Binary ROM HackingNeed a helping hand or just want to talk about binary ROM hacks? Get comments and answers to any ROM Hacking-related problems, questions or thoughts you have here.
You're not missing anything. A lot of hacks will use flags and variables that aren't safe to use, and happen to get lucky. That's just how it is. Keeping your range between [0x4011, 0x40FF] and [200, 2FF] is best practice.
Another reason you may see other hacks using seemingly random values is because they are reusing old variables and flags from the vanilla game's person events (still unstable) or they've expanded the amount of values usable using the guide Pleasure linked to above ^^.