Getting invalid results, Retail Emerald egg PID | PokemonRNG | Page 1

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 9:05 PM

#

I have been trying unsuccessfully to get a shiny bagon egg and am hitting advances that the tool on the site doesnt recognize.

In dc slot one i inserted a brave ditto
In slot 2 i inserted a female sassy bagon
The daycare man says "the two seem to get along"
I have all of the rematchable trainers (i cross checked 4 times) and all are ticked on the site.
I have a roaming latias that i have seen but not caught, roamer is ticked on the site.
I have a lightningrod electrike as party lead when taking the step to generate my egg and call.
I get into the game as fast as possible, and open pokedex and no other menus once.
I do get a call from the correct trainer (advance 4113 john and jay) but the egg is completely different.

My TID is 31808, my SID is 3866

I am using an authenic us emerald cart with a recently changed battery on an SP

#

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 9:16 PM

#

Here are some troubleshooting questions to help get to the bottom of this:

Are you taking 9 steps before the timer goes off and any time you do get a call it's on the 10th step?
Did you take out both parent Pokemon from the daycare before attempting this RNG? (Leaving the parents in the daycare too long will mess with things)

Just to double check the PokeNav numbers a different way:

How many trainers does the game say are registered in the dex nav?
How many trainers are above Aroma Lady Rose in the DexNav?

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 9:21 PM

#

I am loading in, taking 9 steps, opening dex once, then getting the call as i take my last step.
Yes i took both out, walked to the spot on the path, saved, then did the steps.
My nav has 84 trainers. Above rose i have twenty trainers.

#

Are there any additional sources of noise i should be concerned about? The only pokemon in my party during the last phase are the electrike and slugma.

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 9:56 PM

#

I'm going to make a quick change to the tool

#

You ran into a problem that a few people have had, and I was hoping to figure out the cause with enough info

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 9:56 PM

#

I can provide more info if youd like

#

Only thing odd about my save rn is that wattson is still in town

#

But id be willing to help you nail stuff down

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 9:57 PM

#

I appreciate the offer 😄

#

Do you have the ability to backup your save? No worries if not

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 9:58 PM

#

I can i have a ds flashcart

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 9:58 PM

#

That might be helpful

#

I'm making a quick change to the site

#

It'll help you do the RNG now, as well as help pin down what the issue is

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:00 PM

#

Ill dm you the save file just so random people dont happen to grab it

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 10:02 PM

#

I can't promise I'll be able to look at it in the near future

#

But I can give you the tools and guidance to do some research if you're interested

#

First, I just added a "Calibration" field to the tool

#

If defaults to 19, which is what most people have

#

But for some reason yours seems to be 21

#

Try doing the RNG, but with the calibration value set to 21

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:05 PM

#

what tyically determines this calibration value?

#

im guessing its why the roaming lati matters

#

Oh also my battery was just changed today if it matters that i started this save on day 0

#

And its still 0

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 10:11 PM

#

Yep, the lati matters. There are several things that affect this value, like opening the PokeDex, walking between areas, water, the roamer, etc.

The guide asks the user to stand in a specific spot of Fallabor town because it's makes sure the user has a stable calibration when they start the game.

The base calibration for everyone seems to be 19, and the roamer adds 1.

But for some reason you have a calibration of 21 – 1 extra calibration coming from somewhere.

We need to figure out where that 1 extra is coming from.

#

Having the ability to back up your save makes this much easier, because you can use the mgba emulator with lua scripts to see your calibration value.

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:12 PM

#

Is this also whythe method is inconsistent on ds hardware?

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 10:13 PM

#

iirc, yep

#

The battery is interesting. Maybe a dead batter vs. not affects the calibration?

#

I haven't looked into that before

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:14 PM

#

My sp does have one of the drop in ips screen replacements if somehow that would cause any desync with vblank

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 10:14 PM

#

Mine does too, so I don't think that causes an issue

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:14 PM

#

Gonna start another attempt now

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 10:15 PM

#

I'll be slow to respond – this week is pretty busy for me 😅

#

But I'll be curious to see if 21 works for you

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:15 PM

#

Thats fair

#

Ill let you know

#

Tbh itd be neat if i had a small hardware fault doing it

#

Is it possible that i have tv events queued up like the blend master and thats messing with it?

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 10:17 PM

#

Anything is possible

#

If you're interested, the way you'd test this would be:

Load your save in mgba with a lua script
Set up as if you were going to RNG an egg
Use the lua script to view the calibration
Do something in your save (e.g. view tv events)
Redo steps 1-3 to check if the calibration changed

If the calibration changed, that's a good sign you found the issue, and a new switch could be added to the site to account for that.

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:20 PM

#

I see

#

Where would i get the lua script in question

#

Or do i need to figure out what values are involved and make one

candid mortar Jul 16, 2025, 10:21 PM

#

Nope, lua scripts are already made – everything you need is right here: https://www.pokemonrng.com/mgba-setup/

mGBA Setup

Learn how to set up mGBA for GBA Pokémon RNG, including lua scripting support.

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:23 PM

#

Just a dumb side question, why is 21 one more step than 19

#

Also 35 dexes per attempt. Pray for my safety

#

Actually nah ill find one on a later advance, no match call

#

On second thought 35 is a fair number

brittle pasture Jul 16, 2025, 10:55 PM

#

I hit a target! You have fixed my issue.

#

I may still do the emulator steps at some point to see if i can help.

candid mortar Jul 17, 2025, 1:26 PM

#

brittle pasture Just a dumb side question, why is 21 one more step than 19

A common base of 19 + 1 for roamer = expected 20

If you're experiencing 21, it means you're off the expected value by 1.

dapper ruin Jul 29, 2025, 2:04 PM

#

candid mortar A common base of 19 + 1 for roamer = expected 20 If you're experiencing 21, it ...

@candid mortar I'm having the same issue and I'm lurking this Discord to try and find the solution.
Can you explain how does the extra value in the calibration stage (20+1) justify the lack of results in the calibration section? Shouldn't this extra value simply mean the target frame is one frame later? In that case, shouldn't the results page add one frame to all results? For example, if you hit a frame that is +7 shouldn't just become a +8?

candid mortar Jul 29, 2025, 3:30 PM

#

dapper ruin <@219324395707957248> I'm having the same issue and I'm lurking this Discord to ...

Good question. You're half right! But the other half is the key to not finding results.

#

Generating an Emerald Egg PID is pretty different than most RNGs. Half of the PID is generated from the main RNG (add 1 to the current rand), and the other half is from an entirely separate RNG.

The separate RNG is seeded with advance - calibration.

#

Let's say the main RNG has a seed of 0 and we're on advance 2001. The first three rands would be:

C371 (Advance 2001)
F3D1 (Advance 2002)
BE17 (Advance 2003)

The second RNG is seeded with the advance, so it would be:

1F0B (Seed 2001 – 0x7d1)
60D1 (Seed 2002 – 0x7d2)
A297 (Seed 2003 – 0x7d3)

So the PIDs would be:

1F0BC372
60D1F3D2
A297BE18

If we have a calibration of 1, the second RNG would produce:

DD45 (Seed 2000 – 0x7d0)
1F0B (Seed 2001 – 0x7d1)
60D1 (Seed 2002 – 0x7d2)

Which would make these PIDs:

DD45C372
1F0BF3D2
60D1BE18

These are three entirely different PIDs, which means the gender and nature are different. That's why results are not found.

#

You can test this out in the tool by setting the "Max Advances" to 3 and "Calibration" to 0. You'll find the 1F0BC372 PID I mentioned earlier. If you set "Calibration" to 1, you'll find DD45C372.

#

So you're right that the advance is 1 earlier to get the same second half of the PID, but the first half is entirely different.

#

This is the reason why we open and close the PokeDex. That changes the calibration so we can align two PID halves to get the nature, gender, and shininess we want.

dapper ruin Jul 29, 2025, 3:42 PM

#

candid mortar This is the reason why we open and close the PokeDex. That changes the calibrati...

Ah I see! Thanks for the very detailed explanation.
I'm going to keep trying, the frames I'm hitting are not consistent with the platform. I might create a new thread for that if I don't figure it out.

dapper ruin Jul 30, 2025, 4:15 PM

#

@candid mortar I managed to get the Pokémon I wanted. I got it on the conventional calibration value of 19.
It was highly unpredictable thou. Some tries I got super close to the target, meaning I was on the correct calibration, but others I was completely off with an empty results page. This can be a stupid question, but can alternate or split frames be hit with this process?

candid mortar Jul 30, 2025, 4:16 PM

#

Hmm, something is wrong then

#

It's good you got it, but if the results were unpredictable something isn't quite right

#

Most people don't have this issue. If alternate or split PIDs were possible, I'd expect most people to run into this problem.

#

Alternate/split is possible for IVs, but not PIDs.

#

Just out of curiosity, were you using an everstone?

dapper ruin Jul 30, 2025, 4:18 PM

#

Nope, no everstone

candid mortar Jul 30, 2025, 4:19 PM

#

Were you on a GBA?

dapper ruin Jul 30, 2025, 4:19 PM

#

GBA SP, legit cartridge with a live battery

candid mortar Jul 30, 2025, 4:20 PM

#

Strange

#

When people have emerald egg issues it's usually:

The process wasn't done correctly
The inputs to generate a target weren't correct (I've done this several times)
A GBA wasn't used
Default calibration wasn't 19 (very rare - it's not usually this)

There was an everstone bug fixed a few weeks ago, but that doesn't seem to be the issue here. Outside of that, I don't remember the last time there wasn't an input or process issue.

For me personally, I tend to miss adding a PokeNav trainer.

If you do more Emerald eggs and run into the same problem, open a new thread with screenshots for:

All the trainers added to the site
The inputs to generate a list of targets
The target you're aiming for
The trainer call/gender/nature that caused no results

That'll help figure out the problem.

dapper ruin Jul 30, 2025, 4:33 PM

#

Thanks, I have a list of Pokemon I want to breed, so I'll document that and open a new thread when the time comes

#

Also, I heard someone mentioning having tv events queued might cause changes in the rng. This can be relevant or not, but I have records mixed with my bootleg copy of Saphire. This is probably the only thing abnormal that could differentiate my game from others

candid mortar Jul 30, 2025, 4:36 PM

#

That's fascinating – it's not something I've looked into at all

#

I hadn't considered the TV causing issues for this

#Getting invalid results, Retail Emerald egg PID