How to use this guide

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 latest patch 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

The quest guide is also available as a PDF, built from the same text. The website has more: the Pokédex, every location, items, trainers and move tutors.

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. You can also hide the quests that open only after your final Hall of Fame entry, and tick off quests you’ve finished (the ticks are kept per quest, in this browser only).

How it was made

Everything here is based on the game itself: the hack’s own event scripts, maps, wild Pokémon tables and trainer data. Chinese release notes and community reports helped identify questions to check; the published mechanics were checked against 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 that are less certain say “not confirmed in game”. The Pokédex and location pages list the sources we found in the game data; a Pokémon or item with no source listed may still be obtainable in a way the data scan doesn’t cover. 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 some configured entries are not confirmed acquisition routes.

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.

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.
• 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.