FAQs

What games are supported?

As of v10.0.0 the following games are supported

• Gen 1
  • Pokémon Red, Green
  • Pokémon Blue
  • Pokémon Yellow
• Gen 2
  • Pokémon Gold, Silver
  • Pokémon Crystal
• Gen 3
  • Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire
  • Pokémon FireRed, LeafGreen
  • Pokémon Emerald
• Gen 4
  • Pokémon Diamond, Pearl
  • Pokémon Platinum
  • Pokémon HeartGold, SoulSilver
• Gen 5
  • Pokémon Black, White
  • Pokémon Black 2, White 2
• Gen 6
  • Pokémon X, Y
  • Pokémon Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire
• Gen 7
  • Pokémon Sun, Moon
  • Pokémon Ultra Sun, Ultra Moon
  • Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu, Let's Go Eevee
• Gen 8
  • Pokémon Sword, Shield (v1.3 only)
    • supported DLCs: Isle of Armor, Crown Tundra

Gen 3 games work either through emulators (via Extra Saves) or through VC injects (via custom Title IDs).

LGPE saves can be accessed by bridging PKSM on 3DS to Checkpoint on Switch. SWSH saves can be accessed through the same bridging function, but PKSM's support may be unstable due to SWSH version updates changing the sizes of save files.

Is PKSM available for the Switch?

PKSM Switch development is in progress, but a large roadblock is the lack of a team UI/Asset Designer. You can track development progress by looking at this project board. If you would like to help with the development, please go to #pksm-switch-dev on our Discord server.

Alternatively, for LGPE and SWSH, you can bridge their saves from Checkpoint on Switch. Please note that SWSH support is unstable. SWSH, BDSP, and PLA all have trouble due to variablity in the save sizes for these games. There are currently no plans for SCVI support.

Why does PKSM require CFW? Can't you make a version that works on *hax?

PKSM has a requirement of custom firmware (CFW) for a few reasons:

• On *hax, you can only access the save archive of the game you inject into, which makes extended-memory games screwy on o3DSes. It also makes the whole pretty title screen impossible to use.
• The 3dsx has to be smaller than the .code of the game you're running the Homebrew Launcher for, which is a tall order for a ~10MB application like PKSM
• We have no desire to maintain separate codebases for CFW and non-CFW versions of PKSM.

Are flash carts supported?

No, and they will never be supported. This is due to programming restrictions, not lack of effort.

Why doesn't my game/save show up in PKSM?

For official VC games in non-English languages PKSM may fail to automatically recognize them. You can still point PKSM to them by configuring their Title ID through PKSM's Settings.

Can I use PKSM on my TWiLight Menu saves?

Yes, see the Extra Saves section of Settings for how to set it up.

How can I get PKSM to work with my DS games installed using forwarders?

You use the same Extra Saves feature mentioned for TWiLight Menu saves above.

I'm attempting to use a save that was used in an emulator at some point, and it won't load. What do I do?

There is likely an extra 122 bytes at the end of your file. You can check this by right clicking it on a computer, and checking the size (it should be 524,288 bytes). Back the file up, then delete the last 122 bytes using a hex editor.

Does PKSM work with romhacks?

PKSM is only designed to work with the official, unmodified games. If the romhack does not alter the standard save format then PKSM might work with saves from it. We will not be adding support for any romhacks.

Can I transfer mons from PKSM directly to Bank or Home?

No. This would require direct interaction with Nintendo's servers, which would doubtlessly end in a Cease & Desist against PKSM (and possibly all of FlagBrew's other projects), which would then lead to the death of PKSM.

Will you add support for the Virtual Console games?

As of v10.0.0 PKSM supports all official VC Generation 1 and 2 titles as well as VC injects of the Generation 3 games.

How can I check and legalize my pokemon?

The info outlined in this entry is the majority of legality help we will provide here. Please do your own research using resources like Serebii, Bulbapedia, or the ProjectPokemon forums or Discord server instead.

Please note: All of these functions require an internet connection of some kind.

How do I check if my pokemon is legal?

While editing a Pokémon, go to the Misc screen and then either click on the wireless icon or press Y. You will then be shown a legality report describing if your Pokémon is legal, or what problems exist with it.

How do I fix legality issues?

Once you're on the legality report screen, click the button in the bottom left. The server will then attempt to legalize your Pokémon. This is not a guarantee, and requires a few properties to be legal already. If there's an illegal combination of the below properties, the server will not be able to legalize your Pokémon.

• Ability
• Item
• Level
• Moves
• Nature
• Shininess

Why doesn't scanning this QR work?

It depends on the type of QR you're trying to scan:

• GPSS: QRs from the GPSS (or the #gpss-logs channel of FlagBrew's Discord server) have to be scanned in the GPSS section of PKSM. This can be accessed by opening Storage, then selecting the wifi button on the bottom screen, then pressing X.
• PKX/PB7: Usually coming from PKHeX, these QR codes must be of the same generation as the currently loaded save. This scanner is accessed by opening Editor, then pressing L + R. Please note: QRs of PK7 files are very finicky due to their size, and as such may need multiple tries.
• Wonder Card: These are scanned by opening Events, then pressing L + R.

Why doesn't ServePKX work? How can I send pokemon to PKSM from my PC now?

ServePKX has been deprecated as of PKSM v6. There are three ways you can send Pokémon to PKSM from PC now.

1. (Recommended) Upload the Pokémon to the GPSS using either through our Discord bot's .gpsspost command (should only be used in #bot-channel), or through architdate's Auto Legality Plugin for PKHeX.
2. Create a QR code from the pkx file using PKHeX. Then, scan the QR code by opening Editor and pressing L + R.
3. Place the pkx files you want to add at /3ds/PKSM/inject/ and run the universal injector.c script.

An event is missing from the database. Can you add it?

First off, PKSM's Event section does not currently support Generation 3, LGPE, or SWSH.

If you're asking about another event, it is most likely already in the collection that is the source of our database. If you find the event there but not in PKSM, please report it so we can update our bundling script.

How do I use Generation 3 wondercards?

Generation 3 events do not exist as wondercards, outside of the unsupported (fake) WC3 format. There are two different methods for accessing Generation 3 events, depending on what they require.

1. For any events that directly give you a Pokémon, you will want to use the universal injector.c script by putting the .pk3 file, found from EventsGallery, at /3ds/PKSM/inject/ and then running the script.
2. For events that give you an item so you can get a Pokémon (ex the Old Sea Map), you'll want to use the RSEFrLg - Inject Tickets.c found in the Universal scripts list.

All the sprites in PKSM are messed up. What went wrong?

Nothing has gone wrong. I repeat -- THIS IS NOT A BUG! This is entirely expected under the right circumstances, and given the right amount of time this will go away on its own. If you're impatient, the cause is really simple and you can change something to return things to normal.

We've had various reactions to this once users have learned the cause:

• some facepalm, mostly because they're disappointed in themselves for not seeing it sooner
• some are relieved that it's not a bug
• some just wanting things to go back to normal so they can return to using PKSM the way they're used to
• some are indifferent
• some have even appreciated it as clever

How do I add custom music?

Place your custom music tracks in MP3 format in /3ds/PKSM/songs. Relatively small file sizes are recommended, as are sampling frequency of 44100Hz and a bitrate of 96kbps.

These are recommendations, not constraints; you can generally toss whatever you want in MP3 format in there and PKSM will do fairly well.

What backup folder corresponds to which game?

For DS and 3DS games (Generations 4 through 7), this table summarizes which backup folder for both PKSM and Checkpoint is for which game.

Game	PKSM	Checkpoint
Diamond	ADAX	ADAX POKEMON D
Pearl	APAX	APAX POKEMON P
Platinum	CPUX	CPUX POKEMON PL
HeartGold	IPKX	IPKX POKEMON HG
SoulSilver	IPGX	IPGX POKEMON SS
Black	IRBX	IRBX POKEMON B
White	IRAX	IRAX POKEMON W
Black 2	IREX	IREX POKEMON B2
White 2	IRDX	IRDX POKEMON W2
X	0x0055D	0x0055D Pokémon X
Y	0x0055E	0x0055E Pokémon Y
Omega Ruby	0x011C4	0x011C4 Pokémon Omega Ruby
Alpha Sapphire	0x011C5	0x011C5 Pokémon Alpha Sapphire
Sun	0x01648	0x01648 Pokémon Sun
Moon	0x0175E	0x0175E Pokémon Moon
Ultra Sun	0x01B50	0x01B50 Pokémon Ultra Sun
Ultra Moon	0x01B51	0x01B51 Pokémon Ultra Moon

where X for DS games (Diamond/Pearl through Black 2/White 2) is one of E, S, K, J, I, D, F, or O.

For backups of saves sent through the bridge function (i.e. from Switch Checkpoint to 3DS PKSM), you'll find the backups in /3ds/PKSM/backups/bridge.

For titles configured through the Title IDs option in Settings, it is based on the title ID you configured for the game. This is better explained with an example:

Let's say for "FireRed" you've configured the ID 0xABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP. To get the backup folder name

1. remove the last 2 digits
   • in our example, this is OP, which would leave us with 0xABCDEFGHIJKLMN
2. take the last 5 digits
   • our example would leave us with JKLMN
3. add 0x in front of those 5 digits
   • our example gives us with 0xJKLMN

And that's it! So our backup folder for "FireRed" with the title ID 0xABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP will be 0xJKLMN.

If you set up any Generation 3 save files as Extra Saves without configuring a Title ID, the backups will be in a particular folder based on the game

Game	PKSM
Ruby	0x00001
Sapphire	0x00002
Emerald	0x00003
FireRed	0x00004
LeafGreen	0x00005