Does anybody know if it's possible to create a copy of a Pokemon using Action Replay?

[Darwfer]

I've made this post on serebii.net but they don't take kindly to hacking there so I'm making a post here.

(Skip to the bottom if you don't want to read the story)
The story is as follows.
My first Pokemon game was Heart Gold, I chose Totodile as my starter and he remained my frontman for the entire game. I caught Ho-Oh with him, captured Lugia, even beat red with him by my side. My brother then handed down his copy of Diamond to me and as soon as I was able I made my Feraligator lead the team once more. I completed the diamond dex by wiping the elite four over and over again using just Feraligator. I then transfered him to Pokemon Y and I played through just to get enough badges to use him again. I took that boy through every game up to Alpha Sapphire.
Then I made a terrible mistake. Not only did I leave the game cartridge with my favorite Pokemon i'd transferred from each game in my grade 7 math classroom, but I did so the last day of school before spring break. When I realized what I had done i immediately called the school and sent an email to my math teacher in hopes that someone would be able to find it for me. But it was too late, the staff had gone home, and the janitors were cleaning up.

Not only did I lose every Pokemon I cared about, but I had lost the one who was there since the beginning, my first starter.

So I think what the title of this post says every now and then when I remember playing Pokemon and I've finally decided to find an answer.
Does anybody know of a method to obtain the data of a Pokemon without the Pokemon being in the save?
I have 2-3 games I've used the Feraligator in.
1-2 of those games have Hall of Fame entries with Feraligtor in them.
I have the DSi and 3DS i used to play each game.
I am willing to buy Action replay or any kind of tool if it makes it possible to revive this lost Pokemon.

If you know someone who might know please point me in their direction.

[Shady Guy Jose]

Action Replay will get you nowhere. However, Gen 4 Hall of Fame does store the most important unique data (PID). You need either a hacked DSi or 3DS to extract the save (if you don't know how to do it, I can help you, but it will take a while), or a physical NDS cart save dumper (I don't know if they even make those anymore).

That Feraligatr can then be recreated as faithfully as reasonably possible by starting a new Heart Gold save (maybe even on an emulator), picking Totodile, then using PKHeX to edit that Totodile with the relevant info from Feraligatr's Hall of Fame Entry: OT, ID and PID (which determines IVs, Nature, Shininess, Gender and Ability slot — all of which are possible to figure out with RNG manipulation tools). As far as I know, it's impossible to recover Ribbon data, so you'll just have to give it whatever Ribbons it would be logical for it to have. Moves and EVs are obviously never set in stone. Met date will be wrong, but it will be reset upon transfer to newer games anyway.

This will obviously not be exactly the same thing as restoring an old copy of that Feraligatr, but it will be close (we should be able to figure out everything that is unique to that Feraligatr, with only non-fixed data that can always be changed anyway being left undiscovered). 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Shady Guy Jose

[Darwfer]

7 minutes ago, Shady Guy Jose said:

Action Replay will get you nowhere. However, Gen 4 Hall of Fame does store the most important unique data (PID). You need either a hacked DSi or 3DS to extract the save (if you don't know how to do it, I can help you, but it will take a while), or a physical NDS cart save dumper (I don't know if they even make those anymore).

That Feraligatr can then be recreated as faithfully as reasonably possible by starting a new Heart Gold save (maybe even on an emulator), picking Totodile, then using PKHeX to edit that Totodile with the relevant info from Feraligatr's Hall of Fame Entry: OT, ID and PID (which determines IVs, Nature, Shininess, Gender and Ability slot — all of which are possible to figure out with RNG manipulation tools). As far as I know, it's impossible to recover Ribbon data, so you'll just have to give it whatever Ribbons it would be logical for it to have. Moves and EVs are obviously never set in stone. Met date will be wrong, but it will be reset upon transfer to newer games anyway.

This will obviously not be exactly the same thing as restoring an old copy of that Feraligatr, but it will be close (we should be able to figure out everything that is unique to that Feraligatr, with only non-fixed data that can always be changed anyway being left undiscovered). 

I know little to nothing about DS modification so your help would be greatly appreciated!

[Shady Guy Jose]

There is a "3DS Hacks Guide" you can easily find on Google (with that title) that will guide you through the steps of hacking a 3DS, including installing a handful of recommended apps that include a good save dumping app (Checkpoint). It will tell you what to check for in your console and help you determine what you need to do for that model and system software (usually called "firmware" in hacking circles). It's technically possible to do it with a DSi, which has no risk of being banned, unlike the 3DS, which you can still use online and thus get banned for hacking, but the 3DS is not only easier to hack, but it also has the better save dumping apps available. If you have an old 3DS that you don't use online anymore, then it's a win-win scenario. Read through the guide and see if you have everything you need. If you do, start following it until you have a hacked 3DS with Checkpoint installed, then use Checkpoint to extract your HeartGold and Diamond saves. When you get there, post the saves here and I'll comb through them to try and find the Feraligatr.

EDIT: I may not be able to do so in the next two or three days, but I eventually will.

Edited November 28, 2020 by Shady Guy Jose

[Darwfer]

4 minutes ago, Shady Guy Jose said:

There is a "3DS Hacks Guide" you can easily find on Google (with that title) that will guide you through the steps of hacking a 3DS, including installing a handful of recommended apps that include a good save dumping app. It will tell you what to check for in your console and help you determine what you need to do for that model and system software (usually called "firmware" in hacking circles). It's technically possible to do it with a DSi, which has no risk of being banned, unlike the 3DS, which you can still use online and thus get banned for hacking, but the 3DS is not only easier to hack, but it also has the better save dumping apps available. If you have an old 3DS that you don't use online anymore, then it's a win-win scenario. Read through the guide and see if you have everything you need. If you do, start following it until you have a hacked 3DS with Checkpoint installed, then use Checkpoint to extract your HeartGold and Diamond saves. When you get there, post the saves here and I'll comb through them to try and find the Feraligatr.

I'll do that now

[Darwfer]

On 11/28/2020 at 3:02 PM, Shady Guy Jose said:

There is a "3DS Hacks Guide" you can easily find on Google (with that title) that will guide you through the steps of hacking a 3DS, including installing a handful of recommended apps that include a good save dumping app (Checkpoint). It will tell you what to check for in your console and help you determine what you need to do for that model and system software (usually called "firmware" in hacking circles). It's technically possible to do it with a DSi, which has no risk of being banned, unlike the 3DS, which you can still use online and thus get banned for hacking, but the 3DS is not only easier to hack, but it also has the better save dumping apps available. If you have an old 3DS that you don't use online anymore, then it's a win-win scenario. Read through the guide and see if you have everything you need. If you do, start following it until you have a hacked 3DS with Checkpoint installed, then use Checkpoint to extract your HeartGold and Diamond saves. When you get there, post the saves here and I'll comb through them to try and find the Feraligatr.

EDIT: I may not be able to do so in the next two or three days, but I eventually will.

It certainly took a while like you said, but i did it! Unfortunately my original Heartgold save was overwritten a few years back so anything left of it would be on my DSi.

POKEMON_D.sav

[Shady Guy Jose]

@Darwfer

Your Feraligatr nicknamed FERLAGATOR is in Box 1. There were two possible IV spreads with that PID/Gender/Nature. I went with the first one. 50/50 chance of being the same one as the original. EVs and Ribbons are zeroed out. You can either use PKHeX to edit them to your liking or just EV train it again and try to earn the Ribbons. Met date was set to December 1st, 2010, plausible for Heart Gold. It will get reset once you transfer it up to a newer game.

POKEMON_D.sav

Edited November 30, 2020 by Shady Guy Jose

[Darwfer]

@Shady Guy Jose Thank you so much for doing this