How to use this guide

The official site of the Origin HeartGold English translation. Patches are published only on our GitHub releases.

This guide covers Origin HeartGold (起源心金) v4.0.3 played with the English translation patch. The game starts in Pallet Town in Kanto. Johto opens up after you become Kanto Champion and finish the story scenes that follow.

What you need to play

The English translation is a patch: it turns your own copy of Pokémon HeartGold Version (USA) into Origin HeartGold in English. No ROMs are provided here, and the patch only works on that exact version.

The easiest way is the patcher on this site: drop in your HeartGold file (the .nds, or a .zip with it inside) and it checks it, applies the patch published with this site in your browser and gives you the English game. Nothing is uploaded, and you don’t need to download the patch yourself. To do it by hand instead:

1. Dump your own HeartGold (USA) cartridge to a .nds file. The European, Japanese, Korean and Chinese versions won’t work, and neither will a file that’s already patched or trimmed.
2. Check the file: its CRC32 must be C180A0E9. On Windows, 7-Zip shows it (right-click the file → 7-Zip → CRC SHA → CRC-32). On a Mac, type crc32 in Terminal, drag the file in and press Return; it should print c180a0e9. If it doesn’t match, the patch will fail or the game will be broken.
3. Download the .xdelta patch from the newest release on GitHub.
4. Apply the patch with an xdelta patcher, for example the in-browser xdelta-wasm: choose your HeartGold .nds as the source, the .xdelta as the patch, apply it and save the new .nds. Keep your original file.
5. Play the new .nds. The patch is tested in melonDS; other emulators and flashcarts haven’t been tested.

Offline copy

Pick your game once

Several quests depend on your starter (Charmander, Pikachu or Bulbasaur) and on whether you play as a boy or a girl. At the top of every quest page you can pick both. A quest is hidden only when your game can’t get any of it; when just a reward depends on your starter, the quest stays and its text says so. The choice is remembered in your browser. Use Quest type to show Main quest entries (story and badge progression) or Side quest entries (optional activities and rewards). The guide is split into chapters in the order the game unlocks things, so early-game and post-game quests are never on the same page. Each chapter starts with a short walkthrough of where to go next, with the quests that step opens up. A red Warning box lists quests that close for good at that step; it disappears once you have ticked them off (or they don’t apply to your game). The filters combine with your starter and character choices and are remembered between chapters. You can also tick off quests you’ve finished and choose Hide finished (the ticks are kept per quest, in this browser only). A quest you follow a direct link to always stays visible.

How it was made

Quest instructions and configured reference data come from the hack’s event scripts, maps, encounter tables and trainer records. Reference pages also include attributed author surveys and supplied English workbooks. Chinese release notes and community reports helped identify questions to check; specific mechanics audits used the original v4.0.3 ROM. Most steps were read from the scripts and have not been checked by playing, so some still need in-game confirmation, and directions are approximate. Steps checked in an emulator say so; steps that are less certain say “not confirmed in game”. The Pokédex and item pages retain every named entry in the game data. Audited entries without a normal-play route are labelled NOT AVAILABLE IN GAME, with the reason on their detail page. They remain useful references for the save editor and the built-in generator (hold SELECT and press X); support for each entry has not been verified. Other entries with no confirmed source remain uncertain rather than being labelled unavailable. If you try something, please tell us how it went.

The mechanics and controls page explains the hack’s training and battle changes. Calendar encounters are listed separately because they appear only on certain dates.

Reading the evidence

• Configured data: a value, table or script record in the game. A stored source does not prove that every story branch can reach it.
• Game description: what the English game says. Descriptions and NPC promises can disagree with configured data or behavior.
• Author note: an attributed survey or workbook claim. It can describe intent, an older version or an unresolved effect.
• Tested in game: a specific documented gameplay test, with its scope stated. It does not certify every use of that mechanic.

The source report accounts for all 8,074 supplied workbook rows: 7,673 included and 401 unresolved source comparisons. Included means accounted for, not verified gameplay; some included claims still have unknown access, repeatability or runtime behavior. Detailed comparisons and original source wording stay in the source report. No complete playthrough is claimed.

Use move details, ability details and the TM/HM list for preparation; item pages distinguish acquisition routes from effects and older source notes.

Known issues

Some quests hit bugs that are in the original Chinese hack. They are listed on the Known issues page. The translation keeps the hack’s behaviour as it is and doesn’t fix them.

Project links

• This website: the patch page, the walkthrough and the reference pages.
• GitHub releases: the only place we publish the patch. The GitHub repository also takes problem reports.
• Discord: the official community server, for help and news.
• Changelog and contributors: what changed in each release, and who helped.

Credits

• Original hack: 雁南飞TB (Yannanfei TB).
• v4: Alex, built on hg-engine.
• Chinese patches: packaged by u/riap0526.
• Partial v3 English translation: u/Shake69, reused with their permission.
• Graphics: some icons and letters come from hg-engine and its contributors. See their credits.
• Website and save-editor Pokémon images: loaded from the PokéAPI sprites repository. The shared image helper uses HOME artwork with official-artwork fallback; forms without a verified image mapping show the base species and are labelled accordingly. These images are Pokémon artwork, not artwork created by this project.
• Patcher: the in-browser patcher runs xdelta3 by Joshua MacDonald, compiled to WebAssembly by xdelta-wasm (Kotcrab), both under the Apache License 2.0, with the Emscripten runtime (MIT) and LZMA support from XZ Utils (public domain).

This guide and the English translation are a free, non-commercial fan project and are not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Creatures Inc., GAME FREAK inc. or The Pokémon Company.

Licence

© 2026 Origin HeartGold English translation team. The guide and website text is all rights reserved:

• Linking to any page is welcome.
• Short quotes are fine, with a link back to the page you quoted.
• Fan translation teams can ask us for permission on GitHub.

Guide and website text published before 18 October 2026 was released under CC0 and stays CC0. The in-game English translation is CC0 and our tools are Apache 2.0. Facts and game data aren’t ours to claim. The full terms are in LICENSE-GUIDE.