[E] Editing National Dex in PkHex

[BloomGloom]

So, I was trying to edit an Emerald save where I just had the Pokédex and a few mons.

I wanted to unlock the National Dex right there, so I opened the save with PkHex and checked the event flag "SYS_NATIONAL_DEX", but nothing happened.

Am I missing something?

[Guest]

You're not wrong. Looks like PKHeX doesn't really handle that right now.

I don't think that flag in question actually unlocks the National pokédex, but rather, it's a separate flag which activates when the National dex is obtained, so that the game knows not to repeat that event/cutscene again.

There's a thing under Event Constants for National pokédex, but proper values for it haven't been documented. Save files with the National dex unlocked seem to have it set to 770, but this doesn't actually unlock the National dex when I try to do that.

For the time being, you should have better luck with this:

If PKHeX could be eventually updated to have a National Dex checkbox in the Gen. 3 Dex editor which handles setting all the appropriate flags as needed, that'd be pretty convenient.

[BloomGloom]

Well, A-Save worked... Except that it still doesn't allow trading with FRLG, which is the most important thing about the NatDex... 

I've tried hex editing, but every save seems to start at a different offset, so I never know where the flags are.

[Guest]

Just to be completely certain, do you have the national dex unlocked in FR/LG, along with the Ruby/Sapphire post-game quest in Sevii Islands done?

Given how convoluted the National dex flags seem to be, it's not impossible that there could be another flag which no-one has noticed yet, separate from the actual National dex activation flags, to allow trading with FR/LG. So this might require more research. But it's also important to remember that FR/LG has additional requirements in order to trade with RSE, just in case that might be the problem.

[BloomGloom]

Yeah, I used a legit FRLG save with the Sevii quest done.

The problem is locating the flags with a hex editor (especially because they are only zeroes when not activated)

[Guest]

If you're able to get a clean Emerald save file pre-National dex, and make a copy of it once you unlock National dex, in the event editor in PKHeX, under the Research tab, you can load both save files in FlagDiff researcher, and it should help you figure out which flags are changed in-between both save files.

If you figure it out, it would be appreciated if you could post your findings, then hopefully everything can be properly implemented at some point.

[Eriloth]

Great news, I've figured out how to do this in PkHex:

It looks like all you need to do is go to the Block Data menu in the SAV tab of PkHex, then scroll down (about halfway )to NationalDex and change its value from False to True.  This will check off your "Received National Dex" Event Flag and set the Event Constant for National Dex Enabled to 770, which would confirm that they only change after the National Dex is obtained, and do not give it to you by themselves.

I haven't played FLRG so I cannot verify whether that allows you to trade with them, but this procedure works to give a new save the National Dex, provided that save has the Hoenn Dex already.