Trader Behaviour At the Pokémon Trading Forum, we expect you to act appropriately and respectfully to fellow traders. This includes:
No Flaming - publicly or privately attacking traders is taken very seriously here by the forum moderators and will not be tolerated. If you have been privately verbally abused by another trader on the Pokémon Trading Forum, it is recommended that you contact a forum moderator as soon as possible.
No Spamming - advertising and off-topic posts that are not on the Off-Topic Discussion thread will be deleted accordingly. Frequent spammers will be given a week long ban.
No Memberating - Although a forum moderator may not be online, it is suggested that community members do not take a moderator's role and take the matter into their own hands. Simply press the button and one of the forum moderators will get around to the matter as soon as we can. However, if community members choose to point out that a Pokémon is hacked and/or on PokéCheck, this is perfectly fine.
Be Respectful - Pokémon Trading Forum is a rather harmonic forum, one in which you should be respectful to your peers. If you fail to do so, you will be give a warning by one of the forum moderators and possibly banned.
Do not put the forum moderators on your ignore list - Sometimes, forum moderators may need to contact traders due to events happening in the forum. By putting moderators on your ignore list, we cannot contact you if anything does come up and you are only hindering yourself if you get scammed.
Trading Tags Trade tags are very important to us at Neoseeker since this allows the trading community members to determine which Generation you can trade on. This restricts questions on what generation the trader can trade on and to also let the traders know before they open your thread. We recommend all traders use the following tags from the drop down menu: Generation 4 Tags gen4 offer gen4 request gen4 giveaway
If a new thread has been created without the tags, they will be kindly asked to add them in by one of the moderators.
Hacking Hacking is allowed on the Pokémon Trading Forum but it must be labelled as being a hacked Pokémon. This will prevent any unfair trades taking place and of course, oust the likelihood of being labelled as a scammer
Anyone who does not label Pokémon that they know are hacks will be blacklisted here and banned respectively. Bypassing and repeating offenders may face a permanent from both the Pokémon Trading Forum & Pokémon Shopping District Forum and even off Neoseeker altogether.
Scamming Scamming occurs when a trader trades one Pokémon and the other trader trades something to the other that is not what they described whilst negotiating in the Pokémon Trading Forum or Pokémon Shopping District Forum. If this does occur, it is strongly recommended that you report the scammer here and Amsey, Coconut or Rayce will resolve the situation.
In the unlikely event of being scammed, the scammer will be blacklisted here and banned respectively. Bypassing and repeating offenders may face a permanent from both the Pokémon Trading Forum & Pokémon Shopping District Forum and even off Neoseeker altogether.
PokéCheck Pokémon Here at the Pokémon Trading, we support those who choose to file trade or Wi-Fi trade. However, recent issues have resulted in a few unfair trades being given due to community members downloading PokéCheck Pokémon to their game. This is frowned upon here at the Pokémon Trading & Shopping District Forum since downloading a Pokémon to your game from Pokécheck adds a Gift Ribbon to the Pokémon, which is deemed as illegitimate. To overcome this, please just download the file and not transfer it to your game. Downloading the file as it is will not add a Gift Ribbon onto the Pokémon.
Most traders on Neoseeker do not like Pokémon that are publicly displayed on PokéCheck since anyone can obtain these Pokémon. It is recommended that you let the other trader know that the Pokémon is on PokéCheck.
The offering of PokéCheck Pokémon that has been downloaded onto a trader's game is not taken lightly and traders could be given a week long ban and given a warning.
AR Cloning/RNG Abusing Both of these features are allowed here on Neoseeker. Nevertheless, it is kindly asked by the Pokémon Trading & Shopping District Forum moderators that all RNG Abused Pokémon and Cloned Pokémon are labelled or has been mentioned by the trader during the negotiation of the trade to avoid possible arguments.
Current Forum Moderators Questions? Queries? PM the forum moderators! Amsey PM Coconut PM
This guide is intended for the use of new users to the forum generally (for Wi-Fi anyway) as chances are if you’ve already been around here for a bit, you’ll have done enough trading to know what you’re doing already. That being said, it’s worth reading just for the information on file trading, which is a very important way for trading employed mostly by event collectors.
For those of you that don’t like to read, here’s a summary of the guide. Bear in mind, you won’t get all the information from this that you need, and if you want to file trade you should read the guide properly.
I. Wifi Trading
Register each others friend codes (found in your pal pad obtained from the lady in the Pokémon Center’s basement) in your pal pads.
Make sure that the Pokémon you want to trade over are in your party, and you have access to wifi with your DS.
Interact with the middle person in the basement of the Pokémon Center and save the game.
Find the person you’re trading with in the WiFi room, or just start searching for participants with the command console.
You will now be in the trading screen, select the Pokémon you’re trading and confirm you’d like to trade them when prompted.
Wahey you’re trading! Now quit and leave the WiFi room when it’s finished. You’re done!
III. File Trading PokeSav Step 1 - If you haven’t got your Pokémon on file, and they’re on your game (which will need to be on a flash cart, sorry ). Otherwise someone may put convert your Pokémon if you trade them to them over wifi and they do this, make sure you trust them!
Using Pokesav, access your save file on the memory stick you play on and open it.
Locate the Pokémon you’d like to put into file and save where you’d like to on your computer.
Step 2 – No flash cart required now.
After agreeing what the trade is, send the files you’re trading via email to whom you’re trading with.
Check your inbox to see if you’ve been sent the files yourself (you may decide it’s necessary to choose who sends the files first beforehand).
That’s it! File trading is EASY.
PokeCheck How to Upload Pokemon
Step 1) First, boot up your DS/3DS
Step 2) Go to the Internet settings and when it says "Auto Obtain DNS" hit no and go to the Advanced options. Enter the DNS code you see at Pokecheck.org
Step 3) Go to the GTS in-game. Hit Deposit and you should get error code 13266. If you don't you did it wrong.
Step 4) On Pokecheck, hit "See unclaimed Pokémon from my IP". You will see your Pokemon. Your Pokemon will be on Pokecheck and on your game. Once on your file, hit "Manage my Pokemon"
Step 5) Click on the Pokemon you want the file of. Scroll down and hit "Save as .pkm file"
Step 6) You will now have that file saved on your computer for trade.
How to receive the Pokémon Step 1) After arranging the trade exchange emails via PM
Step 2) Decide who is sending their file(s) first and if you are going first then send it.
Step 3) The person going last will check their email and if the file is there they will reply with the file they promised.
Step 4) You can download your file now.
We do not condone downloading Pokémon from PokeCheck to your game since this adds a Gift Ribbon on your Pokémon, making it illegitimate
IR-GTS For a full guide, click here The GTS is not a good place to trade, from my experience almost everything on there is hacked. Trade at your own risk.
First and foremost, check that your DS can connect to your wireless connection at home (you will need a wireless connection). You can check this by selecting ‘Nintendo WFC settings’ on the title screen for your game – this is universal across the 4th generation Pokémon games, the option is there! Then, you search for connections as it instructs you and it’ll bring up a list of accessible networks. Select the one for your house or the one you’d like to use and it’ll automatically start a connection test. If you don’t end up with ‘Connection Successful’ then there’s something wrong with your connection, and you’ll have to figure out a way to fix it. You can do that using Nintendo’s DS help site.
Now for the in-game part. Generally, this is a very simple process. In order to be able to interact with anyone using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, you will both have to have each others Friend Codes registered in your Pal Pad. The Pal Pad is a key item which you receive the first time you enter the basement of a Pokémon Center. You can register up to 40 people in your Pal Pad at any one time, but don’t worry, entries can be deleted if you run out of space. The most important thing is that you know your own Friend Code, so that you can share it with other people. You can find out your Friend Code by selecting the Pal Pad in the key items pocket, and once you’re on the Pal Pad ‘screen’ you have the ability to check ‘My Friend Code’. When you select this, the 12-digit number that appears on-screen is your Friend Code.
So, you need to tell the person you’re trading with this number so that they can register it into their Pal Pad before you can trade with one another. Your Friend Code will not change but it is unique to the game you are playing, so if you have a Diamond game and a Platinum game, they will each have different Friend Codes. You may have some users with multiple Friend Codes written into their signatures already.
Now you need the Friend Code of the person with whom you are trading, they should be able to tell you this number just as you told them. To register their Friend Code, go into the Pal Pad (as you did to check your own Friend Code) and then select ‘Register New Friend Code’. The Pal Pad will ask you for the name you’d like to register the Friend Code under (this can be anything) and then you will have to enter in the Friend Code which your trading partner just gave you. Now you’re about ready to head into Wi-Fi, but here’s an example of what happens so far:
Me: Hey Bradnock would you like to trade my Pikachu for your Meowth? Bradnock: Sure thing, what’s your FC (this stands for Friend Code) and I’ll meet you in Wi-Fi? Me: Sounds good. My FC is 0173 9624 7837, what’s yours? Bradnock: 2859 3512 0023. (I now register the Friend Code as Bradnock in my Pal Pad). Me: OK, I’ll meet you in Wi-Fi!
So that’s where we’re up to, just about ready to trade, you just have to enter Wi-Fi. To do this, go to the basement of any Pokémon Center as you did to get your Pal Pad. Speak to the lady in the middle, and she will ask you if you would like to enter Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Bear in mind you will need some form of wireless connection in your house to be able to connect your DS to Wi-Fi! Keep selecting yes and eventually, you will save your game before entering (this is for the possibility that you have a connection problem, you don’t want to lose your prized Pokémon due to network issues!). Once the game is saved, your character will be led into the Wi-Fi room!
When you’re in the room, you will see people you currently have registered to your Pal Pad that are also currently online in the Wi-Fi room. The person who you are trying to trade with, will hopefully be one of them. If not, assuming you’ve registered each others Friend Codes alright, then just wait for them to enter the room. Nintendo WFC has the ability for voice chat to be turned on when trading, in fact it’s the default option. If you don’t want people to be able to hear you when trading, then make sure you turn off Voice Chat by toggling the X-button.
If you’re trading partner is already in the room, chances are they’ll be jumping up and down ‘Seeking Participants’, to start up the trade, just interact with their character and select yes when prompted. If they’re not jumping up and down, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be the one seeking participants. To do this, you just have to go up to the control panel on the wall and interact. A list of options will come up, this is pretty obvious what you have to choose from, and chances are you’ll be looking for the ‘Trade’ option (just select it). Mind you, all WFC options work in the same way with Friend Codes, so if you’re trying to battle rather than trade for example, just do everything as I’ve explained for trading but select ‘Battle’ – it’s really quite a simple process. Once you select ‘Trade’, you will become the character that’s jumping up and down but for your trading partner’s screen – now you just have to wait for them to interact with you. When they interact with you, the game will say ‘Bradnock (or whatever the name is) has contacted you!’ and you just tap A until it asks if you’d like to trade, then select ‘Yes’.
Now, you’ll be brought into the trading screen. Here, you can see all the Pokémon currently in your party as well as in the trading partner’s party, and you can check out their stats, moves etc. by selecting them and choosing a summary, just as you would when checking your party Pokémon in-game. To trade a Pokémon, select the Pokémon you’re trading and then press trade. Once your trading partner has done the same, then you’ll be asked if the proposed trade is alright. If you’re still happy with the trade, select ‘Yes’, and then the trade will start once the trading partner has done the same.
You’ll now get the standard clip of the Pokémon being traded. Unfortunately, this cannot be skipped (trust me it gets irritating once you’ve done a load of trades) but eventually it’ll finish, and sitting in your parties will be each others traded Pokémon! Just select quit when you’re done, or trade again if you were trading more than one poke or would now like to trade back for whatever reason (such as trading for dex data and evolving certain Pokémon). When you select quit and leave, you just have to walk out of the Wi-Fi room and you’ll be put back in the Pokémon center with your new Pokémon (minus your old one). Congratulations the trade is complete!
Bradnock: Thanks for the trade! Me: You too, hopefully we can trade again some time, that was really fun!
And that’s it for Wi-Fi trading, it’s pretty simple. Once you’ve done a few trades you won’t think twice about it, I promise.
File Trading
Generally for the more experienced traders, and used almost solely by event collectors, this is my personal favourite - but bear in mind it has its issues. Generally, file trading involves sending Pokémon to each other via email, as .pkm files which are obtained using a program called Pokesav (no, there’s no hacking involved). However, getting these .pkm files can be troublesome; this is because you need to have some way of accessing your saved game with a computer. In short, that means in order to get the Pokémon as files yourself, you will need a flashcart with the game on it as a ROM (obviously, you MUST have bought the game legally beforehand, otherwise you are stealing).
The reason you need a flash cart is because these use memory cards with the games on as a ROM and the game is saved to the memory card (generally a microSD or microSDHC) as a .sav file. You will need access to this .sav file with your computer to ‘convert’ the Pokémon from your game to a .pkm file. If you have connected the memory card to the computer, you should have no issues from here at all. Yes it’s not fair that people without flash carts are missing out, perhaps you can find someone capable of converting your pokes to file to help you out.
Now you will need the program ‘Pokesav’, the version you want is the version for the game you want to get the Pokémon from. You can download Pokesav here. Bear in mind, this program can be used for many things, one of which is hacking. Do not trade hacked Pokémon without stating they’re hacked or Pokesav’d if you know they are, otherwise you will get yourself into trouble. Fact.
If you have Pokesav installed on your computer, then you need to locate the .sav file on your memory stick. This is not hard to do. On the Pokesav main screen, select the ‘Open’ button and you will have a Windows Explorer window come up. Just locate the memory stick, and find the game you’re looking for the .sav file of, like this:
Spoiler: Example Screenshot
(That save file is indeed amazing )
Pokesav will then open your save file and you’ll be able to see a whole load of information, such as this:
Spoiler: Example Screenshot
Depending on which Pokémon you want as a file, it’ll be located either in your Pokémon party (which is on the main screen) or in a PC Box. To access the PC Boxes, you need to select ‘Storage’ which is visible on the main screen also. This will bring up a new window which shows Box 1’s 30 storage slots initially, but you can switch boxes just by using the up and down arrows next to where it tells you the box you’re currently on – there’s little more to explain about that really.
You should now locate the Pokémon which you want to save as a .pkm file, which explains itself really. If you want to save a Pokémon in slot number 10 of Box 12 for example, go to Box 12 and find slot number 10. To save the Pokémon as a .pkm file, you just have to select ‘Save’ on that Pokémon and you’ll be asked where you want to save the file to and what you want to save it as, and that’s entirely up to you, it will be saved as a .pkm file to your computer. (Alternatively if you want to load a .pkm file onto your game, just use the ‘Load’ option on an empty slot and then save with the button on the main screen. When you start your game up next it will appear in that slot on your game.) You should now have the Pokémon as a .pkm file. I’d recommend saving everything you have that you’d consider trading as a .pkm file so that you don’t have to save these as files again at a later date, just for speed’s sake.
So, if you’ve arranged to trade Pokémon as files with someone, you should now have those Pokémon which you’re trading as files. You just have to send the .pkm file to your trading partner’s email address (which they will tell you if it’s not obvious), and they have to send the .pkm file you want to your address. There’s a bit of trust involved here, as unlike with Wi-Fi, one of you will have to send the files first. Assuming that all goes through well, just check your email inbox until you get a message from who you’re trading with and it should have an attached item, which is the .pkm file. Just download this to whatever location you’d like on your computer. I advise being quite methodical about this, to keep your Pokémon files arranged properly. Otherwise when you get quite a few files they will be very hard to find. Here’s an example (how I keep my events):
Spoiler: Organization Example
There’s not much else to say about this, other than sorry to everyone that doesn’t have a flash cart. It’s worth renaming your files to make them easier to find just in case your organization isn’t too good, I suggest the Secure PKM Namer which can be found here (all credit to darksteel88 for the excellent program).
That’s it for file trading I think!
GTS Trading
I’m really not keen on GTS trading, and if you’re on this forum you really have no need to do it. The vast majority of decent Pokémon on the GTS are hacks, I know this from experience. However, if you want to trade via the GTS, you should enter the GTS building for whichever game you’re on (for example the one in Jubilife city in D/P/Pt). When you access the global terminal for trading, you can search for Pokémon (which you must have seen in the game according to your Pokédex) by name, and then refine the search by level etc. If you find the Pokémon you’re after, and have what the person’s looking for, you can offer your Pokémon for it and then the trade will start, it’s as simple as that. Beware of shiny’s on the GTS, most are hacked. Also, you should not ever think that a trade for a level 100 Legendary for a low-level common Pokémon is ever a good idea – once again, they’ve likely been hacked.
Acronyms You Should Know Before Trading
Here’s a list of acronyms that you’ll often see around the trading forums, they can tell you a bit of extra info about the Pokémon.
UT – untouched/untrained. The Pokémon has got no EVs currently assigned to it if it’s untrained, untouched means it hasn’t gained any experience or been used in any way at all.
EVd – the Pokémon has been trained properly, and had all its Effort Values assigned.
T – the Pokémon has been trained, and will have some experience, Effort Values etc. but possibly not well.
Pokérus – the Pokémon has Pokérus (often shortened as ‘PKRS’).
PP/PD – the Pokémon has been downloaded from either project Pokémon or the Pokémon database. Avoid.
LF – looking for. This is effectively the same as saying ‘Request’ but do not use this as that’s not how we tag threads here on neo.
FT – for trade. This is effectively the same as saying ‘Offer’ but do not use this as that’s not how we tag threads here on neo.
UFT - Up for trade. This pokemon is available to be traded currently.
GOO - good offers only. If the pokemon is quite valuable, the owner may not be very keen to trade it for anything but what they deem a good offer. Seen almost solely with event trading.
WTL - won't trade lightly. As above.
NFT - not for trade. Some members, especially event traders, have some Pokemon they have up for display but that aren't available for trade. Sorry
IV - individual value. Each Pokemon has an IV of 1-31 for each stat, which helps determine what its stats will be. The higher the IV for a stat, the better the individual stat will be.
EV - effort value. A maximum of 510 EVs can be assigned to a pokemon, and a mazimum of 255 in a single stat, every 4 points gives a +1 bonus to the stat. For more information, look here.
3rd gen - Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald and FireRed/LeafGreen for GBA. The third generation of Pokemon games, each generation introduces a new area and new Pokemon.
4th gen - Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum and HeartGold/SoulSilver for DS.
5th gen - Pokemon Black/White for DS.
Egg Moves - a Pokemon that is specifically bred to know a particular move that it doesn't normally know. An Eevee that knows Wish is an egg move Pokemon.
Well I hope this guide has helped you in some way! If you have any questions about it or any problems at all, then please shoot me a PM or ask below. Also, be sure to check out my 'Scam Avoiding' guide, after all you don’t want to learn all this just to get conned out of your Pokémon do you? Now go and have fun trading!
A Trader’s Guide on How To Avoid Getting Scammed or Receiving Hacked Pokémon
This guide is aimed at generally newer traders to our forums here, and will go into the basics of knowing what sort of traders to avoid and what sort of Pokémon to avoid just to make sure you are making the most out of the Pokémon you trade.
One of the first things I think worth mentioning is that the majority of traders here, and I think every single shop, do clone their Pokémon, so if you want to offer your prized starter Pokémon to someone you’ve been training since the start of the game in order to get a shiny Pokémon for example, I would advise that you seek someone out who can clone your Pokémon first before you trade as they will have done the same themselves. The good news is, however, that if you’re offering your Pokémon in a shop, more often than not they will be able to clone for you, so you can just get them cloned there!
Avoiding Scammers
This brings me neatly onto the most common form of scamming on these forums, and that is stealing clones. There is a general guideline here, if the person offering to clone a Pokémon for you have less than 100 posts, then it’s probably worth not letting them clone for you and seeking out someone else instead, no matter how trustworthy they seem. The amount of times I have seen people with 20 or so posts stealing other people’s clones is far too high, and hopefully if you abide by this guideline it will not happen to you.
Another big problem I found myself having originally was with traders claiming ‘All my Pokémon are 100% legit’. My advice is that generally these traders don’t mean to do any harm and to the best of their knowledge their Pokémon might be 100% legit. However it’s worth just asking how they know they’re Pokémon are legit, because quite often they’re just quoting what they’ve been told. Every once in a while though they may be passing off known hacks as legit, and if you find out that anything you’ve been guaranteed legit is hacked it is worth PMing the trader to find out why the error is made, and possibly posting a report in the scam reporting sticky. It is important this is done in order to stop the spreading of hacked Pokémon for everyone.
Another suggestion, if the trade seems too good to be true (like a shiny Deoxys for your Roselia), then it quite possibly is and you should make a decision on it to the best of your ability. Also, if the trader is rushing you to make a deal and seems rather rude, chances are they’re a scammer just trying to do another scam as quickly as possible; and if they’re rude at all they don’t deserve to be traded with as it is. If you are in any way unsure about the trader (low post count, offensive messages, unbelievable deals are some things to be warned of) then reconsider trading or ask for a second opinion from someone you trust. Basically, make sure you think before you do the trade otherwise you could end up disappointed.
One way you can help yourself here, which is mainly trading for rarer Pokémon (shiny’s, events and so on) is to request you get them legit checked first. Due to the sheer amount of trades that go on this should only really be requested when trading rare Pokémon, but there are some people that can check Pokémon for you. For checking events, however, you should seek help from people here because checking events requires a fair bit of knowledge, and a lot of ‘legit checkers’ don’t have any idea what they’re doing. If you need a normal or shiny Pokémon checked however, I’m quite happy to do that for you, but you must check the list of hacked Pokémon first to see if the OT/ID combination of your Pokémon is on there.
Here’s a list of hacked Pokémon that I found getting passed around the forum quite a bit, not so much any more though!
Pokémon: Pichu OT: SPR2010 ID: 03050 Notes: lvl 33, Jolly (There’s little point listing this because it’s always jolly and has the event OT/ID, however if someone offers you a lvl 33 one turn it down)
So a general rule about trading, if you’re told a Pokémon is legit, ask the person you’re getting it from how they know that to be true, and make sure you’re satisfied with the answer. If you want your Pokémon cloned, then make sure you get it done by someone trustworthy – so that generally excludes traders who still don’t have 100 posts (sorry to the reasonable ones of you there are out there ). Above all, make sure the Pokémon you receive doesn’t have anything odd about it, because if it does, it’ll probably be a hack and everyone prefers legit Pokémon to hacks in the end. Here’s some useful on what to avoid in a Pokémon.
Avoiding Hacks
This is the most important part, and there are a few telltale things you can just look out for on a Pokémon to make sure it isn’t hacked. Some hacked Pokémon you can only tell are hacked with computer programs and depending on what type of Pokémon you’d like checking there are people that can check Pokémon’s legality for you if you so wish. There is a list of known hackers and hacked Pokémon to avoid in the scam reporting sticky, and you can go one better yourself and make sure the Pokémon you’re receiving doesn’t have the same OT and ID of any Pokémon on this list – because a very large amount of hacks currently circulating around the forums can be found on the list. Often you’ll be able to tell if a Pokémon is hacked from what you can see in the Pokémon’s summary, here’s a list of some telltale signs of what to look out for when getting your Pokémon.
#1 Place of encounter This is extremely important for legendary and unique Pokémon, as they mainly can only be obtained in one place only (with the exception of roaming Pokémon). The reason this will be useful for determining hacks will be because a substantial portion of hacked shinies (the most common form of hacked Pokémon) will have been obtained using AR codes to encounter the Pokémon in the wild.
If you’re in doubt of where such Pokémon should have come from Serebii can be a very useful resource on such information for every Pokémon ever available. However, to make this simple, here’s a short list of specific Pokémon to look out for as they could never be encountered more than once in a game by any means:
Spoiler: Pokémon To Be Aware Of
Mewtwo Mew (must have arrived via Pal Park) Lugia Ho-oh Celebi (cannot be in-game encounter) Regirock Registeel Kyogre Groudon Jirachi (cannot be in-game encounter) Deoxys Uxie Azelf Palkia Dialga Heatran Giratina Phione (Can only be hatched) Manaphy (Cannot be in-game encounter, but will be hatched in-game) Darkrai Shaymin Arceus (can only be in-game encounter at Hall of Origin if the azure flute was hacked into the game) Rotom Riolu/Lucario (only wild encounter is at HGSS Safari Zone) Drifloon/Drifblim (must be bred/met at valley windworks) Bulbasaur/Ivysaur/Venusaur Squirtle/Wartortle/Blastoise Charmander/Charmeleon/Charizard Chikorita/Bayleaf/Meganium Totodile/Croconaw/Feraligatr Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion Treecko/Grovyle/Sceptile Mudkip/Marshtomp/Swampert Torchic/Combusken/Blaziken Turtwig/Grotle/Torterra Piplup/Prinplip/Empoleon Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape
However, a lot of these Pokémon were obtainable in the third generation games (Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red and Leaf Green), so in your fourth generation these will say they ‘arrived at lv. …’ from either Hoenn or Kanto, so in this case it’s impossible to tell if the Pokémon has been hacked just from its location.
#2 Starter Pokémon This follows easily from number 1. With starter Pokémon, they can either be hatched from breeding or obtained normally at the start of the game from one of the Pokémon professors. The first thing to check here is the pokeball it’s in, due to the way that the Pokémon has to be obtained, it should almost always be in a pokeball – I have seen many a starter Pokémon caught in a master ball, so it can be very easy to tell hacks this way. The only way a starter can be in anything but a pokeball is if it’s either a Birthday Charmander or Birthday Chimchar event Pokémon, which will be in cherish balls.
#3 Level Encountered This can be useful for determining if quite a lot of the most commonly hacked Pokémon are hacks. For example, almost all legendary Pokémon can only be encountered at specific levels (the exceptions are common event Pokémon like Mew and Jirachi which have so many different events they could be encountered at so many different levels). Of course pal parking Pokémon can make this hard to tell again because the level you see is the level at which the Pokémon was pal parked and this can be pretty varied, but there’s some very easy things to look out for with fourth generation Pokémon. Mainly, check that the Pokémon’s encounter level makes sense. Basically there’s not many Pokémon that can be encountered at level 2 for example, so if you have a ponyta encountered at level 2 it’s hacked, or a golduck encountered at level 90 it’s also hacked. It’s worth noting that Magikarp technically can be encountered at level 100, that’s one which I’ve seen confuse people before, so don’t rule it out yourself. Again, Serebii is a very useful resource for the possible encounter levels of each and every Pokémon in each and every game.
#4 Move-set This is just as you’d expect it to be. Make sure you check the moveset that your Pokémon has is actually possible for what it is, because if it’s not, it’s hacked. www.serebii.net can be useful for checking this, and 99.9% will give you the information you’re after. But some Pokémon are worth bearing in mind that they have been released as events with specific moves they would otherwise not be able to learn (such as Wish Bagon or Teeter Dance Pichu). However, these events are quite rare, and the chances of you receiving one without even knowing about it are pretty much nil, but it’s worth stressing that it can be a possibility. However, if in doubt, DON’T TRADE! That way, you can’t go wrong.
#5 Ability Certainly one of the less common things to be out of order with hacked Pokémon, but it is possible. Make sure that the Pokémon has an ability it can actually have; for example the only Pokémon that can have wonder guard is Shedinja, I’ve seen a few hacked Pokémon that know wonder guard which really shouldn’t so just be careful. Obviously wonder guard is not the only case, a grass Pokémon with flame body would be another common example. In some cases a Pokémon will have no ability at all, this is ALWAYS a hack. This sort of thing actually occurs because of one of the programs which is commonly used to make hacks, and that’s all I’m going to say on that.
#6 Contest Stats Quite often hacked Pokémon have maximum values in all their contest stats, I’m not sure why this is done but it makes it pretty obvious that the Pokémon is hacked. Anyone who’s ever tried to evolve a Feebas into a Milotic will know what I’m talking about, getting a near-max beauty rating before maxing sheen is hard enough, so if you see a Pokémon with max stats in all different categories you can be sure that it’s a hack.
#7 Ribbons Not many legit Pokémon have more than a full page of ribbons, and quite often hacked Pokémon have got a whole lot more ribbons than that, and they will likely have ribbons that actually aren’t obtainable in-game - such as the classic ribbon which is only available on event Pokémon or the world ribbon.
#8 EV Values This is a fairly important one, and it’s worth giving a short introduction. Effort Values, or EVs, are used to train Pokémon in specific stats. For every 4 effort points put into a single stat, your Pokémon will gain 1 extra point in that stat. A total of 510 points can be spread out across the stats; the standard way to do it is 252/252/6. EV spreads are not limited to this 252/252/6 EV spread of course as there’s a whole variety of different combinations possible. It’s quite hard to check the effort values of a Pokémon without outside software. However, you can tell quite easily if all the stats have got 255 in each stat (the maximum possible per stat). Use Serebii’s information about each Pokémon’s stats to help you with this, and regard the effect that nature and IVs can have on it – but 252 EV points will be obvious no matter what.
#9 Individual Values – ‘IVs’ For the beginning trainer, it’s possible you won’t have even heard of these. IVs are numbers from 0 to 31 which aid to determining a Pokémon’s stats. In-game, it’s pretty much randomly determined what the IVs will be, unless it is specifically aimed for either by breeding two Pokémon (where certain values will be inherited) or with RNG abuse (something which I will not go into here as it is a little more advanced. Visit Smogon if you’re interested in finding out). Where I’m going with this is about Pokémon with an IV spread of 31/31/31/31/31/31 – I mean that pretty much doesn’t happen. It IS possible to have a Pokémon with flawless IVs, and this is via RNG abuse only (the chances of getting one otherwise are negligible). Another commonly seen IV spread on hacked Pokémon is 0/0/0/0/0/0, or other identical IVs like 12/12/12/12/12/12 etc. so avoid these whenever possible. If you find your Pokémon has flawless (or the former noted IVs), be sure to check everything else properly for any other tell-tale signs of a hack. If you have an AR there is a code you can enter to check the IVs. One way of checking IVs without an AR is via an IV battle. This is simply a process of entering Wi-Fi, requesting a lvl 100 battle in which Pokémon are auto-leveled. From here, you can check the stats of the Pokémon and type them into an IV calculator, the outcome listing the Pokémon’s IVs. A good example of an IV calculator includes Metalkid’s Gaming Resources. This process only works if the Pokémon is UT (or otherwise know it’s exact EV spread).
#10 OT and ID This is the final thing immediately visible on a Pokémon’s summary which you can use for checking if it’s been hacked or not – and they themselves do not give anything away. The only thing you can do with these is take a look at a list of known hacker IDs and OTs as well as the known hacked Pokémon list which should both be readily available in the scam reporting sticky. Otherwise, there’s not much you can do with that information I’m afraid, except make sure that the ID number seems realistic. An ID number of 00001 or 55555 is probably gonna be hacked, so be careful, but don’t forget that there is a possibility it’s not been changed.
#11 SID If you are able to check the Pokémon’s SID (and you will have to already have the Pokémon yourself to do this or at least have the owner tell you, when they may lie) then keep an eye out for the signs mentioned above. A lot of event Pokémon have SIDs of 00000 so don’t immediately dismiss this. SIDs like 00001 and 12345 should still be avoided as usual however.
#12 Pal Parked Pokémon A lot of Pokémon you will see will have been pal parked, there is nothing wrong with that at all and does not affect the Pokémon. One thing you can specifically look at with a pal parked Pokémon is the encounter level. The lowest level of encounter available for a Pal Parked Pokémon is level 5 – eggs hatched at level 5 in Gen III so any levels below this be sceptical about. Encounter levels of 2, 3 and 4 were still possible, but only on the Pokémon encountered right at the start of the game. Pokémon that were met at the pal park at level 1 however, are all hacks and should be avoided.
Hacked Event Pokémon
This is simple enough, and if you’re trading for event Pokémon you’ll probably know all the stuff I’ve said already. Try to use reliable sources such as Bulbapedia, Serebii and Pokémon Secure to check everything about the Pokémon you’re getting is right – if it has a fateful encounter when it shouldn’t, or the right OT but wrong ID, you can tell right away that it’s hacked. Bear in mind no source is perfect, and even these sites are known to make mistakes from time to time, so if you’re unsure it’s worth asking someone who knows their stuff if you’ve got a question (perhaps even ask in this thread, I wouldn’t mind). Also, you should check this list for a list of Pokémon that were hosted as files on pkmdb (Pokemon Database) and due to the fact they were hosted on this site they now have literally no trading value among serious traders, so these should be avoided at all costs as a lot of people actually consider them hacked.
That ends the guide for now. I hope you have found it useful Any information you think can be added please let me know via pm, rather than posting below, and I will add it if necessary. Most importantly, let me know of any mistakes immediately as we do not need new traders being taught how to trade badly!
Thanks for reading the guides, hope you found them useful. If you have any questions about the guides, or about the forum in general, you are allowed to post them below now and we'll answer as soon as we can.
This thread has just been opened to allow for a place for general Q&A from the community. It seemed a fitting time what with the new inclusion of the trading and scam-avoiding guides. Enjoy your new reading material everyone!
re: Pokemon Trading Forum Guidelines, Q&A, and Guides to Trading and Scam-Avoiding
Well this isn't reaaly a question about avoiding hacks but,if I breed one of my hacks with another hack,or legit pokemon,would the egg contain a legit pokemon?
Well this isn't reaaly a question about avoiding hacks but,if I breed one of my hacks with another hack,or legit pokemon,would the egg contain a legit pokemon?
Thanks for the question! It's kind of a blurred line when saying what's a hack when it comes to this. I personally am not bothered, but I know that some people are. Of course, all tests you can do on the pokemon etc. will show that the pokemon is legit, but a lot of people don't like it as it isn't really 100% legit (I'd say it's legal, which is slightly different).
Basically, you should let people know how you got the pokemon if a hack was involved in the process at all.
Well this isn't reaaly a question about avoiding hacks but,if I breed one of my hacks with another hack,or legit pokemon,would the egg contain a legit pokemon?
Thanks for the question! It's kind of a blurred line when saying what's a hack when it comes to this. I personally am not bothered, but I know that some people are. Of course, all tests you can do on the pokemon etc. will show that the pokemon is legit, but a lot of people don't like it as it isn't really 100% legit (I'd say it's legal, which is slightly different).
Basically, you should let people know how you got the pokemon if a hack was involved in the process at all.
If i shiny egg abuse my pokemon, does that make it a hack?
RNG abusing, no. If you use Action Replay, then yes.
slashtrey
This. I'm not quite sure what you mean by shiny egg 'abusing', but if it involves anything other than in-game methods (I don't mind so much about hacked flawless parents, some people do though) then it's hacked. AR is certainly not allowed.
I think we just resolved this in your thread though
Why are PP/PD Pokemon frowned upon? Are they considered non-legit, or are they unfair?
They're only frowned upon for trading purposes, seeing as the only reason someone would trade for one is if they are misinformed and don't realise that they're available to everyone on the internet already anyway. They're basically not something to collect as they're so readily available to everyone, and they're frowned upon cos it'd basically be very unfair to make anyone trade something genuinely good for them. Of course for battling purposes they should be fine
thx 4 the help but im still kinda confused, only on how i get to the wifi room
Go to the stairs at the right of the Pokemon Center. You will reach the basement. Talk to the lady at the center. That's the lady in charge of the wifi room.