GSC/Stadium 2 Mystery Gift Mysteries

[Kata]

I’ve been doing daily Mystery Gifts on my gen 2 carts + Stadium 2 for the better part of six months for… fun? Something. Anyway, this experience has raised some questions that don’t seem to have answers anywhere.

My understanding is that the items/decorations which your save is able to send through Mystery Gift are determined by your ID number. bayleef’s thread "Mystery Gift: Reverse Engineering of IR Protocol" has a handy tool for figuring out what gifts you can send.

My hypothesis is that Stadium 2 mimics your GSC save’s ID in regards to what items it can send, and in ~500 Mystery Gifts, I found this to be true… with one exception! The day after my Crystal save (ID: 62000) sent a Big Lapras Doll to Stadium 2 (which prompted Carrie to freak out), I received a Magikarp Doll from Stadium 2 (which neither my Crystal nor any of my other GSC saves are capable of sending). Were these events actually related or did I just get lucky? Magikarp Doll is a common decoration to my knowledge, so it seems like I would’ve received one earlier if there wasn’t something to this.

• How does Stadium 2 Mystery Gift work?
• Does Carrie send you special loot if you sent her an uber rare item the previous day?
• Are there special conditions for the three Stadium 2-exclusive decorations to be sent?
• How rare is all of this stuff actually?
• Any other fun GSC/Stadium 2 Mystery Gift trivia/anecdotes are appreciated.

(I apologize if this is actually all well documented somewhere. If someone could point me in the right direction, I'd be grateful!)

Edited June 25, 2021 by Kata

[Mark_Eire]

Found your post searching for answers to GEN 2 MYSTERY GIFT. I've been doing mystery gift for just under a year now, wondering if I could get every gift on GOLD using STADIUM 2 alone as I've only got 1 GameBoy Colour.

I compiled and ran the mystery gift tool you referenced using my GOLD trainer ID (17817).

I have been getting several gifts which do not align with those my trainer ID can send out. For the first few months I received MUSIC MAIL very often, despite that being a "no" using that tool. I've also received GOLD BERRY, and several Dolls that my ID does not send to other GBC games according to that tool. Of the 11 Dolls I've received thus far, 6 are possible on my ID according to the tool, 5 are not.

I can only assume the gifts from Stadium 2 are not limited to trainer ID in the same way, though there may be some correlation in probability?

Some anecdotal thoughts to add. Only within the past 3 weeks or so I have a CRYSTAL cartridge which I've started playing. So far that game has received 4 dolls (1 of which GOLD already had). It may be that when one of the games gets a rare gift, the other cartridge tends to get a better item too. I've not nearly enough evidence to back that up, but figured I'd mention my feelings so far based on your comments.

Finally, the STADIUM 2 character does mention the TENTACOOL DOLL very very often! Thus far I've not received any of the STADIUM 2 exclusive items on either GOLD or CRYSTAL cartridges (PIKACHU BED, UNOWN DOLL, TENTACOOL DOLL). I've no idea if any special triggers are involved with those....

I'd love to know if you have since found any documentation on how this all works?

[Kata]

Ah! Another Mystery Gift enthusiast! It's a miracle!

My "Stadium 2 loot determined by your own OT" theory is mostly out the window now. Another one of my saves received a Magikarp Doll from Carrie and there wasn't any out of the ordinary loot the previous day, so I don't think there's a special trigger there anymore. I do still feel like there's some funkiness going on, though. All of the rarer decorations I've received from Carrie (that I'm aware of) were decorations that those saves themselves were able to distribute. I'm not sure what to make of that. Have you received any rares from her? Did they match what your OT is able to distribute?

Regarding Carrie frequently mentioning the TENTACOOL DOLL, I'm not certain, but I think she might stick with the same rumor until you break your gifting streak. Also, I think there's only rumor dialogue for TENTACOOL DOLL and PIKACHU BED (no UNOWN DOLL). Sort of weird. If there's a special trigger for the uniques, I'm thinking maybe it's related to Carrie's own decoration collection.

Documentation-wise, besides the aforementioned Reverse Engineering of IR Protocol thread, there's an incomplete and inactive disassembly of Stadium 2. That's pretty much entirely over my head, though.

[MagnusHexem]

I've been Mystery-Gifting near-daily for I believe the past 9 months.  I started with two brand-new saves, since all of my cartridge batteries had run out.  I've even gone through the trouble of switching them back-and-forth between cartridges and my 3DSs, so I could Mystery Gift with two friends that have 3DS saves.  I didn't get a hold of a second GBC until two weeks ago, so up until then I was only Mystery Gifting once per day, whether it be between my 3DSs or on Stadium 2.

In the past 4 or 5 months, I've noticed I've been getting the same junk 5% items over and over again.  The only shakeups I remember were a Big Onix doll about two months ago, and a Pink Bed 24 hours ago.  I thought there was just some jank Gen 2 RNG going on, but now seeing this, it seems like there's more to it all.  How come the only 5% decorations I'm missing on Crystal are the Magikarp Doll and the SNES, yet my Silver has had Magikarp for months and obtained the SNES two weeks ago from Mystery Gifting a friend?  Why was my Crystal missing Gengar and Staryu for such a long time, yet Silver has had them for a while?  How come I've received around 9 of the 1% Gold Berry, yet I can't get the 1% MiracleBerry, something I desperately want since there's no alternative other than forking over a ton of cash for the Pikachu walker?

Seeing this, now I wonder if there are some decorations I'm doomed never to get.  I have a vague checklist of when I've received what, including rare items.  I'd like to use the gift.c tool to see what I can find out, but I am pretty new to compiling and am unsure what exactly to do.

[Kata]

Each OT only has 8 common, 4 uncommon, and 2 rare decorations associated with it, so it's likely you'll stop seeing much in the way of new stuff once you've received all the common decorations a given save has to offer. It seems like you can receive anything from Stadium 2, but some decorations seem significantly rarer. If you can't figure out how to compile and run bayleef's gifts.c, I'd be happy to check your OTs for you if you'd like to share them.

[Mark_Eire]

I've received some rares. Indeed so far all the rares I've got match those of my Trainer ID, whether co-incidence or not....

• GOLD (17817): MAX ETHER, BLUE CARPET and SURF PIKACHU DOLL (Very Rare even)
• CRYSTAL(57942): No rares for me yet, However, Carrie received a VIRTUAL BOY about a week ago. Crystal can send those out according to the tool, so it may well appear the rares are ID based?
• Carrie also reminds me she received BLUE CARPET before, "am I jealous"? That would match that the giving and receiving between Stadium 2 for rares at least might be limited by ID. I hope not....

Can also add my support for the likelihood that receiving often/rare/etc it is entirely random. After Carrie got that VIRTUAL BOY the few days after were nothing buy X Items and Berries, until today as it happens when GOLD got the MAX ETHER. I doubt that effects odds. I'd still expect there may be something going on to get the TENTACOOL DOLL and other STADIUM 2 only items. Maybe you need everything else first? Maybe you need to have beaten all of STADIUM 2?

MagnusHexem, I feel your pain looking for MIRACLEBERRY. I'd also like a SCOPE LENS as that might also be mystery gift locked. I've never even got a GOLD BERRY from STADIUM 2, but I at least got one from the Bug Catching Contest. Gradually bringing my team through the STADIUM 2 battles and always think that berry wouldn't hurt.

[MagnusHexem]

On 9/24/2021 at 7:06 AM, Kata said:

Each OT only has 8 common, 4 uncommon, and 2 rare decorations associated with it, so it's likely you'll stop seeing much in the way of new stuff once you've received all the common decorations a given save has to offer. It seems like you can receive anything from Stadium 2, but some decorations seem significantly rarer. If you can't figure out how to compile and run bayleef's gifts.c, I'd be happy to check your OTs for you if you'd like to share them.

I'd appreciate it!  My main save, my Crystal version, is ID # 64818.  My second save, Silver, is ID # 41962.  Could you also check my friends' ID numbers?  I think one of them in particular is the one that's given my other friend and myself the SNES and the Surfing Pikachu, so I'd like to confirm.  The one in question giving us those items is ID # 37613.  I don't have the ID number of my other friend at the moment; I might edit it in later.

Also, just mere minutes before making this post, I Mystery Gifted on GBC and my Silver version received a Pink Bed!!  I received on Crystal two days prior.  I even have pictures to show both were received on the same two systems and same two cartridges, and not Stadium 2.  I've been getting some good luck ever since my friend let me borrow his GBC so I could do more Mystery Gifting.  That second GBC also happens to be pink.  Coincidence?  Yeah, but it's still weird.  It might a similar oddity to the Magikarp one you mentioned before.

Before seeing this thread, I assumed the information I saw on Serebii was vaguely true, but I guess not.  Their stuff from the first four gens tends to be less accurate.  Still, all items were tiered into 5%s, 1%s, 0.2%, and 0.1%s.  Bulbapedia also tiers the items the same way, but without showing the percents, since I'm guessing those are bogus if receiving the supposed 0.1% Surfing Pikachu Doll on my save and a friend's save is anything to go off of.  If what you said about the 8 commons, 4 uncommons, and 2 rares is true, that might explain the drought I've had.  But it's still strange that my Crystal save has 14 of the 16 commons, while my Silver has the two it's missing.  It's not like each version would have the exact 8 that the other didn't have.  It seems likely that my friend was the one giving me Magikarp and the SNES...I guess I just got lucky in the 20-ish times I've Mystery Gifted my friends.  Also, I'm guessing the very rare tier of Surfing Pikachu and Big Lapras can only give one per save? 

[Mark_Eire]

Hi MagnusHexem. I've ran the code on those 3 Trainer IDs. Forgive the format as I struggled in my attempts to paste this into a table.

Spoiler

TRAINER ID	64818	41962	37613
BERRY	often	no	no
PRZCUREBERRY	no	often	often
MINT BERRY	often	often	no
ICE BERRY	no	no	often
BURNT BERRY	no	no	often
PSNCUREBERRY	often	often	no
GUARD SPEC	often	often	no
X DEFENSE	no	no	often
X ATTACK	often	no	no
BITTER BERRY	no	often	often
DIRE HIT	no	often	often
X SPECIAL	often	no	no
X ACCURACY	no	no	no
EON MAIL	often	often	often
MORPH MAIL	often	no	no
MUSIC MAIL	no	often	often
MIRACLEBERRY	no	no	no
GOLD BERRY	sometimes	sometimes	sometimes
REVIVE	no	no	sometimes
GREAT BALL	sometimes	sometimes	no
SUPER REPEL	sometimes	no	no
MAX REPEL	no	sometimes	sometimes
ELIXIR	no	sometimes	sometimes
ETHER	sometimes	no	no
WATER STONE	no	no	no
FIRE STONE	no	no	rare
LEAF STONE	no	rare	no
THUNDERSTONE	no	no	no
MAX ETHER	no	no	no
MAX ELIXIR	no	no	no
MAX REVIVE	no	no	no
SCOPE LENS	rare	no	no
HP UP	no	no	no
PP UP	rare	rare	rare
JIGGLYPUFF DOLL	no	no	no
POLIWAG DOLL	often	often	often
DIGLETT DOLL	no	no	often
STARYU DOLL	often	often	no
MAGIKARP DOLL	often	no	no
ODDISH DOLL	no	often	often
GENGAR DOLL	no	often	often
SHELLDER DOLL	often	no	no
GRIMER DOLL	no	often	often
VOLTORB DOLL	often	no	no
CLEFAIRY POSTER	no	often	no
JIGGLYPUFF POSTER	often	no	often
SUPER NES	no	no	often
WEEDLE DOLL	often	often	no
GEODUDE DOLL	no	often	often
MACHOP DOLL	often	no	no
MAGNAPLANT	sometimes	no	no
TROPICPLANT	no	sometimes	sometimes
NES	sometimes	sometimes	no
NINTENDO 64	no	no	sometimes
BULBASAUR DOLL	no	no	sometimes
SQUIRTLE DOLL	sometimes	sometimes	no
PINK BED	sometimes	sometimes	no
POLKADOT BED	no	no	sometimes
RED CARPET	no	no	no
BLUE CARPET	no	no	no
YELLOW CARPET	no	no	no
GREEN CARPET	rare	no	no
JUMBOPLANT	no	no	no
VIRTUAL BOY	no	no	no
BIG ONIX DOLL	no	rare	rare
PIKACHU POSTER	no	no	no
BIG LAPRAS DOLL	rare	no	no
SURF PIKACHU DOLL	no	rare	rare

EDIT: At a glance of your post, maybe those all add up? That will be good to know but sad. It may be the only way to get all the gifts is IR between two GameBoy Colours.....

Funny that both your GOLD and SILVER can indeed send the PINK BED

Edited September 25, 2021 by Mark_Eire

[MagnusHexem]

Wow, that was quick!  Thanks so much!

Here are my main observations:

-I can never, ever receive the MiracleBerry between these 3 games.  This....sucks.  The only other way to receive that incredibly useful item is to shill in $80 for a Pokemon GS 2 or whatever, but I'd rather not considering how much maintenance I've spent on my Gen 4 Pokewalker.  How come I get all these Gold Berries and no MiracleBerries?  This is why.  I'm really upset over this.

-Neither...of my games...give the Bulbasaur Doll?  What?  But I have it on both versions!  I suppose I was at my friend's house when I received the Bulbasaur Doll on Silver...maybe I was mistaken about my own game giving it to me?  However, I do have screenshot proof that I received it on my Crystal version on Stadium 2, so that to me confirms that Stadium 2 can give more than just what your ID allows.  Perhaps the percentages Serebii gave actually align with Stadium 2 in particular?

-That Green Carpet that I was upset that Carrie and my Silver version received but my Crystal version didn't kind of already confirmed what I suspected...but none of the other carpets are obtainable otherwise?  That's disappointing...

-I was right about the SNES.  But my word...it really did almost work out that my two games had almost the opposite 8 distributables for common decorations.  The only exception is the Jigglypuff doll...how did I get that on Crystal?  My second friend?  Or Stadium 2?  It's apparently only a 5%, so I suppose Stadium 2 is likely there.  EDIT: I missed the Diglett Doll.  But I think I do remember receiving that from my friend in particular.

-My second friend received the N64 and the SNES from my first (the third ID number) a while back, so it makes sense why I haven't been getting the N64.  Still...I received the NES very early on on Crystal, and appparently both of my games can give it...so why doesn't Silver have it?  

Without stupid luck from Stadium 2, or without trying for years, I will likely never get everything unless I just straight-up make a new save.  I can't get basically any carpets, the Virtual Boy, the JumboPlant, the Pikachu Poster, or even the flipping MiracleBerry.  That last one irks me.  I have an old Gold cartridge that I can't seem to get working no matter how much isopropyl I rub it with.  Perhaps I'll try a little harder to get it working, then attempt to reset for an ID that gives me what I want.  Of course, I'll need to learn compiling if I want to check the IDs myself...

Edited September 25, 2021 by MagnusHexem

[Towhees]

@MagnusHexem if you send me your save file I can load it on a cart and send a miracleberry from my Pokemon GS2, it doesn’t take that much walking to get the 600 watts

Edited September 27, 2021 by Towhees

[MagnusHexem]

On 9/27/2021 at 4:23 PM, Towhees said:

@MagnusHexem if you send me your save file I can load it on a cart and send a miracleberry from my Pokemon GS2, it doesn’t take that much walking to get the 600 watts

Wow, you'd be willing to do that?  Thanks so much!!

One of my friends recommended I just hack the berry in, but I kind of wanted to get it legitimately.  I know this method isn't exactly 100% legitimate, but considering you're using the intended device that gets the item so easily, I don't see why not.  At the very least, I can consider it a long-distance friend giving me the item legitimately through some means.

I've attached both my saves.  I'd prefer you send it to my Silver save, but if you don't have a Silver cartridge, then Crystal works as well.  The reason I prefer Silver is because of something I want to clone that I received on Silver just yesterday...

I GOT THE SCOPE LENS!!  Man, I've been on a Mystery Gift hot-streak!  The only things left it looks like my cartridges can receive are the Big Lapras Doll, which can only go to Silver, and the N64, which I've somehow managed to miss despite both my games being able to give it, yet my friend who's Mystery Gifted significantly less somehow got it from me.  Still no luck trying to get my Gold version to work...I got it to boot once, but it freaked out before the title screen.  I think one of my connectors looks a little chipped...not sure what I should do to go about fixing it.

POKEMON_SLVAAXE.sav PM_CRYSTAL_BYTE.sav

[Towhees]

Ok, I think I did this right (I tried to take a video while sending it, but unfortunately ended up only starting recording after I sent it) please let me know if this works. You need to pick up the miracleberry (I just sent it, didn't pick it up).

POKEMON_S.sav

[MagnusHexem]

Yup, it worked!  Thanks a million!!

[MagnusHexem]

So...I've had a string of extremely good luck in the past two and a half weeks, I'd say.  It started around when I was getting those Pink Beds.  I've been getting the best luck I've had all year, in Pokemon as well as a few other games.  I mentioned last week I got the Scope Lens.  It didn't end there.

I was able to receive the Scope Lens on my Crystal (the version that can give it, whereas my Silver can't) through Stadium 2, which shocked me.  That was the only rare item I've ever received through Stadium 2.  Was it a coincidence that I received that item less than a week after I gave it to Silver?

But this past Wednesday, a week after my Crystal gave it to Silver....it gave Scope Lens to Silver again.  That makes 3 Scope Lens I've received in the span of 8 days, which seems too good to be true.  I assumed the first one was normal, since I was narrowing down what items I could get.  I still was pretty excited, though.  The second one shocked me and had me wondering if Stadium gifting worked differently than I had thought.  The third one made me suspicious.  There might be some factor we don't know about that Kata had alluded to.

On top of this, I noticed during a Mystery Gift a week ago that Carrie had received a Magikarp Doll from my Silver, something it's not able to give any game.  I was under the impression that she can only receive items your games can give, which would explain how she's obtained the Green Carpet and the Big Onix Doll, the only rare decorations she's received.  In fact, other than the Leaf Stone she received from me, which I also received from Silver less than a few weeks later, there hasn't been anything she's received that I haven't.

There are still a few mysteries left unsolved...

[DrGonzo]

I started doing mystery gifts with Stadium 2 a while ago, and today I got a second GBC so I will do normal mystery gifts as well.

Could someone please check what my IDs can give, since I'm not capable of compiling the program.

My IDs are (40117, 50117, 60117 - Gold, Silver, Crystal).

Thanks in advance!

[Mark_Eire]

On 11/8/2021 at 9:55 PM, DrGonzo said:

My IDs are (40117, 50117, 60117 - Gold, Silver, Crystal).

Hi there, I noticed your post so here are your mystery gift results for those trainer IDs (interesting pattern in them!)

Spoiler

TRAINER ID	40117	50117	60117
BERRY	no	no	no
PRZCUREBERRY	often	often	often
MINT BERRY	no	no	no
ICE BERRY	often	often	often
BURNT BERRY	often	often	often
PSNCUREBERRY	no	no	no
GUARD SPEC	no	no	no
X DEFENSE	often	often	often
X ATTACK	often	often	often
BITTER BERRY	no	no	no
DIRE HIT	no	often	no
X SPECIAL	often	no	often
X ACCURACY	no	often	often
EON MAIL	often	no	no
MORPH MAIL	often	no	no
MUSIC MAIL	no	often	often
MIRACLEBERRY	no	no	no
GOLD BERRY	sometimes	sometimes	sometimes
REVIVE	sometimes	no	sometimes
GREAT BALL	no	sometimes	no
SUPER REPEL	sometimes	no	no
MAX REPEL	no	sometimes	sometimes
ELIXIR	no	sometimes	sometimes
ETHER	sometimes	no	no
WATER STONE	no	no	no
FIRE STONE	rare	no	no
LEAF STONE	no	no	no
THUNDERSTONE	no	no	no
MAX ETHER	no	rare	no
MAX ELIXIR	no	no	no
MAX REVIVE	no	no	rare
SCOPE LENS	no	no	no
HP UP	no	no	no
PP UP	rare	rare	rare
JIGGLYPUFF DOLL	no	no	no
POLIWAG DOLL	often	often	often
DIGLETT DOLL	often	no	often
STARYU DOLL	no	often	no
MAGIKARP DOLL	often	no	no
ODDISH DOLL	no	often	often
GENGAR DOLL	no	often	often
SHELLDER DOLL	often	no	no
GRIMER DOLL	no	often	no
VOLTORB DOLL	often	no	often
CLEFAIRY POSTER	no	often	often
JIGGLYPUFF POSTER	often	no	no
SUPER NES	often	often	no
WEEDLE DOLL	no	no	often
GEODUDE DOLL	often	no	no
MACHOP DOLL	no	often	often
MAGNAPLANT	no	no	no
TROPICPLANT	sometimes	sometimes	sometimes
NES	no	no	no
NINTENDO 64	sometimes	sometimes	sometimes
BULBASAUR DOLL	sometimes	sometimes	sometimes
SQUIRTLE DOLL	no	no	no
PINK BED	no	no	no
POLKADOT BED	sometimes	sometimes	sometimes
RED CARPET	no	no	no
BLUE CARPET	no	no	no
YELLOW CARPET	no	no	no
GREEN CARPET	rare	no	no
JUMBOPLANT	no	rare	no
VIRTUAL BOY	no	no	rare
BIG ONIX DOLL	no	no	no
PIKACHU POSTER	no	no	no
BIG LAPRAS DOLL	no	no	no
SURF PIKACHU DOLL	rare	rare	rare

 

Reading the latest discussions above, I guess none of us have thus far managed to find a single instance where Stadium 2 gives one of the rarer items that does not match the Trainer ID from this tool.

I guess I will need to consider getting a second Gameboy Colour if I ever intend to get all the items on my Gold save for the completionist spirit in me. And keep reset some second Gen 2 game for different trainer IDs. Oh well!