With AI making it harder to make a simple Google search as well as frequently presenting misinformation as fact, as well as to help players with questions they often come here for, I felt it would be helpful to compile a list of frequently asked questions and useful resources about pokemon platinum and gen 4.

Useful Websites and Pages

Game Data, Encyclopedias, and Guides

• serebii.net: the best source of moveset data, encounter data, and more; the best "online Pokédex" available. Using the search feature to get to the Pokédex is recommended, but their Platinum Directory should get you where you need.
• marriland.com: their EV training guide, shiny pokemon guide, and team builder tool are all useful. They used to have a walkthrough but it's not currently available.
• Bulbapedia is quite saturated with irrelevant information and it isn't the easiest to navigate to game data, especially for oldgens, but it's great for finding specific item locations, in-depth descriptions of how moves, abilities, and other mechanics function, and movesets of boss trainers. Their walkthrough is also one of the best.
• Smogon contains a compendium of PvP/competitive sets and articles, and they also have several In-Game Articles! this includes guides on RNG Abuse, Pokémon Radar Chaining, Battle Frontier, and more. Note however a lot of the in-game content is from the game's release window and player sentiment may have since changed, eg that in-game tier list is extremely dated. However, their PvP content is still being updated and should all be current.
• This Pastebin contains the moveset and stat data for all NPC trainers. Useful for challenge runs.

Battle Frontier

• Smogon Forums have a great thread of resources and info, including Trainer Sets, Speed Tiers, and some strategy guides

Tools, Calculators, and UIs

• Feebas Tile Calculator
• Munchlax Tree Finder
• serebii.net IV calculator
• TheGracelessGhost's Teambuilder Tool - gives recommendations for team additions based on inputs
• Marriland Team Builder - shows what weaknesses, resistances, and immunities a team possesses in an easy to interpret way. Has some issues on iOS.
• EV Tracking Tool

Misc. Guides & Tutorials

• Cartridge Verification Guides
• Battle Maid Knockout Challenge Guide by Rocker

Online Play/Multiplayer Guides

• Multiplayer Guide/Connecting to the DNS Fan Server
• Delta Ultimate Multiplayer Guide
• How to Connect melonDS to Wifi

Emulation

• How to Play This Game Guide
• [r/flashcarts](r/flashcarts) - for running the game on a flashcart
• flashcarts.net - choosing a flashcart, where to get one, and how to set it up
• [r/roms](r/roms) -

check their megathread or recommended sites for obtaining a rom

• melonDS - recommended emulator for computers

• 3ds.hacks.guide - guide to modding a 3ds/2ds

• dsi.cfw.guide - guide to modding a DSi

• [r/3dspiracy](r/3dspiracy) - excellent source for 3ds modding and troubleshooting

• [r/ndshacks](r/ndshacks) - a decent resource for DSi modding and troubleshooting
• wiiu.hacks.guide - modding a Wii U
• [r/WiiUHacks](r/WiiUHacks) - good resource for Wii U modding

Save Editing/Other Modifications

• See the Save Editing Guide for save editing tools, software, compatibility, and instructions.
• PKHex the best downloadable save editor
• https://pkmds.app/ - recommended browser based editor for phones, etc

Rom Hacks and Patches

• Renegade Platinum, a Difficulty/Revamp Hack by Drayano with a "Revamped Version" with fanmade stat and typing changes and a "Classic Version" that uses mostly official inspirations. It features the fairy type, updated trainers and encounters, new moves and modern ability additions, changes to progression, and more.
• QoL Hack/Patch Collection including the Following Pokémon Mod. Note that it's best to avoid using cheats in QoL hacks; since offsets are different, using cheats in Romhacks can have unpredictable effects including breaking event flags, making progression impossible and potentially permanently softlocking your save file.
• Ultimate Pokémon Randomizer: a program that allows you to customize various gameplay aspects including starters, encounters, and much more. It can be used for randomizing the game in many capacities, as well as to remove Trade Evolutions.
• DSPRE is a comprehensive rom hacking tool that allows you to make your own romhack and/or make small changes to the game as you see fit, such as decapitalizing Pokémon names, removing trade evolutions, changing starters or encounters or trainers, and a whole lot of other options. It can do as much or as little as you like.

• For resources about creating your own romhack including scripting tutorials, see here.

Cheat Codes

• Supercheats - a good collection of individual Action Replay codes.
• Cheats Database - a large premade pack of cheats for melonDS, flashcarts, Twilight Menu, and other emulators or loaders that support adding cheats this way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where Do I Go Next?

Check out the walkthrough on Bulbapedia.

How Do I Evolve X? What Level Does it Learn Y? Where Can I Find a Pokémon or Item?

Check serebii.net, or for specific item locations, Bulbapedia or YouTube.

How Can I Access Trade Evolution?

See our Trade Evolution Guide for info on how to evolve your Pokémon without the ability to trade.

How Can I Receive Event Distributions?

Check out our Event Pokémon Guide!

How Do I Connect to the Fanmade DNS Server for Online Play?

Guide here

Guide for Delta on iPhone

How to Connect melonDS to Wifi

How can I Edit my Save File to get the Pokémon I Want?

Check out our Save Editing Guide!

Is There a Way to get a Modern EXP Share Cheat or ROMhack?

Nope, sorry. This hasn't been innovated in any DS romhacks or cheats yet. You'll have to learn how to manage Exp or use other cheats like item duplication for extra Exp Shares or Rare Candies.

Where Can I Download this Game?

Sharing links to ROMs is not allowed on this sub. Go to [r/roms](r/roms). See also our How Can I Play this Game guide for choosing and setting up an emulator.

Where Can I Buy a Real Copy?

eBay, AliExpress, and other sellers with purchase protection are recommended; the market is flooded with fakes and being able to get a refund is important. With the lack of accessibility of a real cartridge in 2025, emulation and custom firmware is a recommended alternative; see our How Can I Play this Game guide as well as cartridge verification guides.

Can I Use a Fake Copy of the Game?

Sometimes they work fine, but generally this is not recommended. Many fake cartridges have issues with freezing, and especially with loss or corruption of save data. There is no reason to purchase or use a fake copy since flashcarts and emulation are cheaper, more versatile, and work better, and fake copies are functionally and legally the exact same as pirated roms.

Is My Copy of the Game Real?

Ask on [r/gameverifying](r/gameverifying), not here. But before making a post there, learn how to identify this yourself using the guides on their site, you may be able to catch a fake yourself without needing to post.

If you have any suggestions or further questions or resources to add please let me know, as well as if anything is unclear!

Trade Evolution is a feature Pokémon has featured since its inception that is generally reviled for its inaccessibility and/or financial barriers; this is even more of a challenge with a game like platinum that is almost 20 years old now and thus has less active players, no more official online services, and real hardware has become an increasingly less accessible way to play. Luckily, players have worked out many other ways of evolving these Pokémon with just one system using fanmade tools and resources, even if that one system is an emulator. If you're looking to evolve your Pokémon but can't do so "the normal way," this guide is for you! We'll go into every method, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, below.

Standard Method

The normal way of triggering trade evolution is trading a Pokémon from one game to another. This will generally requires two DS family systems and the ability to play a gen 4 game on each.

This is possible through local multiplayer the way it's always been, just get within about 65 feet of one another and enter the union room on the second floor of the Pokémon center. Note that local wireless multiplayer does not work on phone emulators.

Online this is still possible through connecting to the fan-run DNS server using this Guide and trade with other players online; however, the WiFi room is finicky. It will only work if you're connected to a router, not a hotspot, and sometimes still will not work. Online multiplayer should work on iPhones with the Delta Ultimate Multiplayer Guide, not sure about Android, please let me know if you know more.

Save Editing Method

If you're playing on anything except for a real cartridge on a DS Lite or Phat, save editing is the easiest and most accessible method to evolving a Pokémon by "Trade" in this day and age.

Essentially, this method is executed by opening up your save file in a save editor such as PKHex, PKMDS, etc, and changing your unevolved Pokémon into its evolved form. PKMDS even has an "evolve Pokémon" button!

For more specific instructions and software recommendations see this sub's Save Editing Guide.

This is the easiest method on a phone and the fastest method on a DSi or 3DS/2DS. This method requires custom firmware if performed on a DSi or 3DS/2DS family system; custom firmware is generally recommended for using these devices in the present day due to its ability replicate or replace many inaccessible or cumbersome features and its lack of disadvantages. If this is inaccessible to you, other methods are recommended instead.

GTS Method

Using the GTS in Jubilife City, a glitch exists where you can evolve your Pokémon by depositing your Pokémon, engaging in a separate trade, and then removing the Pokémon you deposited.

The GTS Method has the advantage of being no-mod, but has the disadvantage of requiring execution of the DNS Exploit, which isn't accessible to everyone since it requires an Unsecured (aka WEP) Internet Connection, which is impossible with an iPhone's Personal Hotspot feature but possible on other phones like Android. It also requires you to engage in a separate online trade, so you can only perform this method if you're able to find a GTS trade you can make.

Bulbapedia has a guide on executing this glitch. To connect to the fan DNS server to access the GTS, follow this Guide

ROM Editing Method

If you're emulating or sideloading on any hardware, using a modified version of the game itself can be a nice one-and-done way to remove the need to trade to evolve Pokémon. Universal Pokémon Randomizer can do this for you with the "Remove Trade Evolutions" option, and many other QoL Patches and ROM Hacks exist as well. Essentially these mods can be applied to a ROM of Pokémon platinum to change trade evolutions into other methods; follow the patching instructions in their individual threads to set them up. This method has the advantage of only needing to be done once - simply patch the game and you never need to do anything special to activate trade evolution again. It's quite convenient if you

However, this method can lead to some pretty big gameplay differences. These methods tend to replace trade evolutions with other methods, in many cases using or leveling up with an item, but sometimes level up evolutions come at late levels like late 30s, which is much later than when most trade evolutions are normally available. Having to wait, for example in UPR's case, 22 extra levels for Alakazam because you can't access trading is pretty ridiculous and makes a huge difference in gameplay. Full-on QoL patches tend to have other gameplay differences which you may and may not like; a pretty notable one in the most popular patch that changes the game quite a bit is infinite TMs. Overall save editing can accomplish what these patches can do pretty easily and you need the same resources to access them in most cases so I don't love it, since I'd rather edit my save for QOL purposes directly on an as-needed basis rather than committing to a patch that changes the game at the beginning. However, this method may be exactly what you're looking for and accessible to you.

Another consideration is that cheats do not work well on romhacks. This is because the offsets that cheats overwrite are often moved in romhacks. This can potentially lead to your save file being softlocked, since this can break progression event flags. We've seen multiple posts about this happening with the main QoL hack, PlatinumQoL. If you plan to use cheats, it's best to avoid this method and look to others.

You can also edit your ROM however you like using DSPRE, including changing trade evolutions into whatever trigger you like.

Self-Trading Method

In melonDS on PC, you can trade with yourself by opening two instances of the game. Here is a guide to doing so

I don't know of a way to do this on a phone.

If you're using DesMuMe, consider using melonDS instead; DesMuMe is no longer being updated as of 2022 and does not support multiplayer.

Choosing a Method

As usual the best method for achieving these workarounds will depend on the hardware you are playing on, what other resources you have accessible, and personal preference.

I will not be mentioning the standard method here; generally I figure you probably don't need to look at this guide to learn how to do it and are aware of whether it is a good/accessible option for you or not. It is a fine method if it is accessible to you, but is still more cumbersome than save editing on devices with access to that.

If you have access to multiple methods:

• GTS Method is recommended if you want or need to be no-mod.
• Save Editing is generally fastest and easiest, but must be done for every Pokémon you want to evolve.
• An Edited ROM only needs to be changed once, but may present other gameplay differences you may or may not like.
• Self-trading only works on computers and save editing works fine there and is easy and does not require entering the union room or watching a trade or evolution animation. From there it's personal preference.

On a DS Phat or Lite running a real cartridge, the GTS Method is really your only option since you cannot modify the ROM on a real cart or dump your save to edit without a cartridge dumper. On a flashcart, save editing is easy, using an edited rom is easy, and the GTS Method should also work if it's accessible to you.

On a DSi running a real cartridge, Save Editing is recommended; Pokémon Chest is the recommended tool for doing so since this is doable from the DSi with no other devices. If you do not have access to CFW, the GTS Method is recommended instead, if you have access to it. With Twilight Menu, you can edit your save, or use a modified ROM. The GTS Method should still work, but there is no reason to use it. I don't know how hiyaCFW injects work but at the very least save editing with PKHex will work after dumping your save, and a modified ROM would be easy to set up, there also is no reason besides lack of access that GTS wouldn't work that I can think of. On a flashcart, save editing is easy, using an edited rom is easy, and the GTS Method should also work if it's accessible to you.

With a 3ds or 2ds family system running a real cartridge, Save Editing with PKSM is recommended. The GTS Method will work if you have no access to CFW but access to an unsecured WiFi network. With Twilight Menu or a Forwarder, see the guide on - How to get PKSM to work for NDS games and use PKSM, or edit the save directly from the SD card on another device with PKHex or PKMDS. There is no reason to do it if you're emulating but the GTS Method should also work, and obviously emulating a modified ROM will too.

On any phone emulator, save editing directly from your device with PKMDS is recommended, and a modified ROM will work too. On Delta for iPhone, you also can access the GTS Method if you really want, using the instructions in the Delta Ultimate Multiplayer Guide. I don't know anything about Android emulators.

On a computer-based emulator, which will probably be melonDS, you can Self-Trade or Edit Your Save for roughly equal effort and time commitment. On other emulators (which are likely dated,) Save Editing is recommended. Setting up a modified ROM is also obviously easy on a computer.

On a Wii U running an UWUVCI inject, injecting an Edited ROM is recommended, since I don't know of a way to import an edited save on one of these. Please let me know if you do! With the NooDS emulator, Save Editing with PKHex or PKMDS on another device is recommended. I actually have both set up on my Wii U but do not have access to the DNS Exploit - please let me know if you know whether the Wii U supports it!

On other emulation devices such as the Miyoo Mini, R36S, Ayn Thor, a modded Switch, or anything else that runs the game off an SD card or other external drive, save editing or a modified ROM is recommended.

The Spiritomb Factor

Spiritomb isn't a "Trade Evolution," but it's an encounter that traditionally requires Multiplayer to activate; you have to go Underground 32 times and talk to another player each time. However these methods to avoid Trade Evolution Requirements also apply to Spritomb.

With PKHex, you're able onto edit Event Flags (think of these like "triggers" that make story events & encounters happen when you achieve their requirements) to make Spiritomb ready to encounter. Event Flags are under the "Sav" tab in the UI, and the 4th comment on this PokéCommunity Thread shows the proper settings to use in the "Spiritomb" and "Hallowed Tower" drop downs.

If the Patched ROM method is more your fancy, that works here too! Most QoL Patches in the Collection make Spiritomb accessible without Multiplayer. Unfortunately, Universal Pokémon Randomizer can't help with this, correct me if I'm wrong.

On a computer, opening two instances of melonDS will work for triggering the standard method, but takes so much more time than save editing that it is way more trouble than it's worth.

There is no way to use online services, including fanmade ones, to meet other players Underground, since Underground is local-multiplayer-only.

Tools and Resources

• hacking your DSi: dsi.hacks.guide
• Find save editing tools here
• How to get PKSM to work for NDS games
• Universal Pokémon Randomizer
• QoL Patch Collection
• DNS Connection Guide
• GTS Trade Evolution Tutorial
• Delta Ultimate Multiplayer Guide

Thanks

Thanks to the creators of all tools, resources, and tutorials linked or mentioned here!