axeil Posted 1 hour ago Posted 1 hour ago I did some reverse-engineering on the Pokéathlon block in Pokémon HeartGold (USA) because there seems to be almost no public documentation on it, and PKHeX currently does not expose any of this data. The main reason I’m posting this is that when I started looking into Pokéathlon save data, I found basically nothing. I searched around for documentation on: where course records are stored where event records are stored where medal-per-species data is stored where Data Cards / Athlete Points / Pokéathlon stat counters are stored how to get into performance-locked rooms to try and read the information stored in those rooms in-game and I came up almost completely empty, which surprised me, since the mode is fairly extensive and engaging, but also gated by obtuse unlock systems and still collects a lot of hidden data. The only remotely useful lead I found was the RetroAchievements HGSS codenotes page. That page was genuinely helpful as a starting point because it at least suggested that the values existed and gave named offsets for some Pokéathlon-related data. But those offsets were not directly the raw save offsets, and if you try to treat them that way, you get confusing or inconsistent behavior. That mismatch was actually a big part of the research process. At first I used those codenote offsets as though they were describing the underlying save structure directly, and the results were weird enough that it became obvious they were not 1:1 raw-save locations. What eventually became clear is that, for the Pokéathlon block at least, the codenote addresses were useful as hints, but not as a direct map of the save file In the save I tested, the practical relationship for the Pokéathlon block was:: raw save offset = codenote offset - 0x10 So I want to emphasize that this post is not “here are some RA values.” It is: “here is how the game’s Pokéathlon data is actually laid out in the raw save, after working backward from the only breadcrumb I could find.” I’m posting this as save-structure research that may be useful if anyone ever wants to add read-only inspection, repair tooling, or full editor support for Pokéathlon in PKHeX. A lot of useful game state in this subsystem is effectively hidden unless you already know the raw locations, and some of it visibly gates or affects other in-game behavior (record screens, room progression, Data Cards, special trophy state, friendship totals, medal tracking, etc.). This was all tested on a HeartGold (USA) save and validated with a combination of: direct save diffs in-game screen checks emulator RAM correlation reload verification after hex edits TL;DR: Pokéathlon data starts around offset 0xD980, ends around offset 0xE570 and is mirrored at +0x40000 Medal table starts at 0xDAB0 Course records start at 0xD9DA Event records start at 0xDCA0 Global counters start at 0xE4D4 Event 1st-place counters start at 0xE518 Data Cards / Athlete Points start at 0xE548 HGSS Pokéathlon save research notes (HeartGold USA) All offsets below were tested on HeartGold (USA); I did not validate SoulSilver, non-US revisions, or flashcart-specific save wrappers. 1. General structure Save format / copies This is probably known to you all but I’m repeating it here for completeness. In the save I tested, the relevant Pokéathlon data exists in two mirrored copies: main copy at raw offset X backup copy at raw offset X + 0x40000 When editing the raw save directly, I patched both copies. Start and end of data In my testing, all Pokéathlon-related fields I was able to identify fell between raw save offsets 0xD980 and 0xE570. I do not claim this is the complete set of all Pokéathlon-related data in the save; only that, during my testing, I did not find any fields outside this range that appeared to affect visible Pokéathlon behavior. 2. Data types There are three common field types in this block: A. Single-byte bitfields Used for: medal table entries Data Card ownership flags B. 16-bit little-endian values Used for: course records most event records joins, wins, time spent, action counters, etc. C. 32-bit little-endian values Used for: per-event 1st-place counters 3. Course record totals These are the five Pokéathlon course records. All are 16-bit little-endian. Field Raw offset Backup Speed Course record 0xD9DA 0x4D9DA Power Course record 0xDA06 0x4DA06 Skill Course record 0xDA32 0x4DA32 Stamina Course record 0xDA5E 0x4DA5E Jump Course record 0xDA8A 0x4DA8A These are simple numeric totals. 4. Medal table This is the key structure for per-species medal acquisition. Base offsets main: 0xDAB0 backup: 0x4DAB0 Layout There is one byte per species. For species Dex #N, the byte is at: main: 0xDAB0 + (N - 1) backup: 0x4DAB0 + (N - 1) Bit meaning The medal byte is a 5-bit bitfield: 0x01 = Speed medal 0x02 = Power medal 0x04 = Skill medal 0x08 = Stamina medal 0x10 = Jump medal Examples: 00 = no medals 01 = one medal (Speed) 03 = two medals (Speed and Power) 0B = three medals (Speed, Power, and Stamina) 1B = four medals (Speed, Power, Stamina, and Jump) 1F = all five medals Practical note This is one of the most useful structures PKHeX could expose, even in a read-only or semi-read-only form, because it controls: which species visibly have medals medal acquisition totals a lot of downstream Pokéathlon state 5. Event records These are the ten event-specific high-score fields shown in-game. All are 16-bit little-endian. Event Raw offset Backup Hurdle Dash record 0xDCA0 0x4DCA0 Pennant Capture record 0xDCCC 0x4DCCC Circle Push record 0xDCF8 0x4DCF8 Block Smash record 0xDD24 0x4DD24 Disc Catch record 0xDD50 0x4DD50 Lamp Jump record 0xDD7C 0x4DD7C Relay Run record 0xDDA8 0x4DDA8 Ring Drop record 0xDDD4 0x4DDD4 Snow Throw record 0xDE00 0x4DE00 Goal Roll record 0xDE2C 0x4DE2C Notes Most of these appear to be straight numeric values. Two deserve caution: Hurdle Dash appears to be stored in an internal timing form. In my testing it behaved like frames at 30 fps. Relay Run is real and stable in the save, but the encoding is not as straightforward as the other event values. I could not figure out how it was actually encoded and so while I do have the location mapped I am not sure what it translates to or how to manipulate it. If PKHeX ever exposes these, I would consider: direct editing for the simple fields and a conversion helper or tooltip for Hurdle/Relay 6. Event-specific ‘times joined’ values shown on the record screens These are 16-bit little-endian fields that sit 0x28 bytes before each event record. Event Raw offset Backup Hurdle Dash times joined 0xDCC8 0x4DCC8 Pennant Capture times joined 0xDCF4 0x4DCF4 Circle Push times joined 0xDD20 0x4DD20 Block Smash times joined 0xDD4C 0x4DD4C Disc Catch times joined 0xDD78 0x4DD78 Lamp Jump times joined 0xDDA4 0x4DDA4 Relay Run times joined 0xDDD0 0x4DDD0 Ring Drop times joined 0xDDFC 0x4DDFC Snow Throw times joined 0xDE28 0x4DE28 Goal Roll times joined 0xDE54 0x4DE54 These are worth exposing because they appear on the in-game record screens and are otherwise opaque. In my testing these values changed independently of the event record values themselves and appear to back the “times joined” numbers shown on the in-game record screens. 7. Event-side friendship / record-point table There is a 10-entry 16-bit table at: 0xE4C0–0xE4D2 backup 0x4E4C0–0x4E4D2 This appears to be part of the event-side contribution to Pokéathlon Friendship totals. I would label this cautiously, something like: “Event record friendship values” or “Event-side Pokéathlon point totals” This is one of the pieces that appears to feed the total Pokéathlon friendship/point display but I couldn’t determine if this value was automatically recalculated from the event high scores or not. 8. Global Pokéathlon counters / stats These are all 16-bit little-endian and were validated against in-game stat screens and/or save diffs. Field Raw offset Backup Notes Time spent in Pokéathlon 0xE4D4 0x4E4D4 Stored in minutes Pokéathlon joins 0xE4D8 0x4E4D8 Global join count Overall 1st places 0xE4DC 0x4E4DC Global course wins Overall last places 0xE4E0 0x4E4E0 Global course last-place count Bonuses earned 0xE4E4 0x4E4E4 Visible on data card screen Instructions 0xE4E8 0x4E4E8 Visible on data card screen Pokémon failed 0xE4EC 0x4E4EC Visible on data card screen Times jumped 0xE4F0 0x4E4F0 Visible on data card screen Pokémon acquired points 0xE4F4 0x4E4F4 Visible on data card screen; exact semantics of what “acquired points” means is still somewhat fuzzy Times tackled 0xE4F8 0x4E4F8 Visible on data card screen Pokémon fell down 0xE4FC 0x4E4FC Visible on data card screen Times dashed 0xE500 0x4E500 Visible on data card screen Times switched 0xE504 0x4E504 Visible on data card screen Times self-impeded 0xE508 0x4E508 Visible on data card screen Notes Time spent definitely uses minutes. Instructions is a real stat, not just a derived UI label. The Instructions stat appears to be directly stored rather than recomputed from underlying subtotals, at least in my testing. This is different from some of the other totals which do appear to recalculate based on underlying subtotals. Bonuses earned is also a real stored field. Pokémon acquired points is definitely present and editable, but I would label it conservatively until someone confirms the exact semantics of what it is counting because I couldn’t figure out what it meant. These fields are a good example of why editor support would be useful even without “editing for advantage”: many of these are plainly visible to the player, but cannot currently be inspected or repaired in any clean tool. 9. Per-event 1st-place counters These are 32-bit little-endian counters. Event Raw offset Backup Hurdle Dash 1st places 0xE518 0x4E518 Pennant Capture 1st places 0xE51C 0x4E51C Circle Push 1st places 0xE520 0x4E520 Block Smash 1st places 0xE524 0x4E524 Disc Catch 1st places 0xE528 0x4E528 Lamp Jump 1st places 0xE52C 0x4E52C Relay Run 1st places 0xE530 0x4E530 Ring Drop 1st places 0xE534 0x4E534 Snow Throw 1st places 0xE538 0x4E538 Goal Roll 1st places 0xE53C 0x4E53C These were among the most useful fields to identify because they gate or explain: Data Card stat lines special trophy progression and a lot of otherwise hidden Pokéathlon state A read-only display of these in PKHeX would already be valuable simply so players could track how many times they’ve come in first in these events without spending a fortune of points on data cards. 10. Aggregate event last-place total There appears to be an aggregate field at: 0xE540 backup 0x4E540 My best current label is: total event last places I would still mark that “probable” rather than “perfectly solved,” but it fits the observed save diffs and stat screens well. I say this because I could not find a stat for individual last place totals for each event and this could be a field that can update based on a subtotal to overwrite an edited value. 11. Athlete Points and Data Cards Athlete Points main: 0xE548 backup: 0x4E548 type: 32-bit little-endian This is the current spendable Pokéathlon currency; at the time I did this research, it was the only obvious Pokéathlon field I saw exposed in PKHeX Data Cards The Data Card ownership flags are here: Cards 1–8: 0xE54C Cards 9–16: 0xE54D Cards 17–24: 0xE54E Cards 25–27: 0xE54F bits 0–2 Backups: 0x4E54C 0x4E54D 0x4E54E 0x4E54F These are exactly the kind of hidden-but-visible state that would be extremely nice to expose in an editor. There are also room / progression consequences tied to having the right card / trophy / record state, which makes this doubly useful for repair and inspection purposes. 12. Friendship-point composition One of the most useful conceptual findings is that total Pokéathlon friendship appears to be built from: course totals + event-side totals + medal bitcounts and will recalculate itself based on those totals. As a result, there was no point in trying to find nor edit an overall friendship point field. In other words: the five course record totals the event record/friendship table and the total number of medal bits set across the species medal table all contribute to the displayed total friendship points. This is useful because it means a save editor could: explain why the friendship total is what it is detect inconsistent states and potentially help repair Pokéathlon progression in a way that mirrors the game’s own logic 13. Special trophies / derived state One thing I ran into while investigating the “special trophy” behavior is that the obvious runtime trophy-room readout bits did not behave like stable persistent save flags when edited directly. What did track well were the source counters: joins overall wins dashes switches per-event 1st-place counts So if PKHeX ever exposes special trophy state, I would strongly recommend either: showing the source counters and letting users infer trophy progress, or doing more research to find the actual persistent trophy ownership flags before exposing direct trophy toggles At least from my testing, the visible trophy-room state seemed partly derived / refreshed by gameplay rather than a clean standalone save checkbox. 14. Why this matters for editor support The reason I think this is worth posting is not “here is how to alter Pokéathlon.” It’s that Pokéathlon is a large, player-visible subsystem with a lot of hidden states, and right now there is no clean way to: inspect course/event record data inspect medal-per-species data inspect Data Card state inspect special-trophy progress counters inspect or validate the many stat-screen counters or repair / normalize weird Pokéathlon saves Even a read-only PKHeX Pokéathlon tab would be useful. A full tab could eventually expose: course totals event records event appearances event 1st-place counts action counters Data Cards Athlete Points and per-species medal bits That would make Pokéathlon much less of a black box and make it easier for players to understand or repair this subsystem. 15. Suggested PKHeX UI structure If anyone on the PKHeX side ever wanted to add this, I think the cleanest UI would be: A. Course records Speed / Power / Skill / Stamina / Jump B. Event records 10 event scores/records maybe special helper display for Hurdle and Relay encodings C. Event participation / wins per-event “times joined” per-event 1st places D. Global stats joins time spent overall wins / lasts bonuses earned instructions dashed / jumped / tackled / switched / self-impeded failed / fell down Pokémon acquired points E. Medal table species list with 5 medal bits each maybe a count of total medal bits and full medalists F. Data Cards / Athlete Points straightforward and very useful G. Derived summary If someone wanted to be fancy: course subtotal event subtotal medal subtotal total friendship That would be extremely nice from a transparency / repair standpoint. 16. Caveats / uncertain labels These are the things I would still treat with a little caution in an implementation: Pokémon acquired points — definitely real, still no idea what it’s measuring event-side friendship table at 0xE4C0–0xE4D2 — definitely important, but label could be refined and it’s still unclear exactly how it operates Relay Run encoding persistent trophy ownership flags vs. derived trophy-room state Everything else listed above I’m reasonably confident in. 17. Conclusion The Pokéathlon subsystem in HGSS is much more approachable than it first looks once the offsets are mapped. The important part is that the data is: stable mirrored predictably and rich enough that an editor could expose a lot of useful states The biggest obstacle when I started was simply that there was no real documentation, and the only lead I found was the RA codenotes page, which was useful as a clue but not a direct raw-save map. Most of the real work was turning those hints into an actual save-structure map that behaved correctly in game. If anyone working on PKHeX wants this reorganized into a cleaner CSV / table / code-oriented format, I’d be happy to do that, but the offsets and interpretations above should already be enough to start prototyping support if the developers so choose.
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