokemon on each island or maybe after each trial though. I normally play without using healing items in battle, so that could be an interesting extra rule if you don't do that already.

The reason Giovanni has the crazy GSC style stats is that I wanted him to be significantly stronger than the other Rainbow Rocket bosses, but couldn't just give him a level boost as the player hits level 100 sometime around the Pokemon league (or just after it). At least he doesn't also have max IVs! The crazy level curve is just what happens when the game is designed around the EXP share; in my XY hacks I reduced exp gain to make it reasonable, but didn't want to combine that with the level scaling exp in USUM as it could have made the game into a bit of a grind. I wouldn't do it again, but it does at least make the post game scale to your level no matter which order you tackle it in.

The only dialogue changes are the intro and one line where Kukui hands you the new Rock Climb TM (and that's only in the Rebalanced versions); everything else is untouched. I probably won't buff Pelipper just because of how good Drizzle is, but other buffs are definitely something I'd consider. A lot of the Renegade Platinum changes are in already, but if there's a particular change you'd like to see in this too I'm open to suggestions (though they might take a while to be added to the game as I'm working on Emerald right now).

Happy to hear you're enjoying the hack, hope you have fun with the rest of it!